Media Arts and Sciences
Graduate Seminar, Spring 1997

 Prereq.: Permission of instructors
 G (Spring)
 3-0-6 H-LEVEL Grad Credit

 When  Wednesday, 11:00 am- 1:00 pm, Feb. 5 - May14
 Where   E15-054
 Instructors Hiroshi Ishii
Room: E15-485
Tel. 253-7514
ishii@media.mit.edu
Henry Lieberman
Room: E15-305A
Tel. 253-0315
lieber@media.mit.edu
 Guest lecturer Steve McGeady (Intel)
E15-468b, mcg@media.mit.edu
 Course secretary Betty Lou McClanahan
E15-482, Tel. 253-0630, bl@media.mit.edu

Course description

We live in a complex world composed both of atoms and bits. In this world, we interact with people, computers and other objects in the environment. The computing capabilities we design into objects in our physical environments as well as in our virtual arenas are rapidly increasing, but do not necessarily translate into productive interactions with us. We must take special steps to ensure that the interactions between people, computers, and the physical environment are useful, helpful, and enjoyable.

This seminar will explore aspects of media design that facilitate interactions between

Students will investigate the design space of media for seamless interaction using concept sketches, mockups, and simple prototyping. Regular readings, papers, and small projects will also be required.

The focus of this course is to consider

We will focus on innovative concepts, theoretical frameworks, software and system architecture. We will explore current work in non-traditional interfaces, such as
· Shared drawing for collaborative design and visual thinking.
· Media spaces that interconnect spaces and support "awareness."
· Problems surrounding computer-mediated human interaction and communication in conference and groupware.
· Intelligent agent interfaces that can learn.
· Ubiquitous Computing and Augmented Reality.
· Tangible User Interfaces that physically instantiate GUI widgets.

We will introduce innovative concepts, concrete examples of system design, video and live demonstrations of systems, and lessons learned through the use of systems to address the various issues of media design. The goal of this course is to explore a new paradigm of media design that augments the human interactions through class discussions and small projects.

Course Schedule and Discussion Topics

Final Projects

Class Exercise: Collaborative Browsing, Feb. 19 & 26

Reading List

Ishii's Slides


Last pdated on February 5, 1997 by Hiroshi Ishii (ishii@media.mit.edu)