Randall Smith

Oracle Corporation · Oracle Labs

In a method for interacting with a system that includes physical devices that are interfaced with computer software, a graphical representation of a physical device that can be graphically interconnected with a graphical representation of a software module is generated. The graphical representation of the physical device is capable of being represe...

An apparatus for controlling a target device including a first input device configured to provide a first input to the target device, a second input device configured to provide a second input to the target device, and a control mixer configured to generate an output using a policy, the first input and the second input, wherein the output comprises...

A method for transferring digital content, involving defining a first region of space associated with a first device and a second region of space associated with a second device, wherein the first device includes digital content to be transferred to the second device, performing a first action within the first region, obtaining the digital content...

If we are to learn from history, then, as innovators in the field of educational multimedia, we might learn from past visions. Starting with the unimaginably ancient past (1985) and continuing through the present day, wepsilall note how a technology, once arrived, differs from its predicted form. Ipsilall suggest that as we move from the days of ex...

We describe the Sun Small Programmable Object Technology, or Sun SPOT. The Sun SPOT is a small wireless computing platform that runs Java directly, with no operating system. The system comes with an on-board set of sensors, and I/O pins for easy connection to external devices. We also describe SPOTWorld, an integrated management and code deployment...

We describe the Sun1 Small Programmable Object Technology, or Sun SPOT. The Sun SPOT is a small wireless computing platform that runs Java1 directly, with no operating system. The system comes with an on-board set of sensors, and I/O pins for easy connection to external devices, and supporting software.

We report on a project at Sun Microsystems Laboratories invest-igating small wireless transducer systems. Project Sun™ SPOT, (Sun Small Programmable Object Technology), provides both the hardware and software needed to more easily build many different types of sensor applications. The hardware platform provides enough resources and capabilities to...

We report on a project at Sun Microsystems Laboratories investigating small wireless transducer systems. The project includes many facets: we're designing and building the hardware, porting a J2ME compliant Java VM called "Squawk" to run on the devices, creating transducer I/O, networking, and security libraries, building programming tools, and mak...

We report on set of studies conducted over two years involving over 1000 students at two univers ities. The main study compares three conditions: conventional classroom lecture, a face-to-face collaborative learning technique called Tutored Video Instruction (TVI), and the virtual-world counterpart of TVI, Distributed Tutored Video Instruction (DTV...

We report a series of studies on the role of eye contact in video-mediated communication. These are part of an ongoing research program, which is investigating the usefulness of the technological mediated collaborative problem solving for distance learning. Technological mediation consists of access to shared simulations and access to a variety of...

We describe problems associated with accessing data resources external to the application, which we term externalities, in replicated synchronous collaborative applications. Accessing externalities such as files, databases, network connections, environment variables, and the system clock is not as straightforward in replicated collaborative softwar...

SELF is an object-oriented language for exploratory programming based on a small number of simple and concrete ideas: prototypes, slots, and behavior. Prototypes combine inheritance and instantiation to provide a framework that is simpler and more flexible than most object-oriented languages. Slots unite variables and procedures into a single const...

We present a generalized definition of scrolling that unifies a wide range of existing interaction techniques, from conventional scrolling through pan and zoom systems and fish-eye views. Furthermore it suggests a useful class of new scrolling techniques in which objects do not move across the display. These “stationary scrolling” techniques do not...

The five ways of using computer simulations for students learning physics are for `hypothetical' experiments, for `breaking' the laws of nature, for `tidy' experiments, for `instrumental' data capture and display and for direct mathematical `modelling'. This article describes a distributed computer simulation running on linked workstations and repo...

This project was a vision of former Sun Labs Director Bert Sutherland. He had been impressed by the "Tutored Video Instruction" (TVI) studies of his longtime friend Jim Gibbons, a Stanford professor and, later, Dean of Stanford's School of Engineering. Gibbons showed that students can achieve higher grades if, rather than attending lecture, they st...

We describe the support forroles in a shared space applica- tion ad prog~g environment c~d Kansas. As in r~ty, the underlying physics of Kansas has no notion of role. However, roles are suppotied by two features of the system the spatial character of Kansas (which enables dif- ferent views for Werent users) and a capabfity system that filters user...

This paper reports on the some experiments to explore the distributed synchronous learning of probability. We have been studying synchronous computer supported collaboration between adults using Kansas, a very general and powerful environment. We have implemented a shared simulation of a "game show" and used this with groups of adults ranging in si...

Computers enables programmers to fashion their own universes, choosing their own sets of "physical laws." Although, may computer-based systems seem to have their physics well debugged. Some collaborative virtual environments allow their users to "program" For example, LambdaMOO at Xerox PARC allows users to make new kinds of objects with new behavi...

People interact together in all aspects of life and, as computers have become prevalent, users seek computer support for their interactions. The WWW provides an unprecedented opportunity for users to interact with each other, and the advent of JavaThfl has created a consistent computing environment to support synchronous collaboration. We describe...

. The Self system attempts to integrate intellectual and non-intellectual aspects of programming to create an overall experience. The language semantics, user interface, and implementation each help create this integrated experience. The language semantics embed the programmer in a uniform world of simple objects that can be modified without appeal...

Reuse is about more than sharing code. As technology, standards and ideas evolve: so do the artifacts available for reuse. Our understanding of the non-technical issues associated with reuse also progresses. This panel will look at reuse from 5 different perspectives. We will look at the reuse of design patterns and of services in a service-based,...

Most object-oriented languages are objective: an object always responds to the same message in the same way. Subjective objects more closely match naturally occurring systems, and they provide consistent solutions to a wide range of problems, problems that otherwise must be solved by varied and specialized mechanisms. Applying a perspective-receive...

Morphic is a user interface construction environment that strives to embody directness and liveness. Directness means a user interface designer can initiate the process of examining or changing the attributes, structure, and behavior of user interface components by pointing at their graphical representations directly. Liveness means the user interf...

Manipulating programs is hard, while manipulating objects in the physical world is often easy. Several attributes of the physical world help make it comprehensible and manipulable: concreteness, uniformity, and flexibility. The Self programming system attempts to apply these attributes to the world within the computer. The semantics of the language...

Manipulating programs is hard, while manipulating objects in the physical world is often easy. Several attributes of the physical world help make it comprehensible and manipulable: concreteness, uniformity, and flexibility. The Self programming system attempts to apply these attributes to the world within the computer. The semantics of the language...

The Self system attempts to integrate intellectual and nonintellectual aspects of programming to create an overall experience. The language semantics, user interface, and implementation each help create this integrated experience. The language semantics embed the programmer in a uniform world of simple objects that can be modified without appealing...

Subjectivity in object-oriented systems is a new research area. At this, the first workshop in this area, there was much discussion of fundamental concepts and issues, as well as of perceived needs for subjectivity and models for realizing it. The discussion is summarized here, and a list of issues that were identified during the workshop is presen...

An abstract is not available.

The Self programming language, which distills object-oriented computation down to a simple story based on copying prototypes to create objects, inheriting from objects to share their contents, and passing messages to invoke methods, is discussed. It is shown that Self's uniform application of the object-message paradigm gives programmers unusual fl...

"What you see is what I think you see" is a property that can help technology support realtime interaction between physically separated users. The WYSIWITYS property is a natural consequence of adhering to a physical world metaphor. However, WYSIWITYS can be applied to systems that are not perfect adherents to the virtual world model. SharedARK, a...

I describe a system called SharedARK (for Shared Alternate Reality Kit,) which may serve as a prototype for a future distance education technology. In SharedARK, each single-user site consists of a computer workstation, an audio headset, a video monitor, and video camera. Each site is physically isolated from the others and are connected via a comp...

We designed an ecology of auditory icons which worked together to convey information about a complex, demanding simulation task, and observed users collaborating on it with and without sound. Our observations suggest that audio cues can provide useful information about processes and problems, and support the perceptual integration of a number of se...

We discuss the potential for auditory icons to address several common problems in large-scale, multiprocessing, and collaborative systems. These problems include those of confirming user-initiated actions, providing information about ongoing processes or system states, providing adequate navigational information, and signalling the existence and ac...

An abstract is not available.

Interactive simulations for use in teaching physics have become commonplace. At CAL 83 there was a report on the design and use of a bubble chamber simulation. This program was implemented in UCSD Pascal. Students successfully used this program to learn about the appearance of bubble chamber tracks, the conservation laws at work in particle interac...

The authors report on the experience gained in the construction of a bubble chamber simulation using the alternate reality kit (ARK). ARK is a graphical animated environment for creating interactive simulations constructed in Smalltalk-80 at Xerox PARC. The simulation is set into a motivating scenario-a fantasy game where the students have the goal...

An introduction is given to SELF, an object-oriented language for exploratory programming that is based on a small number of simple and concrete ideas: prototypes, slots and behavior. Prototypes combine inheritance and instantiation to provide a framework that is simpler and more flexible than most object-oriented languages. Slots unite variables a...

This article presents an overview of the Alternate Reality Kit, an animated environment for creating interactive simulations. ARK is built upon a physical-world metaphor: All objects have an image, a position, a velocity, and the ability to experience forces. Users manipulate objects with a mouse-operated "hand," which enables them to carry and thr...

This paper presents an overview of the Alternate Reality Kit (ARK), an animated environment for creating interactive simulations. ARK is built upon a physical-world metaphor: all objects have an image, a position, a velocity, and can experience forces. Users manipulate objects with a mouse-operated “hand” which enables them to carry and throw objec...

This paper presents an overview of the Alternate Reality Kit (ARK), an animated environment for creating interactive simulations. ARK is built upon a physical-world metaphor: all objects have an image, a position, a velocity, and can experience forces. Users manipulate objects with a mouse-operated “hand” which enables them to carry and throw objec...

Much work on Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) is focused on the functionality afforded by the devices and the means by which they communicate. This demonstration focuses on the programming model and deployment mechanisms for a WSN. We present a visual environment in which the services provided by sensors can be assembled and configured to fulfil the...

We report on studies of pairs of subjects using a system called SharedARK (for "Shared Alternate Reality Kit"). In SharedARK, users at separate workstatibns interact in real time with the same world of simulated physical objects. In the experiments, two users are in separate rooms with a workstation each, and communicate through 'a high fidelity, h...

Tutored Video Instruction (TVI) is a collaborative learning methodology in which a small group of students studies a videotape of a lecture. We constructed a fully virtual version of TVI called Distributed Tutored Video Instruction (DTVI), in which each student has a networked computer with audio microphone-headset and video camera to support commu...