1.
Electronic musical instrument
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An electronic musical instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound using electronics. Such an instrument sounds by outputting an electrical signal that ultimately drives a loudspeaker. An electronic instrument might include a user interface for controlling its sound, often by adjusting the pitch, frequency, all electronic musical instruments can be viewed as a subset of audio signal processing applications. Simple electronic musical instruments are called sound effects, the border between sound effects and actual musical instruments is often hazy. Electronic musical instruments are now used in most styles of music. Development of new musical instruments, controllers, and synthesizers continues to be a highly active. In the 18th-century, musicians and composers adapted a number of instruments to exploit the novelty of electricity. The former instrument consisted of an instrument of over 700 strings. The latter was an instrument with plectra activated electrically. However, neither instrument used electricity as a sound-source, the first electric synthesizer was invented in 1876 by Elisha Gray. The Musical Telegraph used steel reeds oscillated by electromagnets and transmitted over a telephone line, Gray also built a simple loudspeaker device into later models, which consisted of a diaphragm vibrating in a magnetic field. A significant invention, which later had an effect on electronic music, was the audion in 1906. This was the first thermionic valve, or vacuum tube and which led to the generation and amplification of signals, radio broadcasting. Other early synthesizers included the Telharmonium, the Theremin, Jörg Magers Spharophon and Partiturophone, Taubmanns similar Electronde, Maurice Martenots ondes Martenot, only two models of this latter were built and the only surviving example is currently stored at the Lomonosov University in Moscow. It has been used in many Russian movies—like Solaris—to produce unusual, Hugh Le Caine, John Hanert, Raymond Scott, composer Percy Grainger, and others built a variety of automated electronic-music controllers during the late 1940s and 1950s. In 1959 Daphne Oram produced a method of synthesis, her Oramics technique, driven by drawings on a 35 mm film strip. In 1897 Thaddeus Cahill patented an instrument called the Telharmonium, using tonewheels to generate musical sounds as electrical signals by additive synthesis, it was capable of producing any combination of notes and overtones, at any dynamic level. This technology was used to design the Hammond organ
2.
User interface
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The user interface, in the industrial design field of human–computer interaction, is the space where interactions between humans and machines occur. Examples of this concept of user interfaces include the interactive aspects of computer operating systems, hand tools, heavy machinery operator controls. The design considerations applicable when creating user interfaces are related to or involve such disciplines as ergonomics and psychology. Generally, the goal of user interface design is to produce a user interface makes it easy, efficient. This generally means that the needs to provide minimal input to achieve the desired output. Other terms for user interface are man–machine interface and when the machine in question is a computer human–computer interface, the user interface or human–machine interface is the part of the machine that handles the human–machine interaction. Membrane switches, rubber keypads and touchscreens are examples of the part of the Human Machine Interface which we can see. In complex systems, the interface is typically computerized. The term human–computer interface refers to this kind of system, in the context of computing the term typically extends as well to the software dedicated to control the physical elements used for human-computer interaction. The engineering of the interfaces is enhanced by considering ergonomics. The corresponding disciplines are human factors engineering and usability engineering, which is part of systems engineering, tools used for incorporating human factors in the interface design are developed based on knowledge of computer science, such as computer graphics, operating systems, programming languages. Nowadays, we use the graphical user interface for human–machine interface on computers. There is a difference between a user interface and an interface or a human–machine interface. A human-machine interface is typically local to one machine or piece of equipment, an operator interface is the interface method by which multiple equipment that are linked by a host control system is accessed or controlled. The system may expose several user interfaces to serve different kinds of users, for example, a computerized library database might provide two user interfaces, one for library patrons and the other for library personnel. The user interface of a system, a vehicle or an industrial installation is sometimes referred to as the human–machine interface. HMI is a modification of the original term MMI, in practice, the abbreviation MMI is still frequently used although some may claim that MMI stands for something different now. Another abbreviation is HCI, but is commonly used for human–computer interaction
3.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, often cited as one of the worlds most prestigious universities. Researchers worked on computers, radar, and inertial guidance during World War II, post-war defense research contributed to the rapid expansion of the faculty and campus under James Killian. The current 168-acre campus opened in 1916 and extends over 1 mile along the bank of the Charles River basin. The Institute is traditionally known for its research and education in the sciences and engineering, and more recently in biology, economics, linguistics. Air Force and 6 Fields Medalists have been affiliated with MIT, the school has a strong entrepreneurial culture, and the aggregated revenues of companies founded by MIT alumni would rank as the eleventh-largest economy in the world. In 1859, a proposal was submitted to the Massachusetts General Court to use newly filled lands in Back Bay, Boston for a Conservatory of Art and Science, but the proposal failed. A charter for the incorporation of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Rogers, a professor from the University of Virginia, wanted to establish an institution to address rapid scientific and technological advances. The Rogers Plan reflected the German research university model, emphasizing an independent faculty engaged in research, as well as instruction oriented around seminars, two days after the charter was issued, the first battle of the Civil War broke out. After a long delay through the war years, MITs first classes were held in the Mercantile Building in Boston in 1865, in 1863 under the same act, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts founded the Massachusetts Agricultural College, which developed as the University of Massachusetts Amherst. In 1866, the proceeds from sales went toward new buildings in the Back Bay. MIT was informally called Boston Tech, the institute adopted the European polytechnic university model and emphasized laboratory instruction from an early date. Despite chronic financial problems, the institute saw growth in the last two decades of the 19th century under President Francis Amasa Walker. Programs in electrical, chemical, marine, and sanitary engineering were introduced, new buildings were built, the curriculum drifted to a vocational emphasis, with less focus on theoretical science. The fledgling school still suffered from chronic financial shortages which diverted the attention of the MIT leadership, during these Boston Tech years, MIT faculty and alumni rebuffed Harvard University president Charles W. Eliots repeated attempts to merge MIT with Harvard Colleges Lawrence Scientific School. There would be at least six attempts to absorb MIT into Harvard, in its cramped Back Bay location, MIT could not afford to expand its overcrowded facilities, driving a desperate search for a new campus and funding. Eventually the MIT Corporation approved an agreement to merge with Harvard, over the vehement objections of MIT faculty, students. However, a 1917 decision by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court effectively put an end to the merger scheme, the neoclassical New Technology campus was designed by William W. Bosworth and had been funded largely by anonymous donations from a mysterious Mr. Smith, starting in 1912. In January 1920, the donor was revealed to be the industrialist George Eastman of Rochester, New York, who had invented methods of production and processing
4.
Marble (toy)
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A marble is a small spherical toy often made from glass, clay, steel, plastic or agate. Most commonly, they are about 1 cm in diameter, but they may range from less than 1 mm to over 8 cm, Marbles can be used for a variety of games called marbles. They are often collected, both for nostalgia and for their aesthetic colors, in the North of England the objects and the game are called taws, with larger taws being called bottle washers after the use of a marble in Codd-neck bottles. In the early century, small balls of stone, identified by archaeologists as marbles, were found on excavation near Mohenjo-daro. Marbles are often mentioned in Roman literature, as in Ovids poem Nux and they were commonly made of clay, stone or glass. Marbles arrived in Britain, imported from the Low Countries, during the medieval era, Marbles were first manufactured in Germany in the 1800s. The game has become popular throughout the U. S. ceramic marbles entered inexpensive mass production in the 1870s. A German glassblower invented marble scissors, a device for making marbles, the first mass-produced toy marbles made in the U. S. were made in Akron, Ohio, by S. C. Some of the first U. S. -produced glass marbles were also made in Akron, in 1903, Martin Frederick Christensen—also of Akron, Ohio—made the first machine-made glass marbles on his patented machine. His company, The M. F. Christensen & Son Co. manufactured millions of toy, the next U. S. company to enter the glass marble market was Akro Agate. This company was started by Akronites in 1911, but was located in Clarksburg, today, there are only two American-based toy marble manufacturers, Jabo Vitro in Reno, Ohio, and Marble King, in Paden City, West Virginia. In Australia, games were played with marbles of different sizes, the smallest and most common was about 15 mm in diameter. The two larger, more valuable sizes were referred to as semi-bowlers and tom-bowlers, being about 20 mm and 25 mm in diameter respectively. They were used in much the way as ordinary marbles, although sometimes they would be declared invalid because of the advantage of their larger mass. Owners of large marbles were also afraid to use them lest they be lost to another player as keepsies and they were usually of the clear cats eye or milk glass type, just bigger. Firing a marble meant that a player had to flick his/her marble from a position of his hand. No part of the firing the marble was permitted to be in front of the position where the marble had been resting on the ground. Using that hand, he would flick or fire the marble from his/her hand, usually with the knuckle on the back of his/her hand resting on the ground, and usually using the thumb of that hand to do so
5.
Answering machine
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Unlike operator messaging the caller does not talk to a human. As land lines become less important, due to the shift to cell phone technology, and as unified communications matures, most 20th century answering machines used magnetic recording which Valdemar Poulsen invented in 1898. The creation of the first practical automatic answering device for telephones, many claim it was William Muller in 1935, but it could have been created already in 1931 by William Schergens whose device used phonographic cylinders. Ludwig Blattner promoted a telephone answering machine in 1929 based on his Blattnerphone magnetic recording technology, in 1935 inventor Benjamin Thornton developed a machine to record voice messages from the caller. The device reportedly also was able to track of the time the recordings were made. Although many sources maintain that he invented it in 1935, Thornton had actually filed a patent in 1930 for this machine, a commercial answering machine, the Tel-Magnet, offered in the United States in 1949, played outgoing messages and recorded incoming messages on a magnetic wire. It was priced at $200 but was not a commercial success, the Electronic Secretary used the then state-of-the-art technology of a 45 rpm record player for announcements and a wire recorder for message capture and playback. Electronic Secretary Industries was purchased in 1957 by General Telephone and Electronics, another commercially successful answering machine was the Ansafone created by inventor Dr. Kazuo Hashimoto, who was employed by a company called Phonetel. This company began selling the first answering machines in the US in 1960, Answering machines became more widely used after the restructuring of AT&T in 1984, which was when the machines became affordable and sales reached one million units per year in the US. James P Mitchell displayed a prototype of a digital outgoing message with a taped incoming system at an Iowa State University VEISHEA engineering openhouse in April 1982. This system won a award from the Engineering department. In 1983, Kazuo Hashimoto received a patent for an answering machine architecture with US Patent 4,616,110. The first digital answering machine brought to the market was AT&Ts 1337, mr. Hashimoto sued AT&T but quickly dropped the suit because the AT&T architecture was significantly different from his patent. This is useful if the owner is screening calls and does not wish to speak with all callers, in some cases the terminal equipment answering a call just sends a slightly modified ringback tone to the caller, while processing the protocol. Similarly, the equipment can end a call by going on-hook deliberately, because of some specific signalling. Most modern answering machines have a system for greeting, the owner may record a message that will be played back to the caller, or an automatic message will be played if the owner does not record one. This holds especially for the TADs with digitally stored greeting messages or for earlier machines with an endless loop tape, separate from a second cassette. There have been answer-only devices with no recording capabilities, where the message had to inform callers of a state of current unattainability
6.
Lego
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Lego is a line of plastic construction toys that are manufactured by The Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. The companys flagship product, Lego, consists of interlocking plastic bricks accompanying an array of gears, figurines called minifigures. Lego pieces can be assembled and connected in ways, to construct objects, vehicles, buildings. Anything constructed can then be taken again, and the pieces used to make other objects. The Lego Group began manufacturing the interlocking toy bricks in 1949, since then a global Lego subculture has developed. Supporting movies, games, competitions, and six Legoland amusement parks have developed under the brand. As of July 2015,600 billion Lego parts had been produced, in February 2015, Lego replaced Ferrari as Brand Finances worlds most powerful brand. The Lego Group began in the workshop of Ole Kirk Christiansen, a carpenter from Billund, Denmark, in 1934, his company came to be called Lego, derived from the Danish phrase leg godt, which means play well. In 1947, Lego expanded to begin producing plastic toys, in 1949 Lego began producing, among other new products, an early version of the now familiar interlocking bricks, calling them Automatic Binding Bricks. These bricks were based in part on the Kiddicraft Self-Locking Bricks, Lego modified the design of the Kiddicraft brick after examining a sample that they received from the supplier of an injection-molding machine that Lego purchased. The bricks, originally manufactured from cellulose acetate, were a development of the traditional wooden blocks of the time. The Lego Groups motto is det bedste er ikke for godt which means only the best is the best. This motto, which is used today, was created by Ole Kirk to encourage his employees never to skimp on quality. Although a common sentiment, Lego toys seem to have become a significant exception to the dislike of plastic in childrens toys, by 1954, Christiansens son, Godtfred, had become the junior managing director of the Lego Group. It was his conversation with a buyer that led to the idea of a toy system. In 1958, the brick design was developed, however, it took another five years to find the right material for it. The modern Lego brick design was patented on 28 January 1958, in 1978, Lego produced the first minifigures, which have since become a staple in most sets. The results will be shared with schools as part of an educational project, in May 2013, the largest model ever created was displayed in New York and was made of over 5 million bricks, a 1,1 scale model of an X-wing fighter
7.
Electrical connector
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An electrical connector, is an electro-mechanical device used to join electrical terminations and create an electrical circuit. Electrical connectors consist of plugs and jacks, the connection may be temporary, as for portable equipment, require a tool for assembly and removal, or serve as a permanent electrical joint between two wires or devices. An adapter can be used to bring together dissimilar connectors. There are hundreds of types of electrical connectors, connectors may join two lengths of flexible copper wire or cable, or connect a wire or cable to an electrical terminal. In computing, a connector can also be known as a physical interface. Cable glands, known as cable connectors in the US, connect wires to devices rather than electrically and are distinct from quick-disconnects performing the latter. It is usually desirable for a connector to be easy to visually, rapid to assemble, require only simple tooling. In some cases an equipment manufacturer might choose a connector specifically because it is not compatible with those other sources. No single connector has all the properties, the proliferation of types is a reflection of differing requirements. Fretting is a failure mode in electrical connectors that have not been specifically designed to prevent it. Many connectors are keyed, with some mechanical component which prevents mating except with a correctly oriented matching connector, some connector housings are designed with locking mechanisms to prevent inadvertent disconnection or poor environmental sealing. Locking mechanism designs include locking levers of various sorts, screw locking, a terminal is a simple type of electrical connector that connects two or more wires to a single connection point. Wire nuts are another type of single point connector, terminal blocks provide a convenient means of connecting individual electrical wires without a splice or physically joining the ends. They are usually used to connect wiring among various items of equipment within an enclosure or to make connections among individually enclosed items. Since terminal blocks are available for a wide range of wire sizes and terminal quantity. One type of terminal block accepts wires that are prepared only by removing a short length of insulation from the end, another type accepts wires that have ring or spade terminal lugs crimped onto the wires. Printed circuit board mounted terminal blocks allow individual wires to be connected to the circuit board, a general type of connector that simply screws or clamps bare wire to a post, such connectors are frequently used in electronic test equipment and audio. Many, but not all binding posts will also accept a banana connector plug, since stripping the insulation from wires is time-consuming, many connectors intended for rapid assembly use insulation-displacement connectors so that insulation need not be removed from the wire
8.
Gesture recognition
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Gesture recognition is a topic in computer science and language technology with the goal of interpreting human gestures via mathematical algorithms. Gestures can originate from any motion or state but commonly originate from the face or hand. Current focuses in the field include emotion recognition from face and hand gesture recognition, users can use simple gestures to control or interact with devices without physically touching them. Many approaches have been made using cameras and computer algorithms to interpret sign language. However, the identification and recognition of posture, gait, proxemics, Gesture recognition enables humans to communicate with the machine and interact naturally without any mechanical devices. Using the concept of recognition, it is possible to point a finger at the computer screen so that the cursor will move accordingly. Gesture recognition can be conducted with techniques from computer vision and image processing, the literature includes ongoing work in the computer vision field on capturing gestures or more general human pose and movements by cameras connected to a computer. Such implementations could enable a new range of hardware that does not require monitors and this idea may lead to the creation of holographic display. The term gesture recognition has been used to more narrowly to non-text-input handwriting symbols, such as inking on a graphics tablet, multi-touch gestures. This is computer interaction through the drawing of symbols with a pointing device cursor, in computer interfaces, two types of gestures are distinguished, We consider online gestures, which can also be regarded as direct manipulations like scaling and rotating. In contrast, offline gestures are usually processed after the interaction is finished, offline gestures, Those gestures that are processed after the user interaction with the object. An example is the gesture to activate a menu and they are used to scale or rotate a tangible object. The ability to track a persons movements and determine what gestures they may be performing can be achieved through various tools, the kinetic user interfaces are an emerging type of user interfaces that allow users to interact with computing devices through the motion of objects and bodies. Examples of KUIs include tangible user interfaces and motion-aware games such as Wii and Microsofts Kinect, although there is a large amount of research done in image/video based gesture recognition, there is some variation within the tools and environments used between implementations. These can provide input to the computer about the position and rotation of the hands using magnetic or inertial tracking devices. Furthermore, some gloves can detect finger bending with a degree of accuracy, or even provide haptic feedback to the user. The first commercially available hand-tracking glove-type device was the DataGlove, a device which could detect hand position, movement. This uses fiber optic cables running down the back of the hand, light pulses are created and when the fingers are bent, light leaks through small cracks and the loss is registered, giving an approximation of the hand pose
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Built environment
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In social science, the term built environment refers to the man-made surroundings that provide the setting for human activity, ranging in scale from buildings to parks. It has been defined as the space in which people live, work. The built environment encompasses places and spaces created or modified by people including buildings, parks, in recent years, public health research has expanded the definition of built environment to include healthy food access, community gardens, mental health, walkability and bikeability. The effort was in partnership with others who believed that beautifying American cities would improve the moral compass of the cities and this beautification process included parks and architectural design. For example, community forest user group in Nepal is multidimensional institution, in public health, built environment refers to physical environments that are designed with health and wellness as integral parts of the communities. Research has indicated that the way neighborhoods are created can affect both the activity and mental health of the communities’ residents. Studies have shown that built environments that were designed to improve physical activity are linked to higher rates of physical activity. Neighborhoods with more walkability had lower rates of obesity as well as increased physical activity among its residents and they also had lower rates of depression, higher social capital, and less alcohol abuse. Walkability features in these neighborhoods include safety, sidewalk construction, as well as destinations in which to walk, in addition, the perception of a walkable neighborhood, one that is perceived to have good sidewalks and connectivity, is correlated with higher rates of physical activity. Assessments of walkability have been completed through the use of GIS programs and this example of a walkability assessment tool determines distances to grocery stores and other amenities, as well as connectivity and intersection frequency using specific addresses. Assessments such as the Street Smart Walk Score can be utilized by city, public health also addresses additional components of built environments including “bikeability” and healthy food access such as proximity to grocery stores and community gardens. Bikeability refers to the access that an area has granted to safe biking through multiple bike paths, both walkability and bikeability have been cited as determinants of physical activity. Access to healthy food is also an important component of the built environment, a higher density of convenience stores has been associated with obesity in children. In contrast, improved access to community supermarkets and farmer’s markets is correlated with lower overweight status, specifically in low income neighborhoods, the presence of a local grocery store is correlated with lower BMI/overweight risk. Community gardens are considered a part of the built environment. The intersection of health with other disciplines is evident in the design process of built environments which includes environmental planning, policy development. Research suggests that people are active in mixed-use communities or those that incorporate retail and residential. Those who preferred to walk and live in walkable environments often have lower obesity rates, in landscape architecture, the built environment is understood to mean a human-made landscape, as distinguished from the natural environment, for example, a city park is a built environment
10.
Graphical user interface
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GUIs were introduced in reaction to the perceived steep learning curve of command-line interfaces, which require commands to be typed on a computer keyboard. The actions in a GUI are usually performed through direct manipulation of the graphical elements, beyond computers, GUIs are used in many handheld mobile devices such as MP3 players, portable media players, gaming devices, smartphones and smaller household, office and industrial controls. Designing the visual composition and temporal behavior of a GUI is an important part of application programming in the area of human–computer interaction. Its goal is to enhance the efficiency and ease of use for the logical design of a stored program. Methods of user-centered design are used to ensure that the language introduced in the design is well-tailored to the tasks. The visible graphical interface features of an application are sometimes referred to as chrome or GUI, typically, users interact with information by manipulating visual widgets that allow for interactions appropriate to the kind of data they hold. The widgets of an interface are selected to support the actions necessary to achieve the goals of users. A model–view–controller allows a structure in which the interface is independent from and indirectly linked to application functions. This allows users to select or design a different skin at will, good user interface design relates to users more, and to system architecture less. Large widgets, such as windows, usually provide a frame or container for the main presentation content such as a web page, smaller ones usually act as a user-input tool. A GUI may be designed for the requirements of a market as application-specific graphical user interfaces. By the 1990s, cell phones and handheld game systems also employed application specific touchscreen GUIs, newer automobiles use GUIs in their navigation systems and multimedia centers, or navigation multimedia center combinations. Sample graphical desktop environments A GUI uses a combination of technologies and devices to provide a platform that users can interact with, a series of elements conforming a visual language have evolved to represent information stored in computers. This makes it easier for people with few computer skills to work with, the most common combination of such elements in GUIs is the windows, icons, menus, pointer paradigm, especially in personal computers. The WIMP style of interaction uses a virtual device to represent the position of a pointing device, most often a mouse. Available commands are compiled together in menus, and actions are performed making gestures with the pointing device, a window manager facilitates the interactions between windows, applications, and the windowing system. The windowing system handles hardware devices such as pointing devices, graphics hardware, window managers and other software combine to simulate the desktop environment with varying degrees of realism. Smaller mobile devices such as personal assistants and smartphones typically use the WIMP elements with different unifying metaphors, due to constraints in space
11.
Projection augmented model
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A projection augmented model is an element sometimes employed in virtual reality systems. It consists of a physical three-dimensional model onto which an image is projected to create a realistic looking object. Importantly, the model is the same geometric shape as the object that the PA model depicts. Spatially augmented reality renders virtual objects directly within or on the physical space. A key benefit of SAR is that the user not need to wear a head-mounted display. Instead, with the use of displays, wide field of view. For example, the objects can be realized by using digital light projectors to paint 2D/3D imagery onto real surfaces. Real objects can be handled and naturally manipulated to be viewed from any direction. Although simulated haptic feedback devices enable some aspects of computer-generated objects to be touched and it is, therefore, unsurprising that physical objects are still used for many applications, such as product design. However, computer-generated objects have a key advantage, they provide a level of flexibility that cannot be matched by physical objects, therefore, a display is needed that somehow joins the real physical world and computer-generated objects together, thus enabling them to be experienced simultaneously. Tangible user interfaces and augmented reality both aim to address this issue, TUI systems use real physical objects to both represent and also interact with computer-generated information. However, while TUIs create a link between real and computer-generated objects, they do not create the illusion that the computer-generated objects are actually in a user’s real environment. That is the aim of augmented reality, Figure 1 Continuum of advanced computer interfaces, based on Milgram and Kishino. Furthermore, head-mounted-display based AR and VR systems can directly incorporate physical objects, thus, as a user reaches out to a computer-generated object that they can see, they touch an equivalent physical model that is placed at the same spatial location. Such systems enable the computer-generated visual appearance of the object to be dynamically altered, however, head-mounted-display based systems require users to wear equipment, which limits the number of people who can simultaneously use the display. A variant of the AR paradigm that does not suffer from these limitations is spatially augmented reality, spatially augmented reality displays project computer-generated information directly into the user’s environment. Although there are several possible display configurations, the most natural type is the projection augmented model, importantly, the physical model is the same geometric shape as the object that the PA model depicts. For example, the image projected onto the objects shown in Figure 3 provides colour and visual texture, Figure 3 An example of a Projection Augmented model
12.
Hiroshi Ishii (computer scientist)
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Hiroshi Ishii is a Japanese computer scientist. He is a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Ishii was born in Tokyo and raised in Sapporo. He received B. E. in electronic engineering, and M. E. and Ph. D. in computer engineering from Hokkaido University in Sapporo, Japan. Hiroshi Ishii founded the Tangible Media Group and started their ongoing Tangible Bits project in 1995, Ishii relocated from Japans NTT Human Interface Laboratories in Yokosuka, where he had made his mark in Human Computer Interaction and Computer-Supported Cooperative Work in the early 1990s. Ishii was elected to the CHI Academy in 2006 and he currently teaches the class MAS.834 Tangible Interfaces at the Media Lab
