thesis overview + demo (december 2nd, 2010)

“SUBJECT”A thesis.

∞· HCI · POLITECNICO DI MILANO · DEC 2nd, 2010

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LEAVE THE WORLDa little better than you have found it.

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STUDYINGoh God why

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CAN WE SOMEHOW GET MOBILE COMPUTERS INTO

THE WHOLE THING?( == smartphones/other mobile stuff)

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WHAAAA—?

• Because I wanted to. (a)

• Many of us have one/will have one!

• ⇒ We(‘ll) have a computer

with us every moment of the day — it’d be fun if it could even actually be useful for more. (b) :)

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HOW?

• Studying is a highly personal thing!

• do not disrupt existing study habits…

• … instead give tools to help the student…

• … and the professor.

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OK, YEA, YEA, WE GOT THAT.SO, HOW?

• We still don’t know exactly, but we have a few areas we want to explore — this thesis is all about exploring and trying more and more stuff (and hopefully not have it explode!).

• We have a few hunches.

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THE BASICS.

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THE BASICS.

• Computers are good with structured data. We want us some structured data. Om nom nom!

• One very good thing to structure study around is the course’s plan…

• … but it turns out most professors already have a very detailed, structured description of their course’s plan…

• … in the form of the outlines of their PowerPoint presentations!

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WE CAN USE THAT AS A BACKBONE.

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IN CLASS.

• We can capture the presentation and some other stuff that normally gets lost in the flow.

• Questions

• Your mood (?)

• Demo in a moment.

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OUT OF CLASS.

• Tools to complement your reading, note-taking, etc.

• Very fast annotation, study planning, sharing of slides/material, student discusson, more.

• What exactly we don’t know yet; this is all to come (?)

• Your questionnaire will drive our choices!

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LESS TALKINGMORE DEMO

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TECH STUFF

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THE OBLIGATORY DIAGRAM

Web service

Lecturer’s screen

HTTP: REST + JSON

JavaScript

iOS devices

Cocoa

iOS devices

iOS devices

AgentKeynote

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OPPORTUNISTIC SYNC.• Grab the data whenever you get to have access to it, and •

Keep it around even in adverse connectivity conditions.

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OPPORTUNISTIC SYNC

• Tries to require minimal or no interaction.

• No forgetfulness

• No change of habits beyond minimal and/or useful.

• Must be carefully managed:

• Privacy and conflict-resolution trouble.

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THE PROBLEMS DISAPPEAR IN A COURSE CONTEXT!

All material is public; only one authority with most modification privileges (lecturer) reduces conflicts to a minimum.

(the ideal

playground!)

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SO, WHY IS THIS SO AWESOME?

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EXAMPLE OF AWESOME.

• Let's say you're following the lesson…

• … but receive a call on the smartphone (or some other interruption).

• Reopen and you're right back in the lesson!

• Reliability.

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Web service

iOSdevice Le

sson

Less

on

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EXAMPLE OF MORE AWESOME.

• Another awesome side effect: when you leave the classroom, the slides are kept on your smartphone.

• No more hunting for files on websites afterwards!

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iOSdevice

LessonLesson

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CURRENTLY: FULLY AD-HOC

• Download, sync and storage control.

• Objective: isolate and solve the largest subset of the issues once and for all.

• Fortunately I have some experience in structured data transfer :)

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User

Cache Transfer

Persistency

Model

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