Digital Content Design - building blocks
A major characteristic of digital content that makes it different from the traditional medium is that it can be consumed in non traditional settings. For example PARC has done identified the notion of "micro-waiting" as a new way that users engage content.
We are also exploring the categories/thresholds of "information overload." The obvious implication is how can technology help users find the nuggets of useful information given the constant deluge of data from all sources.
Embodied Interaction Framework
Beyond understanding these building blocks, there are teams at PARC exploring the issue of how to design an embodied interaction framework that leverages natural human behavior to alter system state or trigger interaction. Or, in plain(er) English, create devices/solutions where a user does not need to learn a new "language" to interact with technology. What makes PARC's approach unique is that this explicitly incorporates social science and psychology insight, also areas that PARC has a long history of advanced work, into the technology design.
Moving from Content Creation to Content Consumption
Although nobody would dispute the truism that content creation and consumption are the two sides of the same coin, people don't always think of it that way. Today, there seems to be little understanding of the consumption side beyond aggregate measurements to meet the needs of content creators/providers.
Let's flip the lens around and ask how to measure and deliver consumption pattern in the eyes of individual consumers. If we can make it seamless and nearly invisible, this could ignite the next phase of the digital revolution.
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P@P
Showing posts with label ubiquitous computing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ubiquitous computing. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Next-gen Advertising using Context Mining
Reality or Context Mining
Migitti is a project that takes advantage of PARC's work on mobile computing and the new information afforded by mobile handsets.
The logical question is what else can you do with a deep personalized recommendation system like that. Maybe it is just a sign of the time taht we live in, advertising seems to be an obvious avenue to explore.
Activity-Based Advertising: Techniques and Challenges
Lots of people are making noise in this space, but from what I can tell, PARC's team are the only people who are exploring the entire eco-system for a total solution.
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P@P
Migitti is a project that takes advantage of PARC's work on mobile computing and the new information afforded by mobile handsets.
The logical question is what else can you do with a deep personalized recommendation system like that. Maybe it is just a sign of the time taht we live in, advertising seems to be an obvious avenue to explore.
Activity-Based Advertising: Techniques and Challenges
Lots of people are making noise in this space, but from what I can tell, PARC's team are the only people who are exploring the entire eco-system for a total solution.
===
P@P
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Smart Phones of Near Future and PARC's Migitti Project
New York Times on Smart Phones
Here is an article from NY Times on what the future of smart phone may look like and how key players are pushing the envelop.
PARC's Migitti project was one of the featured solutions in the article. Beyond the technology, we also deployed extensive social science analysis to ensure its usability.
Migitti Project
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P@P
Here is an article from NY Times on what the future of smart phone may look like and how key players are pushing the envelop.
PARC's Migitti project was one of the featured solutions in the article. Beyond the technology, we also deployed extensive social science analysis to ensure its usability.
Migitti Project
Activity-Based Serendipitous Recommendations with the Magitti Mobile Leisure Guide
View more presentations from begole.
===
P@P
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Digital Content Consumption - What is Next?
Digital content consumption, today
It would be an understatement to say that digital content consumption is creating a headache for the traditional providers. The latest public display was billed as Media Brawl at Web 2.0.
Digital content consumption, tomorrow
What is right around the corner is a new generation of techniques and solutions. Here are some of the areas that PARC is working on.
* Non-traditional directed consumption through user generated content such as tags
* Predictive models through sentiment analysis and machine learning
* Distributed content and security management
* Recommendation systems built on reality mining in mobile devices
Digital content consumption, the day after tomorrow
One of the areas that there does not seem to get a lot of attention is how are users actually consuming content. Most the discussions have an implicit assumption of a bygone day when a person would actually devote a chunk of time to an activity, i.e. read a news article, in front of a decent size screen. With smart phone projected to overtake laptop as the most ubiquitous mobile device, the inevitable question in a couple of years is when I am on the go with a smart phone, when and how do I want to consume content?
One of the more interesting insight that PARC has worked on already is the notion of "microwaiting." The simple scenario, albeit a bit scary, is to think of stopping your car at a red light in your morning commute. You know the wait is about 60 seconds. And, guess what, we have found that this is an example where people are very receptive to consume content. Thus the term "microwaiting".
One of the things that people don't often know about is how social science plays a key role at PARC. This is an example where this unique combination of technical and social insight leads to really interesting design and business implications.
p.s. Let me know if you want to learn more about "microwaiting". We have published a CHI paper on this topic.
===
P@P
It would be an understatement to say that digital content consumption is creating a headache for the traditional providers. The latest public display was billed as Media Brawl at Web 2.0.
Digital content consumption, tomorrow
What is right around the corner is a new generation of techniques and solutions. Here are some of the areas that PARC is working on.
* Non-traditional directed consumption through user generated content such as tags
* Predictive models through sentiment analysis and machine learning
* Distributed content and security management
* Recommendation systems built on reality mining in mobile devices
Digital content consumption, the day after tomorrow
One of the areas that there does not seem to get a lot of attention is how are users actually consuming content. Most the discussions have an implicit assumption of a bygone day when a person would actually devote a chunk of time to an activity, i.e. read a news article, in front of a decent size screen. With smart phone projected to overtake laptop as the most ubiquitous mobile device, the inevitable question in a couple of years is when I am on the go with a smart phone, when and how do I want to consume content?
One of the more interesting insight that PARC has worked on already is the notion of "microwaiting." The simple scenario, albeit a bit scary, is to think of stopping your car at a red light in your morning commute. You know the wait is about 60 seconds. And, guess what, we have found that this is an example where people are very receptive to consume content. Thus the term "microwaiting".
One of the things that people don't often know about is how social science plays a key role at PARC. This is an example where this unique combination of technical and social insight leads to really interesting design and business implications.
p.s. Let me know if you want to learn more about "microwaiting". We have published a CHI paper on this topic.
===
P@P
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Digital Distribution as a Competitive Advantage for Media Companies
The trouble with the digital world
The issues confronting many media companies in the world of internet, in general, and news aggregation, in particularly, is well known by now. The traditional business model of setting up the infrastructure to serve a particular geographic region is no longer seem as a compelling advantage.
Physical distribution of digital content as an advantage
Just thinking out loud. At the most basic level, while internet is considered "virtual", there is still a physical/geographic limitation on the actual routing of bits and byte. For example, by providing coverage outside of homes and offices in a region, this would deter others from setting up parallel infrastructure. Furthermore, by linking into regional advertising base, a media company can provide very fine-grained data for advertisers which would be worth a lot more than just general IP based information.
In other words, could this be a form of digital distribution that is highly defensible?
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P@P
The issues confronting many media companies in the world of internet, in general, and news aggregation, in particularly, is well known by now. The traditional business model of setting up the infrastructure to serve a particular geographic region is no longer seem as a compelling advantage.
Physical distribution of digital content as an advantage
Just thinking out loud. At the most basic level, while internet is considered "virtual", there is still a physical/geographic limitation on the actual routing of bits and byte. For example, by providing coverage outside of homes and offices in a region, this would deter others from setting up parallel infrastructure. Furthermore, by linking into regional advertising base, a media company can provide very fine-grained data for advertisers which would be worth a lot more than just general IP based information.
In other words, could this be a form of digital distribution that is highly defensible?
===
P@P
Friday, September 11, 2009
User-Technology Convergence with Opportunity Discovery
Translating assets and capabilities into new markets and revenues
Companies often come to PARC to develop disruptive solutions for an existing or a new market. From the company's perspective, there is a set of assets and capabilities but internal processes is not always set up to look beyond one year.
PARC's Opportunity Discovery framework has been a favor tool for companies to systematically explore markets and options.
Migitti
Here is a recent project we have developed for DNP of Japan. This should give you a flavor of what kind of work is involved with O/D
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P@P
Companies often come to PARC to develop disruptive solutions for an existing or a new market. From the company's perspective, there is a set of assets and capabilities but internal processes is not always set up to look beyond one year.
PARC's Opportunity Discovery framework has been a favor tool for companies to systematically explore markets and options.
Migitti
Here is a recent project we have developed for DNP of Japan. This should give you a flavor of what kind of work is involved with O/D
Activity-Based Serendipitous Recommendations with the Magitti Mobile Leisure Guide
View more presentations from begole.
===
P@P
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Social Media Today and Tomorrow
Social Media
It is no longer controversial to suggest social media is here to stay. From blogs, twitts, to Facebook and LinkedIn, PARC is actively participating in understanding and shaping what is to come.
I believe there are at least three interesting ways to look at Social Media and how they are impacting what we do today.
Disrupting Traditional Services
Dis-intermediation is an old concept from the dot com time. And, we are seeing it play out today in industries like newspaper. The woes facing the traditional newspaper is well known. The bundling of breaking news, fact checking, investigation, and editorials to attract a broad audience for advertisers is no longer compelling given the proliferation of citizen journalists and opinion makers through blog, twitts, and videos who in term break up audience into more targeted segments.
There is a lot of work on finding a new business model for the traditional newspaper. I think the litmus test for a new model is to think of how would the next (goodness forbid) "Watergate" would be exposed and discussed.
New Data and Interaction
It is also fascinating to consider how social media is creating a new layer of social fabric into our daily life. For example, some of my friends can only be found via Facebook these days. Conversely, with so much data and unverified facts flowing, how do I know who/what to believe? At a high level, what are the additional insight on social interactions that was not knowable until now where every user is generating discreet data as a primary source?
This is an area of much work at PARC.
Tomorrow's Social Media Today
Finally, with a combination of changing social norm and new technology, it is also changing the lens we will use to see the world. For example, how will the increasing power of smartphone play into this picture? There is a term "reality mining" that may make into the mainstream one day which describes what is possible given the explosion of personal social media and location data through the use of social media tools on smartphones. We have built quite a bit of technology on this front at PARC.
As for the question of the ultimate big brother or the ultimate personal assistant? Only time will tell.
===
P@P
It is no longer controversial to suggest social media is here to stay. From blogs, twitts, to Facebook and LinkedIn, PARC is actively participating in understanding and shaping what is to come.
I believe there are at least three interesting ways to look at Social Media and how they are impacting what we do today.
Disrupting Traditional Services
Dis-intermediation is an old concept from the dot com time. And, we are seeing it play out today in industries like newspaper. The woes facing the traditional newspaper is well known. The bundling of breaking news, fact checking, investigation, and editorials to attract a broad audience for advertisers is no longer compelling given the proliferation of citizen journalists and opinion makers through blog, twitts, and videos who in term break up audience into more targeted segments.
There is a lot of work on finding a new business model for the traditional newspaper. I think the litmus test for a new model is to think of how would the next (goodness forbid) "Watergate" would be exposed and discussed.
New Data and Interaction
It is also fascinating to consider how social media is creating a new layer of social fabric into our daily life. For example, some of my friends can only be found via Facebook these days. Conversely, with so much data and unverified facts flowing, how do I know who/what to believe? At a high level, what are the additional insight on social interactions that was not knowable until now where every user is generating discreet data as a primary source?
This is an area of much work at PARC.
Tomorrow's Social Media Today
Finally, with a combination of changing social norm and new technology, it is also changing the lens we will use to see the world. For example, how will the increasing power of smartphone play into this picture? There is a term "reality mining" that may make into the mainstream one day which describes what is possible given the explosion of personal social media and location data through the use of social media tools on smartphones. We have built quite a bit of technology on this front at PARC.
As for the question of the ultimate big brother or the ultimate personal assistant? Only time will tell.
===
P@P
Friday, August 21, 2009
Mobile Computing and Cloud Today
The Short half-life of Predictions
The hazard of the technology world is that the future is always just around the world. So, it is interesting to note that I have done an analysis of Cloud Computing earlier this year and one of the conclusions is that mobile computing will be a key influence on how people access the Cloud. Mobile, the next Cloud frontier?
Microsoft and Nokia's Mobile Cloud offering
It is, therefore, not a surprise to hear about how Microsoft and Nokia is joining force to offer standard productivity tools like Office for Nokia smart phones. Microsoft and Nokia to bring cloud computing to mobile phone users
What would be interesting to see if users finds the offering compelling. Mobile computing has its own set of form factor and operating norms and fitting the mental framework of productivity tools in that context would be a fascinating story.
===
P@P
The hazard of the technology world is that the future is always just around the world. So, it is interesting to note that I have done an analysis of Cloud Computing earlier this year and one of the conclusions is that mobile computing will be a key influence on how people access the Cloud. Mobile, the next Cloud frontier?
Microsoft and Nokia's Mobile Cloud offering
It is, therefore, not a surprise to hear about how Microsoft and Nokia is joining force to offer standard productivity tools like Office for Nokia smart phones. Microsoft and Nokia to bring cloud computing to mobile phone users
What would be interesting to see if users finds the offering compelling. Mobile computing has its own set of form factor and operating norms and fitting the mental framework of productivity tools in that context would be a fascinating story.
===
P@P
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Face Tracking for Video Analysis
Is it Hollywood or is it for real?
This is one of the question that I have wondered ever since watching the first Terminator movie where Arnold, aka Mr Governor, identified his victim by analyzing video images. I am glad to report that, with no casualty count, there is indeed similar technology at work at PARC.
I have covered some of the details on this entry Video Analysis and Responsive Mirror part II. Now, I've got Maurice Chu, who worked on and modeled this technology, to share a clip.
Face tracking on a video feed
Maurice's explanation: The clip demonstrates the processing of video to track the face and its parts. In particular, the six face parts are the left and right eyes, the left and right eyebrows, nose, and mouth. The output of the face tracker is a cloud of points representing the location of the six face parts in image coordinates. These can be used to determine the 3D orientation of the face relative to the camera. Some of the challenges that the algorithm overcomes is that it can handle when people put on glasses, eye blinking, and other deformable movements like the lips. The algorithm runs in real-time, currently at about 10 fps, is people-generic, and requires no initial calibration.
===
P@P
This is one of the question that I have wondered ever since watching the first Terminator movie where Arnold, aka Mr Governor, identified his victim by analyzing video images. I am glad to report that, with no casualty count, there is indeed similar technology at work at PARC.
I have covered some of the details on this entry Video Analysis and Responsive Mirror part II. Now, I've got Maurice Chu, who worked on and modeled this technology, to share a clip.
Face tracking on a video feed
Maurice's explanation: The clip demonstrates the processing of video to track the face and its parts. In particular, the six face parts are the left and right eyes, the left and right eyebrows, nose, and mouth. The output of the face tracker is a cloud of points representing the location of the six face parts in image coordinates. These can be used to determine the 3D orientation of the face relative to the camera. Some of the challenges that the algorithm overcomes is that it can handle when people put on glasses, eye blinking, and other deformable movements like the lips. The algorithm runs in real-time, currently at about 10 fps, is people-generic, and requires no initial calibration.
===
P@P
Friday, July 17, 2009
Video Analysis and Responsive Mirror part II
Responsive Mirror part II
For those who are interested in what happened to the responsive mirror as discussed, here is a look at the second generation of the technology.
It is more integrated in terms of form factor and uses an enhanced video analysis core. As reported by Boing Boing: http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2009/06/30/how-parcs-responsive.html
Video Analysis
For the inner geeks in us, here is a high level description of the video analysis technology used for Responsive Mirror
1. Finding matches across images is performed by deriving a metric of similarity (i.e., a distance) between two images.
2. Then, an optimization is performed to find the best matches across two sets of images that minimize the aggregate distance between the two sets.
Some technical details
1. What is the similarity metric between two individual images?
Modified version of Euclidean distance by treating an image as a large vector of pixel values.
2. What is the “aggregate distance” between two sets of images (as opposed to two individual images)?
Contact me (email: "yfjuan (at) parc (dot) com") for more information on the answer
3. How is the optimization performed?
Greedy descent algorithm to minimize aggregate distance.
For those who are interested in what happened to the responsive mirror as discussed, here is a look at the second generation of the technology.
It is more integrated in terms of form factor and uses an enhanced video analysis core. As reported by Boing Boing: http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2009/06/30/how-parcs-responsive.html
Video Analysis
For the inner geeks in us, here is a high level description of the video analysis technology used for Responsive Mirror
1. Finding matches across images is performed by deriving a metric of similarity (i.e., a distance) between two images.
2. Then, an optimization is performed to find the best matches across two sets of images that minimize the aggregate distance between the two sets.
Some technical details
1. What is the similarity metric between two individual images?
Modified version of Euclidean distance by treating an image as a large vector of pixel values.
2. What is the “aggregate distance” between two sets of images (as opposed to two individual images)?
Contact me (email: "yfjuan (at) parc (dot) com") for more information on the answer
3. How is the optimization performed?
Greedy descent algorithm to minimize aggregate distance.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Video analysis and shopping
Responsive Mirror
One downside of working at PARC is that a lot of technologies sound so out there or address very specific (fundamental) problems that they don't make for good cocktail tales.
Responsive mirror, on the other hand, uses cool technology in a context that we can all relate to. It lets you do side by side real-time comparisons of clothing with prior pieces as you put on a new one instead of conjuring up the images of what the prior piece look like.
Of course, this is not one of 'em before/after pictures in diet pill infomercials. Responsive mirror follows your actual movement and plays back the same movement with the prior article. In other words, you can do not just "apple-to-apple" comparison but "same-side-of-apple-to-same-side-of-apple" comparisons. Now, that is cool!
Here is a link on the tool: http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=21045
Video Analysis
Of course, under the hood, PARC has built up a platform on a robust video analysis and given the proliferation of both cameras and screens beyond laptop computers (think smart phones), there are a lot of applications that are still waiting to be imagined.
===
P@P
One downside of working at PARC is that a lot of technologies sound so out there or address very specific (fundamental) problems that they don't make for good cocktail tales.
Responsive mirror, on the other hand, uses cool technology in a context that we can all relate to. It lets you do side by side real-time comparisons of clothing with prior pieces as you put on a new one instead of conjuring up the images of what the prior piece look like.
Of course, this is not one of 'em before/after pictures in diet pill infomercials. Responsive mirror follows your actual movement and plays back the same movement with the prior article. In other words, you can do not just "apple-to-apple" comparison but "same-side-of-apple-to-same-side-of-apple" comparisons. Now, that is cool!
Here is a link on the tool: http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=21045
Video Analysis
Of course, under the hood, PARC has built up a platform on a robust video analysis and given the proliferation of both cameras and screens beyond laptop computers (think smart phones), there are a lot of applications that are still waiting to be imagined.
===
P@P
Friday, July 10, 2009
Migitti: Mobile Recommendation Systems
Reality Mining
Most of us have heard of data-mining even if we cannot write a nested query to save our lives. With the proliferation of rich-media mobile devices, there is a new gold mine in the form of reality-mining. In other words, instead of firing up a browser on my phone to do a search on Yelp and decipher what catches my fancy given where I am at, a system can be built to incorporate my personal preference and location information to give me the most tantalizing (and relevant) choices.
Migitti Project
Well. We've built one at PARC.
Here is the link to the slide-ware
http://www.slideshare.net/begole/activitybased-serendipitous-recommendations-with-the-magitti-mobile-leisure-guide
===
P@P
Most of us have heard of data-mining even if we cannot write a nested query to save our lives. With the proliferation of rich-media mobile devices, there is a new gold mine in the form of reality-mining. In other words, instead of firing up a browser on my phone to do a search on Yelp and decipher what catches my fancy given where I am at, a system can be built to incorporate my personal preference and location information to give me the most tantalizing (and relevant) choices.
Migitti Project
Well. We've built one at PARC.
Here is the link to the slide-ware
http://www.slideshare.net/begole/activitybased-serendipitous-recommendations-with-the-magitti-mobile-leisure-guide
===
P@P
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