[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I am hoping to write many books. Maybe sometime they will come up. But about destiny, I say one thing that we are, we are not the masters of our destiny, but we are the makers of our destiny.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Masters in the sense that it's not that we don't control when what will happen to us or when our actions will produce the results.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But still the actions that we are going to do now, they are going to shape our future, not just shape, but they're going to make our future. So in that sense, it's a very.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, it's not just a spiritually, spiritually uplifting message, but it's also emotionally and psychologically energizing message.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Are you going through, is it like a comparative analysis of the Bhagavatam with other solutions to the problem of evil or are you going over various ways in which through the various narratives the Bhagavatam is addressing or how are you doing this book?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This one made, so are you using Maya in the term, the sense it was used, Yoga Maya in the Bhakti tradition or, because the third sense is,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Somewhat similar to Yoga Maya, not exactly the same, but it seems to have some pointers toward that. Some similarities with that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And say, Yoga Maya and Mahamaya, this differentiation.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is like a taxonomical analysis for helping us understand things better. But Propal as you said also says that Maya is one. Like electricity can be used for heating or for cooling.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So similarly illusory energy can take us closer to the lord or away from the lord.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So yeah, so just going back to your three points when you mentioned, as a creative energy, as the, as the energy that produces the effect, uh, shapes our perfection.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Our entanglement with illusion decreases. Then we could say the, at the second level, how much we are enmeshed in something.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So your book is, by explaining the concept of Maya, through that angle you are addressing the problem of evil in somewhat, you could say more of a lateral way than a direct way.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I've read this in several places.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So of course Baldevitya Bhushan is not that prominent till now in the mainstream, mainstream academia. So now you talk about illusion and illusive. So Prabhupada also uses the word illusory.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Okay, makes sense. By the way, going back to fundamental question,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is evil itself a category in the dharmic traditions?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because we have the concept of Maya and we have the concept of say Papa or we have Anarthas, but when we talk about evil,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't even know if there is a precise Sanskrit term which equates with the word evil.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Then we can go into moral evil and natural evil and then we can have, uh, like say something like natural evil can be called as glacier or moral evil can be called as, uh, uh, something like, uh, contaminations within impurities within, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] From the Upanishads that even we also called Tamasoma Jyotirgama.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So that is tamaso, darkness or ignorance, that's so true.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When we talk about it from this perspective, when the Bhagavad Gita ends with


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's the primary concern. That is your illusion dispelled.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because sin has certain connotations which papa does not have. Papa also has some connotations sin does not include.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But still it is, I think it may be more precise to say that that's not a primary concern.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's not a, it's not considered a primary pathological problem also. Because often in the catholic tradition, the idea of sin is associated with the idea of guilt.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So do you see at a bigger level, maybe this could be a concluding question, that do you see that the Bhagavatam's response to the problem of evil?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is it already having a significant impact?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Or do you see it, foresee it having a significant impact in the mainstream intellectual discourse? Because generally when we as an institution


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Especially not when they are going through extreme suffering. In general, if they have come for a talk, yeaah, that makes a lot of sense.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But the overall wisdom of the Bhagavatam or of the Bhakti tradition in general, how do you see its contribution to mainstream intellectual discourse today or in the near future?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But it doesn't really provide anything to make life meaningful. So it is, it is in a sense, it is, it is a very cold way of looking at the world.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Richard Dawkins is a much more extremist inheritor of Darwin.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But then Avanai read his writings.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Or rather we could say his critics are often quite specific to the Abrahamic religions and his problem of evil, he doesn't even seem to be aware that there are any other explanations. And if you look it further, actually Darwin himself was not, certainly not an anti-theist.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The Darwinian worldview as an absolute explanation for the world, then it, then it doesn't allow atheists to use the problem of evil because within the reductionistic worldview,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And all our experiences are nothing but neurochemicals firing inside the brain cells. Electrochemical signals firing in the brain cells. So in that sense, it's


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That worldview, I am mentioning this, if we compare the atheistic worldview, we compare the Christian worldview or broadly the Abrahamic worldview, there is a significantly stronger explanatory potential within the Bhagavatam's worldview that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Has not yet been tapped and brought into the mainstream discourse. And there is a lot of opening for that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Conclude, usually I try to summarize at the end of a podcast. We went over many different subjects, but I'll try and then you can add some concluding words if you like. I think we discussed on


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Broadly does Karma address the problem of evil and then within that we started by discussing about


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that explains why suffering exists, but it doesn't really explain why, why I am suffering.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then, then we can go back to the causal chain and where it starts.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So where did karma begin? So we discussed about how karma is that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The idea of beginninglessness.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's what we discussed and very, very good point you made that, uh, what is beginningless is


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because it is in the, there is the two categories that which is, which is eternal and which is temporary. And suffering, there is repeated declaration scripture that it can end.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it's, and the solution is, we'll discuss it later that it's, it's coming out of avidya. So because of that, there's not that much of a focus then.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Discuss 2-3 conversations especially the Dhruva, the Dhruva conversation to address how bias and discrimination is dealt with.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Not so much by getting back at those who are discriminating against us, but by pleasing the Lord.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Then Bhishma's pastime as well as, Bhishma is talking Yudhishthira as well as the dharma and the parikshita conversation.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So we discussed also the evidential problem of evil, that's where, where karma doesn't, may not seem adequate.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Why so much suffering? So the idea is there's a plan of the Lord and then if we become, there's a bhagavatam of the call for devotional heroism by which we can all take up the suffering and grow through that suffering. And, uh, the bhagavatam gives many examples of


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You quoted Prabhupada saying that every psychological situation can be understood from the Bhagavatam. That is striking. And then when you talk about phenomenological.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The middle way. So by decreasing our entanglement and illusion, we can actually, uh, we can, suffering will be experienced less. And in that sense, that's also a, uh, that's also a wave in which


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's a book of pedagogy and it's also a book of you could say pastoring or counselling.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And Maya, I like the idea of three things.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, creative energy, Maya as the illusion created within us and the Maya as the divine mother. So, and the Bhagavatam's worldview has a lot of potential to, not necessarily to be proven right, but to, to be seen as the most fulfilling worldview or the most, uh, most complete worldview. So if you contrast the


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Address because of the lack of various factors, the pre-existence reincarnation. You mentioned how Charles Darwin also that idea of eternal damnation. It also makes the, what was the?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then if you consider the reductionistic worldview from materialism or evolution, then that is not at all


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, the Bhagavatam's worldview is very empowering in that sense.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And uh, thank you for this discussion. You want to add any concluding words?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Thank you for sparing your time. It is wonderful having you. And hopefully we will have some future discussions again sometime.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think everything was relevant although it might not be.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, really excited to be here. It's a privilege to be here among the, this fantastic HCI community who've been pushing the boundaries of HCI's for many, many years and to be among these


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Young, new generation of HCI enthusiasts who are gonna build the future of HCI.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, currently I'm at Harvard as a Harvard Radcliffe Fellow, but I'm at UMass Amherst, uh, and I'm co-founder and co-director of HCIB's lab at UMass. Speaking of the lab,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I established a lab in 2020 with only two PhD students and I'm so proud to see the lab has been growing with having more than 24 active members and many alumni and


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We focus on research on socially impactful technologies that empower data informed decision making.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You can see the website for more information on our projects and people and publications.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'll briefly talk about a few selected projects. And finally, I'll describe my vision for future work. And a call to action. And with that, I hope I can inspire you to join our team to make this vision a reality through collaboration.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In terms of research, we are a very interdisciplinary research lab. We conduct both fundamental as well as applied research at the intersection of visualization, social computing, design, and more and more nowadays applied machine learning and AI.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] However, HCI, or Human Centered Computing, serves as this overarching principle that shapes all of my work within a very deeply human-centered framework.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And with our work with community, we extend the human centered computing to community centered computing when we try to understand the needs and challenges of community and design and build technology for them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To give you an idea of like where I'm coming from and the research areas that I've been working on, here are the main directions of my research with some selected work. So visual analytics is, uhm, was the focus of my PhD.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Where you might be able to look at those small timelines and see like large interactive surfaces where I was building technology and visual analytic tools.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Another line of work, my work is what I like to call visualization for empowerment. And by that, I mean, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Accessible for empowering a broader audience, including the public, the general public to understand and explore the data that is increasingly part of their lives. And we've seen it during the COVID pandemic and many other situations where people need visualization to make informed decisions personally or collectively.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right in this article, socio-technical problems are complex, multi-faceted problems that are difficult to solve due to their interconnectedness and shifting natures, making them very difficult to sort out cause and effect and solve.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They're also known as wicked problem. Anybody has heard of wicked problem before? Lovely.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And they talked about, you know, complex problems, such as planning problems, and their wickedness, and how and why they're difficult. So they defined ten different characteristics of wicked problems, but mainly,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They are unstructured. They are difficult to sort out cause and effect and therefore they are more difficult than other type of problems to solve.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They cross-cutting, meaning they have a lot of overlapping stakeholders. And why it becomes more difficult to solve? Because the stakeholders come from different background, different objectives, eh, different orientation, and therefore it becomes a very messy, a very conflicting space to be able to solve a problem.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And they're relentless. They can't be solved once and for all. Whatever decision that you make makes one group unhappy while it makes the other group happy. It's very, very difficult.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is to engage all the stakeholders in community. So community engagement is really the key because it helps to raise awareness. A lot of time the community itself do not have awareness or education about those problems and it causes a lot of tension and friction.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Community engagement has been a problem for over a century, especially in the U.S.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yes, a handful. As you might have seen, similar to this picture, only a handful of people get to stand up and raise their voice and bring their comments. But many others who have already invested coming to these meetings do not get to share their ideas and feedback, which is a big problem.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I want to mention that there are so many different challenges around public engagement and public participation. In this talk, I refer to some of the main or grand challenges that my research has been trying to address.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] First is enhancing engagement of the participants. The one who are already engaged enough to make it to a public meeting or workshop, but there is no means to further and more meaningfully engaging them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Engaging reticent participants, again, the ones that are actively engaged who made it to those public hearings, but as we just spoke during those town hall meetings, they don't get to speak up and they remain silent.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Scaling participation, which has been the very big quest of mine, how we can scale participation beyond those white, affluent, educated populations who are usually part of these meetings.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then another big and more under-explored problem is how to record and analyze these what I call precious public inputs and utilize them in the actual decisions at the end.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This was a long-term interdisciplinary project between computer science and architecture department at UBC where I worked as a postdoc.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Urban studies and the computational support, and the more I delve, the more I found there is a lack of tool support during these design sheriffs or design, you know, active participation meetings.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Therefore, our research questions were around how to build collaborative technology and visualization techniques to engage diverse set of expe- stakeholders to foster collaboration and co-creation among them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So here is the tabletop interface at each


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then the spatial results are displayed in sort of 3D on a project on the wall to enable them to see a better, you know, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] With a wall display and we also built a visualization dashboard that allows people to choose and drag and drop in a very simple interaction matter the matrix or indicators of urban design that matters and is more important for the team.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it's all basically, as you might be able to see, dynamically change as people adding more to their design of the map on the table.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We conducted a formal evaluation, which I'm now going through the detail, but we compared our digital tool versus a formal paper-based version, and we tried to make them as similar as possible in terms of the map, the highlights,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Equity of access to design materials. What do I mean?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because either they had more knowledge of urban design than other team members, or they didn't want anyone to mess with their perfect design. The time was short.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As one of the participants said, having this tabletop got every stakeholder involved. So they can make changes themselves, see those changes right away, which promotes collaboration.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Another observation was the multi-display environment catalyzed discussion. We observed many instances where the team member were looking at the wall and the 3D explaining and going through how this neighborhood is going to look like with these new builds.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] One of our goals in this project was to bring the ability of visualization to enhance people's visual analytics.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And also to add a personal space in this very shared, you know, space, collaborative space to enable people to basically look at the data in their own time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Why are adding those iPads to this ecosystem? And as you might be able to go.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To see through this picture, we saw many instances when people were looking and checking their metrics on the iPad and they were adjusting their design accordingly. And based on our results, the digital group came up with more informed decisions afterwards.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Due to having this, you know, analytical dashboard.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When said, having indicators in real time definitely altered how we approach the project, we could see the larger impact.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So in terms of implication, there are a lot of implications of this project. One was this multi-touch and natural interaction which just drag and drop and rotate and zoom and all of this.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was really, really successful for broadening participation and engagement. So it can definitely be used in other domains such as education and whenever you want to bring, ehm, a broader audience to understanding and working with technology.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We, we implemented this in three different workshops in Vancouver with 83 people, ranging from older adults, and we had visitors from high schools. All of them learned how to use the system in less than five minutes, which was a really, really good news for such a complex tool.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then having that personal space within a shared workspace was really, really the key and important because the version before didn't have the personal space and we saw different results. We also wrote this paper


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is a short workshop paper where we talk about form factor matters and all of, you know, other design criteria for building multidisciplinary environments from the angle to size to rotation to everything.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Also, one very interesting matter for me coming from visualization perspective was how using those infographics that you show very briefly during that demo was helpful for conveying sustainability metrics.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So here's another picture of those. Uh, we had a team of multimedia design students over summer who designed all of these infographics in the middle of those donut charts to be able to convey a lot of these metrics without much labeling. And it was very, very effective.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It, the infographic help people to envision the topic better without sacrificing understanding, comparing to the actual abstract, uh, abstract visualization.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm going to move to the next project, which is Community Click for engaging reticent participants.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it's a system for capturing and reporting community feedback from town halls to improve inclusivity. We call it Community Click because we basically brought iClickers to town halls.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] With one important modification and that was making the feedback in real time. So you don't have to pull people at any, they can bring their feedback at any given time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This was the work of my former PhD student Mahmoud Jassim, along with two master's students, Amy Zhang and Ali Sarwad.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So again, back to our picture in town hall meetings, there are common methods still in the U.S. for hearing from the public, understanding their requirements, needs, and issues.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Fear of confrontation, language barriers, shortage of time, and so many other barriers.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As a result of all of those activity, a lot of time those precious public input gets lost during this process and doesn't get utilized in the actual decisions.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] With that, our research questions were focused on addressing these two problems. How do we empower attendees, in particular those silent fractions, to express their opinion? And how can we enable organizers to come up with more comprehensive, uh, reports at the end?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So here are some different sort of iClickers that we use. As you can see, we have labeled them. The blue one was for organizers. To say,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And all of these were based on formative studies that were done with both communities and we created the iClicker recorder to basically record all the input in real time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And here I want to show you the workflow of Community Click, which basically we gather all of the meeting attendees through iClickers as well as organizers.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And we use off-the-shelf tools to automatically record and basically transcribe all of these meeting notes so nothing gets lost. We have a long list of meeting notes.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then we run topic extractions and we build a very specific text summarizer and we feed all of these inputs into


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Our visual analytic interface, which offers a wide range of features for exploring this meeting content and generating comprehensive report. So here's how it looks like.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As I said, it has several components. They're all interlinked and interactive and provides a wide array of features. Here are some main features.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For example, the organizer's tags can be used as filters. For example, you're an organizer, you want to go through this very long, lengthy meeting report. You say, I want to look at main issue. And by checking the main issue from that list, you basically filter and just see the main issue.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We also built this timeline which shows the basically distribution of organizers tags over time. For example, you're like, I remember towards the end of that meeting there was a main issue, so you can click on that red dot at the end of the timeline to get to that exact issue you're thinking of and then


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is the augmented meeting transcript that provides a meeting discussion segment with associated text, organizers' tags, as well as distribution of attendees' meeting for that chunk of, uhm, meeting notes.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then finally, this is the, uh, interactive feedback weighted summary that we built and acts as an anchor for them to explore all of these meeting notes.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So first we ask them if they feel comfortable in general, not with clickers, to share their thoughts during public meeting. And as you can see, people were split. Those people at the top


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They felt at ease to speak up and to bring their ideas to the meeting. They had no problems. And there were some people at the bottom left that didn't feel comfortable sharing. And then we asked them if iClicker helped them to share their thoughts.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Those people who felt comfortable and easy speaking didn't hate or dislike iClicker that much. Some even liked to have both channels to verbally speaking but also, you know, providing some feedback. But here's where you can see the major shift.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You see those people at the very bottom who didn't feel comfortable speaking found to be very much empowered by this technology and this very exact group we were building the tool. One of the comments from attendees on the survey was, your tool empowered me to share my feedback silently, which became part of the paper, of course.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then there are a lot of implication of this work that we talked in the discussion in this work from how these low barrier technology are important for bringing people to democratic decision making to


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Building inclusive platforms and so on. And we also talk about anonymity and privacy and so many other issues that I want to just, for the sake of time, move to the next project.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But we are talking about how or might we might augmented with more real. There was no real time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the journey of Community Click didn't end here. We built a virtual version of it and we deployed it in CSCW Conference, which is one of the conferences in our field with


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] 700 people in the town hall and the organizer of the town hall tweeted this image afterwards. And they were like, just when you think it's all going well, as you can see about 70% of people were confused about matters which were discussed. And then of course afterwards the pandemic hit.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Okay, next, that big question of how do we scale participation?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To give you some background about other tools for public participation, this is Plan Your Place, which was built for everyday citizens with this easy to use map and chat, you know, features.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Crowdsourcing tools, which are fairly easy for the public to use. For example, this one is called WikiSurvey, which has been deployed in many cities like Chicago and New York and so on. And it basically asks a pairwise question and gives people ability to bring their own comments or ideas. However, research shows that people are tired.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Our research questions were around how can we create a system for activities beyond opinion polling that captures quality feedback in a short amount of time knowing that citizens don't have a lot of time to spare for these, these matters.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And we began by attending a local design workshop and planning meetings. We took notes during a street tour, attended the workshop. My team is here. I'm actually sitting on the table and my team is there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] My intern student, Michelle Ng, who is now a PhD student here, was there actually recording all of the conversations as well. And based on all of these formative work,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We built Community Crit, which is available online. And in order to lower the barrier for the public, it works on a variety of devices, including smartphones. And it starts by giving people an idea about the placemaking challenge.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That they're talking about. In this case, we were partnering with a team in San Diego to redesign San Diego's downtown neighborhood.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then it only asks people five questions for the matter of simplicity. Five questions such as critique the idea based on these certain considerations or rating the concept.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On different dimensions. And then to collect meaningful feedback, we provided the option of skipping questions if they wanted to. And then they can also submit their own ideas, give it a name and add a picture for it. And at the end, they see a full set of ideas.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And we interviewed people who participated and they were like, I don't have time to go to workshops. So it provides opportunity to give feedback for me and others praising about these five questions and how easy and straightforward it was to do.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But the main contribution of this work to me were scaling and diversifying public participation.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And creating a complementary tool to public workshop that allowed meaningful input from public in a short amount of time and connecting these small group who attend public workshop to a much larger group who can use technology to add their ideas to this.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And like, what are the differences? How can we basically build a tool in a way that is straightforward and easy to use, but also gather, ehm, meaningful feedback from the public?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then, at the end, one of the feedback that we received from the planning group, which were comprised of community leaders, architect, were like, this is fantastic! This is a really nice tool, very clear UI, all of the comments are there, we can go to different proposals, but to be honest, we don't have time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To go through all of these comments and their ask was like, can you build a magic tool? We don't know what it is that, but we want a magic tool to see the positive community.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And of course, what we did next was we built Community Pulse to show the pulse of community and to help them to analyze and utilize public input.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is another work from my former PhD student Mahmoud Jassim in Amal Haag and Ali Sarqat. And it's a visual analytic tools for facilitating community input analysis.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, very in-depth survey across the US with civic leaders grappling with analyzing, uhm, community input and it's all the same. The vast amount of community input through online platform, uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Enable them to collect a large number of community inputs, and while analyzing these inputs is vital for making democratic decisions, they struggle to analyze them due to lack of time, analytical skills, and specialized tools.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I want to add that there are also inherent challenges of analyzing text data that makes it even more complex. One is the high dimensionality of text data in general, the lack of structure in this case when you don't have document but you have short free form comments.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The ambiguity and all of these get intensifies in the civic domains, uh, when also people are using informal language.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And also there is an unclear boundary between positive and negative, uh, opinion. And of course, HCI folks have been working on building solutions for analyzing public opinions.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For example, ConsiderTool is a great example, uh, which helps civic conversation to stay focused by providing a con, a pro and con list, which is visual and very straightforward. However, it's harder to analyze people's needs and priorities and issues in this pro-con list.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And there are visual analytic tools like Conviz IT, which is very, very powerful in showing all of these opinions of the author and the topic and the sentiment. But as you can see through this picture, it's very much expert-centric, right?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So with that, we built Community Pulse in a manner that is very easy for any civic leader who is not an expert in visual analytics to easily go through and see the pulse of community.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So it has this overview, which shows the number of proposal, which is again from community crit, so same data from actual community members, the key phrases, topic extraction and so on. But most importantly, here's this interactive visualization, which is interactive and linked, so anywhere


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You can, you can click and interact with it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And we implemented an emotion classifier because all of the civic leaders we talked about, they said, we don't want sentiment analysis. It doesn't make sense for us. We want something beyond that. We want to see the reaction of people. Do they hate it? Do they love it? Why do they hate it? And so on. And we, we, we basically


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Build a transformer based, transformer based birth model, eh, to basically show all of these, eh, emotions here. And then, we ran a study with civic leaders, and not surprisingly, all of them started by filtering based on angry comments. And again, non surprisingly,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The roundabout was the first, you know, proposal that most people hated because people have a lot of problems around building roundabouts.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then if they click on those angry bar comments, they get to see the detailed comments.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So basically provides at a glance an overview, uh, of emotions and reactions of people, but they can also dig down and drill down to see what are those comments, where are they coming from, why they're angry, or why they're happy with it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then again, implications of this work was exactly extracting community reactions rather than sticking to sentiment analysis, having this multifaceted exploration of community input from this overview to detail to be able to even verify and validate those.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A multi-year work, or perhaps better to, to mention maybe around five years, it took us to come up with this open civic framework.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And this was an attempt based on all of our efforts in building community center tools to come up with a theoretical framework to say if you're a technologist, here's how you can perhaps start with building technology.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And basically we use our tools that we build and showcase in our evaluation, showcase success in terms of talking about where you provide support.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In, in person meetings, where you, where you can provide support in, uh, in an online manner for people to gather idea and how you can provide support for analyzing all of this together.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So this was a wrap up of the project I wanted to go through. But in terms of future vision,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A significant portion of our research has concentrated on encouraging communities to prioritize the creation of healthy places, like these healthy community placemaking, walkable, bikeable neighborhoods and so on.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But then I, now I aspire to further broaden our research scope to encompass more extensive topics that can further advance democracy, equity, well-being, and sustainability by including tech-oriented approaches for fostering a healthier planet.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And thinking about critical areas of HCI such as UN Sustainable Development Plans in Health, Poverty, Education and Sustainability. And with that I want to invite you to join us in making this vision by collaboration happen.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And with all the surveys and results that we showcased, we came up and proposed five different conceptual dimensions


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Each discussion, discussing two different poles that challenges the overall analytical orientation by discussing design choices. For example, what it means to design tools to address the complexity of the problem on one hand.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And what it means to also, eh, imagine inclusivity. Those people who are not, eh, tech savvy, are we leaving them by bringing so much complexity? And sometimes complex problems need complex solution, but we need to always think about this balance, right? Or what it means to aggregate data,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And we're also venturing to integrate AI by asking questions like, how can AI be harnessed for positive social impact in context of community and development and environmental sustainability?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For example, in this project, uh, our theory is called community bots. And it's a chatbot community that talks with a community member to elicit rich


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, and multifaceted data around different facets of their life and how it has been impacted by COVID.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] With chatbots, and they can consider there is a chatbot that is, uhm, expert in, in work, and there is a chatbot that is expert to health, you can connect, you can gather more rich data, which our data and our analysis, uh, basically supported this hypothesis.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So then how can we create engaging and accessible data communication methods to actively engage community with very complex matters, uh, beyond the traditional approaches of visualizations and technology?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For example, in this work, in Rising Emotions, we combine data physicalizations and art installation to show the public feelings about the sea level rise, which is happening very soon in East Boston.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And we basically survey East Boston residents about their feeling towards this happening in their neighborhood. We color coded their emotions. And with the help of community members, so these colors, you see those colorful ribbons are actual data points from the public.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And with the help of public members, our team installed this art installation in front of the East Boston Library, which is a very visible place, uh, for the community, but also a gathering place for the community of East Boston. And we had an opening exhibition in December 2020, uh, which, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We brought people from the city to speak. We brought scientists from UMass Boston to talk about climate change and flooding effects.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Postcards, not perhaps for all of you, but feel free to gather some, which talks about the project and adds more detail about what we did in this work.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And in this recent work, my postdoc and a group of robotics researchers at Cornell developed and evaluated a first of its kind.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Coming in all extended reality, because it happens during a bus tour. Then we had the community in a bus tour and wearing those head mounted, uh, augmented reality headsets.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To see the future of their neighborhood, basically in a studio. And our result exemplifies that geo-located virtual reality can be a powerful tool to motivate innovation and collective actions.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And this was a first of its kind empirical contribution showing that this sort of community extended reality where you bring community together to see and discuss all of these impacts together can inspire actions. And based on that,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The project that I'm currently undertaking at Radcliffe is an extension of that. Thinking about making it even a more low barrier technology. What if we build a web-based augmented reality?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then we integrated with situated visualization so that people can just walk around the neighborhood


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Scan this QR code from our platform, walk around and see the sea level rise and what's happening in East Boston and through those visualization slider they can see through different years. So make it as tangible and as easy and low barrier as possible.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To empower the community, especially those underserved ones who don't have the luxury and time to see and explore these problems


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I want to acknowledge that these projects were all collaborative, collaborative efforts. Thank my amazing mentors, collaborators, and fantastic students at UMass and beyond. And with that, I'm happy to take any questions.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Fantastic question. Thank you so much. This was definitely a question we were, we were asking even during the Community Crit project, that people felt empowered, because they didn't have another channel, another way to bring their ideas, but definitely


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Being heard is where they see their ideas and comments are actually implemented in the policy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And to that note, I need to say that's another wicked problem. Because we've been working very hard to connect with community, to connect with government officials, to town officials, to make sure that all of these comments and


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But it's a really, really messy process. For example, in Community Crit,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Plans that are urban planners or architects had at the, at the first. Now we're changing to these plans that the community wanted collectively. Really, really. But it, we've been looking.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For a new PhD students to basically, I call it the later phase of the decision making process. It's like first to engage them, to bring them in different ways from online to in person and then finally


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, that's a whole extensive project, but absolutely great question.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A very affluent neighborhood versus a Chicano neighborhood.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, and we had conversation. We went to personally meet the Chicano leader, which was part of the original workshop.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] 90%, more than 90% of us have access to smartphone. We love to have it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, but then first, first step is making sure that they are aware and engaged and they're bringing their ideas. And the next is the point that Michael raised. How do you ensure that, uh, basically their comments are heard? In another effort in, in, I,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And we really try to come up with understanding who's our local community and how we can reach out to them. We even went to farmer's market, we had surveys on iPad asking people, we had surveys on paper and so many other ways.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To ensure that people and community are aware of what we're doing and we're doing this for the benefit of them. Great question. Thank you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Absolutely, that's a, that's a very well known problem in online space, right? And a lot of critic on any civic online process has been just like ranking and liking process which basically gives privilege to more popular opinion.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And those opinions that are less popular get marginalized. They don't even get read or, so in a recent work that I didn't present here is called Serendize, short for Serendipitous Analysis. We built this bias mitigation model


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And with that it tries to mitigate the effect of going through some popular or like, uh, biasing towards some specific notion of, and it's for text analysis.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So that's one way, but that's a really, really big problem and hard problem. Uh, in, in community pulse, interestingly, we were thinking about this. Well, one of the civic leaders,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is the one who brings a lot of angry comments about roundabouts.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So that was a way of detecting anomalies as well, like who's also rallying. It's harder when it's anonymous to basically


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Gosh, I'm lacking on the name, on anonymity and what are the proxies that you can basically build into these sort of anonymous technology to at least like understand that these are coming from specific community intersections.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Got any agoraphobics here today? No? That's alright then. Went out with an agoraphobic once? Well I say out.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] My daughter and I have always gotten up early. For us that means we get up our normal getting up time or rising time is about 3, 3.30. Uhm, the oddity about it is that for us sometimes it doesn't even matter how late we've been up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The night before, we will still get up at that same time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm able to get a lot done before I even go to work and before really most people's day starts.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I'll go to the store and get groceries, you know, 5, 5.30 in the morning sometimes just to beat the crowd.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Approximately two years ago, that's when we found out about what ASPS is and what it involves, what it's like.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So when we were growing up, I guess I kind of wondered if I just kind of inherited it from him as a dairy farmer.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think Bethany and I are very close. I think because we've had those early mornings together all of her life that I would think I have a closer relationship than I would think some fathers because they haven't been able to have that time together.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I think we, we intentionally plan to do things mid-morning, uh, we go to matinees for movies instead of going to the evening movies, but we just don't schedule a lot in the evening.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Glad we agree on that. Now, how about taking the padlock off my place?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You can't scare me, Captain. This is my town as much as it is yours and...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] License Bureau. Orders from...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Captain, this fighting isn't getting us anywhere. We're a couple of grown men. We know what it's all about. Now, uh, why don't you be smart? Why don't you play ball with me? I know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, what do I owe the honor of this sudden visit?


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[Assistant] I told you I'd get him and I will. I got a long score to settle with him.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That always happens, Mr. Mayor. So I'm prepared for the emergency.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What was that? I guess an electric light bulb blew out.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I know you shot a picture through that transom, and you can't fool me with this new roll. Where's that film?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Take her to the hideout and have Migs take Murray there too.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Captain Murray? Well, this is your old friend, Nick Taggart.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I owe you a little favor for everything you've done for me, so listen.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When he passes the Rockville Country Club, I've arranged to have him met by the riot squad from headquarters. I'm sure the newspapers will give it a big play.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now? Well, maybe you'll believe it when your son's on his deathbed, but it won't be a bet.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You men ready? Yup. Cookie, you stay here with the girl. Come on.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] May you have enough happiness to make you sweet, enough trials to make you strong, enough sorrow to keep you human, enough hope to make you happy. Always put yourself in others shoes. If you feel that it hurts you, it probably hurts the other person too.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Love begins with a smile, grows with a kiss, and ends with a tear.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The brightest future will always be based on the forgotten past.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You were crying and everyone around you was smiling.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Live your life so that when you die, you are the one who's smiling and everyone around you is crying.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To those who have touched your life in one way or another.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To those who make you smile when you really need it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To those who make you see the brighter side of things when you are really down.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To those who you want to let them know that you appreciate their friendship. And if you don't, don't worry. Nothing bad will happen to you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You will just miss out on the opportunity to brighten someone's day with this message.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Today's program ends here. Thank you for listening.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Chapter 10 The Story of Eric and Christine Roel and Christine continue to talk.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They did not notice the dark figure coming close to them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If you knew the angel was not real, why didn't you stop listening to him? Raul asked.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She told him how she had been taken underground.


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[Assistant] She told him how she discovered that her angel was really a man named Eric.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When she finished her story, Ralu was amazed. Finally he said, Christine, if Eric is so terrible, why do you keep going back to see him?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Roel had to know one more thing. Christine, if Eric were handsome, would you still love me?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Christine said softly. Roel leaned over to kiss her.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Before he could do this, there was a sound of thunder, and it began to rain.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The lovers had to return to the opera house to escape the storm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They never saw the figure hiding in the shadows. His eyes were blazing with anger. Christine and Raoul ran to her dressing room.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Suddenly her face turned very pale. She was looking at her hands in horror.


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[Assistant] She cried. So, Eric gave you that ring? Raul said in an angry voice.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They looked everywhere for the ring, but it was gone.


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[Assistant] Christine was so afraid that she sent Roel home and locked her dressing room door.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The next night, Christine once again sung the great part of Margarita and Faust. The audience thought her voice was more beautiful than ever.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] At the end of the opera, Christine sang the words


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[Assistant] She looked at Raoul as she sang these words. Suddenly, the theater went completely dark.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When the lights came on a second later everyone was on the stage except Christine. Once again she had disappeared.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Seated by the window was Nancy, repairing Sykes old jacket. She too was thin and pale. At Sykes voice, she raised her head from her work. Not long past seven, she said. How do you feel now, Bill?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As Nancy helped him out of bed, Sykes swore and cursed at her clumsiness. Illness had not improved his temper.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You wouldn't speak like that if you knew how kindly I'd nursed you these last few days, said Nancy. So many nights I've looked after you. She sat down in a chair, exhausted. Get up! shouted Sykes.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When I came on duty the next day, he was still there and came over as soon as he saw me. Did she work anywhere? I asked. He nodded. She was a typist. I telegraphed her former boss.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] All they know is that she left her job to get married.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Harry met every train for the next three or four days.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Of course, the real road lies made a routine checkup and the police looked into the case. But nobody was any real help.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I could see that they all figured that Mei had simply played a trick on him, but I never believed that somehow. One day, after about two weeks,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Harry and I were talking and I told him about my theory. If you'll just wait long enough, I said, you'll see her coming up those stairs someday. He turned and looked at the stairs as though he had never seen them before. The next day, when I came to work,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Harry was behind the counter of Tony's magazine stand.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He looked at me rather sheepishly and said, well, I had to get a job somewhere, didn't I?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So he began to work as a clerk for Tony. We never spoke of May anymore.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And when she got married again sometime later, Harry bought a stand from her.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I heard a cry and a lot of things falling.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The cry was from Harry, and the things falling were a lot of dolls and other things which he had upset, while he was jumping over the counter.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He ran across and grabbed the girl not 10 feet from my window.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She was small and dark, and her eyebrows came to a little point in the middle.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The assistant commissioner walked through the dirty streets of London to get to the office of a high-level government official.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The great man's personal secretary greeted him as he entered. May I see him? asked the assistant commissioner. Well, he's about to leave just now, answered the secretary.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's important. It has to do with the bombing in Greenwich Park. Really?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He's quite upset with you and your men about that. Let me go ask if he has time to meet you.


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[Assistant] And his clothing looked as though it might tear open at any moment


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He did not say hello to the assistant commissioner.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I want to know if there are going to be many more bombings after this one," he said directly. Just give me a direct answer. I haven't time to chat.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The assistant commissioner looked like a little child compared to the huge man.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I seem to remember you standing in this same room a month ago.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Telling me that it would be impossible for bombings to happen. That was not me, Sir Ethelred, corrected the Assistant Commissioner.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You were too new to have any useful information. So how are things for you over there? Good sir.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I have come to tell you about something I just learned today about this case. It was not a common bombing. There is something strange about it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He then told the great man everything that he knew.


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[Assistant] The assistant commissioner delivered his news with great skill and power.


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[Assistant] When he finished telling, Sir Ethered spoke in a very serious voice.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] How dare these foreigners come into our country and cause such problems. Something must be done about this immediately. What do you suggest?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I came to you today because I think that this is a special case that needs to be dealt with in a quiet way.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In my opinion, Inspector Heat should be removed from- Ah, yes, Heat. What a fool!


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No, sir. I don't mean that at all. He's quite good at what he does. However, being a police officer for so long,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He uses certain methods that I don't really agree with. For instance...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Before today, he had never told anyone else about this connection.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I feel that this kind of information should be shared with the department.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He promised you that there would be no revolutionary activity, and he was probably correct in telling you this. However, a bombing has now occurred.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] His way of doing things allows for great error, I'm afraid.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The great Sir Ethelred leaned back and thought. Hmm, indeed.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What I'm asking, sir, is for your permission to allow me to investigate this case in my own way, without Inspector Heat. I would like to visit Mr. Verlock myself, and deal with him directly.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The bomber was led to the park by another man and then left to finish the job on his own.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We think that the dead man had no idea that he was holding a bomb.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Maybe he was a foreigner who couldn't speak English. We're not exactly sure.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Are you going to change your appearance so that people won't recognize you? asked the great man.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm going to change my clothes, huh? Nothing more.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hmm. Come back here later this evening. You can tell me what you've discovered. I'm most curious. Of course. I won't have time, but I'll see you anyway. I'll tell Toodles that you'll be coming. Fine, sir.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Toodles was the name given to the great man's young personal secretary.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The boy's family knew many important people and he believed that he would one day become an important person himself. However, for now,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He would simply be known as Toodles, the pet of a great man.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The assistant commissioner left Sir Ethelred's office feeling quite happy with himself. Toodles asked him how the meeting went.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm just surprised that he had the time to see you. He's so busy, you know. We stay here so late sometimes. Of course, it doesn't bother me at all. Do you think we're safe walking out in the streets?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Do you think one of those revolutionists might throw a bomb at us?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh, that's him, Toodles whispered. I think he's ready to go.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then he ran off to gather Sir Ethelred's coat.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He looked around carefully to see if Inspector Heat was still around.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He found out from the guard that the inspector had left around a half an hour before.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In his office he was disappointed to see that the inspector had taken the piece of cloth.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There was no reason for him to think that the inspector did not trust him. An important piece of evidence like that cloth should not be left sitting on a table.


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[Assistant] He fought back his anger at the inspector and sent a note to his wife.


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[Assistant] To politely cancel their plans to have dinner that evening with the lady who supported Michaelis.


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[Assistant] The road, the buildings and the lights were all wet. He in his casual clothing


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[Assistant] Was very much like all of the rest of the people on the street.


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[Assistant] No one would have guessed that he was the assistant commissioner of police. Trying to keep himself unnoticed by anyone, he waited until the very last second as a taxi was passing him to jump aboard and tell the driver where to go.


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[Assistant] A few minutes later he asked the driver to stop in front of a curtain store.


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[Assistant] Most of the shops on the street were closed for the evening.


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[Assistant] A hand came through the door and gave the driver some money.


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[Assistant] Followed by the sound of the door on the other side opening and closing.


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[Assistant] The driver had never once seen who his customer was.


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[Assistant] The assistant commissioner then entered a cheap Italian restaurant. He had a quick dinner and as he was getting up to leave, he caught sight of himself in a mirror. He was surprised at how much he looked like a foreigner. He was happy with his appearance.


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[Assistant] It gave him the feeling of being very lonely and free. He looked about the room before exiting the building. Many of the customers looked like they ate there often.


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[Assistant] The food at this place not being real Italian food.


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[Assistant] He felt that these people were equally not really British.


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[Assistant] The assistant commissioner stood in the shadows and took a good look at the area. It was normally a street full of shops, but now everything was closed for the evening, except for a fruit seller.


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[Assistant] People passed one another in the darkness and then disappeared forever. The excitement of adventure was within him.


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[Assistant] He felt very far away from his office with all of its boring paperwork.


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[Assistant] At times, he even felt like a criminal hiding in the darkness. A light was on inside Mr. Verloc's shop.


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[Assistant] The assistant commissioner then crossed the street and headed toward the building.


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[Assistant] Mr. Bumble, Mr. Bumble, it's Oliver Twist, sir. He's become violent. He tried to murder me, sir. And Charlotte, and Mrs. Sowery as well. Mr. Bumble was shocked and angry. Did he? I'll come up there immediately and beat him with my stick.


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[Assistant] Let me out, he shouted from the cellar when he heard Mr. Bumble's voice. I'm not afraid of you.


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[Assistant] What? Meet, madam. You fed him too well here. Back in the workhouse this would never have happened.


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[Assistant] I knew I was too generous to him, said Mrs. Sowerbury, raising her eyes to the ceiling.


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[Assistant] At that moment, Mr. Salbury returned, and hearing what had happened, according to the ladies,


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[Assistant] At 12 o'clock, the teacher told his students that school was closing early for the day.


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[Assistant] All of the children were surprised and excited by the news, except for Tom.


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[Assistant] He knew it was because the doctor's body had been found


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[Assistant] And that the whole village was talking about it now.


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[Assistant] Tom heard some people saying that the police found Potter's knife next to the body.


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[Assistant] And someone had said that they'd seen Potter washing himself in the river this morning and that he'd run away when he noticed he was being watched.


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[Assistant] This surprised most people because Muff never seemed to care about washing himself before today.


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[Assistant] And he felt even worse when he saw Huckleberry there.


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[Assistant] They tried not to look at each other for fear that someone might suspect them of knowing something.


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[Assistant] He was surprised to see him at the scene of the crime. A group of policemen soon appeared. And with them they had Muff Potter. Potter looked frightened.


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[Assistant] When they brought him to the grave where the murder happened, he fell to the ground crying.


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[Assistant] Potter realized that it was Indian Joe who had spoken.


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[Assistant] The police showed Potter the knife and asked him if it was his. He dropped his head and admitted that it was.


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[Assistant] He started shaking and looked up at Indian Joe again.


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[Assistant] And Tom expected God would kill Indian Joe right there for lying. But nothing happened.


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[Assistant] Tom wanted to tell the truth, but he knew he'd be killed if he did.


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[Assistant] He had terrible dreams and he said things out loud.


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[Assistant] Sid said he'd heard Tom, one night, saying, Blood, blood, please don't kill me, please.


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[Assistant] What's upsetting you, Tom? asked Aunt Polly.


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[Assistant] Something's on your mind and you need to talk about it.


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[Assistant] Tom visited Potter's window at the jail every day.


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[Assistant] And gave him a small gift to try to make him feel better. He wasn't sure if it helped Potter, but certainly helped Tom.


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[Assistant] Because Indian Joe had been digging up Hoss Williams' grave,


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[Assistant] Most of the people of the village wanted to put him in jail too. But they feared that this would just anger him, and he might later on


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[Assistant] Punish those who'd put him in jail a second time. So Indy and Joe remained free.


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[Assistant] He dived in under a great wave and swam strongly towards the ship. In another moment he would have reached it.


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[Assistant] When a high green hill of water appeared, and the ship went down with a great crash. The people on the beach pulled on Ham's rope, and he arrived at my feet, dead. They carried him to the nearest house, and I called a doctor, but nothing could be done for him. He had been beaten to death by that great wave, and his generous heart had stopped forever. As I sat hopelessly by his bed, the fisherman, who had known me when Emily and I were children,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Came to tell me he recognized the curly-haired sailor whose body had been thrown out of the water by the waves. I went to see. And there on the beach, where she and I had played, I saw Steerforth lying, with his handsome face on his arm. He would never smile at me or Emily again.


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[Assistant] At first, Tom and Becky had walked with the other children around the rooms of the cave.


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[Assistant] But soon, they'd become tired of playing with them.


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[Assistant] Tom found a hole that led to another part of the cave he'd never seen before.


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[Assistant] When he told Becky about this, she seemed interested. So he put a mark on the wall.


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[Assistant] To help them find their way back and they started down into the hole. As they walked, Tom kept making marks on the wall.


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[Assistant] Soon they found themselves in a large room with bats hanging from the ceiling. As soon as they entered


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[Assistant] The bats started flying about, screaming.


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[Assistant] Tom and Becky ran into a smaller room to get away. In here was a small pool of water


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[Assistant] I haven't heard any of the other children for a while now.


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[Assistant] As they started to walk again, they didn't seem to recognize any of the rooms they entered.


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[Assistant] Becky became very frightened and started crying. Tom shouted, but there was no reply. The quiet made Becky even more frightened. And even Tom now became afraid.


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[Assistant] Tom sat down next to her and hugged her, trying to calm her down.


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[Assistant] He apologized to her for not being more careful.


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[Assistant] They began walking again, and as they did, they talked about their friends, school, their families, and the sunlight.


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[Assistant] They started to walk again. Each had a light.


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[Assistant] Now they decided to use only one light and to save the other.


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[Assistant] Becky cried so much that she soon became tired and laid down to sleep for a while.


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[Assistant] Once she had finally fallen asleep and stopped crying, Tom started to feel a little better. An hour later, when she woke up, Tom saw that she was going to cry again, but before she did, he said to her,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Luckily, Tom had put some cake in his pocket earlier at the picnic. He broke it in half and gave one piece to her.


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[Assistant] Tom took Becky's hand after she'd finished eating and said to her,


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[Assistant] Becky began to cry again, but suddenly stopped to say, surely the village people will look for us. Maybe they're looking right now as we speak.


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[Assistant] Oh Tom, she won't notice anything for at least another day. Because I was supposed to stay at the Harper's after the picnic.


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[Assistant] And just after she had said this, their light went out and they both sat crying in the quiet darkness. After a while, they both fell asleep.


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[Assistant] When they awoke they realized that they now were losing track of time. Not only did they not know the hour,


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[Assistant] But also they didn't even know which day it was. Tom guessed that it was Sunday.


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[Assistant] Becky didn't even try to guess. She just sat in the darkness as if she were waiting to die. Soon they were hungry again.


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[Assistant] Tom took some of the small crumbs of cake that remained in his pocket and gave half to Becky.


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[Assistant] Tom jumped to his feet and started shouting back. Then there was another distant shout.


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[Assistant] Tom pulled Becky up and they began trying to walk towards the shouting.


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[Assistant] But soon they found that they couldn't walk any further because the path ended.


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[Assistant] If they hadn't been careful, they could have fallen down the edge of the rock to their deaths.


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[Assistant] They returned to the pool of water and waited, hoping other shouts would be heard. They slept again, and when they woke up, they found that they were again very hungry. Tom decided to look around a bit.


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[Assistant] He thought that just sitting there and waiting for someone to find them was a bad idea.


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[Assistant] He took some string from his pocket and tied one end of it around a rock near the pool.


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[Assistant] Then with the other end of the string in one hand and Becky's hand in the other, he started to explore the area.


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[Assistant] A few minutes later, Tom found a hole in the floor. He then lay down and tried looking through the hole.


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[Assistant] But as soon as he put his head down inside, he immediately saw a hand appear just next to his face.


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[Assistant] The hand was carrying a light, and behind the hand suddenly appeared the face of Indian Joe. Tom didn't move.


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[Assistant] He just stared straight ahead with his eyes as wide as they could get.


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[Assistant] Luckily, Indy and Joe was equally frightened by seeing someone, so he ran away.


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[Assistant] Tom got back on his feet and pretended that he hadn't seen anything special.


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[Assistant] He suggested that they return to the pool and rest for a while.


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[Assistant] Later on, after he had calmed down from his encounter with Indian Joe, Tom wanted to start looking around again. But Becky was weak now from hunger.


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[Assistant] She asked Tom to promise to come back after he'd looked and hold her a while before she died. Tom kissed her and promised that he would.


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[Assistant] Then he got to his feet, and with the string in his hand began again his search for a way out.


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[Assistant] Peckety explained to me that she had decided to marry him.


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[Assistant] I love you just as much, David, my dear, when I married, she told me, holding me close to her.


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[Assistant] And I'll keep a little bedroom there for you to use whenever you want. You'll always be welcome to come and stay.


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[Assistant] When I arrived in the sitting room as usual for my lesson, I saw that Mr. Murdstone had a thin stick in his hand. I could not take my eyes off it.


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[Assistant] He said with his unpleasant smile, holding the stick in both hands.


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[Assistant] I knew what would happen then. A terrible fear took hold of me. And all that I had learnt disappeared immediately from my memory.


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[Assistant] So that I could not answer any of my mother's questions. Mr. Murdstone got up from his chair.


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[Assistant] I heard my mother crying as we went upstairs. Please Mr. Murdstone, I cried. Don't beat me. I've tried to learn, really I have sir.


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[Assistant] This lecture will be a little bit unorthodox because today happens to coincide with the day that the Vision Pro releases. So, yeaah, the first half will be just an overview of augmented and virtual reality and previous projects and then the latter half will be current research that sort of moves beyond.


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[Assistant] What was done before. Uh, and so I entitled it from flat to phantasmal because


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[Assistant] I think as designers, as interaction designers, we specifically now need to think from the XY to the XYZ coordinate, and Phantasmal is actually a nod to a very, a very good book that I would recommend by Fox Horrell, who's the head of the Center for Virtuality at MIT, called Phantasmal Media. So, nod to him.


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[Assistant] And so this is a traditional taxonomy. It was actually in, in 1992, uh, by a mechanical engineering professor, ironically. And...


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[Assistant] I'm sure you've all seen this, but I just want to sort of recap of the difference between virtual reality versus


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Embedding digital objects in real space and then real reality is a consensual reality that we're all, we're all in right now. Hopefully, I don't know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, pass through augmented reality, which is rendering, uhm, basically a double rendering, because you're taking a video of the environment, which is technically what a phone does, and then, uhm, embedding digital objects on top of that, that's being called mixed reality, but really it is passed through augmented reality according to this taxonomy, so just wanted to make that clear.


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[Assistant] Yes, and so spatial computing, which Apple rebranded, because before we just referred to it as ARVR, XR, SR, some sort of prescription drug-like acronym, uhm, it comprises a lot of different fields.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, and I would say that the most notable one is computer graphics since that's the origin of the field.


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[Assistant] Psychology and neuroscience is something that will become increasingly important in the next five to ten years, thinking about how people interact with these devices specifically. I think Metta had done some precursor work with Horizons, but I think now there's a, probably a more garnered interest, and so that's going to be a very


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Lucrative and uhm, and needed a field of study and of course sensors, which is how we are able to perceive our environment.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so a lot of people ask me, and I think anybody should ask this question, is okay, well how did you get into AR, VR? And so actually in undergrad, it's very strange, but in undergrad I was studying chemistry.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because I wanted to be a perfumer, so, really I wanted to be a perfumer, so I was, I was double majoring in chemistry and French. Uhm, please don't ask me, please do not, please do not ask me to speak French, especially if you're Parisian, because they're very critical of, of the intonation.


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[Assistant] But when I took this class, I was amazed by this because I think the way that we perceive color is we perceive color as additive, but this is the Briggs-Roschel reaction, which is a redox reaction where the concentration of iodine changes. And those of you that are bioengineers or in the life sciences are aware of this reaction.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so it sort of just, uh, I think it challenged my perception of what color is, and so I remember asking my professor, okay,


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[Assistant] And I actually ended up adding on an intellectual engineering degree because I found it fascinating for similar reasons.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But yeaah, I think that this interaction changed my, the nature of perception for me and I wanted to know why. Because it just made the natural world seem more interesting. And then you find out that the reason why the colors change is basically because, uh, in transition metals there's d orbitals and the way that light interacts with those d orbitals is why it reflects color.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so, kind of extending on that chemistry metaphor, another question that gets asked is, okay, well, I've seen AR. AR has been around since the 80s.


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[Assistant] And so for me, I kind of made an activation energy chart, if you will. So activation energy is the energy that's needed for a chemical reaction and, but for me, it's the energy needed for people to actually care about the technology, uh, and to, to have a retention in the, in the experiences. So a lot of what happens is,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't know if you've downloaded AR apps, so how many of you have downloaded AR apps, specifically mobile ones? Or Quest apps on the Quest store?


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[Assistant] Especially with, uh, phone-based AR apps, what happens is that onboarding is very difficult because


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A lot of branded experience, they'll present a QR code, you scan that QR code and then that QR code takes you to either the App Store or the Play Store. So by the time you've already had to, you know, navigate throughout those three screens, you're tired and you're not even interested in the experience anymore.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so on-boarding is actually probably the key issue. And when I say on-boarding, I mean the initial, the initial, um,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I guess scanning or starting of the app versus, uh, to basically understanding the different controls in an experience and I think that's where a lot of people have fallen off because they'll get into a VR experience or an AR experience not intuitively understand the controls and then they drop off. And so I think that is, that's the problem.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so for me, I think that there are headsets, but I think it's important to note that 85, 84 point whatever percent of the world's population owns a smartphone. And so a lot of times we can use that as a segue to get people into


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] into exploring these mixed reality technologies, and it's a more accessible way of exploring these technologies.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so the way that I see how a phone actually can interact with these mixed reality experiences is in terms of three different ways. So as a window, a scanner, and a controller, and so in the subsequent slides I will show examples of each, because there are many examples of each, and I thought about


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, what are the three use cases for mobile AR? And this is kind of what was converged on.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I don't know if you've seen any of these, uhm, so I also gave reference to who made them. Let me play this one as well.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so as a window, it's basically a portal into another digital realm. A window can also be looking at, at a different scales. It can be looking at different


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like different, uh, I guess you would say layers. Uh, there's a lot of biology simulations that sort of take advantage of this. And then this last one.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The second one, which is a scanner, is also a very apt use of a mobile phone. And so now there's Luma Labs. I had replaced that with something else.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What you can do is you can just scan the phone and that's how, use the phone as a scanner and that's how you're able to perceive, uhm, the environment.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, and I think the most, I think this is the most obvious one because that's how the depth API and all these APIs work in the first place. But I think you can actually use it as LAN labs did in this bottom corner as an actual object scanner. And that was something that was done at Unity, which I will explain later. And the other one that's very interesting is using


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And just to note, Qualcomm has actually, uh, implemented this sort of controller paradigm on their Snapdragon framework, so I would go and look at that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, and so speaking of Scanner, uh, I guess the most used work that I've ever implemented and done, uh, was at Google working on the Depth API. Uhm, so I wasn't originally supposed to work on it, but what happened is that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, a lot of, a lot of ARVR expertise is understaffed. So they needed someone who is familiar with Unity, familiar with ARVR, and I was like, I'm definitely the person for the, uh, for the task. And so I helped the, uh, the Google research team, uh, in implementing the Depth API, and so the Depth API again provides, uhm, a scene understanding of the environment.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, via parallax motion as opposed to the iPhone which uses LiDAR scanning and so it again makes it accessible to every Android device so you don't have to buy, you know, the


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The thousand dollar iPhone to get that same, uh, the same augmented reality experiences.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so this was something that, uhm, was a depth API experience.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I want to note that this doesn't show occlusion, uh, or collision because that was one of the prime features of the Depth API, uh, which if you've looked at filters like at SnapChat, Snap or Spark, it uses the Depth API as well.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, but one thing that was interesting is a lot of times when people are authoring an AR, it's very difficult. There was a Minecraft AR experience that was deprecated after maybe a year and a half because people get


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So then we wanted to sort of make an open source experience that was like, okay, if people wanted to level edit an augmented reality quickly, how can they do that? And then the answer is like, you can make, you know, a path of clones in familiar shapes like


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, like in vector programs. So if I wanted a ring of mushrooms, you can just make the ring. If I wanted a free-form ring of clones of objects, I can do that. And so it expedites the process. And that's open-sourced.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I would look at that. So one thing, this is implemented, but these were just sort of the mockups, is that I think a lot of, uh, when people think of AI, they immediately associate it with LLMs now, right? But I think object detection, especially for AR, VR, will be extremely important.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If we're talking about contextualizing and adding information. And so one of my favorite little mini experiments that I did.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Was, y-you're scanning objects in the room.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, so book for instance, and then what it does is it has, it pulls from a database of, of books, and it basically finds a quote in a book that contains the object, right? So with this one, I think it's pulling from Alice in Wonderland, and since it detected that there was tea, it then pulls a quote from Alice in Wonderland.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, the act of creation, right? So almost every story, you know, let, let there be light. Uhm, it's also in, definitely in African, Chinese, most mythologies, the world is, is spoken, right? Because speaking is like an, uh, incantation, but also when you speak, there's a, a level of agency that's expected, which,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, which was called Step Towards Prompt-Based Creation of Virtual Worlds. And there's Jaren and another person that I work with, Andy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And base, essentially what we did was we sort of experimented and prototype where are large language models useful? Where are they not mixing deterministic and non-deterministic components?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because essentially, hallucination is not game design, because then the LLM is designing the experience for you, but if, if lucid dreaming means that I have 100% control,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The machine hallucinating means that it has control and I'm prompting it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I've showed this slide before to some people, but I think a lot of people also wonder, okay, where does this data come from? Why is this so difficult to do specifically in the context of virtual and augmented reality?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That really still can't be achieved with generative AI alone. You still need bespoke assets. You still need, uh, the technical artists. You still need a team.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To implement that. But I think there was a cycle maybe a few months ago where people were under the impression that they can create full-fledged games, uh, of their design using generative AI alone.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so one thing that we found that was good to use for generative AI, and it's a very simple call too, is how many of you have worked with 3D assets before?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, so you know that 3D assets are frustrating, especially if you're, if you're trying to receive them from the artist. So I'll ask for a teddy bear and then I get the teddy bear. It's two meters tall, but it needs to be in real world scale. So one thing that we found that is a good use case of generative AI is just to do a call to chat GPT, which was called codex, you know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It changes every, every week it seems what it's called, but Codex at the time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Okay, if I'm importing an apple and I know it's apple because it's been tagged by the artist.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Then how big, how, how big is an apple in real world scale? And then it's able to import that directly into Unity or Unreal, taking into account their coordinate systems. So, and I'll give an example. This is in black and white, here.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so then it has to produce the orca world to scale. And you're like, ah, and then if you look on that hand side, you're like, what's going on? But then if you zoom out, you see that he's actually nested in the whale. So he's Jonah. So again, making those biblical references.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then another thing that we've done is just a holodeck sort of experience or a toy, a toy world experience, which is something that, uhm, a team I had worked with had called and I thought it was a really interesting name.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Which is how to position objects properly in, in space. And so, you know, you have, you would already have a repository of assets.