I love digital signages / screens -- but the thousands of screens in the real world are mostly dump terminals that blast ads at us. Why can't they be personalized, interactive, and collaborative? This slide deck presents a sneak preview of a new interactive screen network developed at the MIT Media Lab. We leverage touchscreens, RFID for visitors to enable a seamless experience to explore various items at a busy venue. Let's build more of these in the real world!

1. TOWARDS
INTERACTIVE
SCREENS
Chaki Ng
6/7/2010
MIT Media Lab/Harvard
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2. interactive screens = the future?
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3. deployed/ing a signage network?
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4. support users interactions? how?
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5. dump terminals
who are you?
wait in line
loops only
MOST SCREENS
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6. interaction
personalization
collaboration
exploration
OUR AGENDA
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7. olpc
e-ink minority report
robots
citycar
scratch
MEDIA LAB
candy store for grown-ups
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8. E14
“see through” workspace
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9. CUBES
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10. CUBES
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11. SPONSOR WEEK
a.k.a. “circus”
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12. THE GLASS INFRASTRUCTURE
• Touchscreens throughout the building
• RFID for everyone
• Multi-user interactions/sharing
• Structured and free explorations
• Portfolio
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13. WALL MOUNT
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14. FREE STANDING
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15. ENCASING
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16. RFID
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17. ANATOMY
samsung, mac mini, reader+antenna, mouse client, rfid service
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18. clients screen
leaderboard portfolio photostation
frontend
services backend user profile
rfid services
service databases
COMPONENTS
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19. SCREEN
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20. SCREEN
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21. SCREEN
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22. LEADERBOARD
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23. PHOTOSTATION
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24. LAUNCH EXPERIENCE
• 500+ guests for 3 full days
• 30 wall-mounted screens, 6 free standing, 2 leaderboards
• Thousands of charms collected, hundreds of exchanges
• Great for an “alpha” project
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26. UX LESSONS
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27. ICON = SIMPLICITY
good for the use case; more security not necessary
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28. ATM EFFECT
do design clues to encourage collaboration
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29. FIND LEAD USERS
they will train others for you
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30. FINGERPRINTS
do assume people will touch any UX elements
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31. TOO SIMPLE
do explain “smart” UX design
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32. UX EXPLOSION
do worry about extreme cases
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33. TAKE YOUR TURN
do work around device limitations...
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34. FUTURE WORK
• interaction: multi-touch, gestural, facial
• personalization: cell phones, multiple visits
• collaboration: gaming, people recommendations
• exploration: richer learning model, user-contribution
• open: rfid api, new apps, ads/messages
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35. collaborators:
Chaki Ng viral communications,
information ecology,
chaki@post.harvard.edu and NeCSys
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