Invention of the Day: Anaesthesia.

October 16, 1846 is the official birthday of anaesthesia, the art of preventing a surgery patient from feeling pain. On that day, surgeon Dr. Warren publicly demonstrated a painless tumor removal at the operating theater of the Massachusetts General Hospital. To anaesthetise the patient, Dr. Warren used the method invented by dentist William T.G. Morton. Under the invention, the patient was rendered unconscious by inhaling ether, an organic compound known to people since the 8th century, but never used in medicine before. The invention of practical anaesthesia (along with methods to prevent wound infection) created the world of modern surgery. The 1846 invention was a breakthrough that allowed people to control one of the basic biological experiences - pain.

Morton's US Patent 4,848 on the medical use of ether was never enforced due to public outcry.

Lunch Talk: Human Computer Interaction (UC Berkeley)

This is lecture 13 from UC Berkeley Computer Science 10 (CS 10) course.

tags: interface, computers, interaction, lunchtalk,

The impossible task of being a lonely teenager

The Snob, a Russian online magazine, has a story about impact of social/digital loneliness on teenagers (in Russian). Katerina Murashova, MD, asked 68 teenagers, 31 boys and 37 girls aged between 12 and 18, to spend 8 hours without talking to their friends or using electronic devices, phones, PCs, TVs, etc. Instead, the participants were allowed to engage in various solitary activities: board games, writing, arts and crafts, playing a musical instrument, walking, etc. Each participant could drop out of the experiment, should his or her experience become psychologically difficult.

Out of 68 participants, only 3 (2 boys and 1 girl) managed to last the required 8 hours. Another 7 survived 5 hours of loneliness, while the rest dropped out of the experiment within the first 1-3 hours. Every participant reported high levels of stress, including anxiety attacks.

This study reminds me of the famous Marshmallow Experiment conducted at Stanford in 1972. It looks like today's teenagers have the same problem as American 4-year-olds forty years ago - they have trouble distracting themselves from a highly desired object or experience.

tags: psychology, interaction

Snack Talk: Masters and Disasters of Relationship.

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse by Dr. John Gottman that can predict relationship disaster and even physical illness and disease are: Criticism, Contempt, Defensiveness, & Stonewalling. Dr. Gottman offers ways of healing intense conflict.

Direct link.

tags: lunchtalk, psychology, interaction

Siri, the Siren of commerce.

An interesting opinion in SpiegelOnline about Siri, Apple's new voice interface:

(11/29/11). Mit Siri hat Apple gleichzeitig einen Grund und ein Instrument geschaffen, um persönliche Informationen abzufragen und zur Profilierung zu verwenden.

Es handelt sich auch um einen großen Vorteil bei der Vermarktung von Werbung...
Apple ist es gelungen, bei der letzten großen Interface-Revolution, dem Touchscreen, alle Maßstäbe zu setzen. Wenn das mit Siri wieder gelänge, würden soziale Netzwerke nicht mehr benötigt, um aus dem Internet persönliche Informationen kommerziell verwertbar herauszuwringen. Es ergäben sich per Spracheingabe von den Nutzern selbst gepflegte Echtzeitprofile mit den Wünschen und Bedürfnissen der Zielgruppe.

 You can get a decent translation at Google Translate. Just paste the text into the box.

The main idea is that Siri prompts users to interact with the device more often, enter important context, and correct mistakes in human-computer interactions. All this provides an incredible wealth of information about the person and can be used for targeted advertisement.

tags: commerce, information, interaction, interface, 10X

DARPA: Education Dominance research.

via Wired:

Darpa, the Defense Department blue sky research shop, has been hard at work on the muscularly-titled Education Dominance Program aimed at creating digital tutors for troops. It’s worked pretty well thus far, too. When researchers looked at students using Darpa’s digital tutors for Navy IT training last year, they found that those using Darpa’s digital study buddies learned “substantially more” (.pdf) and did so in a much shorter time period than other students.

Fifty years from now DARPA–inspired study buddy will come with a "textbook" as an automated tutor-friend on you favorite social network. We won't have Matrix-like direct skill download, but most of the basic training in core school subjects - Math, Language, Creativity - will be incorporated into virtual learning environment.

tags: education, information, innovation, technology, social, network, cognition, 3x3, interface, interaction, psychology

Making ideas accessible to brain

At TED, Tom Wujec of AutoDesk shows how to communicate ideas visually, relying on human brain's ability to pick out objects and make sense out of them.

So making images meaningful has three components. The first again, is making ideas clear by visualizing them. Secondly, making them interactive. And then thirdly, making them persistent.

Whiteboards are not interactive, they don't fit Tom's second requirement.
Today's touch screens are highly interactive, but they do not provide for persistent visualization.
Large, wall-to-wall, touch-screen graphics displays in combination with the right software will create an environment where idea communication and problem-solving is incredibly productive.

tags: interaction, tool, storage, problem, trade-off, video, creativity, information, psychology, brain

Living books

Here's how illustrations in books, especially on science, technology, and invention, should look like:


DaVinci prototype on Xbox Kinect from Razorfish - Emerging Experiences on Vimeo.

The technology is built using Microsoft Kinect. I wish my book had illustrations like that. Instead of telling about an invention I could just show how it works and the concepts behind it.

tags: information, dynamic, payload, interaction, creativity, education

hi-tech + haute couture = ♡

I wrote earlier that Apple sells its devices as fashion items. Now, the fashion industry is waking up to high-tech opportunities. With the proliferation of iPad and its clones, as well as emergence of 3D consumer devices, fashion shopping is going to be a very important application for high-end customers.

VentureBeat: Historically the fashion industry has been slow to adopt technology, so most venture investors have stayed away from investments in the sector. But that has begun to change. Entrepreneurs are focusing on fashion-related online services, and more customers are willing to buy fashion items over the Internet, and investors are following.

Japanese market is also a good indicator of a possible marriage between high-tech and haute couture:

One of the iPad’s eager customers is Novarese Inc., a firm that offers wedding services and wedding dress rentals, with spokeswoman Kazuka Nohara saying the iPad is a more effective communication gadget between the firm and its customers, especially the grooms.

”Whereas grooms before used to be less participative, we were surprised at how grooms became more active in speaking with our coordinators and choosing wedding dresses since our coordinators have been giving the iPads to customers to look at them freely,” Nohara said.

tags: commerce, information, interaction, business, apple, entertainment, trend

The high fashion of iPad

Reuters reports on iPad's success in Asia:

In Japan, wedding service firm Novarese Inc is using iPads to help customers choose a wedding dress at its flagship store in Tokyo's Ginza shopping district, and plans to adopt iPads at seven other stores and its wedding ceremonial halls.

The firm now shows customers video clips of models strutting with dresses on the iPad, making it easier to see things such as how a hemline flares.

I still think iPad is the ultimate shopping device: from food to cars to media. A dedicated interactive product application can do much better than a browser script with embedded flash. Amazon, if they play it right, could be the company that benefits the most from iPad proliferation.

tags: commerce, interface, tool, source, interaction, apple

The winner of a business plan contest in Second Life is a company that's likely to help others come up with business plans for Second Life.

The honors, announced Monday, went to Minnesota-based Market Truths, which devised a market research and analysis system to help real-world companies figure out what works and what doesn't in the burgeoning virtual world.