Announcement: another nexUX meetup on smart clothing today! Come for extra credit.

Folks,

Another nexUX meetup today at 3, with matching extra credit. Please come out if you can!

Jesse is a really interesting speaker at the forefront of a coming wave of smart clothing.

Professor Watson

Come to today's nexUX Meetup! @ Hunt Library @ 300p
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Come to the nexUX Meetup!

With Jesse Jur of NCSU Textiles

Truly wearable technology

In the near future, technology won't only be found on our wrists, but in our clothes. It will measure, draw its power from, and put user interface on our bodies. How will this technology change our lives? How might we use it to improve them? In this meetup we'll introduce this technology, and consider its implications. 
Jesse Jur is an Assistant Professor in NC State's college of textiles. His research targets the development of materials processing methods for nanoscale inorganic integration with polymer-based materials, including nonwoven textiles. Applications for his research include new electronic textiles that respond to chemical, photo and mechanical environmental changes, as well as the enhancement of the mechanical and thermal stability of modified fiber systems.
As always with our meetups, this is not a "sit back and listen" meeting, but a chance for us to bring together a cross disciplinary group of people to think about the relationship between UX and technology. Mostly though, we'll get to know one another, and have some fun.

RSVP and send your questions in advance using the buttons below. 
Also, please forward this email to whomever you think might be interested!
RSVP to this Meetup                             
Submit a question for this Meetup                             

Fwd: Looking for a grad student programmer in XCODE or other iOS app language

In case you're interested — ping Shaun.

Best, Ben
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Abraham Kurian <askurian@ncsu.edu>
Date: Mon, Mar 23, 2015 at 6:58 PM
Subject: Looking for a grad student programmer in XCODE or other iOS app language
To: Benjamin Watson <bwatson@ncsu.edu>


H Professor Watson,

I met you in Patrick's animation class when we were working on the Recognize app project. 

I am working on a smartphone app project (see details below) as the UX/UI designer, and looking for a programmer to come alongside with me for the project.  Know any grad students that might be interested?  There is a small stipend available - need to check what the budget 

is, but any idea what would be a good rate? 

Basically, the project is a prototype smartphone app for easy, user-friendly input of auto-ethnographic data on mobility, place, and social interactions.   The app will record location data to track research participants' patterns of mobility while 

allowing them to add commentary and audiovisual auto-ethnographic material about their motivations for mobility, their affective ties to places, their interactions with others, and their media practices. We are thinking the app will be designed for iOS for this first phase, so we 

thought XCODE might be a good choice, but certainly open to what works best. 

Please let me know if you have any recommendations.  I am happy to provide more details.

Thanks,

Shaun


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Announcement: critique today — visit by professor Fitzgerald and class

Book, map and recognition teams, please present your current project state today. 

Designers will join us in providing feedback. 

We will continue alternating critique with lecture until semester end. 

Professor Watson 


Announcement: another experimental extra credit opportunity

Folks,

We have a new and limited opportunity for extra credit. We are evaluating a new experimental platform that will help us measure mobile use in everyday life.

Any of you that have Android devices may email Qian Liu and/or Nischal Shrestha to enroll (qliu10@ncsu.edu, nshrest@ncsu.edu). We will install our experimental app on your phone; it will ask you questions periodically in a fashion similar to our diary study assignment.

You will receive 1% extra credit.

We can accept roughly ten participants.

Professor Watson

Fwd: FW: Geriatric Caregiver Solutions "Hackathon" April 11&12 at Quintiles by NCHICA and Northwest AHEC

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Tom Miller <tkm@ncsu.edu>
Date: Wed, Mar 18, 2015 at 11:19 AM
Subject: Fwd: FW: Geriatric Caregiver Solutions "Hackathon" April 11&12 at Quintiles by NCHICA and Northwest AHEC
To: Andrew DiMeo, Sr. <ajdimeo@ncsu.edu>, Christian Holljes <cholljes@gmail.com>, Benjamin Watson <bwatson@ncsu.edu>


Thought this might of interest to your students.  Best,

Tom

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Billy Willis <billy.willis@duke.edu>
Date: Wed, Mar 18, 2015 at 9:30 AM
Subject: FW: Geriatric Caregiver Solutions "Hackathon" April 11&12 at Quintiles by NCHICA and Northwest AHEC
To: Tom Miller <tkm@eos.ncsu.edu>, John Board <john.board@duke.edu>


Fun and games in Healthcare… Can you guys help me get the word out to folks who may be interested in playing participating…

Billy

Billy Willis. Ph.D
CTO, Duke Medicine


From: Christopher Jones
Date: Monday, March 9, 2015 at 5:24 PM
To: Billy Willis
Subject: Geriatric Caregiver Solutions "Hackathon" April 11&12 at Quintiles by NCHICA and Northwest AHEC

Billy,

 

I wanted to extend an invitation to you to join Northwest AHEC, NCHICA and Quintiles for a healthcare Hackathon!  We will be teaming up and designing tech solutions aimed at helping caregivers of elderly with dementia in their home.  We are inviting students and professionals with expertise in healthcare technology and caregiving to team up and problem solve using six future methods of coordination.  The winning team will walk away with $3,000. 

 

Please send this invitation to all students, hackers, caregivers and health technology specialists.  We’re looking to fill the room with problem solvers from all angles to promote the best solutions!  It will be a great weekend with food trucks, photo booths, interviews and fun.  Please register below and plan to join us if you can!

 

 

 

Trouble viewing this email? Open with your browser

YOU’RE INVITED!

|

Geriatric Caregiver Solutions Hackathon

$3000 top prize for best solution


that enhances the care of elderly at home and improves the quality of life for caregivers.
Students, Developers and Healthcare Pros
team up to design and pitch viable solutions.

 

Please Register by March 28!

APRIL 11&12


$4500 in prizes!

Quintiles


4820 Emperor Blvd, Durham NC 27703

$10 registration fee for students with valid student ID, all others $90 (before March 28)

NCHICA eHealth Transformation Challenge
Powered by NCHICA, hosted by Quintiles, Produced by Wake Forest School of Medicine and Northwest Area Health Education Center

For more information contact Chris jones 336.713.7039 or cjones@wakehealth.edu

 

 

 

 

 

 

Best,

Chris

 

Christopher Jones, MHA

Assistant Director – Informatics and Quality

__________________________________________________________________                                                                                                                

 

Northwest Area Health Education Center

Medical Center Boulevard, Winston-Salem, NC 27157-1021

336.713.7039 | Fax 336.713.7671 | Email cjones@wakehealth.edu

 

 



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Find: HTTPS-crippling FREAK exploit affects thousands of Android and iOS apps

Interesting: by attempting to keep stronger encryption to itself, the Clinton administration introduced a weakness being used to exploit https on web traffic.

*** 

HTTPS-crippling FREAK exploit affects thousands of Android and iOS apps
// Ars Technica

While almost all the attention paid to the HTTPS-crippling FREAK vulnerability has focused on browsers, consider this: thousands of Android and iOS apps, many with finance, shopping, and medical uses, are also vulnerable to the same exploit that decrypts passwords, credit card details, and other sensitive data sent between handsets and Internet servers.

Security researchers from FireEye recently examined the most popular apps on Google Play and the Apple App Store and found 1,999 titles that left users wide open to the encryption downgrade attack. Specifically, 1,228 Android apps with one million or more downloads were vulnerable, while 771 out of the top 14,079 iOS apps were susceptible. Vulnerable apps were those that used—or in the case of iOS, could use—an affected crypto library and connected to servers that offered weak, 512-bit encryption keys. The number of vulnerable apps would no doubt mushroom when analyzing slightly less popular titles.

"As an example, an attacker can use a FREAK attack against a popular shopping app to steal a user's login credentials and credit card information," FireEye researchers Yulong Zhang, Zhaofeng Chen, Hui Xue, and Tao Wei wrote in a blog post published Tuesday afternoon. "Other sensitive apps include medical apps, productivity apps and finance apps." The researchers provided the screenshots above and below, which reveal the plaintext data extracted from one of the vulnerable apps after it connected to its paired server.

Read 4 remaining paragraphs



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Find: Google Play apps and updates are now subject to a review process

Google Play apps and updates are now subject to a review process
// Ars Technica

Google announced today that it is officially switching to a human-driven app review process for the Google Play store, a move intended to "better protect the community" and "improve the app catalog." Google's "team of experts" will be checking apps and updates submitted to Google Play for violations of Google's developer policies and giving developers specific feedback on what they need to fix before their apps will be listed.

Google says it began this review process "several months ago" and that "there has been no noticeable change for developers during the rollout." Today's post simply serves as an official announcement of the new policy. An improved review status page will give developers "more insight into why apps were rejected or suspended" and will allow them to "easily fix and resubmit their apps for minor policy violations."

Apple has had a team of real humans evaluating third-party app submissions since the dawn of the App Store, but the Android Market (now Google Play) was more permissive—aside from some automated malware scanning, Google didn't do much to make sure apps worked like they were supposed to and did what they said they did. The Google Play store had apps that did more things, but the quality and security of those apps could be all over the place. Google's app review process will ostensibly fix that problem.

Read 3 remaining paragraphs



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Announcement: map, book and recognition teams please head over to design tomorrow if possible

Hey folks, 

Since we're about to have spring break, I've prioritized projects, and arranged a visit with our design collaborators tomorrow. 

Particularly if you're in the map, book or recognition teams, please head over to brooks 202 to meet with professor Fitzgerald and students starting at 130 tomorrow, if you're able. It's ok to miss the our class in textiles to do so. Design will be there until about 6 (!). 

Others please come to class as usual. We'll wrap up early, so that I can get to design by two or so. We'll crit the remedy project and another app. 

Week after break, no crit! 

Professor Watson 

Find: The mobile revolution hidden in net neutrality

This could be better than gfiber. 

*** 

The mobile revolution hidden in net neutrality
// The Verge - All Posts

I've been struggling to write about last week's historic net neutrality vote for a few days now. I've already written so much about the subject that finally seeing the vote to reclassify broadband as a Title II service was almost like a distant happening, a lull before the next vicious battle. People who care about consumers can only luxuriate in victory for so long before Verizon files a lawsuit.

But then MWC kicked off at full speed in Barcelona: the new Samsung Galaxy S6, the new HTC One M9, some mid-range Lumias, an ultra-encrypted Blackphone. There's a weird Sony Android tablet that looks like Clié's Revenge. And Google's Sundar Pichai took the stage this morning to talk about Google's plan to run its own tiny mobile carrier "in...

Continue reading…



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This is a perfectly circular phone, and it's wonderfully weird [feedly]

This is a perfectly circular phone, and it's wonderfully weird
// The Verge - All Posts

We've spent most of this week in Barcelona gawking at phones and watches that boast brushed metal and glass designs. So it was refreshing to see something completely different like the Runcible, a smart pocket watch from Monohm. It's nothing if not the most unique thing we've seen this week.

As George Arriola, founder and CPO of Monohm, tells me, the Runcible is meant to remove us from how we're so buried in our phones. That might be a more noble goal if it wasn't being promised everywhere we look these days. The Apple Watch promises a "glance" feature, phone makers offer ways to see notifications without unlocking your phone, and there's plenty of wearables, smartwatches, and accessories that are meant to keep us from using our...

Continue reading…



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Assignment: project proposals

Folks,

Please send me your project proposals by end of day Thursday. You can find a description of what we expect and how to turn it in here.

Most important is the breakdown of the project into pieces with how much weight you think each piece should have.

Also, ensure that you include lightweight evaluation: one using an uncoded prototype, and one using an interactive prototype.

You have nine remaining weeks (plus a few days if you like) to finish an interactive prototype.

Best,

Ben

Announcement: reminder — critique of pitched projects today

Hey folks,

Hope you had a great snow week!

A quick reminder of where we left off: pitched project critique. We'll work through those today and if time permits, talk about the Remedy project too.

Professor Watson

Find: Qualcomm unveils its answer to Touch ID: Ultrasonic fingerprint scanning

Alternative to capacitive fingerprint scanner

Qualcomm unveils its answer to Touch ID: Ultrasonic fingerprint scanning
// Ars Technica

BARCELONA, Spain—At Mobile World Congress, Qualcomm is showing off Sense ID, a new technology that brings ultrasonic fingerprint scanning to mobile devices. The main advantage of ultrasonic fingerprint scanning is that because it uses sound waves, it doesn't require direct contact with your finger. This means the ultrasonic sensor can be underneath the device's front cover glass or potentially underneath the display itself.

While digital fingerprint sensors have been around for years, they were popularized in the mobile space by the iPhone 5S with Touch ID. The Touch ID sensor, along with the various other fingerprint sensors that have appeared in smartphones over the last couple of years, are all based on capacitive technology. Capacitive sensors work in much the same way as a touchscreen. When you place your finger on the reader, the pattern of ridges, whorls, and minutiae points create electrical circuits that can be read and recorded. This method works just fine, but it has limitations. Your finger needs to be in direct contact with the sensor, and if you have contaminants (water, lotion, dirt) on your finger, it may not work.

Qualcomm

Because ultrasonic fingerprint recognition uses high-frequency sound waves, it can penetrate through a variety of obstacles: the aforementioned contaminants, glass, metal, plastic, and more. In theory, ultrasonic scanners can also penetrate a lot deeper into your finger's dermal layers than capacitive, which means it's possible to extract more biometric data. The ultrasonic waves are produced by a piezoelectric transducer, much like ultrasonic medical imaging devices. (Qualcomm isn't releasing much in the way of technical details right now, so we don't know exactly how deep Sense ID will be able to penetrate. You probably won't be using it to scan any internal organs... not yet, anyway.)

Read 2 remaining paragraphs 



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Find: Ikea's new furniture can charge your phone, no wires necessary

Mobile chargers in furniture. Devices back in furniture sooner than you think. 

*** 

Ikea's new furniture can charge your phone, no wires necessary
// The Verge - All Posts

Are you interested in tying down your furniture to a technology "standard" that's far from standard? Then you might be interested in some new products that will be on sale at Ikea in North America and Europe this spring. The Swedish furniture company has partnered with the Wireless Power Consortium, building Qi wireless device chargers into a line of lamps and other small pieces of furniture like bedside tables. You can also buy a small Ikea-designed pad to add Qi charging to any surface.

For those who've been eagerly awaiting the arrival of wireless charging, the partnership is good news. However, the problem remains the same: two incompatible standards (the other is backed by Power Matters Alliance) remain at a stalemate. A number...

Continue reading…



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Samsung's new Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge put design first [feedly]

Too much like apple I think. But the edge screen is nice. 

Samsung's new Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge put design first
// The Verge - All Posts

Following countless leaks and endless teasers, Samsung has officially announced the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge smartphones. The pair of S6 phones succeed the Galaxy S5, Samsung's prior flagship announced one year ago, and will be available across the world starting on April 10th. All four major US carriers plus US Cellular have committed to carrying both the S6 and the S6 Edge, while smaller carriers such as Boost Mobile, Cricket Wireless, and MetroPCS will only offer the S6. The Galaxy S6 Edge will be priced higher than the standard S6, though Samsung isn’t saying exactly how much either one will be at this point.

The S5 was largely considered a misstep by Samsung: its advanced display and plentiful features were overshadowed by its...

Continue reading…



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