Three days in Vancouver, Canada …

Granville Island



I was off for a few days to Vancouver city, the town that brings together the mountain, the ocean and the forest. I was here to give a talk at Simon Fraser University for the 25th Anniversary of the Faculty of Business Administration. The department will make a DVD of the talk (for education purposes only).

My trip to Vancouver was delightful! My hosts: Dr. Judy Zaichkowsky (Research Director and Marketing Area Co-ordinator) and Dr. Olga Volkoff, professor MIS, were fantastic. From my stay in a lovely hotel (Four Seasons Hotel), walking, driving trips throughout Vancouver, boat tour to reach the Island where all you find is handmade craft work as well as houses floating on the water, to the most delicate restaurant: Le Crocodile, I never felt so empowered in giving a talk!!! The crowd was enthusiast and receptive: a combination of business & art & tech professors and students with business attendees. The research we do in our group was embraced and according to many comments and emails after the talk: inspiring. Nothing better than being inspiring!! So I go back home with wonderful souvenirs, great contacts, cute pictures (I had my iPhone so took a tone!!).


The Surrey Campus, Simon Fraser University.

I felt in love with the Simon Fraser University, the business department and ... the city!!! I recommend to any of you who have never been to Vancouver to immediately jump in the first flight/train. You might have to discover by yourself, but the city is so people friendly that I don't think you will have any difficulty exploring around.

I recommend (in any order)
. Granville Island : take a boat, that comes every 5 min, to go to the island. The prettiest collection of craft boutique and floating houses!
. The museum of archeology: outstanding collection of native Canadian art.
. Winners : great shopping for students, dixit Judy. I found a special edition of Addidas
. Holt Renfrew: great shopping to find designers and tailored clothing. I found a Burberry white trench coat (sold out anywhere else) and tailored trousers. I must admit that Canadians in Vancouver are particularly sweet, gentle, helpful and smiling!
. Le crocodile restaurant: a special recommendation, the French food there is excellent.
. Stanley Park
. Gastown
. Take the Skytrain to have an idea of the scope of the city!!
and dont forget to check out the inspiring talks and series at SFU!!!



A special thank to Pet Nilsson for his great comments and thoughtful blog!

Voilà!

More about inspiring research in interaction design SOON ...

Posted by Cati Vaucelle @ Architectradure
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Operation for adults!

Operation, game by Hasbro

Today, I met with TMG alumni Paul Yarin. One of his latest project, the interactive sensing module for laparoscopic trainer, developed with Wendy Plesniak reminded me of the funniest childhood game Operation created by Hasbro. The child practices coordination skills by removing the patients symptoms with the tweezers.



The sophisticated and impressive Interactive sensing module for laparoscopic trainer is a self-contained simulator for structured testing and training of skills used in laparoscopic surgery. Digital video and electronic sensors capture user performance and is approved to be used by medical centers to train and test critical laparoscopic skills. This is such a clever implementation. The advantages of physical objects as tools and the power of computer simulation are combined at their best.



"This interactive laparoscopic training simulator combines the best of physical and virtual simulation into a plug 'n' play solution. It combines validated physical reality exercises, computerized assessment, and validated McGill Metrics. Electronic sensors and digital video capture user performance with a PC interface."


An example of practice task

Real Laparoscopic Simulation's web site

What the heck is Electronic Mail?

"Electronic Mail is a term that's been bandied about data processing circles for years. Simply put, it means high-speed information transportation. One of the most advanced methods is terminals talking to one another. Your mailbox is the terminal on your desk. Punch a key and today's correspondence and messages are displayed instantly (...) Electronic Mail is document distribution that's more timely, accurate and flexible than traditional methods. There's no mountain of paperwork (...) Tomorrow's automated office will clearly include Electronic Mail. - Honeywell Office Automation Systems"
Ad found on Abdul Taiyeb's blog

What's next with the web?

It seems that Google is eating itself through some kind of cannibalism

We generate money by serving Google text advertisments on a network of hidden Websites. With this money we automatically buy Google shares. We buy Google via their own advertisment! Google eats itself - but in the end "we" own it!

Google will maybe soon advertise for a Saving Google competition, stay tuned!



It seems that consumers can finally have their revenge towards the banking system. Now it is a deal between consumers. Prosper is a US online marketplace that allows consumers to lend and borrow money from others. Rewarding for everyone, the one who needs money requests it, the one who can lend, lends it! As easy as that, based on eBay, I wander how this will work as a standard - for US residents, only.

Prediction market for corruption

For our pro-seminar class, a PhD requirement, Stefanie Tellex, Noah Vawter and Aaron Zinman and I am designing a prediction market for corruption. Our idea is that citizen can bet on the next congress that will be indicted.

Looking for visual tools and data analysis, I have found on Jaiunblog, the observatoire presidentiel web site.

It is an interactive presidential observatory. It allows individuals to visualize a tendançologue to follow the media popularity of main political French figures estimated for this election and this until the presidential elections of 2007.
The interactive µtendançologue considers also news from blogs, newsgroup, online press. It allows the user to compare between presidential online press.
This online observatory also proposes an interactive political blogopole map. The map represents the total of citizen's blogs that bring up political debates in France.


The Blogopole and a close-up on the French Green party

Kendall Roses

Leonardo Bonanni and I were finalists in the Kendall interactive design competition with Kendall Roses. The competition Kendall Square Interactive Design competition was organized by Lyme Properties.

Based on my previous research Passing Glances (2002-2004), the Kendall Roses are designed to be an autonomous art installation that brings added value to the Kendall Square community. Bright, inexpensive daytime displays on two towers and the ground fulfill the role of the roses to provide compass directions to local attractions through graphics and text on billboards and the ground.
Data to the Roses is entirely wireless: SMS, internet and a local database are streamed to a wireless server inside each tower from local hotels, businesses, residents and the World Wide Web. In addition to useful information about local businesses, sports and attractions, the Kendall Roses offer opportunities for families and children to play on an interactive ground display that can project a variety of games. After an initial investment and potential partnership with local businesses and telcos for promoting SMS messaging, the towers will generate income primarily through advertisement for local businesses and as a tax credit for displaying public service announcements relevant to the community.

Some screenshots of the Kendall Roses interaction movie:








Details of the architecture



Plans of the Kendall Roses site



A movie of our entry


If it does not appear above, clic here

In personal work

Open Studio by MIT Media Lab

Open Studio is a new experimental online art exchange system developed at the MIT Media Lab. I find it very promising, so check it out!
So yesterday night, I have started to look at it, and made a few drawings with their system, it looks as if I was painting with my feet, but the constraint in design is what makes it very interesting to me.

La Petite Tuture Rose that I have sold in 2 minutes to Burak Arikan :D

Le feu s'etiole that has been bought by Brent Fitzgerald today!

And ... Les mots doux, sold to Francis in 5 minutes last night !!!

There are cool ideas on this Studio and such a great tool to experiment with. By trying it out, and exchanging art work, I have found that it raises questions about the value of virtual art, especially the recognition in a virtual community.

Finally, 'douceur' my last drawing with the system ...

By Cati in digital drawing

Notes about James Marston Fitch: "The Esthetics of Plenty" 1961

There is a crisis in design. Our design is flabby. Because we are too rich? Too wealthy? It seems that high levels of artistic accomplishment occur only in wealthy cultures...
Massproduction has made the consumer into an ignorant. He has to make his choice between a range of limited products and cannot discuss with the craftman and neither the craftman can be informed about how to improve a product. Modern mass production has succeed in filling our material needs but with artifacts whose esthetic quality is ordinarily quite low. The limits of time and space have been destroyed. Wisdom from a very narrow range of materials and techniques is gone. This wisdom made craftmen know the products intimately and the consumer learning them. Our material and culture discoveries have destroyed our comfortable local esthetic and the concept of relativity has been applied to our esthetic standard (the severe crisis in foundation in the 19th)
It relates to William Morris question: Why do high rates of productivity and high esthetic standards seem so often to be mutually exclusive?All is designed to maintain a minimum of material quality with more security, more sanitary. The soviet consumer seem to be even less demanding than its american counterpart. The soviet design has no more leverage on societ manufacture than the us and is as much a prisoner of his managment.
Is there a solution? exploration of a new kind of integration of modern mechanized production? Maybe it is possible to combine modern production and local knowledge. Folk knowledge could be preserved, and should be preserved and could be combined to the standards of performance.
The escalator effect in which satiety is never overtaken makes is necessary a kind of education: that of learning to be an adult, or in fact to be human...as the psychologist Norman Brown would say it would involve the reconstruction not only of human society but of human counsciousness as well.

By Cati in Product Design

notes from Mass customization, the new frontier in business competition by Pine, 1995

Here are some main ideas I took from the book

In the emerging system of mass customization, firms have thrown away the old paradigm of Mass Production by creating a variety and customization through flexibility and quick responsiveness. This is a new logic more suited to a world in which stability and control can no longer be maintained.

Creation of new flavors of similar products with short development cycles, e.g. cereals do not last much longer than the popular movies they tied to, and the idea is less demand for each individual product but increasingly stable demand for the company. The production system is driven by market and consumers and must produce a number of different, high quality products; production of affordable goods and services with enough variety and customization that nearly everyone finds exactly what they want. Instead of large & homogeneous markets, with low costs and consistent quality in mass production, mass customization offers heteregeneous niches and high quality goods and services.

In mass production low costs are achieved through economy of scale and in mass customization low costs are achieved primarily through economy of scope (a single process to produce a greater variety of products). Then this notion of EQQ, economic order quantity; for instance when customer desires are changing rapidly or demand is undertain, the cost savings of eliminating changeover time can be tremendous. Then as Stan Davis says "The general message is, the more a company can deliver customized goods on a mass basis, relative to their competition, the greater is their competitive advantage".
However like mass production, mass customization generally produces in high volume, has low unit costs, and often (but not always) relies on high degrees of automation.