... Edward Clarkson, Kent Lyons, James Clawson and Thad Starner College of Computing and GVU Cent... more ... Edward Clarkson, Kent Lyons, James Clawson and Thad Starner College of Computing and GVU Center, Georgia Institute of Technology 801 Atlantic Drive, Atlanta GA 30332-0280 {edcclark, kent, jamer, thad}@cc.gatech.edu ABSTRACT MacKenzie and Soukoreff have ...
Page 1. Recognizing Sign Language from Brain Imaging Nishant A. Mehta, Thad Starner, Melody M. Ja... more Page 1. Recognizing Sign Language from Brain Imaging Nishant A. Mehta, Thad Starner, Melody M. Jackson, Karolyn O. Babalola Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, GA, USA {niche,thad,melody}@cc.gatech.edu karolyn@gatech.edu ...
Extended abstracts of the 2004 conference on Human factors and computing systems - CHI '04, 2004
One hundred thirty-eight subjects participated in a study on mobile appointment scheduling. Subje... more One hundred thirty-eight subjects participated in a study on mobile appointment scheduling. Subjects completed a questionnaire on their primary method of managing appointments when away from their desks. Immediately afterwards, subjects completed a session of scheduling four appointments with the interviewer. The most common scheduling systems, in order of popularity, were paper-based day planners, memory, scrap paper, and PDA's. However, 43% of the claimed PDA users and 68% of day planner users switched to another, more readily accessible method when scheduling an appointment. Interviews revealed a practice of using memory or scrap paper to "buffer" appointments for later entry into the PDA or planner.
We present a novel method for mapping and localization in indoor environments using a wearable ge... more We present a novel method for mapping and localization in indoor environments using a wearable gesture interface. The ear-mounted FreeDigiter device consists of an infrared proximity sensor and a dual axis accelerometer. A user builds a topological map of a new environment by walking through the environment wearing our device. The accelerometer is used to identify footsteps while the proximity sensor detects doorways. While mapping an environment, finger gestures are used to label detected doorways. Once a map is constructed, a particle filter is employed to track a user walking through the mapped environment while wearing the device. In this tracking mode, the device can be used as a context-aware gesture interface by responding to finger gestures differently according to which room the user occupies. We present experimental results for both mapping and localization in a home environment.
Proceedings of the workshop on Human Language Technology - HLT '94, 1994
BBN Systems and Technologies 70 Fawcett Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 Email: Makhoul@bbn.com ... AB... more BBN Systems and Technologies 70 Fawcett Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 Email: Makhoul@bbn.com ... ABSTRACT A hidden Markov model (HMM) based continuous speech recognition system is applied to on-line cursive handwrit-ing recognition. The base ...
Proceedings of the 3rd ACM workshop on Continuous archival and retrival of personal experences - CARPE '06, 2006
While a military patrol may be well-planned, its soldiers well-trained, and the intelligence obje... more While a military patrol may be well-planned, its soldiers well-trained, and the intelligence objectives achieved, the information requirements of the commander may change significantly after the patrol has returned. An area that has been scouted for military action may later be the focus for humanitarian aid. In addition, the artifacts and intelligence gained from presence patrols may cause an intelligence officer, upon reflection, to wish for more specifically targeted information than what the patrol was told to recover. Georgia Tech's Virtual Patrol allows a soldier to revisit a patrol captured earlier using the Soldier's Assist System (SAS) wearable computer. SAS captures video, ambient audio, speech audio, high resolution still images, GPS position, altitude, orientation, and body movement during a patrol. The soldier can replay the patrol as a continuous movie, search for specific events, or quickly browse the patrol using a map-based or timeline-based interface. The soldier can quickly select media from the interface to semi-automatically create a presentation about the patrol. In this talk, we will describe the difficulties of creating the on-body capture hardware for this project, the lessons learned in interface design, and the challenges of automatically indexing media taken from the patrols using the types of events soldiers wish to search.
Digest of Papers. Second International Symposium on Wearable Computers (Cat. No.98EX215), 1998
Wearable computing brings computation much closer to the user for everyday tasks and may be worn ... more Wearable computing brings computation much closer to the user for everyday tasks and may be worn during most of the day. However, with CPU and wireless network intensive applications, higher power microprocessors and radio links are necessary resulting in increased heat generation. This paper suggests a method to increase the hear dissipation capability per unit surface area of a mobile
Digest of Papers. First International Symposium on Wearable Computers, 1997
The Locust infared system provides inexpensive messaging and location information without batteri... more The Locust infared system provides inexpensive messaging and location information without batteries and without its own network. The system is 'jwivacy aware" in that it supplies information to the wearable computer user who can then control how much of this information is shared with others or the installed infrastructure. By combining the abilities of Locusts with an appropriately equipped wearable computer, the user can interact with web-like hyperlinks, graphics, and sounds virtually associated with objects in the physical world. In addition the user can annotate and change these links as desired.
Proceedings of the 5th international conference on Intelligent user interfaces - IUI '00, 2000
Computer gaming offers a unique test-bed and market for advanced concepts in computer science, su... more Computer gaming offers a unique test-bed and market for advanced concepts in computer science, such as Human Computer Interaction (HCI), computer-supported collaborative work (CSCW), intelligent agents, graphics, and sensing technology. In addition, computer gaming is especially wellsuited for explorations in the relatively young fields of wearable computing and augmented reality (AR). This paper presents a developing multi-player augmented reality game, patterned as a cross between a martial arts fighting game and an agent controller, as implemented using the Wearable Augmented Reality for Personal, Intelligent, and Networked Gaming (WARPING) system. Through interactions based on gesture, voice, and head movement input and audio and graphical output, the WARPING system demonstrates how computer vision techniques can be exploited for advanced, intelligent interfaces.
Seventh IEEE International Symposium on Wearable Computers, 2003. Proceedings., 2003
The paper deals with the design of a sound recognition system focused on an ultra low power hardw... more The paper deals with the design of a sound recognition system focused on an ultra low power hardware implementation in a button like miniature form factor. We present the results of the first design phase focused on selection and experimental evaluation of sound classes and algorithms suitable for low power realization. We also present the VHDL model of the hardware showing that our method can be implemented with minimal resources. Our approach is based on spectrum analysis to distinguish between a subset of sound sources with a clear audio signature. It also uses intensity analysis from microphones placed at different locations to correlate the sounds with user activity.
Proceedings of the 28th international conference on Human factors in computing systems - CHI '10, 2010
We present two experiments to evaluate wrist-worn wearable tactile displays (WTDs) that provide e... more We present two experiments to evaluate wrist-worn wearable tactile displays (WTDs) that provide easy to perceive alerts for on-the-go users. The first experiment (2304 trials, 12 participants) focuses on the perception sensitivity of tactile patterns and reveals that people discriminate our 24 tactile patterns with up to 99% accuracy after 40 minutes of training. Among the four parameters (intensity, starting
2010 IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition - Workshops, 2010
... School of Interactive Computing, College of Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology {zahoo... more ... School of Interactive Computing, College of Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology {zahoor brashear harley.hamilton thad}@cc.gatech.edu ... During experimentation we found that rather than just using the reverse pass, verification per-formance could be improved by ...
ABSTRACT Thad Starner, who has been wearing a "homebrew" computer with a head-u... more ABSTRACT Thad Starner, who has been wearing a "homebrew" computer with a head-up display as part of his daily life since 1993, discusses why it has taken so long for wearables to capture consumer interest. He discusses the various challenges of designing wearable systems and presents five different phases of head-mounted displays, illustrating how improvements in technology allowed progressively more useful and usable devices.
Proceedings of the 28th international conference on Human factors in computing systems - CHI '10, 2010
Devices capable of gestural interaction through motion sensing are increasingly becoming availabl... more Devices capable of gestural interaction through motion sensing are increasingly becoming available to consumers; however, motion gesture control has yet to appear outside of game consoles. Interaction designers are frequently not expert in pattern recognition, which may be one reason for this lack of availability. Another issue is how to effectively test gestures to ensure that they are not unintentionally
Proceedings of the 17th annual international symposium on International symposium on wearable computers - ISWC '13, 2013
ABSTRACT Wearable technology, specifically e-textiles, offers the potential for interacting with ... more ABSTRACT Wearable technology, specifically e-textiles, offers the potential for interacting with electronic devices in a whole new manner. However, some may find the operation of a system that employs non-traditional on-body interactions uncomfortable to perform in a public setting, impacting how readily a new form of mobile technology may be received. Thus, it is important for interaction designers to take into consideration the implications of on-body gesture interactions when designing wearable interfaces. In this study, we explore the third-party perceptions of a user's interactions with a wearable e-textile interface. This two-prong evaluation examines the societal perceptions of a user interacting with the textile interface at different on-body locations, as well as the observer's attitudes toward on-body controller placement. We performed the study in the United States and South Korea to gain cultural insights into the perceptions of on-body technology usage.
Proceedings of the 10th international ACM SIGACCESS conference on Computers and accessibility - Assets '08, 2008
ABSTRACT Seeking to enable direct and equal access for the Deaf to emergency call centers, we ana... more ABSTRACT Seeking to enable direct and equal access for the Deaf to emergency call centers, we analyze the current state of the emergency phone system in the United States and elsewhere in the world. Leveraging teletypewriter (TTY) technology mandated by the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 to be installed in all emergency call centers in the United States, we developed software that emulates a TTY on a smart phone. We present an Instant Messaging style interface for mobile phones that uses the existing emergency infrastructure and allows Deaf users to communicate directly with emergency operators.
... Edward Clarkson, Kent Lyons, James Clawson and Thad Starner College of Computing and GVU Cent... more ... Edward Clarkson, Kent Lyons, James Clawson and Thad Starner College of Computing and GVU Center, Georgia Institute of Technology 801 Atlantic Drive, Atlanta GA 30332-0280 {edcclark, kent, jamer, thad}@cc.gatech.edu ABSTRACT MacKenzie and Soukoreff have ...
Page 1. Recognizing Sign Language from Brain Imaging Nishant A. Mehta, Thad Starner, Melody M. Ja... more Page 1. Recognizing Sign Language from Brain Imaging Nishant A. Mehta, Thad Starner, Melody M. Jackson, Karolyn O. Babalola Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, GA, USA {niche,thad,melody}@cc.gatech.edu karolyn@gatech.edu ...
Extended abstracts of the 2004 conference on Human factors and computing systems - CHI '04, 2004
One hundred thirty-eight subjects participated in a study on mobile appointment scheduling. Subje... more One hundred thirty-eight subjects participated in a study on mobile appointment scheduling. Subjects completed a questionnaire on their primary method of managing appointments when away from their desks. Immediately afterwards, subjects completed a session of scheduling four appointments with the interviewer. The most common scheduling systems, in order of popularity, were paper-based day planners, memory, scrap paper, and PDA's. However, 43% of the claimed PDA users and 68% of day planner users switched to another, more readily accessible method when scheduling an appointment. Interviews revealed a practice of using memory or scrap paper to "buffer" appointments for later entry into the PDA or planner.
We present a novel method for mapping and localization in indoor environments using a wearable ge... more We present a novel method for mapping and localization in indoor environments using a wearable gesture interface. The ear-mounted FreeDigiter device consists of an infrared proximity sensor and a dual axis accelerometer. A user builds a topological map of a new environment by walking through the environment wearing our device. The accelerometer is used to identify footsteps while the proximity sensor detects doorways. While mapping an environment, finger gestures are used to label detected doorways. Once a map is constructed, a particle filter is employed to track a user walking through the mapped environment while wearing the device. In this tracking mode, the device can be used as a context-aware gesture interface by responding to finger gestures differently according to which room the user occupies. We present experimental results for both mapping and localization in a home environment.
Proceedings of the workshop on Human Language Technology - HLT '94, 1994
BBN Systems and Technologies 70 Fawcett Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 Email: Makhoul@bbn.com ... AB... more BBN Systems and Technologies 70 Fawcett Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 Email: Makhoul@bbn.com ... ABSTRACT A hidden Markov model (HMM) based continuous speech recognition system is applied to on-line cursive handwrit-ing recognition. The base ...
Proceedings of the 3rd ACM workshop on Continuous archival and retrival of personal experences - CARPE '06, 2006
While a military patrol may be well-planned, its soldiers well-trained, and the intelligence obje... more While a military patrol may be well-planned, its soldiers well-trained, and the intelligence objectives achieved, the information requirements of the commander may change significantly after the patrol has returned. An area that has been scouted for military action may later be the focus for humanitarian aid. In addition, the artifacts and intelligence gained from presence patrols may cause an intelligence officer, upon reflection, to wish for more specifically targeted information than what the patrol was told to recover. Georgia Tech's Virtual Patrol allows a soldier to revisit a patrol captured earlier using the Soldier's Assist System (SAS) wearable computer. SAS captures video, ambient audio, speech audio, high resolution still images, GPS position, altitude, orientation, and body movement during a patrol. The soldier can replay the patrol as a continuous movie, search for specific events, or quickly browse the patrol using a map-based or timeline-based interface. The soldier can quickly select media from the interface to semi-automatically create a presentation about the patrol. In this talk, we will describe the difficulties of creating the on-body capture hardware for this project, the lessons learned in interface design, and the challenges of automatically indexing media taken from the patrols using the types of events soldiers wish to search.
Digest of Papers. Second International Symposium on Wearable Computers (Cat. No.98EX215), 1998
Wearable computing brings computation much closer to the user for everyday tasks and may be worn ... more Wearable computing brings computation much closer to the user for everyday tasks and may be worn during most of the day. However, with CPU and wireless network intensive applications, higher power microprocessors and radio links are necessary resulting in increased heat generation. This paper suggests a method to increase the hear dissipation capability per unit surface area of a mobile
Digest of Papers. First International Symposium on Wearable Computers, 1997
The Locust infared system provides inexpensive messaging and location information without batteri... more The Locust infared system provides inexpensive messaging and location information without batteries and without its own network. The system is 'jwivacy aware" in that it supplies information to the wearable computer user who can then control how much of this information is shared with others or the installed infrastructure. By combining the abilities of Locusts with an appropriately equipped wearable computer, the user can interact with web-like hyperlinks, graphics, and sounds virtually associated with objects in the physical world. In addition the user can annotate and change these links as desired.
Proceedings of the 5th international conference on Intelligent user interfaces - IUI '00, 2000
Computer gaming offers a unique test-bed and market for advanced concepts in computer science, su... more Computer gaming offers a unique test-bed and market for advanced concepts in computer science, such as Human Computer Interaction (HCI), computer-supported collaborative work (CSCW), intelligent agents, graphics, and sensing technology. In addition, computer gaming is especially wellsuited for explorations in the relatively young fields of wearable computing and augmented reality (AR). This paper presents a developing multi-player augmented reality game, patterned as a cross between a martial arts fighting game and an agent controller, as implemented using the Wearable Augmented Reality for Personal, Intelligent, and Networked Gaming (WARPING) system. Through interactions based on gesture, voice, and head movement input and audio and graphical output, the WARPING system demonstrates how computer vision techniques can be exploited for advanced, intelligent interfaces.
Seventh IEEE International Symposium on Wearable Computers, 2003. Proceedings., 2003
The paper deals with the design of a sound recognition system focused on an ultra low power hardw... more The paper deals with the design of a sound recognition system focused on an ultra low power hardware implementation in a button like miniature form factor. We present the results of the first design phase focused on selection and experimental evaluation of sound classes and algorithms suitable for low power realization. We also present the VHDL model of the hardware showing that our method can be implemented with minimal resources. Our approach is based on spectrum analysis to distinguish between a subset of sound sources with a clear audio signature. It also uses intensity analysis from microphones placed at different locations to correlate the sounds with user activity.
Proceedings of the 28th international conference on Human factors in computing systems - CHI '10, 2010
We present two experiments to evaluate wrist-worn wearable tactile displays (WTDs) that provide e... more We present two experiments to evaluate wrist-worn wearable tactile displays (WTDs) that provide easy to perceive alerts for on-the-go users. The first experiment (2304 trials, 12 participants) focuses on the perception sensitivity of tactile patterns and reveals that people discriminate our 24 tactile patterns with up to 99% accuracy after 40 minutes of training. Among the four parameters (intensity, starting
2010 IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition - Workshops, 2010
... School of Interactive Computing, College of Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology {zahoo... more ... School of Interactive Computing, College of Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology {zahoor brashear harley.hamilton thad}@cc.gatech.edu ... During experimentation we found that rather than just using the reverse pass, verification per-formance could be improved by ...
ABSTRACT Thad Starner, who has been wearing a "homebrew" computer with a head-u... more ABSTRACT Thad Starner, who has been wearing a "homebrew" computer with a head-up display as part of his daily life since 1993, discusses why it has taken so long for wearables to capture consumer interest. He discusses the various challenges of designing wearable systems and presents five different phases of head-mounted displays, illustrating how improvements in technology allowed progressively more useful and usable devices.
Proceedings of the 28th international conference on Human factors in computing systems - CHI '10, 2010
Devices capable of gestural interaction through motion sensing are increasingly becoming availabl... more Devices capable of gestural interaction through motion sensing are increasingly becoming available to consumers; however, motion gesture control has yet to appear outside of game consoles. Interaction designers are frequently not expert in pattern recognition, which may be one reason for this lack of availability. Another issue is how to effectively test gestures to ensure that they are not unintentionally
Proceedings of the 17th annual international symposium on International symposium on wearable computers - ISWC '13, 2013
ABSTRACT Wearable technology, specifically e-textiles, offers the potential for interacting with ... more ABSTRACT Wearable technology, specifically e-textiles, offers the potential for interacting with electronic devices in a whole new manner. However, some may find the operation of a system that employs non-traditional on-body interactions uncomfortable to perform in a public setting, impacting how readily a new form of mobile technology may be received. Thus, it is important for interaction designers to take into consideration the implications of on-body gesture interactions when designing wearable interfaces. In this study, we explore the third-party perceptions of a user's interactions with a wearable e-textile interface. This two-prong evaluation examines the societal perceptions of a user interacting with the textile interface at different on-body locations, as well as the observer's attitudes toward on-body controller placement. We performed the study in the United States and South Korea to gain cultural insights into the perceptions of on-body technology usage.
Proceedings of the 10th international ACM SIGACCESS conference on Computers and accessibility - Assets '08, 2008
ABSTRACT Seeking to enable direct and equal access for the Deaf to emergency call centers, we ana... more ABSTRACT Seeking to enable direct and equal access for the Deaf to emergency call centers, we analyze the current state of the emergency phone system in the United States and elsewhere in the world. Leveraging teletypewriter (TTY) technology mandated by the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 to be installed in all emergency call centers in the United States, we developed software that emulates a TTY on a smart phone. We present an Instant Messaging style interface for mobile phones that uses the existing emergency infrastructure and allows Deaf users to communicate directly with emergency operators.
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Papers by Thad Starner