Created 08/11/2017 at 2017:11AM
I’m reflecting on this week a little late, but was spent by the sheer amount of excitement, activities, and challenges of this week that it totally slipped my mind to write a blog post. Not only did we scramble to get the remaining experimental trials completed, but also felt time pressure by the end of the summer approaching. Luckily, one participant’s schedule freed up last minute, and we were able to get them to help us collect data on one day, and completed the data collection for this summer.
We also started to watch the videos, and encode each utterance (spoken-word), and any action (non-verbal) used to communicate. You might not think about it on a regular basis, but in any given conversation there is so much non-verbal communication that occurs as well. This is so important to consider in future designs of computing interfaces.
In most everyday life, these interactions are rather subtle, but now I am starting to see these patterns emerge, and the purpose of simple movements. For example, when one of person directed their trainer to use a “spreading” motion, he intuitively motioned his hand in a spreading position. In designing of future HCC interaction devices for telestration, one would need to keep this in mind, removing possibility of gesture bleed.
The other medical research interns at Anne Arundel Medical Center (separate program from DREU) had their final project presentations on this Thursday, and it was bittersweet to have a last time to witness their efforts and learn from all their hard work on data analysis form this summer.
I am incredibly grateful for Anne Arundel Medical Center’s SAIL center to accept us, the DREU interns, as adopted interns in a way, allowing us to join in any social or educational activities, and gain a better perspective of the medical research field. The interns I’ve worked with this summer are passionate about healthcare, and their findings will help improve real surgical practices.