Sök Kontakt
bild
Skolan för
datavetenskap
och kommunikation
KTH / CSC / Kurser / DT2140

DT2140 Multimodal interfaces

Assignment 1

Task: Summarize and review a recent scientific paper describing an innovative human-computer interface.

The objective of Assignment 1 is firstly to let the students get an in-depth view of the state-of-the-art for a selection of multimodal interfaces, and secondly to familiarize them with the synopsis of scientific papers in preparation for the project report.

Instructions:
Use e.g.,
the electronic journals available from KTHB to find a suitable article about an interesting human-computer interface.

The article that you choose should be electronically available and you should give the internet address in your report.

1. Make a short summary (about 200 words) of the most important aspects of the article (what is the authors' background?, what have they done? how? what were the results?). Important: The summary should NOT be similar to the article's abstract. To avoid being influenced too much by the original abstract it is wise to refrain from consulting it when writing the summary.

2. Make a critical review of the work:
Consider the interface presented in the article and use your knowledge about human-computer interaction and the technology of different modalities to evaluate it. You should give your own, personal, view of the properties (innovation, strenghts, weaknesses, potential etc) of the interface, but claims and arguments should be supported by references to the course literature or other sources, in order to demonstrate that you have made use of the theory and proven knowledge in your analysis.

Important: The critical review should NOT be an extended summary of the article, i.e., you should give your own, not the authors' view about the properties of the interface. You may certainly include what the authors' write on these aspects, but you must also provide your own, independent judgement.

The following questions may be used as guidelines, but depending on the paper that you have read, some may not be applicable and others may be more relevant.

  • In what way is the interface innovative compared to a similar traditional interface for the same type of task?
  • Are there any other similar innovative interfaces that this work could be compared with?
  • Is the proposed interface suitable/optimal for the given task? What are the strengths and weaknesses?
  • Has the interface been properly evaluated in experiments (are the methods and results that are presented sound and interesting)? Why or why not?
  • Is there a commercial, industrial, scientific or entertainment potential in the interface/application? Would you like to use it yourself?
  • How could the work be improved or continued?
3. Video illustration of the work:
For many of the applications described in the literature, video demos are available on the internet. Perform a search for such video illustrations and provide a link in the report if you do find one.

The assignment should be done in small groups (4, or 3, students), preferably in the same groups as you do your projects. The selected paper may (but does not have to) be related to the subject of your project, i.e., it may be part of your background research.

Submit the report in bilda.kth.se under Assignment 1 (preferably in pdf) no later than November 4th.

Requirements:
In order to pass, the review should:

  • be submitted on time: Not later than November 4th
  • contain a summary (of about 200 words) that is significantly different from the original abstract.
  • contain a review of at least 3 pages (excluding the summary) with 12 pt text showing that the students have considered the method and results critically.
  • demonstrate that the students make adequate use of the theory of the course when reviewing the paper.

Grading criteria for assignment 1

The grading of assignment 1 is primarily focused on the amount of critical analysis and reflection, linked to theory.
That is, you should discuss the paper rather than merely summarizing it and you should support your views with references.
You should also present your discussion clearly, using a sectioning structure that highlights the main points in the discussion and the conclusions of the review.

See further the general grading criteria for the course for an overview of the grade levels.


Assignment 2

Task: Give the outlines of and do a pre-study for your project.

Background:
Your main work effort in this course consists of carrying out a
project in groups of 3 students and present it in writing and at a seminar.

The role of Assignment 2 is to prepare for this project by requiring you to give the specifications for your project and to start searching the literature for related work.

It is highly recommended that you start planning for the project and begin with Assignment 2 early in the course. Even if the deadline is November 18th, you should begin your discussions with your project team and supervising teacher early in the course, in order to allow you to find a suitable project topic in time.

Note that it is allowed to reuse parts of this assignment in the project report (in particular background, aims, evaluation scheme, related work) and you will hence prepare for the writing of the report by devoting time to Assignment 2.

Instructions:
You should write a description and specification for your project, consisting of the following headings:

  1. Title of the project
  2. Supervisor: Each project should be supervised by one of the teachers of the course. You should discuss your ideas for the project with one of the teachers, get the ideas approved and make sure that the teacher agrees to supervise your project. The supervisor will also grade the project, together with the course responsible.
  3. Background: Describe why you want to do this particular project.
  4. Aims and delimitations: What will you attempt doing in the project, and what will you not attempt doing?
  5. Set up: Describe (briefer than is required for the project report) the application/prototype/test/evaluation that you will be doing. Describe as clearly as possible the set up, if applicable also with an illustrating Figure, that you intend to create or use in your project. Describe the Human-Computer Interface and interaction, the different technological components of your system and how they are communicating etc.
  6. Evaluation scheme: How will you evaluate if the project aims are met?
  7. Suggested project plan: Describe how you plan to carry out the project.
  8. Responsibilities within the project group: How will you distribute the work within the group?
  9. Time plan: How much time will you need to devote to different parts of the project? When will you schedule this time?
  10. Risk analysis: Which are the risks that may make your project unsuccessful? How can you limit these risks?
  11. Related work: Do a literature search for scientific publications that describe similar implementations or studies, the background and/or the research field. Make a short summary of the relevant parts of the publications (note that one requirement for the project report is that it should cite at least five scientific publications; by doing this part of the assignment properly, you will have prepared for the project report).

Submit the report in bilda.kth.se under Assignment 2 (preferably in pdf) no later than November 18th.

In addition you should send a copy of the report to the group's supervisor either by e-mail or by placing it in the documents of the project group (as agreed with your supervisor).

Requirements:
In order to pass, the specification should:
- be submitted on time: Not later than November 18th.
- contain the 11 parts outlined above.
- be at least 4 pages with 12 pt text, with the emphasis on parts 3-7 and 10-11.

Grading criteria for assignment 2

Each of the 11 parts outlined in the instructions will be evaluated, with more weight given to
the background description and the summary of related work (demonstrating a knowledge of the field that the project is to be performed in),
the aims (innovation, ambition and that the goals are realistic),
the description of the project (do you have a well-formed, realistic plan that will allow you to carry out the project successfully?), and
the evaluation (ambition, realistic, based on theory)

See further the general grading criteria for the course for an overview of the grade levels.


Course responsible: Olov Engwall, engwall@kth.se, 790 75 65