William R. Hazlewood, Ph.D.

An ambient display, providing student feedback to educators. Built using a commercially available display (The Ambient Stock Orb), which was augmented so as to be driven based on responses to a bi-weekly feedback poll. The feedback poll was collected using an automated emailer, and a collection of simple PHP scripts.

An ambient display designed to provide a an overview of activity within a targeted community. The display was created using simple visual elements, and was driven using an existing microblogging platform (Twitter).

A collection of 3 ambient displays, designed to subtly augment human behavior. This project was a massive undertaking. It involved a great deal of both design and construction, taking 9 months from initial conception to fully functioning prototype. For full details see the resulting publications on both the design and construction, and the resulting user study for evaluation. For a video created early in the project, click here.

The ambient plan is intended to connect family member living in separate homes by sensing the moisture levels of the living plant and displaying this information through a series of colorful LEDs on one display located on the plant pot. Along with these readings, the moisture level information from the participants’ separated family members’ household plant is also displayed. The ambient plant pot allows members from both households to keep track of the wellbeing of each others’ respective plants. In this context, the familiar everyday practice of watering and caring for the plant is transformed into a symbolic act to check in on the condition of close family members as well as the broader emotional climate of their domestic household. Additionally, when a family member is standing in front of their plant, the connected pot within the separated household begins to glow brightly to convey a loved one’s temporary presence. A detailed account of this project from design to construction can be found both here, and here.

The Presence Clock augments a common household object (a decorative clock) with motion sensors and LEDs. These devices exist in pairs, where each collects and displays presence information using the motion sensor, and presents this information to the other owner using the LEDs. When either person is detected by their clock’s motion sensor, the paired clock shows this activity by lighting up certain LEDs. Activity is shown by gently pulsating the LED located at the current time of the clock face. Additionally, each clock shows a history of the presence it has detected over the past 12 hours by leaving the LEDs on as time moves forward.

The clock was constructed using an array of 48 LEDs positioned around the outside of the clock face, a motion sensor, and a microcontroller. When the motion sensor detects activity that exceeds a certain threshold, it sends that information to a database. The microcontroller then checks the database at regular intervals to determine if any new presence information has been reported from the paired clock.

(video of Presence Clock v1)

The Beacon Strip provides an illuminated pathway between the bed and the bathroom within the older adult’s home. When a person gets out of bed during the night, the pathway activates so as to aid in navigating a dark room. The Beacon Strip also collects and shares data regarding sleeping habits (i.e. quality of sleep). This prototype was constructed using heavy industrial carpet, pressure sensors to detect footsteps, two rows of LEDs to create a lighted path, and a force resistive pressure sensor which could be placed under the mattress of the bed to detect the levels of tossing and turning that occur during sleep.

(video of Beacon Strip v1)

Designed as part of a series of prototypes for the ETHOS project, the DigiSwitch allowed older adults to control all of the devices installed in their home and see exactly what information was being made available to an external caregiver. With this interface the older adults could change the status of each device to either ON, PAUSE, or ME TIME. As one would expect, the ON and OFF states control whether or not the devices are sharing data. The ME TIME option, on the other hand, makes the devices stop sharing data but hides this participant’s desire to conceal their data by transmitting archived data to the caregiver while still reporting that the device is functioning as usual. This interface was implemented using a PanelPC, which consisted of a self contained touchscreen and PC combination. A wooden enclosure was designed to house the PanelPC so that it looked similar to a digital picture frame.

The Portal Monitor is designed to be placed inside a home. It monitors activity across portals, such as the front or back door. Events (e.g., opening the door or ringing the door bell) trigger cameras that record images of both sides of the door. These images are then sent as picture messages (text messages with attached images) to a pre-designated cell phone. A guardian or caregiver can then make use of a device with which they’re already familiar with and commonly have on them (e.g., a cell phone) in order to be sure their loved one has not left the building in a vulnerable state, had an encounter with a known threat, or been approached by an unknown party. One publication has come from this project, as well as a patent application. (Video of Portal Monitor)

A situated social computing application designed to cultivate community in cafés by bringing the richness of online social software into physical community space. The system shows photos and quotes uploaded to a web site by patrons and staff on a large computer display in the café, providing a new channel for awareness, interactions and relationships among consequential strangers and acquaintances. Two publications resulted from this project. One is a user study, measuring the impact of CoCollage on local community. The other more carefully details the system itself. Also, there is a somewhat cheesy promotional video for CoCollage (note: watch for girls laughing at pic of me trying to do a pull-up).

The Co-space project was concerned with how novel interactive surfaces can be designed and used by co-located groups to enhance collaboration and interaction with digital information and physical artefacts. A goal was to facilitate more equitable participation in co-located meetings by exploring how best to support the diversity of interactions that take place in these new kinds of co-spaces. To do this, we implemented a system of integrated technologies including: a multi-touch shared display (DiamondTouch), an industrial RFID system, and a collection of hardware devices from Phidgets.com. This work led to an initial short publication at CHI, a full paper at TABLETOP, and a journal article in Human-Computer Interaction. We also produced a video showing some of the research results.

LillyPad was designed to be used outdoors, by teams of scientists and students for educational purposes. The handheld device is now being used as part of the Lilly Arbor project to help students and scientists record, learn and reason about an experimental floodplain reforestation site. This project was a collaborative effort with the Center for Earth and Environmental Sciences (IUPUI), and the School of Informatics (IUB).

Improved and enhanced an existing project that needed an information system and a portal for access.  Project included implementing a chat bot that logged large amounts of data during online meetings

• Rapid-prototyped all suggestions for enhancement
• Developed parser to take information from bot and upload to Oracle server
• Designed and implemented Oracle database to contain chat data
• Designed and implemented portal website for searching data which included advanced searching, user-based access, file uploading, and account maintenance
• Supervisor review and work example available

Developed a set of visualization and navigation tools for “ActiveWorlds,” a 3D chat environment.  Software allowed for complex analysis of interactions in the 3D world by logging all movement, conversations, object clicks, and so forth. This software was then used to conduct user studies in virtual worlds. The results have been published here.

More information on this project can be found at visualcomplexity.com and on the old research page here.