Project Description:

Each participant can write on their own piece of paper and contribute to the content on the shared whiteboard.

Initial Idea:

The inspiration for Point and Share stems from our own experience during brainstorming sessions, in which we observed that it was usually one person in the group who consistently wrote on the whiteboard. All other participants either verbally communicated and waited for the writer to summarize their thoughts onto the whiteboard or scribbled in their notebooks to their thoughts with those in physical proximity to them. Through iterative design we designed a system to allow users to continue using their notebooks and share their ideas with everyone in the room by displaying their notes on the whiteboard.

I/O Methods for creative activities have been developed for many years. But the most efficient and accurate way for creative drawing is still the sketching with paper and pencil.

Features:

1. Interaction – Write first then share:

The user writes on the piece of paper. They then point to a spot on the whiteboard using their pen. What they write on the paper appears at the selected spot on the whiteboard.

2. Interaction – Write and share in real-time:

The user points to a spot on the whiteboard using their pen. What they write on the paper appears at the selected spot on the whiteboard in real-time.

3. Archiving:

The whiteboard content from the paper is digitally archived.

Implementation:

1. Room settings:

2. Hardware setup:

3. Processing coding:

Prototypes:

ABSTRACT

A profile image is one of the most important personal attributes on social networking sites (SNSs). The current study examines whether self-presentation on SNSs is related to national culture and how forms of selfpresentation differ between American and Chinese users. We accomplish this by analyzing profile images on two social networking sites, Facebook in the US and Renren in China. Our findings indicate that self-presentation is sensitive to national culture: Chinese users are more likely to customize their profile images than Americans. Our study suggests that there is a need to design social networking website features that better support profile construction for international users.

Author Keywords

Cultural differences, self-presentation, social networking sites, profile images.

ACM Classification Keywords

H5.m. Information interfaces and presentation (e.g., HCI): Miscellaneous.

General Terms

Human Factors.

INTRODUCTION

One of the values provided by Social Networking Sites (SNSs) is the opportunity for self-presentation, which is usually conveyed in the form of online profiles. SNS profiles often consist of a profile image, a self-description, (e.g., demographics) and lists of various interests. These profiles play a significant role in “users’ ability to initiate, develop and maintain personal relationships”[1].

There are a variety of ways that online self-presentation can be characterized. Most previous studies have looked at profile pages with a focus on textual elements. We focus on a common element to all SNS profile pages: The profile image. The profile image usually appears in a noticeable part of the profile page and is a primary piece of identification in a user’s profile. Why is it interesting to study profile images? The profile image, which shows physical appearance, is “the most remarkable feature for self-presentation” according to Leary [2].

In this paper, weexamine the cultural differences in the forms of self-presentation of the SNS profile image. Our results identified different profile image styles between Chinese and American users. Chinese, compared with American users, are more likely to customize their profile images by using, for example, digital effect photos. American users are more likely to show group photos in their profiles, contradicting our original hypothesis. We discuss how these findings provide implications for designing specific features on SNSs for users who are not from Western cultures and have particular preferences for their self-presentation on SNSs.

Self-presentation and Photos as Visual Profiles in SNS

Self-presentation is “the process by which people convey to others that they are a certain kind of person or possess certain characteristics” [2]. Tufekci pointed out that self-presentation is regarded as “a minimum” requirement for participation on SNSs by users and one of the most important pieces of SNSs [3]. Much of the previous research concerning SNSs’ user profiles has examined different perspectives. Stecher and Counts explored aspects of online impression formation and discussed the crucial role of user profiles in this process [4]. A study conducted by Pempek et al. found that participants find self-presentation one of the most interesting things about Facebook and 62.64% of Facebook users consider posting photos as a way to express who they are to other users [5]. Strano studied what kind of photos people choose for their profile images on Facebook and found that gender and age affect what photos people choose for their profiles [6]. Here we consider only how national culture affects the form of self-presentation on SNSs.

Cultural Differences on Self-Presentation

Culture is one of the major influences on self-presentation [6]. In general, the terms “individualism” and “collectivism” are used to understand how cross-cultural differences shape self-presentation. Collectivists, such as the Chinese, tend to emphasize the results of their actions on members of their in-groups. They also tend to be interdependent with in-group members. Individualism in western nations, such as the United States, reflects a tendency to respect individual entities, rather than group entities [7]. Chinese and Americans, for example, have different self concepts in relation to others. Marcus and Kitayama described the Chinese as having interdependent self-construals and Americans as having independent self-construals [8]. A person with an interdependent self-construal sees him/herself as defined by the relationships and contexts s/he inhabits. A person with an independent self-construal, in contrast, sees him/herself as unique, with dispositional attributes that are independent of the relationships and contexts in which s/he is embedded.

This cultural difference has implications for the ways in which people from different cultures might choose to present themselves to others, in part because the concept of “self” varies by culture. Since an interdependent self-conception is desirable in collectivism cultures, we hypothesize that users from this culture might choose to present their social group memberships when presenting themselves online, because relating to others is part of their self concept. Therefore, we form the following hypothesis:

H1. Chinese SNS users, as compared with Americans, will be more likely to use group photos in their profile images.

Here we define a group photo as an image showing a user with one or more other people.

In recent cultural psychology research, researchers have proposed a bicultural self theory for contemporary Chinese individuals, encompassing two main components: The individual-oriented self and the social-oriented self. The social-oriented self is rooted in a traditional Chinese conceptualization, whereas the individual-oriented self has, in recent years, emerged and developed under Western influences, along with modernization. Prior research has found that the individual self of the Chinese gets developed and grows in some situations, such as the workplace [9].  Some research has examined how self-presentation has changed online and found that more flexibility is provided for users in how they construct their self-presentation [10]. Users are provided with a totally new channel and have more freedom when presenting themselves on SNSs when compared with a face to face condition. We believe that the bicultural self in contemporary Chinese individuals can also be reflected in their self-presentation on SNSs. We propose that Chinese SNS users would be more likely to customize their photos in a profile image in a variety of ways, which infers Chinese bi-self concepts when compared to Americans.

H2. Chinese SNS users, when compared with American users, will be more likely to customize their profile images.
We categorized the methods of customization into several classifications: (1) Self photos with digital effects, edited by programs such as Photoshop; (2) Photos of celebrities: Sports stars, movie stars, successful businessmen etc.; (3) Photos of a Baby, Animal, Landscape and Fine arts. (4) Photos of Objects: Phone, computer, car, etc. Figure 1 shows several examples of customized profile images.

METHOD

Participants

This study is based on data collected from Renren and Facebook. The participants of the study came from a list of students at eight top universities (four each in China and the US) who were referred by members of the researchers’ social networks in China and the US. We restricted our sample using two filter questions: Where the student was born and raised, and what language(s) they spoke fluently before the age of 10, to make sure the cultural identity of each participant in this study was strictly either Chinese or American. There were 114 subjects sampled from China and the US in total (57 participants from each country; among the 57 participants, 31 male and 26 female from each country). The average number of friends for each participant was 398 for the Chinese (ranging from 31 to 1608) and 377 for the Americans (ranging from 56 to 2276). All of our participants opened their profile photos for public viewing.

Data Analysis

The profile photos were independently coded by two researchers for group photo (coding interliability: 0.98) and customized photo, including customization type (coding intereliability: 0.89).

RESULTS

An independent sample T-test was conducted to examine the number of SNS friends and showed no significant difference between the Chinese and American participants (t(101)=.30, sig.=.77). We examined the gender effect with a binary logistic regression and found no significant difference on group photo (β= -.09, p=.87) and customized photo (β= -.72, p=.10).

We used the 2-Independent Sample Mann-Whitney Test to test our first hypothesis. For H1, we predicted that Chinese, compared with American participants, will be more likely to use group photos in their profile images. Interestingly, our data showed that 35% of the Americans (20 out of 57 participants) used group photos and none of the Chinese participants had group photos in their profile images; the opposite of our H1 is supported (z=-4.9, p<.001, two-tailed). We used binary logistic regression to test our second hypothesis. Our H2 predicted that Chinese participants, when compared with American participants, will be more likely to customize their profile images. A significant effect of national culture was detected here (β= 1.14, p<.05), suggesting significantly more Chinese (42.1%) customized their profile photos compared to American participants (15.8%). See Table 1 for the customization details.

DISCUSION

CONCLUSION

We are interested in how people use their profile photos to constitute the self image in different cultures. These findings will help the community to get a more holistic view on how SNSs are used in different cultures given that the majority of current SNS research has been performed on Facebook or MySpace in the US.  Moreover, the findings could also have implications for SNS design in achieving cultural sensitivity.  Are customization features necessary for the success of SNSs? Currently, Renren does not have any special features for users to better customize their profile images. However, it does have special features to support users in decorating and personalizing their homepage. The homepages on Renren are diverse in terms of background and visual design, suggesting customization or personalization needs of Chinese users. Additionally, another excellent example is Tencent (www.tencent.com), which is currently the third largest internet company in the world and known for localized design features for Chinese users.  Tencent provides a number of features to support users in customizing their avatars and homepages, such as virtual clothes, profile image patterns, and many templates for personal pages. Cultural differences in self-presentation have implications for the design and use of social networking sites. Graphical applications and tools can be incorporated into existing sites such as Facebook to provide more ways for users to visually present themselves in particular for non-Western users.

ACKNOWLEDEMENTS

We thank Matt Callcut, Desney Tan and James Landay for helping edit this paper, Huiting Zhang and Ilana Diamant for their early participation in this work, and the anonymous CHI reviewers for their thoughtful comments.

REFERENCE

1.Toma, C.L. Affirming the self through online profiles: Beneficial effects of social networking sites. In Proc. CHI 2010, ACM Press (2010), 1749-1752.

2.Leary, M.R., Tchividijian, L.R. and Kraxberger, B.E. Self-presentation can be hazardous to your health: Impression management and health risk. Health Psychology, 13, 6 (1994), 461-470.

3.Tufekci, Z. Can You See Me Now? Audience and Disclosure Regulation in Online Social Network Sites. Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society, 28, 1, (2008), 20-36.

4.Stecher, K., Counts, S. Thin Slices of Online Profile Attributes. In proc. ICWSM’08, American Association for Artificial Intelligence, (2008).

5.Pempek, T.A., Yermolayeva, Y.A. and Calvert, S.L. College students’ social networking experiences on Facebook. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 30, 3 (2009), 227-238.

6.Strano, M.M. User Descriptions and Interpretations of Self-Presentation through Facebook Profile Images. Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace, 2 (2008).

7.Triandis, H.C. The self and social behavior in differing cultural contexts. Psychological Review, Vol. 96, No. 3, (1989), 506-520.

8.Markus, H.R., Kitayama, S. Culture and the self: Implications for cognition, emotion, and motivation. Psychological Review 98, 2 (1991), 224-253.

9.Lu, L. The Individual-Oriented and Social-Oriented Chinese Bicultural Self: Testing the Theory. J. Soc. Psychol., 148, 3 (2008), 347-374.

10.Huffaker, D.A. and Calvert, S.L. Gender, identity, and language use in teenage blogs. Journal of Computer–Mediated Communication, 10, 2 (2005), 1.

11.Scott, C., and Stecher, K. Self-presentation of personality during online profile creation. In Proc. ICWSM ’09, American Association for Artificial Intelligence, (2009).

12.Kayan, S., Fussell, S. R., and Setlock, L.D. Cultural Differences in the Use of Instant messaging in Asia and North America. In Proc. CSCW 2006, ACM Press (2006), 525-528.

13.Zhao, S.Y., Grasmuck, S., and Martin, J. Identity construction on Facebook: Digital empowerment in anchored relationships. Journal of Computers in Human Behavior. 24 (2008). 1816-1836.

14.Chen, G.M. Differences in self-disclosure patterns among Americans versus Chinese: A comparative study. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 26, 1 (1995), 84-91.

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Due to the confidential agreement with Microsoft, the design process cannot be unveiled here.

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<新潮电子>   etc.

100 seconds video:

Initial thoughts:

In the nature, different colors can be mixed into a new color with pigment. What about other materials?

The light might be the hardest “material” to mix together and especially for our physical lamps.

The RGB LED technology allows us to realize this dream to mix the color of lights.

I have tested several technologies. First of all, it’s easy to think about RFID. Each lamp has one RFID tag to present its color nature and at the same time, has one RFID receiver to get to know other lamps ID close to it. But after testing, I met a problem that the RFID receivers will interfere each other when they are closer than the working range. But if they are beyond this range, it’s impossible to sense the RFID tags which also attached to each of the lamps. Hence, I gave up the RFID proposal.

Secondly, I thought about infrared light. But after testing, I found that the infrared light is not very stable and accurate since the working environment may vary from bright to dark light. And also the changing light of the lamp itself may interfere the signal I/O from infrared light and sensor.

Finally I found another technology called “Hall Effect” sensor, which using the magnetic field for output and input. The sensor will change the resistance while the magnetic field changes. Also, the hall effect sensors and magnets are much cheaper and smaller than other technologies, like RFID.

The testing of magnet and hall effect sensor:

Structure design of the lamp.

In order to have some scattering effect, we designed the structure into layers instead of one piece facade. Each layer are different and has waving effect inside.

The manufacture process:

The supporting structure of electronics is designed as a “one piece” shell, without any glue, screw or other adhesive material. All the electronics are automatically fixed and locked inside the whole structure.

We met a problem that after stacking many layers, the structure was not vertically straight. So we used the building technology to laser cut calibrating holes on each layers and then used four rigid strings to cross over all the layers.

For the inside structure, initially we would have to have 56 pieces of wire inside to connect all the sensors and LED lights. It may affect the lighting effect a lot since the LEDs are in the very middle of atrium. So we used the same technology to build 10 “guiding” conducted rigid wires and used splitting structure to ensure all the wires were separate.

Testing

Final effect of lighting

The mix of green and blue color.

Mix of blue and red color

Mix of green and red color

The mix of three color together, and the linear change of mixing.

Different iterations of color mixing.

The effect of scattering.

The effect of scattering in other lamps.

Final full scale model of PEV

Full scale model video

The design process:

100 seconds video:

Initial thoughts:

Our initial thought is from the Moooi light and Hoberman ball. We want to make an interactive lamp that can interact with people and change the light based on people’s needs.

Motion design and testing:

First physical testing model

Electronic design:

Prototype1: Liner effects

Prototype2: 2D effects

Prototype 3: Final design- 3d effects

Installation concept:

Bionic functions

The act of this “tree” has four bionic functions:

1. It can dance with background music that mainly performs in the evening.

2. The leaves can change the angel to smooth the sunshine in the daytime.

3. Also, the leaves can vibrate when there is a breeze sway.

4. The trunk and branches can twist when the general wind speed is high.

Music visualization experiment

I transfered the system sound into frequency, tone, and volume. Then I filtered the frequency into color channel, the volume into lightness channel, and the tone into rotation channel. Therefore I can visualize the music in the Rhino with these three control values.

Parametric design

[See post to watch Flash video]

Final design

1. Initial thoughts

Our main focus is on the fabrication and assembly techniques of the built form by means of a fully automated assembly process focusing on the 6-axis robot.  By integrating the robot into the assembly process, the technique used to connect adjacent members requires a structural performance so that adjoining spherical members are able to become interlocked through a spring-loaded connection.   This connection is presumed to be populated throughout the three-dimensional matrix pattern  generating the proposed geometry.

Locking system video:

2.Performance

Additionally, the process of building the proposed geometry will offer varying degrees of performance based on the configuration of the piece – small screened partition, coffee table, bench – By re-orienting the piece to achieve these three desired conditions, the supporting load of a human, planar configuration of a table, and visual porosity of a screen will be a necessary performance criteria in order to successfully achieve these three configurations

The performance of the project explores a few different aspects:

1. Connection – this assembly of pieces will be handled by a spring-loaded rod that will engage each piece when it its assembled.

2. Geometry – With the given form of the design, we are anticipating that the performance of the assembly can be utilized in multiple ways depending on the orientation of the assembly. Bench – Table – Screen partition.  Because of the nature of the automation process we are utilizing, having the constraints satisfy the above three configurations gives us a top down approach. This onset of the overall form of the design, requires that the connect system and automation process  be applied to the design, rather than starting from a modulated form and generating a system utilizing an initial modular.  – A reversed engineering process.   While starting with a set module, and instantiating it to generate a design would be ideal, our main focus for the project is to understand how to integrate a fully automated process with the 6 axis robot, and reducing the initial amount of variability with the design will allow us to focus on the robot automation process.

3. Digital model

By generating a point cloud from the desired geometry we will be able to even distribute the points and generate a logic that will satisfy the constraints of what will be necessary for the three orientations described above.  Additionally, the final fabricated model will be generated through a parameterized manner via a scripting method we are exploring in grasshopper. By generating a script from a rhino model to rapid code, the design will be able to go through multiple iterations without the need to utilize the teach pendant on the robot for generating each necessary point for the construction and assembly process

4. Scripting for fabrication

Due to the nature of uniform non directional objects (sphere’s in this instance), our system is able to connect these objects in any orientation – practically impossible to calculate by hand.  This system allows for the design to be approached from two methods: top down or bottom up.  A) Bottom Up Design – a series of modules, such as polyhedrons, connected together to form an abstract design. B) Top Down Design – We determine a surface onto which we distribute our module to the best of it’s ability via patterns.

Locating system by Grasshopper

5. Fabricating process

Simulation in RobotStudio

Robot accuracy testing

6. Prototypes

7. Final design

Final drilling process

We are developing a double curved single layered surface that will stand on it’s own. This piece will have a triad function of a coffee table, bench, and a small screen partition