A lab with big ideas

It looks like a cross between a pig and a penguin, it wears a bright green cape, and it stands 3 feet tall.

No, it's not a new breed of superhero.

Rather, it is an interactive robot designed to excite children about reading and represents just one of many technological innovations developed at the university by the Human-Computer Interaction Lab.

The HCIL, now in its 25th year here, is responsible for many creations that shape the daily lives of students. From developing a feature found on iPods to creating the first embedded hyperlink, the lab has changed the way people see and use technology.

The goal of the lab is to make technologies easier to learn and more accessible to more people, said Ben Shneiderman, founder of the lab and a professor with the Department of Computer Science.

One of the major contributions the HCIL has made to today's world is the innovation of the lift-off touch screen, a technology found on the iPod Touch and the iPhone. This technology allows people to make selections on those devices only after their finger is lifted off the screen, Shneiderman explained. That way, users can adjust their fingers if they initially hit the wrong button.

How significant is this innovation? Time magazine named the iPhone the No.1 gadget of 2007, calling its touchscreen "elegant" and "loaded with eye candy." The HCIL helped make that possible.

The HCIL is also responsible for changing the way people navigate the Internet by being the first to develop embedded hyperlinks, Shneiderman said. Embedded hyperlinks, highlighted words within the text of a webpage that lead the user to another page when he or she clicks on it, are a pervasive technology, as most major websites incorporate embedded hyperlinks; Wikipedia is full of them. Sites young people depend on for survival, such as YouTube, Facebook and MySpace, all incorporate embedded hyperlinks in their design.

A main focus of the lab is to develop technologies that help children learn. As a result, HCIL researchers created the International Children's Digital Library, the largest online library for children's books in the world, said Allison Druin, the current director of the lab. It gained national attention and was featured in USA Today.

The library has an interface based on what kids said they wanted, Druin explained. In fact, at HCIL, many of the technologies designed for children are also designed by children.

"What we do is we sit down with [the children] and say, 'Here's the problem, let's all brainstorm together,' and so we have special brainstorming techniques that we use to actually get new ideas," Druin said.

The lab works with young children, usually between the ages of 7 to 11, twice a week throughout the semester. During a recent session, the kids collaborated with representatives from the National Park Service to help design WebRangers, an online program that teaches the history of the nation's parks to a young audience.

In addition to children's technologies, the HCIL is developing ideas that have life-saving applications. Stanley Lam, a senior computer sciences major, is working with Shneiderman and physicians at Washington Hospital Center to create a tool that allows doctors to search patient records more easily.

"These [doctors] are all serious professionals that are at the top of their game," Lam said. "It's a great networking experience."

Thanks to its many innovations, the HCIL has brought the university hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding. The lab sold the license of Treemap, a computer program, to a company for $108,000, Shneiderman said. Recently, a patent for a photography-labeling tool was also sold at $133,000.

Shneiderman said the revenue from those transactions went to the university's Office of Technology Commercialization and to various computer departments.

Whether it be technologies that improve modern day conveniences or innovations that serve more important functions, Druin said the HCIL's goal is not only to make cool things but to change the world as well.

"I'm very proud [of] the tradition of this lab, which focused on public service and doing things for government agencies, working with the Library of Congress [and] working with the Library of Medicine," Shneiderman said. "Those are great satisfactions and success stories."

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