Work

Things I’ve Worked On

Perceptual Computing

Intel, 2011-2012

After a year of hard work with the Perceptual Computing Group we shipped a close range depth camera and accompanying SDK. A lot of great work by the systems, algorithms, and UX teams.

Shadow Input on a Wall Display

UBC, 2006-2010

An exploration of the metaphors I think are appropriate for use in interaction with a wall-sized computing surface. I use body shadows as a foundation, on which you can build all sorts of features that take advantage of our own natural abilities in the physical world.

Shadow Input to Windows 7 on a Wall Display

UBC

I decided to take my shadow input code and see if I could redirect inputs as mouse events into Windows 7. It worked, which was fun, but the user is still really constrained by the Windows model of input (the assumption of a single cursor). This brought back fond memories of my multi-mouse project days in the late 90s.
YouTube

Fitts’s Law of Pointing Performance

UBC, 2009-2012

I identified some major limitations to Fitts’s Law. I demonstrated that a two-part model due to A.T. Welford can model many pointing performance data sets significantly better than Fitts’s model.

Text Input on a Wall Display

University of British Columbia, 2009

I developed some mid-air text input techniques and evaluated them. It was fun to hack multiple Wiimotes in order to get accurate 3D spatial tracking (they can’t do this normally).

World of Warcraft on a Wall Display

UBC

YouTube
This was done in the pre-Kinect era with Polhemus magnetic sensors. It was a neat concept I was able to code up in about a day. I’d like to do it again on a Kinect. It would be much more robust.

Web Mapping Mashup

IDELIX Software, 2005-2006

I led the development of a web-based mapping mashup. We drew data from Google Maps, Microsoft Live Local Maps, and Yahoo Maps. We also supported searching through the different portals. The user could toggle between data sources in order to compare different maps at any given location. The user could also place fisheye magnification lenses anywhere they wanted.

Pliable Display SDK

IDELIX Software, 2001-2005

We shipped three major versions of a multi-platform (Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, IRIX) visualization SDK. We also integrated it into various applications for clients.

Single Display Privacyware

SFU, 1998-2000

Developed special glasses that allow two users to see different content on the same screen. Think competitive console gaming, without the split-screen problems.