7 ms·

A collection of outlandish human-computer interaction papers

113 points by danso 5y ago

jontonsoup 5y ago
I will shamelessly plug my personal contribution to outlandish toilet-related HCI papers! https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2468356.2468738 https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2468356.2468738
xor99 5y ago
Honestly would use the bathtub interface. Convert it to a hot tub and that is an excellent outdoor office.
- jcun4128 5y ago
  Keep thinking I should put a waterproof tablet in my shower (no camera of course ha)
jhgb 5y ago
> You’re in control: a urinary user interface > The picture alone says a thousand words. Play a game by peeing on the right spot in an urinal... That's how you end up with a pee sea instead of a PC.
- azinman2 5y ago
  Hayes Raffle on that paper eventually ended up at Google leading AR UX. So just because you start with silly ideas exploring things as a student doesn’t mean you aren’t learning.
- aaron695 5y ago
  Urnial ads are obviously big business. And there are several game companies. You have a person for X time and they can't use their phone. I'd imagine the killer app part is easy to clean and doesn't look like a camera.
  - jhgb 5y ago
    > You have a person for X time Ah, I can see prostate treatment ads booming...
    - aaron695 5y ago
      You'd be able to find children based on strength, amount, time of day and angle and play kids ads. I feel like it would be a bad idea. Shopping centres can have tracking based on WiFi. Track how much fluids are bought and where. People leak data everywhere.
      - exikyut 5y ago
        Yikes. This just made me think of chemical fluid analysis (if the advertising provider buys the drain (!)), which provides an absolute mountain of data. Cameras are rightly forbidden *inside* restrooms, but there are often security cameras in corridors leading to them. Run facial recognition off of those, store the data for a *leeetle* while, consolidate/centralize all the data back to one warehouse, and... you just built a scarily accurate biometric tracking system that can sell... [gets sad about implications and stops typing]
  - nostromo 5y ago
    > and they can't use their phone Have you not been in a men's room in the past decade?
nneonneo 5y ago
Hey, nice to see DATANOSE on that list! It was co-written by my PhD supervisor Scott Hudson, and it emphatically was a joke. He likes to tell the story every so often at conferences. If I’m not mistaken, the picture shows Scott with his trademark mustache under the DATANOSE :)
buitreVirtual 5y ago
These papers would be funny if you didn't stop to think of all the tax dollars being wasted on all of this.
- vnorilo 5y ago
  Are you similarly annoyed by the stupid stuff private companies you deal with spend their margins on? Of course, the government has a tax monopoly. But wait, several private companies look like they do too! From my perspective there are more viable countries/governments to choose from than mobile or desktop OSes or online retailers.
  - buitreVirtual 5y ago
    As a matter of fact, I am. It's not one or the other, it's both. It's a moral obligation to point out wrong wherever it is. Criticism of government waste shouldn't be taken as an argument against government, like some opportunists do, but as necessary accountability. In this case, the funding for this garbage research (and all paper mills, while we are at it, which are a majority of academia these days) should be reinvested in useful areas like climate change, fundamental sciences (such as physics and chemistry) and technology transfer from science to industry.
    - Wistar 5y ago
      How do you know a government funded these? And which government? These seem to be from institutions all over the world.
    - vnorilo 5y ago
      I respect that. But I would contend that these people made something, learned something, and published their findings. Even if it is all goofy and of no immediate practical value, I wouldn't call it a waste.
      - buitreVirtual 5y ago
        Yes, they learn, and others might appreciate reading the papers too. But I'd rather steer creative students to solve real-world problems or build serious science, and they will learn more about what matters.
Readywater 5y ago
Shameless share of my toilet based art installation. https://vimeo.com/75448871 https://vimeo.com/75448871

113 points by danso 5y ago

I will shamelessly plug my personal contribution to outlandish toilet-related HCI papers! https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2468356.2468738 https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2468356.2468738

xor99 5y ago

Honestly would use the bathtub interface. Convert it to a hot tub and that is an excellent outdoor office.

jcun4128 5y ago
Keep thinking I should put a waterproof tablet in my shower (no camera of course ha)

jhgb 5y ago

> You’re in control: a urinary user interface > The picture alone says a thousand words. Play a game by peeing on the right spot in an urinal... That's how you end up with a pee sea instead of a PC.

azinman2 5y ago
Hayes Raffle on that paper eventually ended up at Google leading AR UX. So just because you start with silly ideas exploring things as a student doesn’t mean you aren’t learning.
aaron695 5y ago
Urnial ads are obviously big business. And there are several game companies. You have a person for X time and they can't use their phone. I'd imagine the killer app part is easy to clean and doesn't look like a camera.
- jhgb 5y ago
  > You have a person for X time Ah, I can see prostate treatment ads booming...
  - aaron695 5y ago
    You'd be able to find children based on strength, amount, time of day and angle and play kids ads. I feel like it would be a bad idea. Shopping centres can have tracking based on WiFi. Track how much fluids are bought and where. People leak data everywhere.
    - exikyut 5y ago
      Yikes. This just made me think of chemical fluid analysis (if the advertising provider buys the drain (!)), which provides an absolute mountain of data. Cameras are rightly forbidden *inside* restrooms, but there are often security cameras in corridors leading to them. Run facial recognition off of those, store the data for a *leeetle* while, consolidate/centralize all the data back to one warehouse, and... you just built a scarily accurate biometric tracking system that can sell... [gets sad about implications and stops typing]
- nostromo 5y ago
  > and they can't use their phone Have you not been in a men's room in the past decade?

nneonneo 5y ago

Hey, nice to see DATANOSE on that list! It was co-written by my PhD supervisor Scott Hudson, and it emphatically was a joke. He likes to tell the story every so often at conferences. If I’m not mistaken, the picture shows Scott with his trademark mustache under the DATANOSE :)

buitreVirtual 5y ago

These papers would be funny if you didn't stop to think of all the tax dollars being wasted on all of this.

vnorilo 5y ago
Are you similarly annoyed by the stupid stuff private companies you deal with spend their margins on? Of course, the government has a tax monopoly. But wait, several private companies look like they do too! From my perspective there are more viable countries/governments to choose from than mobile or desktop OSes or online retailers.
- buitreVirtual 5y ago
  As a matter of fact, I am. It's not one or the other, it's both. It's a moral obligation to point out wrong wherever it is. Criticism of government waste shouldn't be taken as an argument against government, like some opportunists do, but as necessary accountability. In this case, the funding for this garbage research (and all paper mills, while we are at it, which are a majority of academia these days) should be reinvested in useful areas like climate change, fundamental sciences (such as physics and chemistry) and technology transfer from science to industry.
  - Wistar 5y ago
    How do you know a government funded these? And which government? These seem to be from institutions all over the world.
  - vnorilo 5y ago
    I respect that. But I would contend that these people made something, learned something, and published their findings. Even if it is all goofy and of no immediate practical value, I wouldn't call it a waste.
    - buitreVirtual 5y ago
      Yes, they learn, and others might appreciate reading the papers too. But I'd rather steer creative students to solve real-world problems or build serious science, and they will learn more about what matters.

Readywater 5y ago

Shameless share of my toilet based art installation. https://vimeo.com/75448871 https://vimeo.com/75448871