Subway Cheese Tessellation

(click here to see fullsize).

Puerto Rico Eco Tour

My girlfriend and I arrived in Puerto Rico a few days before MobiSys 2007 started. One of the things we did was go on an "EcoTour" in the middle of Puerto Rico--somewhere south of the Arecibo Observatory. It was absolutely fantastic. The tour included hiking through rain forest, spelunking in a cavern, hiking/swimming along a river, vine swinging across water, repelling down a cliff and zip lining. We were also fed an authentic Puerto Rican home cooked meal for lunch. What really topped it off, however, was our two guides Jaime and Jorge--they were incredibly fun, informative, and helpful. The tour company is called Acampa Nature Adventure Tours and the tour we went on: Organic Tanama River and Cave Adventure.

Here's a video I threw together of our adventure:

MyExperience Poster for NPUC

I've been meaning to make a MyExperience poster for a while now; NPUC 2007 was a good forcing function.


From my publications page:
Froehlich, J., Chen, M., Consolvo, S., Harrison, B., & Landay, J. (2007) "Sensors and Surveys: Collecting Qualitative and Quantitative Data on Human Attitudes, Behaviors, and Activities via Mobile Phones" New Paradigms in Using Computers (NPUC), The Healthcare Interface, July 9th, 2007 IBM Almaden, California
[extended abstract pdf (0.23 MB)]
[poster ppt (4.32 MB)]
[poster pdf (11.6 MB)]

UbiFit in Press

I know Intel Research Seattle has been fairy reluctant in giving open public demos of their work of the UbiFit project, but here's a recent write-up in news. Note that UbiFit is built on top of the MyExperience tool, a project that I started and worked on while at Intel Research. MyExperience is now open sourced under the BSD at http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/myexperience.

Gnarls Barkley Crazy

Wow, this is just awesome musicianship. I used a Theremin at UCI--Crista Lopes has one in her office. It's not easy to produce such sound (it requires, like all instruments, practice and skill).

Walker Week 2007 - Nature Photos

Sunrise over Whitefish lake

A Great Blue Heron perched on a tree

Sunrise over Clamshell lake

Sunset over Whitefish on a calm summer evening

Purple wildflower from my kayak trip

This photo and the next few contain pictures of Monarch caterpillars

Mobile Phone Growth Figures

I created these figures for my MobiSys 2007 talk but didn't end up using them. I thought I would post them here instead--they demonstrate the incredible shift from static computing (e.g., desktop computing) to truly mobile computing (e.g., smartphones). Oh, and yes, I noticed that 51.47% is a bit exaggerated in the pie graph--it looks more like 55% there. That was, perhaps, an unconscious bias manifesting itself. I don't have the energy (nor the reason) to fix it though. :-P


World Population Numbers:
- CIA World Factbook
- US Census World Population
- Wikipedia

Mobile Phone Users:
- Mobile phone usage doubles since 2000 (2004)
- Global mobile phone subscription to hit 3.5bn (2006)

PC Users
- A billion PC users on the way (2004)
- Worldwide PC Market To Double by 2010, Forrester Says (2004)

The Art Of Lecture

The main teaching vehicle of the university professor is the lecture, a performance that is agony for some and a delight for others, particularly hams. I belong to the latter category. A dull fifty-minute lecture can be an affliction for audience and lecturer alike, as I well knew from having sat through, and delivered, many. On my off days, I have looked out at my hapless victims--sitting in a halo of numb boredom, slack-jawed and staring, fighting to stay awake--and I despised myself for inflicting this on fellow humans.

- Robert F. Murphy, The Body Silent.

Makes Windows Mobile Look Bland

WM6 looks like DOS compared to the iPhone interface. See for yourself: http://www.apple.com/iphone/ads/

Many Looks at Golden Garden Sunsets

T-Mobile and Puerto Rico

Just spoke with a T-Mobile representative about calling rates to Puerto Rico from stateside US and calling out from Puerto Rico. I was told that both Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands are included in the T-Mobile National Rate plans. This means that I can call Puerto Rico (787) for no additional charge and use my phone when I am there for no additional charge. This includes both voice and data.

Richard Simmons Is Not Gene Simmons

Mental note: Richard Simmons is not Gene Simmons--although that makes for an interesting mental image.

Pervasive2007 in Toronto, ON

Mount Rainier from the airplane.

View from my hotel room.

The Eaton Centre.

The Eaton Centre 2.

The Distillery

The Hockey Hall of Fame

Close-up of Hockey Hall of Fame

The CN Tower from a distance.

The CN Tower close-up.

View from CN Tower.

Making the big announcement at the CN Tower.

Night view of Toronto from CN Tower.

On the glass floor of the CN Tower.

Ryan A. on the glass floor.

Stop Putting Orange Soda In My Mouth

Simply the funniest amateur YouTube skit I have ever seen. This is hilarious even if you don't know who David Blaine is. It's worth watching the whole video--the ending has a big payoff.

Note: this video contains obscene language.

Olympic Sunset With G.W.

Took these pictures while walking to a bus stop on the UW campus. The statue is of George Washington.

Study Designs

2x2 Mixed Factorial Design
Within Subjects Design
2x2 Between Subjects Factorial Design

Boxed Wine and One Liter Beers in Ballard

Female Friends in the NY Times

In an article about promoting science and engineering careers to women, my CSE department at the University of Washington was featured along with a few friends.

The man in the middle there is Ed Lazowska, professor in CSE and former chair of the department. The surrounding females are a mixture of grads and undergrads in CSE.

MyExperience Website

I open sourced MyExperience in February after the SourceForge server debacle was resolved (link). Despite releasing the code to the wild, I have not yet had time to create an installation package that users can download and install to their devices. In addition, I've only just begun creating documentation. Thus, I've held off on advertising MyExperience to the larger research community until these two tasks are accomplished. This week, I made substantial progress in designing a webpage. The current (incomplete) version can be viewed here. Screenshot below.

Perceptive Pixel

Jeff Han, of multi-touch fame, recently formed his own company called Perceptive Pixel to market touch screen technology to the masses.

Check out a demo video here.