ASSIGNMENT 9: OVERVIEW

Third Interactive Prototype:
http://fusion.sims.berkeley.edu/PhotoCat/

Final Presentation:
presentation2.ppt

Problem Statement

While digital photos have become an integral part of our lives, collections of digital photos are difficult for many people to manage. This difficulty stems from a number of factors:

  • People tend to take lots of digital photos, because they cost practically nothing to shoot and cameras can hold hundreds of photos at time.
  • It's difficult and inconvenient to classify photos by hand at the time of capture due to the limitations of the digital-camera interface.
  • Photos usually exist on computers with cryptic alphanumeric names that bear little resemblance to their content (with the exception of the time they were taken).

Addressing this issue is essential since digital photographs represent an important way people communicate with one another across distances and across generations. Without effective ways to sort, filter, and organize digital photographs, this rich source of information has little value. As people accumulate more and more digital photos, it becomes harder and harder to keep track of the ones that have special meaning.

Solution Overview


Bull's Eye View


Grid View

The PhotoCat system leverages point-of-capture metadata that can be automatically collected by new photo-taking devices (camera phones in particular). It allows users to manage photos from their collection based on time, location, and co-present others. The system offers two separate "views" for browsing photos:

  • The bull's eye view features circular bands that represent units of time. Small thumbnail images appear on the bull's eye according to the time in which the photos were taken. The view's circular representation of time has similarities to analog clocks. Users can filter the photos that appear in the bull's eye by location and co-presence.
  • The other grid view displays photos in reverse chronological order in a grid-like layout. The grid view shows the photos in a more conventional way and allows for browsing by larger-sized thumbnails since there are fewer space constraints (compared to the bull's eye view). In the grid view, users can also filter by location and co-presence.

Additionally, a photo bin allows users to select photos of interest and then share them, print them, or save them as albums.

Next: Personas and Scenarios