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July 30, 2005
Current and Ongoing Projects
BuddyBuzz
Over the course of the lat year the lab has begun to develop an alternate means of reading text on mobile devices based on a system initially developed by the U.S. military. Known as Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (R.S.V.P.), the application cycles single words or small blocks of text on the screen of mobile phones allowing hands-free reading without the need for the user to scroll the text. As readers become more comfortable using the system, they can easily adjust the speed at which the text is presented. Over time, studies have shown that the system allows readers to not only increase the speed at which they read, but also improve reading comprehension and retention. The team has patented the technology, developed content partnerships with Reuters and CNET and is working on securing funding to further develop the application for potential commercial use.
Check out a recent article in the San Jose Mercury News about BuddyBuzz.
Mobile Jokes Project
In our increasingly mirthless world, it's sometimes difficult to know what's funny. Relief is on the way. Our lab is creating a free service that will play jokes for you over the phone - any phone. Waiting in line? Stuck in traffic? Need to appear busy? Just call in, listen and (we hope) laugh. However, the project isn't just fun and games, it's hard research. Once callers listen to a joke, they're asked to rate it. Once we have enough ratings, we'll start to analyze the data to determine which jokes are funniest to people in general, which jokes college students like, what jokes do women prefer, and more. You get the idea.
So what's the point? First, we're exploring how humor can persuade callers and/or reward them for specific kinds of behavior. The second purpose is to create a new system for evaluating content. Our first evaluation system was deployed on the web last year and it's proved extremely useful. As a result, we've decided to extend this evaluation to capture data from mobile phone users.
When our joke engine service is ready, we'll send out the phone number.
We'll have more updates from other team members in our next newsletter!
Posted by Gregory Cuellar at July 30, 2005 01:11 PM