Week 7...can you believe it?! Time has flown like mad. This week in lab I got the basic skeleton of the new adaptation constructed. For testing purposes, I used a "onmouseover" event to trigger the new adaptation, which current can grab the element the user is hovered over (if it is a hyperlink), manipulate its text, and ask the user to press the enter key if they'd like to proceed to the link, or to otherwise press escape key if they would not like to proceed to the link. I also learned how the slip/click ratio feature works which is essential to creating a way to detect when the user is having trouble clicking on a link, which should be the real way the new adaptation should be triggered. This part of the project will be worked on next week. I also wrote my abstract for the project and will be submitting it next week to an undergraduate research presentation held at UMBC called SURF.
For fun this weekend, I went to Artscape, America's largest free arts festival. It was a blast. On Friday I got to see the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra where they played the music of Vivaldi, Piazzolla, Beethoven, and surprisingly, Queen. On Saturday I explored the rest of the festival and saw many live music performances and much art. T'was a great time.
0 Comments
On Friday of the previous week, Foad and I met to discuss the new direction Dr. Hurst and him would like me to take with PINATA. Instead of adding new recording metrics to the chrome extension, they explained to me that creating a new adaptation would be more interesting and a great addition to PINATA. The goal for this new adaptation for it to be able to detect with a user if having trouble clicking on a specific link and then offering the user a way to proceed to the link without actually having to click on it. This would mean using a hotkey on the keyboard to proceed. With this general idea in mind, I began to read about HTML attributes so that I could learn to manipulate text. I was able to do this but had trouble figuring out a way to trigger the adaptation. I also need to link the adaptation to a keyboard event.
For fun the weekend going into this week, I stayed in (still very tired from the Canada trip) and read Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. This past weekend I went to explore Georgetown with my friend (and other DREU student) and her roommate. I also finished reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I also watched the movie "The Exorcist". Time really is flying and it's crazy! This week was a short one since we celebrated Independence Day was in it! In lab, I started/completed a timeout feature to PINATA that essentially stops recording any kind of data after a certain period of inactivity of the mouse movement. Foad and I also met to discuss the new direction he and Amy would like me to take, with PINATA, which is to work on a new adaptation. The idea is that after it is detected that the user if having trouble clicking on a target, the target will be visually changed or highlighted and the user will be able to simply press a key on the keyboard to go to think think they were attempting to click.
As for the weekend, I stayed in and read Harry Potter as I was still very tired from the Canada road trip. This week we had our Monday all-hands-on-deck meeting where we discuss what we did the previous week, what we're going to work on this week, and mention something cool that we did over the weekend. We also had our usual Fika that day, where the discussion topic was graduate school. Many of the professors/graduate students gave us insight about their graduate experiences, tips on financing school, and explaining the different reasons why they decided to go to graduate school, all while taking our questions. It was very informative and gave me a better look into the topic.
In lab, I finished the toggle recording button in PINATA (not as easy as I thought it'd be) and learned about Chrome Storage along the way. This button simply will not allow data to be recording based on mouse movement if the toggle button is switched to off. I also began to work on a timeout recording feature, which will stop recording data after a certain period of time and inactivity. This weekend I went to Canada with my friend who is also a DREU student at UMBC and one of my roommates. It was an amazing trip. Right before we arrived to the beautiful Quebec City, we climbed Cascade Mountain which is a part of the Adirondack Mountains in New York. After a night and an afternoon of sightseeing in Quebec City on Canada Day, we drove to Montreal. Our hostel was in Old Montreal, so we did a lot of walking to get to different places since Montreal and Old Montreal are two different places. We met up with a few friends that Francine and I have who happened to also be in Montreal the night we arrived. The next day we went to the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal, a jazz festival, and then left toward home with a quick stop in Canada's capitol, Ottawa. For July 4th I marched in a parade with Francine, and my two roommates, one of which is running for state delegate. I got to meet the governor of Maryland and a state senator at the parade! As it seems, this week was very busy, but fun nonetheless. |
Archives
August 2017
Categories |