Pending full revision of the Comm Tech Lab web site, this page links to
current research and related publications led by Principal Investigator
and Lab Director Carrie Heeter.
Current Research Projects:
Connected Gardens Panoramic Interface Kids Tour
Design Discussion presented by Carrie
Heeter at the Professional Interaction Design Portfolio Panel, International
CHI Conference, April, 2002 (Computer-Human Interaction), Minneapolis.
The Comm Tech Lab has collaborated with the Michigan 4H Children's Garden
for many years. For us it is a living laboratory in which to invent applications
of new technologies to enhance the garden experience.
We are currently funded by a grant from Dow Gardens to create meaningful links between the MSU and Dow children's garden. In the process we are invoking the power of "mixed realities," creating a panoramic interface (so far with 62 nodes) linking a virtual experience of the MSU garden to the many interactive experiences we've already created.
Reflections on Real Presence
by a Virtual Person, May 2002, submitted for publication consideration
to the journal of Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments
TeleWindows: Changing the Social Fabric of Life for Homebound Elderly (report)
Telewindows: Case Studies in Asymmetrical
Social Presence
Carrie HEETER, Jennifer GREGG, Jacob CLIMO, Frank BIOCCA, David
DEKKER
This chapter will appear in the 2002 EMERGING COMMUNICATION BOOK SERIES
Volume 4 Being There: Concepts, Effects and Measurement of User Presence
in Synthetic Environments, Editors-in-chief: Giuseppe Riva, Ph.D.
and Fabrizio Davide, Ph.D.
The maintenance of social connectedness is an important aspect of successful
aging. In a research project funded by the National Council on Aging and
Ameritech, we are experimenting with a technological solution to social
isolation of homebound elderly we call a TeleWindow.
Like a window in a room, a TeleWindow can be opened anytime to see and
hear and be seen and heard by those on the other side of the window. A
TeleWindow uses audio, video and network technology to open a window to
a distant location.
Although a TeleWindow could be used like a picturephone to call someone and have a brief conversation, we envision a different use of TeleWindows. Specifically, for our study, TeleWindows are opened and kept open for long periods of time, providing a continuous presence connecting the two locations. Sometimes there will be conversations. Other times it will be more like being in the same room together going about daily life. TeleWindows have the potential to provide a new kind of social relationship: an ambient presence, a shared window between one individual's life and the lives of chosen social group, friends and/or family.
A Justification for Being Virtual, June 2001
For the last four years I have lived in San Francisco and worked full time for Michigan State University, as Professor of Telecommunication, Comm Tech Lab Director, and Creative Learning Advisor to MSU Virtual University. You're welcome to read the explanation of why this is important to my work that I submitted to my Dean and Provost in June 2001. Details start on page 2
Recent or Relevant Publications:
The Color of eCommerce, September
2001
Paper to be presented at the Experiential ECommerce conference in East
Lansing, MI.
Reflections on Real Presence
by a Virtual Person, June 2001
Keynote speech delivered at the Fourth International Workshop on Presence,
May, 2001; Proceedings of the Fourth International Workshop on Presence,
forthcoming.
Interactivity in the Context of Designed Experiences, Journal of Interactive Advertising, Volume 1, Number 1, Fall 2000.
Technology-Enhanced Learning Update, International Communication Association Conference, May 2000.
Aspects of Presence in Telerelating, Journal of Cyberpsychology and Behavior, 2:225-325, 1999.
Technology-Enhanced Learning, Internet 2 Sociotechnical Summit, September, 1999.
Telerelating: An overview, presented at the Internet2 Sociotechnical Summit Planning Meeting, 12/7/98.
West Portal Reports: early (1997) experiences with telerelating from San Francisco.
Communication Research on Consumer VR, in "Communication in the Age of Virtual Reality", edited by Frank Biocca and Mark Levy, 1994.
Gender Differences and VR: A Non-User Survey of What Women Want, Virtual Reality World, March, 1994.
Why Play (VR) Games? Virtual Reality Special Report, March, 1994.
The Thin Line: Hypermedia meets Virtual Reality, ACM Education Technology Review. Winter, 1993.
Real hands, virtual worlds, Proceedings of the Virtual Realities Systems Convention, fall, 1993.
BattleTech Masters: Emergence of the First U.S. Virtual Reality SubCulture, Multimedia Review, Winter, 1993.
Being There: The Subjective Experience of Presence, Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, MIT Press, fall, 1992.
It's Time for Hypermedia to Move to Talking Pictures, Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, winter, 1992.
The Look and Feel of Direct Manipulation, HYPERNEXUS: Journal of Hypermedia and Multimedia Studies, Fall, 1991.