Design Of A New PumaPaint Interface And Its Use in One Year of Operation Roger Williams University Bristol, RI ICRA2004April 28, 2004 Michael Coristine Undergraduate Student Matthew Stein Associate Professor of Engineering

What is PumaPaint? Online robot that does one thing Java interface to let users do it Demonstration of remote telerobotic control Not a plotter WWW site for creating and receiving a physical artifact

Origins Wilkes University Roger Williams University 2002-Present Roughly 40,000 users to date

The Java Interface Original Interface English text predominant Somewhat flat, gray Not entirely intuitive

This project Develop a new interface using Java2/Swing Move from English text to icons Provide a warmer feel Undergraduate independent study for two semesters

The New Java2 Interface OK, it’s still kind of flat and gray

Some key improvements Camera windows A. Ryan Tiebout WinTV card CGI interface and controls Near live video

Some key improvements Context sensitive mouse Brush Colors

Some key improvements Animated buttons Grayed out when invalid Shows current color

Some key improvements Slider animations

Unintended consequences Slider animations can be confused with actions Return “Dip” button Do you move the slider to paint? May be misleading indication of contact

One year usage Source: httpd log August ’02- August ‘03 TotalDistinct Main Page PumaPaint class “Class not found” 1716 Intersection 239 Roughly 2500 people connected up About 40% of potential users did not have Java2 Of those, 14% apparently bothered to obtain the plug- in and return to download the interface

What did they do with it? Typical canvas Lots of text Lots of scribble

What did they do with it? Some nice pieces Some mailed to users Not all

Recent Phenomenon Dedicated vandal

Recent Phenomenon Metronome like strokes Automated issuance of commands? Hundreds of hours connected

Recent Phenomenon Likes to tear down the paper Metronome strokes on easel AOL user from New Jersey Asked for canvases but ignored repeated requests to explain techniques or motivation

Summary Site continues as a vehicle for undergraduate projects Online 5 years and counting* Still interested in paintings Dedicated vandal something new Currently developing 3D manipulation using anthropomorphic hands to model clay