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X1 Eye Controls – Disability Design on a Massive Scale

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X1 Eye Controls - Disability Design on a Massive Scale

According to the CDC, roughly one in four U.S. adults live with some form of disability. This number reflects a need for disability accommodation and inclusion during the development of popular products.  Within the last year, Xfinity Comcast launched a new feature that massively benefits people with disabilities. It is called X1 Eye Control, an eye contact that allows viewers to change the channel, set recordings, and search content. It can also be controlled with the use of voice activated commands. 

What is X1 Eye Control?

X1 Eye Control uses a web page remote control that works with previously produced “eye gaze” software. X1 Eye Control  is free and is compatible with web page remote controls, as well as Sip-and-Puff switches (Assistive technology used to send signals to a device using air pressure). Eye Control software usually works with a system of external cameras that attach to your computer, table or tv. The cameras then use surrounding light sources  to illuminate the eyes of the user. This causes highly visible reflections to be monitored. One of the other additional cameras in use captures the images of the eye and their reflections.  

Aside from its ability to control the television, the X1 Eye Control can be used for the traditional TV channels and on-demand media, as well as apps like Netflix, Pandora, and YouTube. Additionally, X1 can connect to Xfinity Home services. These platforms can now control smart locks, thermostats, interior and exterior lights installed into their home. This technology makes essential functions now highly accessible to so many more customers. It can quite literally help improve their safety and quality of life.

Technological developments like X1 Eye Control l are crucial in all aspects of design. Similar systems are designed for disabled communities to help these individuals live more independent and fulfilling lives. Technology like this can help eradicate pre-existing notions or stereotypes about life being “harder” for these individuals. It is a perfect example of how design can lead to personal liberation. Contrarily, it also demonstrates the need to bring widespread practice to inclusive design. It is promising, but there is much work to be done elsewhere. 

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Chase Keller

Chase Keller is a second-year EMDD graduate student. His research interests include usability testing and design.

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Student Journey: Gabe Eastridge

“There isn’t just knowledge but a visual and physical atmosphere of excitement to learn challenging technology and concepts.” About Gabe Gabe Eastridge graduated from the

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Why Photographers and UX Designers Love Camrote

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Why Photographers and UX Designers Love Camrote

Have you ever taken a photo using a timer? If so, I’m sure you can relate when I tell you how much of a pain this is. Every year, I am the designated photographer for our annual family Christmas photos. 

As part of my creative process, I’d first pray that the camera didn’t fall from the stack of books used as a flimsy tripod. Then, I’d scramble to pose alongside my family members with minimal time to prepare a smile before the camera goes off. Between poor composition or capturing someone mid-blink, there are always adjustments to be made. Although these photography struggles allow for a quick workout and a few laughs, I am so happy I finally found a solution to this user problem: Camrote.

Camrote is a free app that allows users to take photos from a distance. No timer needed! Whether you are using a phone, tablet, or camera, you can take your photo without the stressful sprint. It’s as simple as pressing a button from your device in whatever pose you’d like.

Camrote allows you to easily connect your camera to your phone using your wifi settings. Once connected, the app displays the image your camera is about to take, allowing you to see what your photo will look like before taking the photo. This feature is particularly nice because it allows you to perfect your photo composition without leaving your position.

Learn More About Camrote

Once you use the app to take your photos, the app allows you to view the photos on your phone so you can make sure they turned out the way you wanted them to.  Using the app does not impact the quality of the photos, either, as you can still shoot in RAW while using Camrote.

The app solves so many user problems for amateur photographers like me who previously always took group photos using a timer. On top of this, the app also has a clean platform, with minimal features, that makes it easy to understand. The best part? The app is free! Try it out today and forget about taking photos with a timer.

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Michaela Tangeman

Michaela Tangeman is first-year EMDD graduate student. She is a graduate assistant for the Department of Journalism at Ball State University. She loves problem solving, photography, and traveling.

All We Want for Christmas is… Cloud Streaming

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All We Want for Christmas is ... Cloud Streaming

The holidays are approaching, and it has been a few years since the gaming company, Xbox, has released a new variation or generation of its console. So, you know what that means: buy your child the new Xbox Series X or S this Christmas! Except this time, the console isn’t only significantly better than the previous generation, it is also introducing the future of gaming: Cloud streaming.

Xbox is reinventing how people access and play video games with their Project xCloud. They want to enter the mobile gaming industry without producing hardware and remodeling the Xbox to play like the Nintendo Switch. Instead, their plan is making your personal smartphone or tablet a portable console by streaming video games directly to your screen.

Mobile gaming is a huge market without any AAA games (large budgeted and marketed games usually released on PC, PlayStation, Xbox, and/or Switch). People want to play games on their phones, and they settle for simple and entertaining games that only require two actions, one for each thumb. The high demand for high quality mobile games was confirmed with the incredible success of the Nintendo Switch for all demographics. The Nintendo Switch is a portable console that can switch from mobile to displaying directly to your television.

Traditionally, Nintendo consoles and games were most appealing to a younger audience or nostalgic adults who played those games as children. This trend was confirmed with lackluster sales of M17+ rated games (video games designed and marketed for adults). However, a couple of years after the Switch’s release, the demographic of gamers has increased in range, and now almost every M17+ AAA video game is being released or rebooted onto the Switch.

Xbox recognized this trend and decided to up the ante of portable and mobile gaming with streaming. The ability to stream your video games is huge for two reasons: you can play whenever, wherever (given you have internet access), and you do not need to download the games to access them. The conveniency factor means that you can play while walking or while on the bus, subway, or passenger seat, as long as you have a controller designed for mobile gaming.

The biggest problem most gamers worry about is the incredible amount of storage space a game may occupy. Most phones do not hold more than 512GB of space, and many video games are surpassing over 100GB of space by themselves. That means you can have a smartphone with only 16GB of space and still experience the xCloud Game Pass at its full capacity without worrying about downloading times and space through cloud gaming.

Xbox has acknowledged the potential of streaming video games, and they are currently exploring the ability to stream onto your PC. Next would be the ability to stream onto your console. Ultimately, Xbox may alter the entire video game industry with a purely streaming platform like Netflix where you don’t have to worry about hard drive space or download speeds. You can start a game whenever, wherever, however, and without any stress.

 

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Leo Herrera

Leo Hererra is a graduate student of EMDD. He currently works as a graduate assistant for the program.

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My Go-To Recommended Tool for Academic Writing

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My Go-To Recommended Tool for Academic Writing

While taking multiple classes during my Undergraduate Degree that require great writing skills, I noticed that most students had trouble with proofreading and fixing their grammar, vocabulary, and punctuation. Even if some of those students tried to, reviewing and editing a document that is thousands of words long can be difficult and there is always something that may be missed. The same thing would happen to me. Most of the time I would proofread, but I would always miss a few errors that would end up lowering my grade significantly. 

All that changed when I discovered Grammarly.

Grammarly is an application/browser extension that finds those mistakes for you and suggests the best fixes. That includes any text that you write while you are on a browser and even text that you write in applications like Microsoft Word, Slack, and many more. Because of Grammarly, I do not have to worry about spending my time reading every single sentence over and over again to find the small mistakes that I made. Not all suggestions are necessary. When that happens you can just click ignore or add to Grammarly’s dictionary so that the application will not bother you again about it in the future.

Grammarly is pretty flexible since it lets you choose which websites you want and how you want it to act on each website. Some of the choices are checking for writing suggestions, showing definitions and synonyms via double click, correcting spelling automatically, and many more. 

Furthermore, if you have Grammarly enabled, it only takes up a small space on your screen. There is one small circular green button in the bottom right of the browser or application which you can click for a panel to open up. That panel shows you the more detailed explanations of your potential errors. If you do not like clicking that button there is no problem. Additionally, every mistake is marked with a red line which you can click on and select if you want to change the word or avoid the suggestion.

Grammarly is also supported on mobile phones and works as an extension of your keyboard.

There are a few applications that are not supported by Grammarly yet, but there is a solution for that as well. You can open a new document at Grammarly and copy/paste your text there which will give you all the feedback that you would get in a supported application or browser.

The best part is that it is completely free. There are more advanced versions for writers or businesses but as a college student, the free version of Grammarly covered all of my needs.

If you are writing regularly and you find yourself making errors, you need to start using Grammarly.

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Angelos Mandilaris

Angelos is a first-year graduate student of the Center for Information and Communication Sciences program at Ball State University. He is an EMDD graduate assistant and plays for the BSU Men's Volleyball team.

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Student Journey: Gabe Eastridge

“There isn’t just knowledge but a visual and physical atmosphere of excitement to learn challenging technology and concepts.” About Gabe Gabe Eastridge graduated from the

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Stay Connected Through Video Games

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“This is an industry that’s about community. Video games are bringing people together." — Stanley Pierre-Louis, chief executive of the Entertainment Software Assn.

Stay Connected Through Video Games

Having lived in three different countries during the last seven years and four different cities, staying in touch with my friends has been a challenge. Also, as I am not the best when it comes to texting and calling, there has been only one thing that helps me stay in touch with my friends. Video Games.

Yes, I know. To think that video games, which require me to stay “locked” in my room, help me socialize sounds quite absurd. My parents, like almost every other parent I believe, used to tell me over and over again to turn off my console or computer and get out and socialize. Maybe ten years ago, they were right, but nowadays, most games are played online where you have the option to compete against your friends or team up with them and take over the virtual world of your choice.

How else would Angelos that lives in Indiana manage to take part in an activity with Aleksa from Belgrade, Serbia, with Kostas from Athens, Greece, with Krzystof from London, England, with Greg from North Carolina, and Dimitris from Arizona?

Video games are the only solution I have found. Even if I was more consistent with texting and calling, it would not be enough to keep a relationship as strong as one where the people can participate in an activity together.

There have been multiple times where many different things have been happening in my life and even though I sometimes text with my friends, I do not feel like I want to share it with them. While playing video games though, I have noticed that I am much more likely to share any personal news or thoughts, or ask them for help about something important.

After the COVID-19 breakout in March, I appreciated them even more. I was one of the few people that stayed in my college through quarantine.  Almost all of my friends went back home, and since I was supposed to stay indoors, I barely had any face-to-face interaction with anybody. So, once more, video games helped me solve the problem that the quarantine had created.

Now, am I telling you to stop going outdoors and play video games all the time? Absolutely not. There is no better way of socializing than going out of the house to meet with friends but when the situation does not allow that, video games may be the best option.

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Angelos Mandilaris

Angelos is a first-year graduate student of the Center for Information and Communication Sciences program at Ball State University. He is an EMDD graduate assistant and plays for the BSU Men's Volleyball team.

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Student Journey: Gabe Eastridge

“There isn’t just knowledge but a visual and physical atmosphere of excitement to learn challenging technology and concepts.” About Gabe Gabe Eastridge graduated from the

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January 25, 2024

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Technology Shapes the Travel Experience

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Technology Shapes the Travel Experience

If you are anything like me, you love a good adventure: flying through the sky to a destination you have never explored before, meeting people from around the world, and eating food from different cultures. During undergrad, I studied abroad in England. Since my return, I have caught “travel fever”, provoking a need to explore as much as possible.

In the mist of all this wanderlust, I can’t help but think about how traveling has changed in the past decade. From planning to execution, technology has simplified the overall process of traveling. Below, I have listed a few of the travel technologies that we may take for granted. Perhaps this will provoke a greater appreciation for the current travel process, or maybe you will discover a new way to arrive at your next adventure.

My mom did all the trip planning when I was a kid. Sitting at the dial-up computer, she attempted to find hotels and tourist destinations. Often times, my frustrated mom would give up on this endeavor, leaving our trip open-ended. My trip planning experience is so different from my mom’s all those years ago. There are countless platforms that allow me to find good deals on destination packages that include flights, hotels, and other places to visit. There are ways to compare flight prices, place reservations, and check hotel ratings.

My Recommended Travel Planning Tools

Are you a “fly by the seat of your pants” type? This app is for you! It compares discounted airline deals for those adventurers seeking a getaway without much time to spare. Check it out. 

A convenient way to make reservations for hotels, flights, and other important travel accommodations. Visit this helpful site here. 

This is GPS app that finds interesting places to explore along your route. Give it a try or explore the app here.

This site is incredible if you’re looking for things to do at your destination. Check it out here.  

Did your family always use an atlas and frequently stop at gas stations for directions? Back in the day, my family sure did! Much has changed in the last decade. With a simple swipe of two, everyone can use their smart phones to lead them straight to their destinations. For those with unreliable phones (or lack of phones), a simple Global Positioning System (GPS) will be just fine.

Think about years ago, where you may have waited in line for forever to check in to your flight. Now, we have mobile apps where we can easily check in without spending hours at the airport before we get to our gate. We simply press a couple of buttons on our phone and scan it at the entrance. Say goodbye to the many minutes wasted at a counter.

With these progressive changes to travel, travel costs have been affected since users’ have had the ability to easily search for the best deal. Think about how restaurants and hotels have to improve now that travelers have tools to look up reviews. Technology changes the world all around us and it all starts with someone listening to users and keeping them in the design process to ensure solutions that help the user experience.

Design thinkers, user-experience designers, engineers, and inventors have been studying travel for decades. This has allowed us to travel with little-to-no stress. Design thinking and human computer interaction (HCI) are at the center of these innovative technologies that promote pleasant travel experiences. Next time you’re planning an adventure, think about all those people on the back end that have listened to travelers like you and me to make it possible.

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Michaela Tangeman

Michaela Tangeman is first-year EMDD graduate student. She is a graduate assistant for the Department of Journalism at Ball State University. She loves problem solving, and traveling.

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Diversity & Representation: How “Apex Legends” fosters inclusivity with character design

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Diversity & Representation: How Apex Legends fosters inclusivity with character design

Apex Legends is an online, multiplayer video game that launched on February 4th, 2019. It is set up as a first person shooter in a “Battle Royale” styled fight and is very similar to its main rival game, Fortnite. However, what makes this gaming experience stand out from the other competitors is it’s interesting and well-rounded character list. Apex Legends helps inspire the movement for equal representation amongst game development companies and gamers. Representation is important in any form of interactive media. It opens users up to new groups of people. Additionally, it allows for various users around the world to have a character to identify with, which grants a more personalized experience. 

Apex Legends has done an excellent job of highlighting different heritages when developing their characters. It is a triumph for successful representation. Successful representation is made up of various ethnicities, cultures, and gender distribution. Furthermore, the depictions of these characters can only be successful when they are designed from accurate sources of cultural information. Apex Legends has a total roster of fourteen characters, six of which are female. This is an almost perfectly even gender distribution among characters. The characters come from different backgrounds, ranging from: Jamaican, French, Portuguese, Indian, Icelandic, and Pacific Islander (amongst others). 

Rampart is the most recent character unleashed by Apex Legends. She is classed as a “tactical” legend and is described by the game developers as a “British-Indian Business owner.” While these little details may not seem like much, they’re very important to the realm of video game diversity, inclusion and equality. The pieces of information shown in the persona descriptions add another level of depth to the characters. It makes their portrayal all the more empathizable to the player of the game. 

Apex Legends demonstrates the positive changes being made to diversify video games. This is a stride in the right direction, but there is still a lot more ground to cover throughout the gaming industry. Developers and designers should branch off of Apex Legend‘s example of diversity in gaming and incorporate similar efforts in the future. Diverse representation is beneficial to these companies and to the players they cater. 

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Chase Keller

Chase Keller is a second-year EMDD graduate student. His research interests include usability testing and design.

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Student Journey: Gabe Eastridge

“There isn’t just knowledge but a visual and physical atmosphere of excitement to learn challenging technology and concepts.” About Gabe Gabe Eastridge graduated from the

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January 25, 2024

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Rise of the Award-Winning Match Point Project

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Rise of the Award-Winning Match Point Project

“This transmedia project matters because we are shedding light on a topic that has a lot of misconceptions, like that volleyball is a girls’ sport. I hope we inspire the next generation of young athletes to become interested in playing volleyball, and that one day, some of those kids get to represent the USA at the Olympics.”

Rachel Edwards
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Project Awards and Recognition

Match Point: The Rise of Men’s Volleyball is now an award winning documentary! This film took home an award of excellence at the Broadcast Education Association’s Festival of Media Arts. Along with the film, the Match Point Transmedia Campaign won the honor of second place in the entire festival for interactive media. The festival had a record year with over 1,700 entries. 

In the spring of 2020, Match Point: The Rise of Men’s Volleyball was nominated for an Emmy award in the directing non-live film category. Check out the official trailer here. 

The Match Point Project tells the important story of the growing need for boy’s and men’s volleyball and the impact a sport can have on an athlete’s life. Throughout the project, students collaborated with Kerri Walsh Jennings (4x Olympian, 3x Olympic Gold Medalist), Micah Christenson (USA Men’s Volleyball, American Volleyball Coaches Association), Lloy Ball (4x Olympian, Olympic Gold Medalist, NCAA Volleyball), Casey Patterson (USA Beach Volleyball Olympian), and Stafford Slick (AVP Beach Volleyball Champion). These collaborative discussions make up the podcast, social media posts, and blog content.  

BEA Festival of Media Arts - 2nd Place - Interactive Multimedia 

Emmy® Nominated - Directing Non-Live

BEA Festival of Media Arts - Award of Excellence - Documentary 

The Transmedia Campaign

The Match Point transmedia campaign is responsible for promoting and extending the mission of the Match Point documentary. The film explores opportunities for minority and underserved communities within volleyball, which is the fastest growing boys’ and men’s sport in the U.S. The transmedia campaign consists of four main storytelling components: a mobile game app, a website, a podcast, and a social media campaign.

The Match Point website is the main hub for the campaign that allows users to explore photo galleries, movie trailers, blog posts, and other elements to learn more about boys’ and men’s volleyball. Match Point: The Game is a weekly pick’em confidence league app that engages users by encouraging active participation in the men’s volleyball collegiate season. The Match Point podcast, Aces Only, is a bi-weekly podcast featuring one-on-one interviews with prominent athletes, sports influencers, and coaches connected to boys’ and men’s volleyball. Match Point can also be found on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube—the social media campaign goes beyond telling stories of individual people and expands on the storyworld through sports trivia, history, and behind-the-scenes footage from the making of the documentary.

The team behind the award-winning transmedia campaign includes Parker Swartz, Rachel Edwards, Erin Drennan-Bonner, Elijah Yarde, and Jacob Newell, led by Dr. Jennifer Palilonis. “The thing I love about this project is that there are so many unique stories to tell, and we’ve been able to incorporate so many different platforms into the campaign to tell those stories,” said Parker Swartz, who is not only on the transmedia team but also the director and executive producer of the documentary. The transmedia team members did not all step into this project with a background in boys’ and men’s volleyball and learned everything they needed to along the way. Elijah Yarde, Match Point’s web designer, said, “I knew nothing about volleyball, and far less about men’s volleyball. It’s been insightful learning a totally brand new subject then applying and using that knowledge in a meaningful way.”

 

Visit Match Point Project Page

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Dr. Palilonis Awarded by Ball State Immersive Learning

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2020 Ball State Immersive Learning Faculty Awards

“This video celebrates not just our award winners, but also every individual who is involved in community-engaged activities."

Ball State University

This year, Dr. Jennifer Palilonis, Director for the Center of Emerging Media Design & Development, was recognized by Ball State Immersive Learning with one of five 2020 Immersive Learning Faculty Awards. Dr. Palilonis was awarded for her work on the David Letterman Learning Experience project. This project has created a physical museum exhibition, digital games and learning modules, and other experiences focused on the career and character of Ball State’s most notable alum, David Letterman. 

 
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Design Thinking Session With Hasten Hebrew Academy Students​

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Design Thinking Session With Hasten Hebrew Academy Students

The Hasten Hebrew Academy of Indianapolis team has been hard at work creating a design thinking workshop/field trip for the middle schoolers of the Hasten Hebrew Academy. The team designed a full-day, on-campus experience for 32 students and their teachers, taking them through the DLLE, EMDD Lab, and Digital Corps to inspire their own museum’s design. Last week, the team led a half-day design thinking workshop to gather ideas for developing the museum’s brand, which also aided in their research on the efficacy of design thinking with middle schoolers. The rest of the semester, the HHAI team will analyze the collected data to influence their production of a design thinking blueprint for middle school classrooms, as well as continue to facilitate the branding and storyworld of Hasten’s Holocaust Museum.

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