Any progress on my PhD

1
Any progress on my PhD?

• UCIT-seminar 10.-11.12.2007
• Anssi Kainulainen
• Speech-based and Pervasive Interaction Group
• Tampere Unit for Computer-Human Interaction

2
Background

• M.Sc. Computer Sciences _at_ Tampere, 2005
• Interactive Technology PhD-studies since spring
  2006, in (non-paid) UCIT since fall 2006
• Interests Sonification, esp. soundscapes
  peripheral awareness, in ubiquitous (pervasive,
  mobile, ...) computing context
• Ohjaaja Markku Turunen (SPI-group coordinator)
• Colleagues fellow researchers in the SPI-group
  (Markku, Jaakko, Aleksi, Ville), a tight group
  shows in author lists

3
PhD topic

• Ive been planning to study
• soundscapes and soundmarks
• as means for presenting route information
• in a mobile ubiquitous computing context

4
The plan was Constructive and exploratory
research path

• Initial route description design tested
  recognition of vehicles and routes -gt require
  more development
• Gathering and exploring soundmark creation
  mappings and strategies
• Comparing a selection of soundmark mappings and
  annotated route descriptions
• Building a mobile prototype, testing it

5
Some progress recent publications

• a poster/short paper at ICAD07 about soundmarks
  in route guidance
• coming a book chapter on audio awareness systems
  design (2nd draft deadline within a week)
• some contributions to unrelated papers

6
Excuse no. 1 been busy

• 5 projects at the moment
• Companions (EU, speech stuff)
• TÄPLÄ (Tekes, speech_at_home, so far pre-planning)
• Mobidic (contract research, designcode -cram)
• Matkamies (user testing galore. Closest to topic,
  but not funded anymore)
• Prima (nordunet, barely participating at all)
• dont support PhD-topic
• I tried some soundmark coding on my free time,
  but gots to have a life too...

7
Suggestion 1 go with the old plan

• Finish the free time demo software (GoogleMaps
  Freesound), record sounds and upload to demo, do
  some testing
• Implement a mobile phone version, integrate with
  Matkamies
• Problems not supported by projects, lot of work
  requires resources that are difficult to allocate

8
Suggestion 2 orient towardsfunded projects

• Find some niche within the projects and do a PhD
  about that
• Problems whats the topic?, changing the subject
  much is like starting all over again
• Going up one level of abstraction and trying to
  see if that fits?

9
Suggestion 3 create own project

• Find others interested in same stuff, find
  funding ...
• Problems with these contacts? Is the topic
  really marketable enough?

10
Goals for 2008

• Getting back on track projects keep on coming,
  got to fit personal goals in there too
• more meetings with supervisor making resource
  allocation not just _my_ problem
• some low level management tool monthly goals,
  weekly goals, ... researcher blog as a
  low-maintenance tool for doing stuff?

11
Thank you!

• Time for questions, critique and suggestions?