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ATLAS researchers presented 10 published works and one special interest group at the 2021 Human Factors in Computing Conference, the world’s preeminent forum for the field of human-computer interaction. The conference, commonly referred to as CHI, was held virtually May 8-13, 2021. 

Researchers affiliated with VisuaLab authored four of the nine ATLAS papers admitted to the conference, two of which received awards, including "Best Paper" and "Honorable Mention."  The Unstable Design Lab had two papers accepted, while the THING, Emergent Nanomaterials, Superhuman Computing, and Living Matter labs each had one. An additional paper was co-authored by alumna Andrea DeVore TAM '18, who is not associated with an ATLAS lab.

In all, 2,844 papers were submitted to CHI 2021, 28 of which were selected for the "Best Paper" award and 114 received "Honorable Mention."  In 2020, CHI accepted nine ATLAS papers, including four from the Unstable Design Lab and one each from the Superhuman Computing, Living Matter, VisuaLab, ACME and IRON labs.
 

CHI 2021 papers, position papers and workshops by ATLAS faculty and students

VisuaLab

. [Best Paper Award].  
Keke Wu (PhD student, ATLAS), Emma Petersen, (CTD MS student, ATLAS), Tahmina Ahmad, (Computer Science BS student), David Burlinson (PhD Computer Science, University of North Carolina), E. S. Tanis (faculty, CU Denver–Anschultz), and Danielle Szafir (faculty, ATLAS/Computer Science)
Researchers conducted a web-based mixed-methods experiment with 34 participants with and without Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDDs) to identify their differences in reading data and summarized the findings into four accessible visualization design guidelines. 

Immersive Design Reviews through Situated Qualitative Feedback (workshop paper)
M. Whitlock (PhD student, Computer Science) and Danielle Albers Szafir (faculty, ATLAS/Computer Science)
This paper on Immersive Design Reviews through Situated Qualitative Feedback was accepted to the Evaluating User Experiences in Mixed Reality Workshop at CHI 2021.

VisuaLab Collaborations

Grand Challenges in Immersive Analytics 
Danielle Szafir (faculty, ATLAS/Computer Science), Matt Whitlock (PhD student, Computer Science) and 22 other international experts.
A diverse group of 24 international experts developed 17 key research challenges, providing a systematic roadmap of current directions as well as the impending hurdles to facilitating productive and effective applications for Immersive Analytics.

 [Best Paper Honorable Mention]
Willie Payne (BS/MS alumnus Computer Science/Music Composition), Mary West (PhD student, Computer Science), Carlie Charp (CTD BS student, ATLAS), Ben Shapiro (faculty, Computer Science),  Edd Taylor (faculty, Education).

Dance provides opportunities for embodied interdisciplinary learning experiences that can be personally and culturally relevant. danceON's system supports learners to leverage their body movement as they engage in artistic practices across data science, computing and dance. It allows users to bind virtual shapes to body positions in under three lines of code, while also enabling complex, dynamic animations that users can design working with conditionals and past position data. The work identifies implications for how design can support learners' expression across culturally relevant themes and examines challenges from the lens of usability of the computing language and technology.

Unstable Design Lab

Laura Devendorf (faculty, ATLAS/Information Science), , (faculty, Eindhoven University of Technology/Department of Industrial Design), , (faculty, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University/Computer Science).
Parent-focused smart devices and data-tracking platforms frame the responsible parent as one who evaluates, analyzes and mitigates data-defined risks for their children and family. In this article, the researchers turn away from self-improvement narratives to attend to their own experiences as mothers and designers through creating Design Memoirs, speaking directly to the HCI community from their positions as both users and subjects of optimized parenting tools.

Late-breaking work
From The Art of Reflection to The Art of Noticing: A Shifting View of Self-Tracking Technologies’ Role in Supporting Sustainable Food Practices
Janghee Cho, (PhD student, Information Science), Laura Devendorf (faculty, ATLAS/Information Science) and Stephen Voida (faculty, Information Science).
This paper explores using self-tracking technologies that might help people draw attention to the impact of their food practices on the environment and promote sustainable food habits.

Living Matter Lab 

Self-deStaining Textiles: Designing Interactive Systems with Fabric, Stains and Light
Fiona Bell, (PhD student, ATLAS), Mirela Alistar (faculty, ATLAS/Computer Science),  and Laura Devendorf (faculty, ATLAS/Information Science) 
More information
While staining happens unintentionally (e.g., spilling coffee), this paper introduces “destaining” as an intentional design tool that can be used by HCI practitioners and designers alike to selectively degrade stains on textiles in aesthetic ways. 

Superhuman Computing Lab 

Vinitha Gadiraju (PhD student, Computer Science),  Olwyn Doyle (BA Computer Science and Political Science '20) and Shaun K. Kane (faculty, ATLAS/Computer Science)
This work explores how classroom technology design can imitate the instructional strategies educators use to teach visually impaired students the academic and behavioral skills outlined by the Expanded Core Curriculum.

THING Lab & Laboratory for Emergent Nanomaterials

Soft Electrohydraulic Actuators for Origami Inspired Shape-Changing Interfaces 
Purnendu (PhD student, ATLAS),Eric Acome (Keplinger Research Group), Christoph Keplinger, (faculty, Mechanical Engineering), Mark D. Gross (faculty, ATLAS/Computer Science), Carson Bruns (faculty, ATLAS/Mechanical Engineering) and Daniel Leithinger (faculty, ATLAS/Computer Science).  
This work introduces electrohydraulic actuators capable of producing sharp hinge-like bends that can be used to actuate existing objects or fold origami creases.

OTHER

Junnan Yu (INFO PhD Candidate), Andrea DeVore (ATLAS Undergrad Alumna), Ricarose Roque (INFO Faculty)

Special Interest Group

Microbe-HCI: Introduction and Directions for Growth
Raphael Kim (Queen Mary University), Pat Pataranutaporn (MIT), Jack Forman (MIT), Seung Ah Lee (Yonsei University), Ingmar Riedel-Kruse (University of Arizona), Mirela Alistar (faculty, ATLAS/Computer Science),  Eldy S. Lazaro Vasquez (UC Davis), Katia Vega (UC Davis) Roland van Dierendonck (Studio Roland van Dierendonck), Gilad Gome (The Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya), Oren Zuckerman (The Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya), Angela Vujic (MIT), David Sun Kong (MIT), Pattie Maes (MIT Media Lab), Hiroshi Ishii, (MIT), Misha Sra (UCSB), Stefan Poslad (Queen Mary University).  

Microbes bring a distinct set of functional, practical and ethical ramifications in interaction design. This special interest group addresses the various forms that microbial integration in human-computer interaction can take.  The sessions are engaging, focused and orientated conversations around microbes acting as agents of interaction.

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Long before the pandemic sent people scrambling into isolation, musicians have longed to jam virtually with others across the globe. Now researchers from CU Boulder’s ATLAS Institute’sACME Lab and Ericsson Research are developing ways for musicians to play together remotely through the AR Drum Circle project.

The difficulty with online jamming has always been latency, the tiny delay that occurs when data is transmitted from one point to the next, says Torin Hopkins, an ATLAS PhD student who leads the ATLAS team. Video conferencing participants don’t detect the delay because they generally take turns when speaking, but any lag greater than 20 milliseconds makes synchronous singing or performing unworkable, he says.

“There’s no room for delay in musical collaborations,” says Hopkins, adding that the virtual choir videos popular during the pandemic were mixed in post production.  “Yet real-time music-making with zero lag and a consistent video stream currently doesn’t exist.”

In the AR Drum Circle project, ATLAS researchers and Ericsson project collaborators are exploring ways in which remote drumming experiences can be made more enjoyable despite the latency, says Colin Soguero, the project’s app developer and an undergraduate student studying Creative Technology & Design.

“Latency is one of the biggest issues with remote collaboration, and it can be very frustrating for musicians who rely so heavily on precise coordination,” he says. 

Jamming with Avatars
Some of AR Drum Circle’s research focuses on avatars, computer-generated figures that in this case replicate the actions of real drummers participating remotely in drum circles. The avatars appear in another musician’s surroundings using augmented reality (AR), a technology that superimposes a computer-generated image on a user's view of the real world.

Using the AR Drum Circle application, Musician A prints a QR code and places it to position Musician B’s avatar in the augmented reality view. Musician A’s Android cell phone runs the application, and displays B’s avatar where the coded picture was placed. Musician B does the same. When either musician strikes a drum pad connected to their computers, the computers send that information through the internet, the corresponding avatar drummer then strikes its drum, and a drum beat is heard in both locations. The technology employs  a Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) controller, which, when one drummer strikes their drum pad, sends information to their computer, which then sends the data over the internet to the other drummers’ locations.

While live video of the drumming partners might be best, using avatars mediates the perception of the latency and—potentially—provides visual and audio information for a more satisfying musical exchange, Hopkins says. It takes just small bits of data to trigger an avatar's hand to move, whereas rendering videos requires large amounts of data to transmit every pixel of the moving images.

Adding to this, the core idea of this project is not merely collaboration, but how to minimize or leverage the effects of the inevitable latency and jitter (the deviation from true periodicity of a presumably periodic signal) in order to make collaborations that are highly sensitive to timing more successful or fun, says Mark Gross, professor of computer science, ATLAS director and a member of the project’s advisory team.

“Latency cannot be avoided, but its effects can be mitigated by being clever in portraying avatars and by anticipating future actions,” Gross says.

Sending the drum pad information over the internet to a receiving computer is “incredibly complex,” Hopkins adds. The data travels a long journey and encounters many checkpoints along the way, and small packets of information travel much faster across the network than video with sound.  Because the avatar's motion needs to be realistic, complex information is kept on the receiving device and only “start animation” messages are sent over the internet. 

Enjoying the experience
Just watching and hearing an avatar strike a drum doesn’t provide adequate information for remote drummers to synchronize, says Ellen Do, professor of computer science with ATLAS, who also participates in several drum circles. Drummers often use gestures, such as head motions and eye contact, to indicate part changes, turn taking and solos, she says. They also use striking force to control volume and hand position to control the timbre; they need to recognize the patterns of the rhythms (e.g., focusing on the down beats, space in-between the beats, the speed, embellishments, harmony, etc.) to play with others, she says.

A large part of the team’s research focuses on determining which of those gestures and expressive features might help remote drummers feel immersed in the collaborative musical experience and experience the enjoyment of feeling connected with each other, she says.

Hopkins, who plays guitar, piano, ukulele, bass, and drums, as well as sings, has missed jamming with other musicians during the pandemic.

“Meeting new people, sharing new ideas and the audiences– those are the things that I really, really miss,” Hopkins says. “Part of the project is figuring out how to incorporate that. Every time I hit the drum, is that enough to make you feel like I’m listening to you? That you feel connected, and that we feel in-sync with each other?”

Connecting in an isolated world

Soguero adds that the researchers are also exploring looping, which allows a player to record a drum beat and play it back later, as well as pseudo-haptics, visual effects created in a virtual environment that trick the brain to believe that it’s receiving information about touch and feel.

Regardless of the pandemic, connecting with people who are geographically distant allows for rich, connected, experiences with others who have a variety of talents, come from different cultures and have different perspectives, Hopkins says. 

Lessons learned from the AR Drum Circle study about human-human communication, or human-agent communication (with an avatar, agent or robot) could also possibly inform other computer-supported collaborative work scenarios, such as remotely collaborating in medical procedures or auto-repairs, Do says.  

“Our research raises the question, ‘Why collaborative musical experiences?’ ” says Hopkins. “Are we doing it to enjoy the company of others or because we enjoy music? How much can you strip away from either experience before you realize they are so intimately connected that designing for collaboration or musical expression alone feels disingenuous?

“Therefore, when designing the AR Drum Circle application, we focus on player-centered design strategies. Maximizing play, given the constraints of the mediating technology (augmented reality) and activity (drum circles), enables the players to feel a sense of contribution in a musical collective, giving us a much needed sense of connection in an isolated world.” 

AR Drum Circle's ATLAS Team: Torin Hopkins, ATLAS PhD student, is the project manager; Darren Sholes, ATLAS PhD student, is the technical lead/network engineer; Peter Gyory, ATLAS PhD student, was the former technical lead; Hooman Hedayati, PhD student in computer science, is the project's network engineer and advisor for human-robot (avatar) interaction; and Colin Soguero, an undergraduate student studying Creative Technology & Design, is the app developer. The advisory team consists of Mark D. Gross, ATLAS director and professor of computer science; Ellen Do, ATLAS and computer science professor; Amy Banic, associate professor of computer science at the University of Wyoming and visiting ATLAS professor; and Dan Szafir, ATLAS and computer science assistant professor.

Ericsson Research Project Collaborators: Amir Gomroki, head for 5G, North America; Héctor Caltenco, senior researcher; Per-Erik Brodin, research engineer;  Ali El Essaili, senior research engineer; Chris Phillips, master researcher; Alvin Jude Hari Haran, senior researcher; Per Karlsson, director, media technology research at Ericsson and head of Ericsson Research in Silicon Valley; Gunilla Berndtsson, senior researcher at Ericsson Research, Media Technologies.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7PhJRmLt1w&feature=youtu.be]

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Helping robots behave tactfully in group situations, pinpointing ways social media can avoid reminding the bereaved of their losses, blending modern technology with ancient weaving practices to improve smart textiles, encouraging visually impaired children and sighted family members to learn Braille together through tangible blocks and computer games—these are some of the topics covered in the nine papers and two workshops by researchers at CU Boulder’s ATLAS Institute that were accepted to CHI 2020, the world’s preeminent conference for the field of human-computer interaction. 

Like so many other events, CHI 2020, also known as ACM’s Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, isn’t taking place this year, but the proceedings are published and faculty and students remain tremendously proud of their contributions. Commenting on their work, ATLAS Director Mark Gross said, “The interactions we all have with hardware and software range from the absurd to the sublime. The field of human-computer interaction has more impact today than ever before, and ATLAS students and faculty are contributing at the highest levels. I’m immensely proud of this work.”

Researchers in the Unstable Design Lab authored a remarkable four of the nine papers admitted to the conference, two of which earned honorable mention, an accolade reserved for the top 5 percent of accepted conference papers. The THING, Superhuman Computing, Living Matter, ACME and IRON labs also had papers accepted to the conference. 

"Each of these papers is unique and forward-thinking," said Laura Devendorf, director of the Unstable Design Lab, of the researchers' papers. "They show new ways of both designing, engaging, but also recycling wearable tech devices. They not only present interesting design work, but present it in a way that ties in theories and practices from inside and outside our research community: from design for disassembly to ASMR channels on YouTube."

CHI 2020 was scheduled to take place April 25 – 30, in Hawaii. “I’m particularly disappointed for our students. It’s a big opportunity for them and their careers to get that kind of exposure,” said Devendorf.

In all, CHI 2020 received 3,126 submissions and accepted 760. In 2019, CHI accepted five ATLAS papers, including three from the Unstable Design Lab and two from the Superhuman Computing Lab.
 

CHI 2020 papers, position papers and workshops by ATLAS faculty and students

Unstable Design Lab

[Honorable Mention Award]
Laura Devendorf (ATLAS/INFO Faculty), Katya Arquilla (Aerospace PhD Student), Sandra Wirtanen,  Allison Anderson (Aerospace Faculty), Steven Frost (Media Studies Faculty) 
By broadening the idea of who and what is considered “technical,” this paper examines the ways HCI practitioners, engineers and craftspeople can productively collaborate. 

[Honorable Mention Award]
Laura Devendorf (ATLAS/INFO) Faculty), Kristina Andersen, Aisling Kelliher
How can we design for difficult emotional experiences without reducing a person’s experience? In this paper three researchers design objects that illustrate their personal experiences as mothers to gain a deeper understanding of their individual struggles.

  
Shanel Wu (ATLAS), Laura Devendorf (ATLAS/INFO)
Being mindful of the massive waste streams for digital electronics and textiles, HCI researchers address sustainability and waste in smart textiles development through designing smart textile garments with reuse in mind.

  
Josephine Klefeker (ATLAS, TAM undergraduate), Libi Striegl (Intermedia Art, Writing and Performance), Laura Devendorf (ATLAS/INFO)
Researchers introduced the online subculture of autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) videos, showing people slowly interacting with objects and whispering into microphones and triggering a tingling bodily sensation in viewers and listeners, as a source of inspiration for wearables and experiences of enchantment, to cultivate deeper connections with our mundane and everyday environments.

IRON Lab

 
Hooman Hedayati (PhD student, Computer Science), James Kennedy, Daniel Szafir
While humans most often learn to interpret social situations and adjust their behavior accordingly, robots must be programmed to do so. This paper explores ways for robots to detect and predict the position of individuals in human conversational groups in order to more fluidly interact and participate in a conversation with them. More information

THING Lab & ACME Lab

Ryo Suzuki, Hooman Hedayati, (both PhD student, CS), Clement Zheng (ATLAS PhD candidate), James Bohn (undergraduate, CS), Daniel Szafir, Ellen Yi-Luen Do, Mark D. Gross, Daniel Leithinger (all ATLAS faculty)
With applications in virtual tours and architectural design, this project dynamically synchronizes virtual reality with the physical environments by rearranging objects using a small swarm of robots able to elevate and relocate tables, chairs and other objects. When users can sit on, lean against, touch and otherwise interact with objects in a virtual scene, it provides more a fuller immersion in the virtual world than purely visual VR. More information

Living Matter Lab 

Mirela Alistar (ATLAS), Margherita Pevere
An exploration of the potential of DNA molecules to enable new ways for humans to interact with their stories and memories via a physical interface. The project involved encoding an elderly woman's written memories into precisely sequenced DNA and then splicing the code into the genome of a microorganism. The transformed bacteria then replicated, creating billions of facsimiles of the woman's memories. The resulting biofilm was presented in an exhibition as a sculpture. (CHI '20: Extended Abstracts)

Superhuman Computing Lab 

BrailleBlocks: Computational Braille Toys for Collaborative Learning
Vinitha Gadiraju, Annika Muehlbradt, and Shaun K. Kane (ATLAS/CS)
BrailleBlocks tactile gaming system encourages visually impaired children and their sighted family members to learn Braille together through tangible blocks and pegs and an iPad application with interactive educational games. More information.

ATLAS PhD Student in External Labs

Katie Z. Gach (ATLAS PhD Student), Jed Brubaker (INFO Faculty)
Managing Facebook pages for loved ones after their death is fraught with difficulty, according to this paper. While Facebook has created the ability for users to appoint post-mortem managers, called legacy contacts, Facebook gives them limited authority over the content, making them feel distrusted by the social network (Published in Transactions on Social Computing, invited for presentation at CHI 2020)

Workshops Organized

Robert Soden (ATLAS alumnus), Laura Devendorf (ATLAS/INFO faculty), Richmond Y. Wong, Lydia B. Chilton, Ann Light, Yoko Akama
This workshop explores the many ways uncertainty appears in research and the different types of responses that HCI has to offer. Outcomes of the workshop include exercises designed to evoke uncertainty in participants, concept mappings and a collection of essays developed by participants.

 
Ellen Yi-Luen Do(ATLAS faculty) among many others listed
This symposium showcases the latest HCI work from Asia and those focusing on incorporating Asian sociocultural factors in their design and implementation. In addition to circulating ideas and envisioning future research in human-computer interaction, this symposium aims to foster social networks among researchers and practitioners and grow the Asian research community.

Workshop Papers

Matt Whitlock (CS student), Daniel Leithinger (ATLAS faculty), Danielle Albers Szafir (ATLAS faculty/INFO affiliate faculty)
This paper on envisioning future productivity for immersive analytics was accepted to the Immersive Analytics workshop at CHI 2020.

Virtual and Augmented Reality for Public Safety
Cassandra Goodby (CTD student)
This paper explores potential applications of AR and VR technologies, haptics and voice recognition for first-responders. It was accepted to the Everyday Proxy Objects for Virtual Reality workshop at CHI 2020.

Mental Health Survey and Synthesis
Cassandra Goodby (CTD student)
This paper on tools and technologies available through mental health applications was accepted to the Technology Ecosystems: Rethinking �ƹ���Ƶ for Mental Health workshop at CHI 2020.

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In the spirit of this advice from the celebrated English author, ATLAS is excited to announce the launch of Food for Thought (Lunch Is On Us), an initiative aimed at promoting interdisciplinary teaching, research and creative work—one of the cornerstones of the CU Boulder Academic Futures plan.

How does it work? Simple: Go to lunch with someone outside of your conventional academic circles, and ATLAS picks up the bill. "Promoting interdisciplinary exchange is at the core of the ATLAS mission. We hope some interesting new ideas and research will emerge, and we think this is an effective way to help forge new connections across disciplines,” says ATLAS Director Mark Gross, who conceived the idea.

The offer is open to tenured and tenure-track faculty, instructors and senior program administrators. Once participants have agreed to a plan, one member of the group submits information via a simple . After receiving an approval email from ATLAS, the meeting can proceed. Following the meal, ATLAS asks for a brief account of the ideas exchanged and planned collaborations via a A receipt for the meal is also submitted (along with an optional selfie of the lunch party if everyone consents) and reimbursement is sent electronically within 30 days.

The fine print: Lunch groups are limited to four participants, to include at least two faculty members from different colleges; up to $15 will be reimbursed per person (the remainder will be considered out of pocket); no alcohol; students are welcome. Reimbursement upon receipt of a written report of the ideas discussed over lunch. Offer ends May 1, 2019, or when the budget is spent, whichever comes first. Void where prohibited by law. Batteries not included.

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