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Biographical Sketch: Seth Shostak
Seth is an astronomer at the SETI Institute, in Mountain View,
California. The SETI Institute runs the world's most sensitive search
for extraterrestrial intelligence. Seth has an undergraduate degree
from Princeton University, and a doctorate in astronomy from the
California Institute of Technology. For years, he conducted radio
astronomy research on galaxies, and has published approximately
fifty papers in professional journals. During more than a decade,
he worked at the Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, in The Netherlands,
using the Westerbork Radio Synthesis Telescope.
Seth has written several hundred popular articles on various topics
in astronomy, technology, film and television. He lectures frequently
on astronomy and other subjects at the California Academy of Sciences,
and gives approximately 70 talks annually at both academic and corporate
institutions. For the last three years, Seth has been a Distinquished
Speaker for the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
His most recent book is "Sharing the Universe: Perspectives
on Extraterrestrial Life."
Cameron
Miner 
July
11, 2001
Cameron Miner "Wearable
Computers"
Bio:
Cameron Miner is the founder of the designLab within the User Systems
Experience Research (USER) Group at the IBM Almaden Research Center
in San Jose, Calif. His work in the USER Group includes developing
wearable computing, pervasive computing and physical-user interface
devices. His most recent work involves "digital jewelry"
-- the implementation of technology into things people already wear
and carry.
Cameron Miner graduated from MIT, with a bachelor of science in
physics, working on solar astrophysics. His graduate work, at Stanford
University, was in product design with a focus on assistive technologies
and home computers.
Prior to joining IBM Research, Cameron founded CSMDesign, which
involved working with a variety of clients to design medical devices
and advanced computer interfaces. Before that, Cameron was part
of the Spatial Imaging Group at MIT's Media Lab conducting real-time
holography and holo-disc research.
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Cameron S. Miner
Technical Program Manager, Joint Program
Research Staff Member, designLab
USER Group, IBM Almaden Research Center
About designLab:
While most of research is concerned with pushing technical boundaries,
the User Experience group is primarily focused on how new technologies
will lead to new opportunities for use, and what effect this will
have on our lives. The designLab was created to help give structure
to the design process within the IBM Almaden Research Laboratory.
In the design process, we begin with an understanding of the needs
of the users.
We start by researching the activities and interactions we are trying
to enhance. Ideation takes place through "brainstorming"
and "mindmapping" and helps to generate many new possibilities.
These ideas are then cast into plausible scenarios, and storyboards
are created. The storyboards not only allow us to make sure that
the new applications fit into the "real world" but serve
as a guide as we continue to develop the ideas - a guide which constantly
reminds us of the desired outcome of our work.
We continue by creating mockups, simulations, and prototypes which
allow us to test out our ideas with people. By turning ideas into
real objects, we can understand more of the real issues surrounding
the concepts. As we learn from our prototypes, we feed that information
back into the definiton of our basic problem, and generate further
ideas. This is an iterative process, constantly folding back upon
itself. Throughout the process, we are constantly spinning out new
artifacts, constantly discovering new applications, and constantly
re-analyzing the basic issues.
The ultimate goal of the designLab is to aid in identifying and
creating future products and services which will enhance our interactions
with computers, the world, and each other. Some of our current projects
include peripheral displays, wearable computing, and digital jewelry.
About Digital Jewelry:
If pervasive computing is really going to give us access "anytime,
anywhere" or "all-the-time, everywhere," then our
access devices must not only meet the functional requirements but
must also begin to accommodate our personal, social and emotional
lives as well. Already, the PDA and mobile phone have started to
take on our personality with fashionable accessories. Now competition
for pocket space is becoming an issue. With the technology shrinking,
why not start enhancing the things we already wear, like jewelry?
Research in digital jewelry explores our technological, aesthetic,
social and emotional needs in our interactions with pervasive devices.
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