Ross’ PhD Blog Memex

• Currently Listening to: Neil Young — Cowgirl in the Sand

“TED” (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is a conference run each year which brings together a mix of scientists, entrepreneurs, performers and thinkers of all types who trade in the fundamental currency of ideas. They get some terrific speakers in to wax lyrical for twenty minutes or so about what’s on their mind, and for the last few years the best talks have been put online. It’s hard to choose which ones to watch, but some of the ones I found worthwhile are:

Jeff Bezos: After the gold rush, there’s innovation ahead

Bezos is the founder of Amazon and someone who knows a thing or two about fluctuations in the fortunes of the web. He begins by connecting the dramatic boom and bust of the web to the rise and fall of the American gold rush. Switching analogies, he goes on to liken the enabling effects of the introduction of the web to the introduction of electricity into people’s homes.

Dan Gilbert: Why are we happy? Why aren’t we happy?

Fascinating talk on the nature of human happiness, our “psychological immune system” and how parts of our brains have evolved to be able to simulate experience and fake happiness when required. Also discusses the pyschology of choice: how having less options will generally result in happier people.

Jeff Han: Unveiling the genius of multi-touch interface design

Before all the hoopla about the iPhone’s touch-sensitive screen, there was Jeff Han, and one of the best technology demos I’ve ever seen.

Seth Godin: Sliced bread and other marketing delights

Marketing master Seth Godin on the requirement that a product or service be not just “very good”, but remarkable to succeed, and why early adopters are the most important group to market to.

Malcolm Gladwell: What we can learn from spaghetti sauce

Writer and master of the cross-disciplinary insight, Malcolm Gladwell (of The Tipping Point fame) illustrates the fallacy of designing anything for the “average user”.

(via Aaron & Mike.)

Hello ruby in the dust
Has your band begun to rust?

• Currently Listening to: Phoenix — Too Young

I attended the workshop on Software Engineering Challenges for Ubiquitous Computing (SEUC 2006) in Lancaster, presided over by Gerd Kortuem.

After a somewhat hurried paper submission about using AOP in automotive software, I decided to change tack, so my presentation was about what kind of problems software engineers in the automotive space are facing. Admittedly I wasn’t presenting any answers, but my presentation went well and, being the only presenter discussing automotive systems and autonomics explicitly, I got a number of interesting questions which created a good discussion.

Software Considerations for Automotive Pervasive Systems Talk given at SEUC2006, June 1–2, Lancaster UK.

Here’s an excerpt from my talk:

The modern car is a highly sensorial, complex pervasive system, with thousands of sensors and actuators and hundreds of microcontrollers controlling almost all aspects of the car’s operation; from the multimedia & entertainment systems (radio, DVD players) and navigation/mapping software, to communication both to the outside world and also on a more limited scale to other cars nearby on the road.

Finally, and most importantly, are the car’s safety systems. Most of the impetus for adding so much software to cars is the supposed benefits to driver safety. And when it works, this is great, but we must also recognise that the stakes are higher. There are dangers involved that most pervasive systems don’t have to be concerned with.

System Personalisation

Much of the talk and discussion involved the implications of personalisation in automotive systems. In the future and to an extent even now, you can choose which features you want your car to come shipped with. This is likely to increase in scale over time, so that a car’s base configuration can be permuted in thousands of ways for each buyer. Modules need to be unobtrusively integrated and interoperable.

Layered on top of this is the possibility of a car being modified, upgraded or damaged over time. Cars will have to be able to adapt to whatever components they have installed, and thus, there is a lot of autonomic computing involved.

Questions & Answers

A few brief (paraphrased) questions and answers that I remembered to write down (not guaranteed to be correct!):

Will hardware and software become increasingly decoupled in automotive systems?

This doesn’t seem to be the way it’s going. As far as I can see (and this was backed up at the workshop), the hardware and software systems seem to be getting more tightly coupled if anything.

What is the development process at the car OEMs?

I couldn’t answer this, but someone else stepped in and suggested that a lot of OEM’s in-house teams are actually graviating towards being software-only development houses, with hardware being contracted out to other companies.

Does the drive-by-wire filtering of a user’s input spoil the love of driving?

Not really a research question, but interesting nonetheless. I do wonder how many drivers could honestly say they’d prefer the primal thrill of risky, unrestricted driving over the increased safety and stability benefits of these modern cars.

• Currently Listening to: Albert Niland — Wuthering Heights

Say hello to my little friends.

I got word in April that my first paper, the alluringly-titled “Collaborating in Context: Immersive Visualisation Environments” which I submitted in March to the Context in Advanced Interfaces workshop at AVI06, had been accepted. So, Mark, Mike and I headed off to Venice for the week to watch presentations, ride around on boats and eat octopuses.

The paper concerns the design and development of our unique visualization lab here in UCD. My presentation at the workshop went fairly well, considering I had completed a cross-city dash minutes before starting (Venice is a big place!). My slides are available with the others at the workshop’s results page. My paper has been published in the ACM digital library.

AVI 06 proper was an excellent conference, with plenty of interesting work going on, and people to meet. My trip report is available:

Trip Report: AVI 2006 May 23–26, Venice Italy

Our own photos are online, and you can also check out the very lovely Geoffrey Ellis’ AVI photos (spot the goons!).

• Currently Listening to: Vast — We Will Meet Again

A number of the SRG volunteered were conscripted for active service as helping hands for Pervasive 2006 this week, which was chaired by Aaron and Paddy. The conference was really well managed, and I think can confidentally be called a great success, our two fearless leaders being the apotheosis of cool under pressure (Lorcan on Paddy: “I don’t think he knows how to sweat.”).

While being a volunteer was tough going, seeing my first conference from behind the scenes has been a very interesting experience. The SRG gang really gelled together well, and our ranks were further bolstered by a complement of other great volunteers, who we had a terrific time with.

We have the official photo gallery. The man William “Richie” Hazlewood — who can down a carbomb like nobody else I’ve ever met — has also uploaded a great set of photos from the conference (and the after-party…).

Celebrating a job well done!