Exemplar: Authoring Sensor-based Interactions by Demonstration

by Björn Hartmann, Leith Abdulla, Manas Mittal, Scott R. Klemmer. Video companion to CHI 2007 paper http://hci.stanford.edu/publications/2007/exemplar/exemplar-chi07.pdf

Sensors are becoming increasingly important in interaction design. Authoring a sensor-based interaction comprises
three steps: choosing and connecting the appropriate hardware, creating application logic, and specifying the
relationship between sensor values and application logic. Recent research has successfully addressed the first two
issues. However, linking sensor input data to application logic remains an exercise in patience and trial-and-error
testing for most designers. This paper introduces techniques for authoring sensor-based interactions by demonstration. A combination of direct manipulation and pattern recognition techniques enables designers to control how demonstrated examples are generalized to interaction rules. This approach emphasizes design exploration by enabling very rapid iterative demonstrate-edit-review cycles. This paper describes the manifestation of these techniques in a design tool, Exemplar, and presents evaluations through a first-use lab study and a theoretical analysis using the Cognitive Dimensions of Notation framework.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Exemplar
• sensors
• physical computing
• design tools