After viewing the Tan Le: A headset that reads your brainwaves, you might have a
ID: 3820701 • Letter: A
Question
After viewing the Tan Le: A headset that reads your brainwaves, you might have a stronger understanding of HCI.
Locate a current (within the last 6 months ( or conceptual product / tool which demonstrates the Human / Computer Interaction (HCI). (Students will need to identify unique resources that are different from those of other classmates). Responses will need to include:
Item A: Name of product / tool and URL
Item B: Synopsis of how the product / tool works
Item C: At least one source used to support your response to Item D (must be APA formatted).
Item D: Information on how the product / tool demonstrates HCI
Explanation / Answer
Conceptual product that is developed by MIT software development Lab :-
Inspired by the history of the user interface for personal computing, MIT has developing new interaction models for personal fabrication. Instead of working through a digital 3D editor, MIT has propose to let users work hands-on on the physical workpiece and to update the physical object after every editing step. There long-term vision is to enable direct manipulation for physical matter in the same way as we today manipulate digital data on touch-devices, such as the iPad, etc..,
The currnet tool that use HCI concepts is INTERACTIVE CONSTRUCTION:"INTERACTIVE FABRICATION OF FUNCTIONAL MECHANICAL DEVICES"
Personal fabrication tools, such as laser cutters and 3D printers allow users to create precise objects quickly. How- ever, working through a CAD system removes users from the workpiece. Recent interactive fabrication tools reintro- duce this directness, but at the expense of precision.
In this paper, we introduce constructable, an interactive drafting table that produces precise physical output in every step. Users interact by drafting directly on the workpiece using a hand-held laser pointer. The system tracks the pointer, beautifies its path, and implements its effect by cutting the workpiece using a fast high-powered laser cutter.
Constructable achieves precision through tool-specific constraints, user-defined sketch lines, and by using the laser cutter itself for all visual feedback, rather than using a screen or projection. We demonstrate how Constructable allows creating simple but functional devices, including a simple gearbox, that cannot be created with traditional interactive fabrication tools.
Interactive fabrication:-
interactive fabrication systems address this by letting users once again work directly with the work piece. for example, allows users to draw on the work piece. a key element of interactive fabrication systems is that they provide output to users not at the end of the process but after every editing step,this allows users to validate their designs earlier and build subsequent work steps on the result of earlier steps.
Constructable :
Constructable is a drafting table that produces physical output in every step. all interaction in construction take place on the work piece, mediated through low power hand -held laser pointers, which is call proxy lasers. , Proxy lasers are too weak to affect the work piece. to make the interaction real, constructable tracks proxy laser interactions using a camera mounted. reconstructs the tool's path . The combination of proxy laser and cutting laser is one of the key ideas behind our system, because it allows users to work faster and more interactively than the interactive fabrication systems in the related work.
Creating, Selecting, copying, and pasting using tools
Creating: Polyline, Circle, and Freehand are constructable’s tools for creating objects from scratch. These tools are only moderately constrained. The circle tool, for example, al- ways produces a perfect circle, but diameter and location remain freehand. The freehand tool is not subject to any constraints Most of constructable’s tools connect to or extend an exist- ing object and this spatial relationship adds constraints. Users establish these constraints by selecting one or more existing objects. The finger joint tool, for example, snaps to existing lines.
Selecting: users select (a) a sur- face by clicking into it, (b) an edge by crossing it and (c) a point by drawing a pigtail close to it sedign signed this selection mechanism so as to extend seamlessly to multiple objects. Users select (d) multiple surfaces by drawing a path across, (e) multiple edges by crossing mul- tiple edges, and (f) multiple points as a sequence of multi- ple pigtails.
Pasting: A range of tools, such as the copy tool, results in the creation of new objects. The size and shape of a new object is determined implicitly, e.g., by the object being copied and does not require or allow for user input. How- ever, to allow users to optimize material usage, we let users show constructable where to create it.
BENEFITS AND LIMITATIONS, SUMMARY OF DESIGN
Precise input and output
Constructable achieves the precision required to make functional mechanical devices as follows:
Precise input: Even though all input to constructable is mediated through a hand-held tool, the resulting jerkiness never interfered with precision because all relevant parame- ters are appropriately constrained. Only parameters with no functional implications, such as the size of the base of the motorized vehicle, were defined free hand.
Constructable uses three types of constraints: (1) Each tool implements constraints; the polyline tool, for example, draws only rectilinear contents. (2) Sketch lines allow users to add constraints explicitly. (3) A special class of tools that create connections, such as finger joints create both halves of the connection at once. As a result, finger joints always fit perfectly even though they involve two parts. The gear tool is based on the same concept and one might say that it connects two axles.
Precise output: As mentioned earlier, all tools explain themselves exclusively through the cut or sketch line they produce. Since this allows all output to be created using the laser cutter itself, constructable’s geometry output is ex- tremely precise. This offers orders of magnitude higher resolution than projection and is never subject to calibration issues.
No projection
An early version of our system did feature a projector, similar to several systems in the related work, such as CopyCAD . Letting go of it not only increased precision, but also made sure we directed users’ attention at the work-
piece at all times, rather than at a projection collocated with the workpiece.
A side effect of not having a computer display meant that we had to eliminate all hidden state and modes, because there was no way to keep users informed about them. This led us to design the proxy laser model, in which the current set of constraints is represented solely by which physical device the user is currently holding.
As another side effect of using the cutter as the sole visual feedback device, sketch lines became permanent. While users can erase sketch lines by replicating the final object using the unite tool, we think that users will typically choose to leave these lines in, the same way that designers leave sketch lines in to illustrate their process or even be- cause they are esthetically pleasing
Trial-and-error using “undo” tools
We implemented trial-and-error using special “undo” func- tions, such as the union and butterfly joint tool that allow users to re-create the previous state of an object by re- fabricating it.
Limitations
Like any tool, constructable is useful for some design prob- lems and less so for others. While constructable extends the range of problems that can be tackled interactively, it is obviously not a CAD system. As with traditional wood- working tools, some types of projects can be tackled tool- in-hand, while more advanced problems require users to sit down with a piece of paper first. The same way that saw and wood chisel cannot replace a detailed design process, constructable cannot replace CAD.
Another limitation is that all construction with constructa- ble is inherently scale 1:1 and constructable offers no way of inspecting a detail in magnification. Similar to working with traditional woodworking tools, this limits users to projects that fit a particular scale.
Finally, constructable was not designed with walk-up use in mind. While some tools, such as the finger joint tool have the potential to make complex construction elements acces- sible to inexperienced users, mechanical construction in general does require know-how. Rather than addressing first time users, we designed the majority of constructable’s tools so as to be generic in nature, to apply to each other, and thereby allow for a wide range of constructions.