Research |
Portfolio ::
:: Human Centered Computing
@
Georgia
Institute
of
Technology
(2007 - Present)
| A Tangible Programming Environment for Children | |||
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Team: 4 people Development: Purpose: PhD.
Research Topics: augmented-reality children cognition hci |
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AR Spot is the first
augmented-reality authoring environment for children. An extension of
MIT's Scratch project, this environment allows children to create games
which are situated in the real world and controlled by physical
interactions. The project explores how interaction metaphors can be
used in an interface to match children's cognitive abilities with the
capabilities of a complex technology. The project involves iterative
system development and user studies. Publications:
I. Radu and B. MacIntyre.
Augmented-Reality Scratch: A Children's Authoring Environment for
Augmented-Reality Experiences. International Conference on Interaction
Design and Children. Como, Italy. June 2009 I. Radu and B. MacIntyre.
Augmented-Reality Scratch: A Tangible Programming Environment for
Children. In the ACM CHI 09 Workshop on Tangibles for Children, Boston,
MA, April 2009. |
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Puppy Plus: Augmented Mathematics |
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Team: 3 people (led
by myself) Development: Unity3D,
Maya Purpose: PhD
Research Topics: augmented-reality children education game
design |
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Through this
Android-based AR math game, children 6-8 practice basic mathematics
skills through familiar physical interactions. In the game, children
manipulate physical game pieces in order to feed a hungry puppy the
amount of food it desires on its virtual island. With this project we
are exploring design of multi-marker augmented-reality experiences
suitable for elementary math classrooms. Resources: [YouTube video (Puppy Plus) ] |
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Spinspace + Spintopia: Studying Handheld-AR Interaction Techniques through Games |
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| Team: 2 people (led by myself) Development: Unity3D Purpose: PhD Research Topics: augmented-reality children interaction techniques game design hci |
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In these two handheld
augmented-reality games, children construct 3D structures using
different interaction techniques on a phone touchscreen. Through
interactions such as pushing buttons on a touchscreen, drawing tracks
with their finger, or moving and rotating 3D objects, children
construct 3D spirographs in Spinspace and interactive drawings in
Spintopia. These games are part of an exploration of interaction
techniques suitable for elementary-school children. Resources: [YouTube video (Spintopia) ] |
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Ping Research: |
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| Team:
5 people (led by myself) Development: (coded by myself) Objective-C, PHP, SQL Purpose: Research Project Topics: augmented-reality hci iPhone user studies |
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Resources: In Publication (Currently N/A) |
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Metaphorical Microblogging: |
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| Team:
3 people (led by myself) Development: (coded by myself) Java, Processing, SQL Purpose: Internship Project Topics: hci metaphors microblogging info-visualization |
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In this project, we
explored how existing microblogging systems (such as Twitter and
Yammer) can be visualized metaphorically, and what effect this has on
user emotions and exploratory behaviors. The system performed
statistical and emotional analysis on microblogging data, presented
users with a metaphorical visualization, and allowed users to interact
with the data through the metaphor. |
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| Team:
4 people (led by myself) Development: Flash, PHP, SQL Purpose: Class Project (Human-Centered Interaction) Topics: children hci user studies |
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This system is an online
virtual world designed to increase recycling behaviors of middle-school
children. This class project proceeded through a user-centered design
process, involving contextual analysis, design of multiple
alternatives, implementation, and evaluation/analysis. |
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| Thought
Play: Studying Cognition Through Augmented-Reality Interaction |
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| Team:
Myself Development: C++, OpenGL Purpose: Personal Project Topics: augmented-reality cognition hci |
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This is an
augmented-reality 3D brainstorming system. It is my second AR project,
intended to serve as a starting platform for exploring the relationship
between cognition and embodied action. In a real-world space accessed
via a Wii controller, the user can place objects which represent mental
concepts. Concepts can be linked together, and groups/hierarchies can
be created. This knowledge space can be further explored through
interactions such as moving into/out-of concepts, and interacting with
concepts to see causal effects. Poster:
I. Radu. ThoughtPlay:
Studying Cognition Through Augmented-Reality Interaction. In
Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Design
Computing and Cognition Conference, Atlanta, GA. June 2008. |
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AR Twist: |
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| Team:
Myself Development: C++, OpenGL Purpose: Personal Project Topics: augmented-reality hci |
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This system is an
architectural tool for constructing 3D environments in real-world
spaces using a pointing device. This was my first Augmented-Reality
project, and it involved experimentation with AR interaction
techniques, such as multi-scale visualization and live modification of
3D shapes. |
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| Visualizing Academic Research | |||
| Team:
3 people (led by myself) Development: Java, Processing Purpose: Class Project (Information Visualization) Topics: hci info-visualization |
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This is a system for
visualizing academic activity and collaborations between research
institutions. The system aggregates publications from the ACM Digital
Library, and provides interactive visualization of institutions� publication activity (in
terms of publication counts, conference venues, and references made
between institutions). |
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Believable Character Authoring & Execution Environment |
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| Team:
4 people Development: No implementations. Purpose: PhD. Research Topics: artificial-intelligence cognition hci user studies |
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SecondMind is an
environment for creating intelligent virtual characters. The system is
composed of an AI backend for generation of intelligent character
behaviors, and a UI frontend through which users demonstrate behaviors
and program character personalities. I was part of the initial team of
graduate students which developed the concept for this system through
iterative high level design, use case development, and user studies. Publications:
C. Lacey, M. Mehta, I.
Radu, A. Jain. "Creating Behavior Authoring Environments for Everyday
Users". In the 2009 International Conference on Computer Games,
Multimedia and Allied Technology. Singapore. May 2009. C. Lacey, I. Radu, M.
Mehta. "Second Mind: A Wiki Environment for Authoring Virtual
Characters". Undergraduate Research Opportunities in Computing
Symposium, Atlanta, USA, May 2008. (People's
Choice
Second
Prize
Winner) |
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:: Computer Science
@
University
of
British
Columbia
(2000
-
2007)
| ACE: An Intelligent Open-Learning Environment for Mathematics |
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| Team:
2 people Development: Java, SPSS Purpose: Undergrad Research (NSERC USRA) Topics: artificial-intelligence children cognition hci user studies |
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ACE is an intelligent
tutoring environment for teaching high-school mathematics. The system
models users through a Bayesian network and adapts its behavior to
maximize student learning. My work on the existing project involved
developing new functionality and utility tools, conducting a user study
at a local high-school, performing associated data analysis and
interface improvements. |
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| NEMOS: Service Architecture for Mobile Lightweight Devices |
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| Team:
Myself Development: Java, WSDL, RDF Purpose: Undergrad Research (NSERC USRA) Topics: artificial intelligence cognition hci networking systems |
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This is a platform for
coupling the paradigms of Web Services and Mobile Agents. It is an
extension of my honors thesis project, the NEMO infrastructure, to
allow mobile agents to make use of Web 2.0 network services. This
infrastructure permits network resources to be semantically annotated,
such that agents can intelligently perform tasks in the network. A
knowledge management interface and visual-programming environment were
also developed as part of this project. Publications:
Iulian Radu, Son T. Vuong.
NEMOS: Mobile-Agent Based Service Architecture for Lightweight Devices.
International WorldComp Conference: Semantic Web and Web Services. Las
Vegas, USA. July 2007. Iulian Radu. S. T. Vuong:
Mobile Agent Service-Oriented Architectures. BC-NET Conference.
Vancouver, Canada. April 2007. (Poster-session
Second
Prize
Winner) |
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| GODIS: Ontology-Based Resource Discovery and Integration in Grids |
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| Team:
2 people Development: OWL, RDF Purpose: Personal Project Topics: cognition networking |
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This is a theoretical
architecture for semantic resource sharing and discovery over
large-scale P2P networks. The paper proposes an algorithm for sharing
knowledge between network communities. Knowledge is composed of
interconnected RDF ontologies whose construction and access is
facilitated by a distributed-hash-table infrastructure. Publications:
Juan Li, Iulian Radu, Son
T. Vuong. GODIS: Ontology-Based Resource Discovery and Integration in
Grids. IASTED Conference: Parallel and Distributed Computing Systems,
Dallas, USA, November 2006. |
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NEMO: |
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| Team:
Myself Development: Java, J2ME Purpose: Undergrad Research (Honors Thesis) Topics: artificial intelligence cognition hci networking systems |
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NEMO is a mobile-agent
system for lightweight JavaME devices. The system included a common
agent infrastructure, as well as a visual debugging and simulation
interface. Its application was resource search and discovery over
mobile phone Bluetooth networks. The system was deployed on Nokia 6650
phones. |
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Motion Fields of Burning
Man: |
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| Team:
Myself Development: Processing Purpose: Personal Project Topics: computer vision experimentation |
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Motion Fields of Burning
Man was the vision of a project to be deployed on the festival playa. A network of
distributed light-emitting robots would modify its appearance in
response to sensing beings (detected through thermal or visual
sensors), and produce visually stimulating environments. Only the
motion-tracking portion of this project was ultimately built. |
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| YANA Yet Another Network Analyser |
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| Team:
3 people (led by myself) Development: C, Python Purpose: Personal Project (started from class on Advanced Networking) Topics: networking systems |
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YANA is a web-based
network mapping system. A web server operates
as a network trace utility which determines the route to all visitors
to its website, and calculates the bandwidth of each link along that
route. The routes are then aggregated into an online-accessible graph
which displays the local network topology. |
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| XEN Virtualization Network Control | |||
| Team:
Myself Development: Java, C Purpose: Class Project (Virtualization) Topics: networking systems |
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This project involved
modification of the VMWare networking device drivers to function as a
network monitor and firewall. The modification allowed the drivers to
send information to a remote administrator machine, which would monitor
and control any network traffic of the virtual machine client. The
VMWare drivers were written in C, while the administration software was
a network visualization built in Java. |
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| IULOS Personal Operating System |
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| Team:
Myself (suggested team size was 3 people) Development: Assembly x86, C Purpose: Class Project (Advanced OS Architectures) Topics: systems |
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My personal OS is a
multi-threaded operating system capable of memory management, process
scheduling and input/output device simulation. I developed this system
on my own as a class project, and later extended it to have a simulated
disk file system and keyboard console. |
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:: Exploring Creativity
@
Home
(1996-2000)
| Experiments: Flash Programming |
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| Team:
Myself Development: Flash Purpose: Personal Project Topics: experimentation |
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While learning Flash
programming in my spare time, I created these interactive animations. |
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| Experiments: 3D modeling |
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| Team:
Myself Development: Bryce3D, Photoshop Purpose: Personal Project Topics: experimentation |
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While learning 3D
modeling in my spare time, I created these images. |
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| Invisible Network Bridge | |||
| Team:
Myself Development: C Purpose: Personal Project Topics: networking systems |
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I programmed a network
bridge software to connect two network media in my house (10BaseT and
100VG). The software operated on a dedicated 'silent' computer and
contained packet monitoring and filtering capabilities. |
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| Personal Web Servers | |||
| Team:
Myself Development: Pascal Purpose: Personal Project Topics: networking systems |
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During the early days of
learning about networking and RFC documents, I programmed simple
HTTP and FTP servers on which I hosted my homepage. |
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