scott.hudsonHCI Institute



Scott Hudson
Photo by Johnny Lee

Scott's Curriculum Vitae
(PDF Last updated 2/22/14)

Scott's Papers in
the ACM Digital Library

Research Projects
My research interests have covered a wide range of topics within the area of user interface software and technology. However, my work has always revolved around the invention and building of things which lead to a better user experience (although often indirectly through tools for the UI developer). This page provides a brief overview of some past and current projects. This list will inevitably be incomplete and out of date -- see my CV or papers in the ACM Digital Library for a more complete picture.

Collaborators
I only rarely work alone -- nearly all my work is in collaboration with my many students who constantly inspire and challenge me. In addition, much of my current work is done in collaboration with Jen Mankoff and Jodi Forlizzi as well as Chris Harrison, and Jeff Bigham. Other recent collaborators include Desney Tan and Andy Wilson at Microsoft Research and Ivan iPoupyrev at Disney Research (now at Google ATAP) .

Funding
Funding sources for specific projects are acknowledged in the papers describing the work. However, much of the work here was funded in part by the National Science Foundation, with additional funds on some projects coming from DARPA, Intel, Microsoft, GM, Disney and others.



Using New Fabrication Technologies in HCI

Printed Teddy Bear New fabrication technologies such as 3D printing offer a range of new opportunities for advances in human-computer interaction. These include new possibilities for creating highly customized devices, faster creation of higher fidelity prototypes, making assistive devices more affordable and available, and the creation of interactive objects in entirely new forms. In this project we explore the use of new materials, new fabrication techniques, and new device concepts, to extend both what we can make and how we make it.

Key Publications

Scott Hudson, "Printing Teddy Bears: A Technique for 3D Printing of Soft Interactive Objects", Proceedings of the CHI'14 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp. 459-469, April 2014. (Best Paper Award Honorable Mention and Best Talk Award). Available from: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/2556288.2557338
See also: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qc-tGbMN9Ms

Eric Brockmeyer, Ivan Poupyrev, and Scott Hudson, "PAPILLON: Designing Curved Display Surfaces With Printed Optics", Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology, pp. 457-462, October, 2013. (Best Paper Award Honorable Mention) Available from: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/2501988.2502027

Karl Willis, Eric Brockmeyer, Ivan Poupyrev, and Scott Hudson, "Printed Optics: 3D Printing of Embedded Optical Elements for Interactive Devices", Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology, pp. 589-598, October, 2012. (Best Paper Award Honorable Mention) Available from: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/2380116.2380190



Handling Inputs with Uncertainty

Inputs with Uncertainty Nearly all current models of input work on the assumption that inputs delivered to a system are fairly certain to have occurred as they are reported. However, a number of new input modalities, such as pen-based inputs, hand and body gesture inputs, voice input, and activity recognition do not share this property. Inputs under these and other techniques are acquired by a process of recognition. As a result, each of these techniques makes mistakes and provides inputs which are approximate or uncertain. This project considers new input handling techniques which explicitly model uncertainty and handle it as a normal and expected part of the input process.

Key Publications

Julia Schwarz, Jennifer Mankoff, and Scott Hudson, "Monte Carlo Methods for Managing Interactive State, Action and Feedback Under Uncertainty", Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology, pp. 235-244, October, 2011.
Available from: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/2047196.2047227

Julia Schwarz, Scott Hudson, Jennifer Mankoff, and Andrew Wilson, "A Framework for Robust and Flexible Handling of Inputs with Uncertainty", Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology, pp. 47-56, October, 2010.
Available from: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1866029.1866039

Jennifer Mankoff, Scott Hudson, and Gregory Abowd, "Interaction Techniques for Ambiguity Resolution in Recognition-Based Interfaces", Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology, pp.11-20, November 2000.
Available from: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/354401.354407.

Jennifer Mankoff, Scott Hudson, Gregory Abowd, "Providing Integrated Toolkit-Level Support for Ambiguity in Recognition-Based Interfaces", Proceedings of the 2000 SIGCHI Conference, pp. 368-375, April 2000.
Available from: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/332040.332459.

Scott Hudson, Gary Newell, "Probabilistic State Machines: Dialog Management for Inputs with Uncertainty", Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology, pp. 199-208, November 1992.
Available from: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/142621.142650.

Jennifer Mankoff, Gregory Abowd, Scott Hudson, "Providing Toolkit-Level Support for Ambiguity in Recognition-Based Input", Computers and Graphics, v24, n6, pp. 819-834, December 2000.


Situationally Appropriate Interaction & Managing Human Attention

Interruption Study
Estimating Human Interruptibility Visit the Interruption Study home page for more information about our work in creating systems that can estimate human interruptibility using sensor driven statistical models. The results of this work make it possible for systems to determine that "now is a bad time" to interrupt -- allowing them to act in more appropriate ways. Results show that estimates even better than the judgments made by human observers can be produced using relatively simple sensors.

Key Publications

James Fogarty, Andrew Ko, Htet Htet Aung, Elspeth Golden, Karen Tang, and Scott Hudson, "Examining Task Engagement in Sensor-Based Statistical Models of Human Interruptibility", Proceedings of the CHI '05 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp. 331-340, April 2005. (Best Paper Award).
Available from: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1054972.1055018.

James Fogarty, Scott Hudson, and Jennifer Lai, "Examining the Robustness of Sensor Based Statistical Models of Human Interruptibility", Proceedings of the CHI '04 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp. 207-214, April 2004.
Available from: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/985692.985719.

Scott Hudson, James Fogarty, Christopher Atkeson, Daniel Avrahami, Jodi Forlizzi, Sara Kiesler, Johnny Lee and Jie Yang "Predicting Human Interruptibility with Sensors: A Wizard of Oz Feasibility Study", Proceedings of the CHI '03 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp. 257-264, April 2003.
Available from: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/642611.642657.

James Fogarty, Scott Hudson, Chris Atkeson, Daniel Avrahami, Jodi Forlizzi, Sara Kiesler, Johnny Lee, and Jie Yang, "Predicting Human Interruptibility with Sensors", ACM Transactions on Computer Human Interaction, v12, n1, pp. 119-146, March 2005.
Available from: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1057237.1057243.


Understanding and Supporting
Instant Message Communications

Understanding IM Instant Messaging, or IM, has been growing in popularity for personal and work-related communication. This research seeks to understand, model, and support IM and related forms of communication. Central among the results of this work has been the creation of statistical models of responsiveness to instant messages. These models observe the user's detailed computer activity and use this to, for example, predict whether a new message will be responded to within a given time. Models have been created which can make these predictions with accuracies as high as 91%.

Key Publications

Daniel Avrahami and Scott Hudson, "Responsiveness in Instant Messaging: Predictive Models Supporting Inter-Personal Communication", Proceedings of the CHI '06 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp. 731-740, April 2006.
Available from: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1124772.1124881.

Daniel Avrahami and Scott Hudson, "Communication Characteristics of Instant Messaging: Effects and Predictions of Interpersonal Relationship", Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, pp. 505-514, November 2006.
Available from: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1180875.1180954.

Daniel Avrahami, Scott Hudson, "QnA: Augmenting an Instant Messaging Client to Balance User Responsiveness and Performance" Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, pp. 515-518, November 2004.
Available from: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1031607.1031692.


Perceptually Optimized Displays
Applied to In-Car Navigation

Perceputally Optimized Displays In-vehicle navigation has changed substantially in the past few years. Drivers can now make use of automatic map services and GPS to guide them along their routes. However, safe driving requires concentration -- drivers need to pay attention to the road rather than their in-car technology. To maintain this principle while retaining the value of in-car navigation systems, we are developing the MOVE (Maps Optimized for Vehicular Environments) system. Our system works by optimizing the information presented to the driver at any given time. It balances communicative value with attentional cost so as to deliver the most important information with the least disruption. Preliminary tests with a very simple laboratory driving simulation have shown a six-fold decrease in the total map display fixation time and nearly three-fold decrease in the number of glances needed to interpret the contextually optimized display compared to a static display.

Key Publications

Joonhwan Lee, Jodi Forlizzi, Scott Hudson, "Studying the Effectiveness of MOVE: A Contextually Optimized In-Vehicle Navigation System", Proceedings of the CHI '05 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp. 571-580, April 2005.
Available from: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1054972.1055051.

Joonhwan Lee, Jodi Forlizzi, Scott Hudson, "Iterative Design of MOVE: A Situationally Appropriate Vehicle Navigation System", to appear in International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 2006.


Hardware, Physical Interaction and
New Devices


Rapid Prototyping for Physical Interaction
(Hardware Toolkits)

Rapid Prototyping with Cardboard and Thumbtacks A central goal of early work in user interface tools was to enable a rapid iterative development cycle, preferably accessible to designers with limited or modest programming skills. Modern user interface construction tools have largely succeeded in this goal. However, in the development of new interactive devices, particularly those needing custom electronics, we are currently faced with a situation much like the past -- development requires substantial effort by skilled professionals, making rapid iteration very difficult and expensive. The work in this project has sought to develop new tools and techniques to alleviate this situation.

Key Publications

Scott Hudson and Jennifer Mankoff, "Rapid Construction of Functioning Physical Interfaces from Cardboard, Thumbtacks, Tin Foil and Masking Tape", Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology, pp. 289-297, October 2006.
Available from: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1166253.1166299.

Johnny Lee, Daniel Avrahami, Scott Hudson, Jodi Forlizzi, Paul Dietz, Darren Leigh, "The Calder Toolkit: Wired and Wireless Components for Rapidly Prototyping Interactive Devices", Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on Designing Interactive Systems, pp. 167-175, August 2004.
Available from: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1013115.1013139.

Daniel Avrahami, Scott Hudson, "Forming Interactivity: A Tool for Rapid Prototyping of Physical Interactive Products", Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on Designing Interactive Systems, pp. 141-146, June 2002.
Available from: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/778712.778735.


Projector-Based Location Discovery and Tracking
Understanding IM This project considers techniques for adding object location discovery and tracking capabilities to commercial video projectors. This is accomplished by introducing light sensors into the projection area and then using a series of structured light patterns to spatially encode the image area. This delivers location data in terms of projector's screen coordinates directly to each sensor using the projector itself. By unifying the image projection and location tracking technologies into a single device, many of the difficult calibration issues related to projector-based augmented reality applications can be eliminated, simplifying their implementation and execution.

Key Publications

Johnny Lee, Scott Hudson, Jay Summet, Paul Dietz, "Moveable interactive projected displays using projector based tracking", Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology, pp.63-72, October 2005.
Available from: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1095034.1095045.

Johnny Lee, Paul Dietz, Dan Aminzade, Scott Hudson, "Automatic Projector Calibration with Embedded Light Sensors", Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology, pp. 123-126, October 2004.
Available from: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1029632.1029653.


New Sensors, Input Devices and Displays
New Sensors, Input Devices and Displays Additional recent work has explored a range of new concepts in sensors, input devices and displays including new techniques for activity sensing in the home using sensors placed in the basement, a new technique for using light-emitting diode arrays as both displays and touch sensitive input devices, and work on a low-cost, but highly effective haptic input device.

Also see the Information Percolator home page for more information about our work in ambient information displays in decorative objects, including a unique display which creates pixelated images in water.

Key Publications

James Fogarty, Carolyn Au, Scott Hudson, "Sensing from the Basement: A Feasibility Study of Unobtrusive and Low Cost Home Activity Recognition", Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology, pp. 91-100, October 2006.
Available from: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1166253.1166269.

Scott Hudson "Using Light Emitting Diode Arrays as Touch-Sensitive Input and Output Devices", Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology, pp. 287-290, October 2004.
Available from: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1029632.1029681.

Johnny Lee, Paul Dietz, Darren Leigh, William Yerazunis, Scott Hudson, "Haptic Pen: A Tactile Feedback Stylus for Touch Displays", Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology, pp. 291-294, October 2004.
Available from: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1029632.1029682.

Jeremy Heiner, Scott Hudson, Kenichiro Tanaka, "The Information Percolator: Ambient Information Display in a Decorative Object", Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology, v1, n1, pp. 141-148, November 1999.
Available from: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/320719.322595.


Kinetic Typography

Kinetic Typography Kinetic typography refers to the art and technique of expression with moving text. Kinetic typography has demonstrated the ability to add significant emotive content and appeal to expressive text, allowing some of the qualities normally found in film and the spoken word to be added to static text. In addition, perceptual psychology research on attention, reading performance, and comprehension has indicated that time-based presentation of text can be used effectively to capture and manipulate a viewer's attention and in some cases improve overall reading performance.

For an overview of work in this area, and a range of compelling examples, visit our site at kinetictypography.org.

Key Publications

Joonhwan Lee, Soojin Jun, Jodi Forlizzi, and Scott Hudson, "Using Kinetic Typography to Convey Emotion in Text-Based Interpersonal Communication", Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Designing Interactive Systems (DIS '06), pp. 41-69, June 2006.
Available from: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1142405.1142414.

Jodi Forlizzi, Johnny Lee, and Scott Hudson, "The Kinedit System: Affective Messages Using Dynamic Texts", Proceedings of the CHI '03 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp. 377-384, April 2003.
Available from: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/642611.642677.

Johnny Lee, Jodi Forlizzi, and Scott Hudson, "The Kinetic Typography Engine: An Extensible System for Animating Expressive Text", Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology, pp. 81-90, October 2002.
Available from: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/571985.571997.

Jacob Wobbrock, Jodi Forlizzi, Scott Hudson, and Brad Myers, "WebThumb: Interaction Techniques for Small-Screen Browsers", Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology, pp. 205-208, October 2002.
Available from: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/571985.572014.


Tools and Toolkits

Toolkits for Graphical User Interfaces
subArctic Although no long under active development, the Java-based subArctic toolkit (along with the C++-based Artkit toolkit which preceded it) pioneered a number of advanced toolkit features including: high level support for animation, an advanced input distribution model, constraint-based layout, snapping and drag & drop interactions, built in lens support, new techniques for interactive debugging, dynamic style support, and extensibility at all levels.

The subArctic toolkit works with current Java releases and is available free.

Key Publications

Scott Hudson, Jennifer Mankoff, Ian Smith, "Extensible Input Handling in the subArctic Toolkit", Proceedings of the CHI '05 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp. 381-390, April 2005.
Available from: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1054972.1055025.

Scott Hudson, Kenichiro Tanaka, "Providing Visually Rich Resizable Images for User Interface Components", Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology, pp. 227-235, November 2000.
Available from: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/354401.354783.

Scott Hudson, Roy Rodenstein, Ian Smith, "Debugging Lenses: A New Class of Transparent Tools for User Interface Debugging", Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology, pp. 179-187, October 1997.
Available from: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/263407.263542.

W. Keith Edwards, Scott Hudson, Roy Rodenstein, Ian Smith, Thomas Rodrigues, "Systematic Output Modification in a 2D UI Toolkit", Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology, pp. 151-158, October 1997.
Available from: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/263407.263537.

Scott Hudson, Ian Smith, "Supporting Dynamic Downloadable Appearances in an Extensible User Interface Toolkit", Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology, pp. 159-168, October 1997.
Available from: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/263407.263539.

Scott Hudson, Ian Smith, "Ultra-Lightweight Constraints" Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology, pp. 147-155, November 1996.
Available from: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/237091.237112.

Scott Hudson, John Stasko, "Animation Support in a User Interface Toolkit: Flexible, Robust, and Reusable Abstractions", Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology, pp. 57-67, November 1993.
Available from: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/168642.168648.

Tyson Henry, Scott Hudson, Gary Newell, "Integrating Snapping and Gesture in a User Interface Toolkit", Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology, pp. 112-122, October 1990.
Available from: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/97924.97938.


Other Tools and Toolkits Work
Other Tools and Toolkits

Key Publications

Brad Myers, Scott Hudson, Randy Pausch, "Past, Present and Future of User Interface Software Tools", ACM Transactions on Computer Human Interaction, v7, n1, pp. 3-28, March 2000.
Available from: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/344949.344959.

James Fogarty and Scott Hudson, "Toolkit Support for Developing and Deploying Sensor-Based Statistical Models of Human Situations", to appear in Proceedings of the CHI '07 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, April 2007.

James Fogarty, and Scott Hudson, "GADGET: A Toolkit for Optimization-Based Approaches to Interface and Display Generation", Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology, pp.125-134, November 2003.
Available from: Available from: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/964696.964710.

James Fogarty, Jodi Forlizzi, and Scott Hudson, "Specifying Behavior and Semantic Meaning in an Unmodified Layered Drawing Package", Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology, pp. 61-70, October 2002.
Available from: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/571985.571995.

James Fogarty, Jodi Forlizzi, and Scott Hudson, "Aesthetic Information Collages: Generating Decorative Displays that Contain Information", Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology, pp. 141-150, November 2001.
Available from: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/502348.502369.

Scott Hudson, Bonnie John, Keith Knudsen, Michael Byrne, "A Tool for Creating Predictive Performance Models from User Interface Demonstrations", Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology, pp. 93-102, November 1999.
Available from: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/320719.322590.


Last updated 4/19/2014