steelcase blog

I’m All Thumbs…

… at least it seems that way with the new BlackBerry Storm I got last week, to replace my BlackBerry Bold (that I loved). I never realized my thumbs were that huge until I tried to type on the on-screen keyboard,… and kept typing the wrong letter. Even with the ‘auto correct’ activated, I wasn’t coming anywhere near the right word. I admit there is some nifty technology at work here. The visual color cues based on ones gently touching the surface, and then the semi-haptic feedback when pressing the glass to ‘select’, are two such examples. I was about ready to call it quits and go back to my Bold when I remembered I went through a similar experience when I initially got the BB Bold. I convinced myself I just had to get used to this new device. As I painfully struggled through email after email (of which I get several hundred a day),… I began to reflect on just what it was that was making it so difficult. I concluded that it wasn’t the device as much as it was the small-scale ergonomics at play. Simply put,… everything was in a new place (wrists, hands, fingers, and thumbs) and I had to repeat these micro-gestures over-and-over until they would become my new ‘norm’.

It’s almost humorous that my Storm newbie struggles were on a week that I visited Microsoft Research in Seattle,… specifically the group dedicated to Microsoft’s new Surface technologies, where the gestures get bigger not smaller. Here I was dynamically shifting from thumbing on my BB Storm glass surface, to gesturing with my hand across a large glass surface. From moving, rotating and shifting knuckles and finger tips,… to moving, rotating and shifting hands, elbows and shoulders. At one point I was handed an associate’s laptop computer as he was signed into the airlines web site, to print my return boarding pass,… and here we go again, but now moving, rotating and shifting fingers and wrists. I guess this is what they mean by a whole body experience. No chance of repetitive strain injury (RSI) or cumulative trauma disorder (CTD) here, what with the almost continuous shifting from one form of information interaction to another, one gradient of ergonomics to another.

Continuously re-learning a growing number of input protocols doesn’t sound like the best user-centered approach to interactive technologies. But neither does believing one interface method is going to cover every form of information request. So maybe the ideal is some form of middle ground,… where users have a core set of ‘universal’ tools for most everyday tasks, and then an array of ‘specialized’ tools for unique or high-performance tasks. And maybe the core set of tools are very personal (owned by the individual), and the broader set of alternative interactive tools are shared (owned in common by a group or team,… or made available on-demand as needed). This makes sense from a cost and mobility perspective as well. Individual users will want their personal tools to move with them from location to location (I never go anywhere without my BlackBerry). But a large digital interactive wall or high-end telepresence system for group collaboration,… is something you would move to, when you had the need to use it. Making this as easy a transition as possible, from individual to group, and having our interfaces AND information shift seamlessly as well, is the ultimate objective,… and one we are working on.

Work (and Life) is going to come at us from every direction, at an ever increasing pace,… that we can be assured of. Content, available information, is growing faster than we can even predict. And we’re all on the move, constantly. So matching our task with our information need with our location is the combination that will unlock effectiveness. Finding that combination, and finding it faster than the next guy,… promises to provide a competitive edge. I’ll eventually get used to my new BlackBerry Storm. And just in time for them to replace it with something new (and they will claim better). After all, one never wants to let their thumbs get too comfortable. But my hope would be that we, teaming with other research groups, will one day crack the code on how this ‘ecology’ of devices seamlessly responds to the information demands of individuals/groups,… as they move from task-to-task,… and from location-to-location. Thumb wrestling anyone …?

Follow the Leader…

… I’m sure you’ve all played the game, or some version of it, when you were young.  The ‘leader’ is the child at the front of the line.  They make a series of moves, and then all the other kids in the line need to mimic their action or they are out of the game.  The last one standing is the new leader.  It’s a simple example of a more complex concept, called an ‘adaptive system’,… which Wikipedia defines as “a system that is able to adapt its behavior according to changes in its environment or in parts of the system itself.  As such, those in the line adapt to the action of the leader.”

I was reminded of this game (and adaptive system concept) on a recent trip to the MIT Media Lab as part of our sponsorship of the Things That Think consortium.  This group, the largest of the Lab’s consortiums, is literally inventing the future of digitally augmented objects and environments.  While all of the research labs under the Things That Think umbrella are extremely interesting, one lab in particular caught my eye.  That lab, called the Affective Computing Lab, is run by Rosalind Picard, Professor of Media Arts and Sciences.  I love their stated mission which is to restore a proper balance between emotion and cognition in the design of technologies for addressing human needs.

Working with her students, Professor Picard has designed and developed a number of new systems for sensing and responding to human affective information.  One such project, done in combination with the Robotics Lab, was demonstrated by one of the Masters students.  It involved a computer screen that seemed to magically adapt to the posture and position of the person sitting in front of it.  As I said, it reminded me of follow the leader.  As the person sat up straight, the display screen raised up as well,… and when they slouched back in the chair, the screen moved down and towards them, to maintain a correct viewing angle.  Everything the student did as the ‘leader’, the display repeated. Upon closer examination, there was a small camera just under the display,… that was utilizing recognition software to track the movement of the student’s face.  Then there were about five robotic systems holding up the display screen (like a bionic arm), that went into action based on information fed from the camera through a series of computers.  What was really cool is that the entire system ‘learned’ about the student over time.

From that learning it was able to start to prompt the student to assume a healthier posture,… almost taunting him to perk up and pay attention to what was on the screen.  That’s when the potential in these systems really hit home.  Instead of just having the things in our environment be flexible enough for us to change their positioning or location,… what if the environment itself was so observant of our actions (follow the leader) that it started to adapt automatically in anticipation of our actions.  You know,… things like doors unlocking and swinging open as we approach them, chairs adjusting to the right height as it senses us sitting down, and lights dimming when I sit in front of my computer then getting brighter as someone walks in to have a discussion.

We worked with IBM years ago to build a prototype work setting that did some of this, called BlueSpace.  Everyone was amazed at its capability, and wondered if it would ever become reality.  With what I saw at the MIT Media Lab,… I have no doubt that tomorrow’s office will adapt to you vs. your adapting to it.  You’ll be the leader, and your office will be following your every action.  Care to lead…?

Virtual Real Reality…

… I have to admit I’ve never been a big fan of virtual reality, and primarily because the reality presented is generally the farthest thing from reality.  Then over the holidays (a great time off by the way) I read about some advanced software development that Microsoft has been investing in, and it gave me new hope for virtual reality,… because it holds the promise of a ‘real’ reality.  Instead of looking at a computer-generated graphic representation of a street corner, a building, an object, you get to see the real deal.  It’s literally a three dimensional photograph, made up of real photos.  And with every bit of detail captured in the original photos.  But how it does this is the real magic.

Based on technology called Seadragon, a company Microsoft acquired in early 2006, Microsoft Live Labs (and Blaise Aguera y Arcas, the one who started Seadragon) has created a new piece of software called Photosynth.  What it does is implied by its name – it dynamically synthesizes lots of photographs.  I mean lots of photographs…!  One starts with a dataset of seemingly any size that contains all the digital photographs (of varying formats and quality) of the same scene/item one can gather, let’s say from Flickr.  It then calculates, based on matching specific details between different photographs,… where the photo was taken relative to the other photos.  Then by piecing this all together it produces a relatively seamless photographic image of the actual object.  You can zoom in/out, walk around, pan, all the qualities of a 3D model,… except it’s real.

One sees this demonstrated and you just sit there for a second wondering ‘how does it do that…?’  Then you move through a stage of amazement, where you just appreciate the shear power of computing.  And finally, you start to wonder about what software like this could do for you, for your company, for the world.  This is when I got really excited.  Back to virtual reality.  Instead of seeing a representation of a village in France,… now one can visually ‘experience’ that village via a synthesis of our ‘collective digital memory’. I started to think how this technology might be applied to solving complex business issues,… or how it could support high-powered group collaboration or decision making.  What would happen if you combine this software engine with other forms of computer interaction; like digital annotation, gesture or voice driven commands.  I guess it’s the ability to analyze ‘patterns’ which is the phenomenal aspect of this software in my opinion,… and it seems like it would have many uses.  Recognizing patterns is actually the one thing that humans do better than computers, especially shifting patterns over time.  But with products like Photosynth, the snapshot of reality that a photograph represents is in fact a pattern of reality at a point in time.  Correlating this to other ‘realities’ at other points in time is just plain powerful.  What if you were to apply this technology to images of weather patterns, x-rays or MRI scan patterns, security camera patterns, or even the patterns of user behavior we capture during observations when designing new workspaces.  These all represent potentially huge opportunities for extending the value of our digital memory.  So thank you Blaise, thank you Microsoft, and keep the innovations coming.  Any recent photos…?

That Sounds Interesting…

… it’s that internal voice responding to auditory signals that have captured my attention.  Not everything does, catch my attention that is,… a lot of it is just there, as if an audio backchannel.  But discerning the good from the bad is getting more and more difficult, due to the shear number and volume level of sounds our mind processes on a daily basis.  A certain amount of the ‘good stuff’ we create through our individual iPod, MP3, Bose stereo, surround-sound TV lifestyle.  But even when it is something we have selected, sometimes we are listening and other times not.  I know I do.  Put on a head set and crank up the sound,… but not because I’m listening to the music.  It’s because it helps me concentrate on what I really want to be attentive to.  Not only does it block out much of the ‘noise’ around me; it’s as if it tricks my mind into focusing even more intently, to not let the music through.

And there is no more challenging place to concentrate than in today’s office (whether outside or inside a cubicle).  Office sounds are multiplying, triggered by the use of cell phones, personal speakers, desktop video, etc.  I’ve heard this problem referred to as today’s ‘second hand smoke’.  The initial promise years ago was that general masking systems (also referred to as ‘white noise’) would be ‘the’ answer.  And to some extent, with improvements in its basic technology it is much better,… certainly better than the echo-like silence you have without it.  It has its problems though.  Within any work group you’re sure to find those that think the ‘white noise’ is much too loud (some say the ringing it creates in their ears is actually painful) and others who would prefer it be dialed-up.  A better solution would be one that could be set by the user within ‘zones’ on a floor, so the masking over your work area is tailored to your liking.  Or better yet, a zoned system that dynamically adjusts based on its electronics sensing presence (number of people) and the amount of sound being generated,… think of it as room-sized noise cancelling headphones.

I’ve concluded that some office noise, even beyond white noise, is better than no noise at all.  Bill Freund, an entrepreneur, thinks so as well, as he offers a CD called Thriving Office,… that is filled with office background noise (ringing tones, file cabinets closing, general conversations, etc.).  It has two tracks; one titled “Busy” and the other title -- you guessed it – “Very Busy” (a lot more noise I guess).  His inspiration came from working at home, and not wanting the people calling him to know that.  So the idea is that you could turn this CD on when a phone call came in, and the caller would assume they are calling ‘the office’.  And it worked.  He also heard from his customers that many keep the CD on all the time, because it helps them focus.  This background ‘buzz’ keeps their energy up and mind in the game,… and I agree (for the reason I mentioned above).

The key distinction between sounds that are disruptive and sounds that are productive is their intelligibility – do your senses pick up something that grabs your attention or not…?  If your mind hears something that you recognize, and which peaks your curiosity, then your concentration shifts,… from what you were working on to trying to decipher and process what you just heard.  That’s why verbal conversations are some of the most disruptive.  You hear names, keywords, or phrases that draw you in (even though you’re generally not supposed to be listening in),… and your attention shifts.  Then once you decide it’s not that important, or the conversation ends, it takes some time to get back in the ‘flow’ (that deep, focused state).  The only option you have if there is too much conversation around you, is to seek a space that is free of such interruptions.  Hopefully your office has a place like this (maybe the café, maybe a conference room, maybe smaller spaces we call enclaves or retreats),… and if not, tell your facilities group you need more quiet zones.

So the technologies will continue to improve.  Some will capture sound so it doesn’t find it’s way to another’s ears,… and some will create sound to cancel out unwanted sounds.  In either case, the objective is to create a balance.  Add productive sounds that create focus, and subtract disruptive sounds that destroy focus.  Until the technologies catch up, we can all help the cause by being conscious of those around us,… and regulating our volume appropriately.  Instead of forcing someone else to walk away to find a quiet space, get up and walk away and leave the quiet behind.  Sound about right…?