Aestheticodes: Beautiful Interaction

Speaker:        Dr. Richard Mortier
                Cambridge University

Title:          "Aestheticodes: Beautiful Interaction"

Date:           Wednesday, 29 April 2015

Time:           4:30pm - 5:30pm

Venue:          Room 1504 (near lifts 25/26), HKUST

Abstract:

Interactive markers, from barcodes to QR codes, are now commonplace in the
world around us. We see them on public transport, in shops, in
restaurants, on products. Unfortunately, they are also basically ugly:
designed to encode many bits and be robustly detectable by any reader in
different environments, they are unwelcome in many environments. Image
detection is an alternative approach but relies on recognising a
relatively small set of predetermined images. In this research we explore
encoding information in the topographic structure of the image, refining
the approach taken by Costanza et al in the d-touch system. I will
describe work we have done over the past three years in the Aestheticodes
project to refine d-touch, to implement our system as iPhone and Android
apps, and to work with a range of partners to create and deploy
Aestheticodes in a variety of materials and contexts. I will also talk
about some of the work that is currently ongoing.


*****************
Biography:

Richard Mortier is a member of faculty in the Systems Research Group at
the Cambridge University Computer Lab. Past work includes Internet
routing, distributed system performance analysis, network management,
aesthetic designable machine-readable codes, and home networking. He works
in the intersection of systems and networking with human-computer
interaction, and is currently focused on how to build user-centric systems
infrastructure that enables people to better support themselves in a
ubiquitous computing world through Human-Data Interaction.