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Uncertainty in Measurement

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Kim, J., Guo, A., Yeh, T., Hudson, S. E., & Mankoff, J. (2017, June). Understanding Uncertainty in Measurement and Accommodating its Impact in 3D Modeling and Printing. In Proceedings of the 2017 Conference on Designing Interactive Systems (pp. 1067-1078). ACM.

3D printing enables everyday users to augment objects around them with personalized adaptations. There has been a proliferation of 3D models available on sharing platforms supporting this. If a model is parametric, a novice modeler can obtain a custom model simply by entering a few parameters (e.g., in the Customizer tool on Thingiverse.com). In theory, such custom models could fit any real world object one intends to augment. But in practice, a printed model seldom fits on the first try; multiple iterations are often necessary, wasting a considerable amount of time and material. We argue that parameterization or scaling alone is not sufficient for customizability, because users must correctly measure an object to specify parameters.

In a study of attempts to measure length, angle, and diameter, we demonstrate measurement errors as a significant (yet often overlooked) factor that adversely impacts the adaptation of 3D models to existing objects, requiring increased iteration. Images taken from our study are shown below.

Bulb is not correctly lined up with ruler
Edge of phone is curved, and length difficult to measure
Ruler is bent, introducing error

We argue for a new design principle—accommodating measurement uncertainty—that designers as well as novices should begin to consider. We offer two strategies—modular joint and, buffer insertion—to help designers to build models that are robust to measurement uncertainty. Examples shown below.

 

 

3D Printing with Embedded Textiles

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Stretching the Bounds of 3D Printing with Embedded Textiles

Textiles are an old and well developed technology that have many desirable characteristics. They can be easily folded, twisted, deformed, or cut; some can be stretched; many are soft. Textiles can maintain their shape when placed under tension and can even be engineered with variable stretching ability.

When combined, textiles and 3D printing open up new opportunities for rapidly creating rigid objects with embedded flexibility as well as soft materials imbued with additional functionality. We introduce a suite of techniques for integrating the two and demonstrate how the malleability, stretchability and aesthetic qualities of textiles can enhance rigid printed objects, and how textiles can be augmented with functional properties enabled by 3D printing.

Click images below to see more detail:

Citation

Rivera, M.L., Moukperian, M., Ashbrook, D., Mankoff, J., Hudson, S.E. 2017. Stretching the Bounds of 3D Printing with Embedded Textiles. To appear in to the annual ACM conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. CHI ‘17. [Paper]

Layered Fabric Printing

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A Layered Fabric 3D Printer for Soft Interactive Objects. Huaishu Peng, Jennifer Mankoff, Scott E. Hudson, James McCann. CHI ’15 Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2015.

In work done collaboratively with Disney Research and led by Disney Intern Huaishu Peng (of Cornell), we have begun to explore alternative material options for fabrication. Unlike traditional 3D printing, which uses hard plastic, this project made use of cloth (in the video shown above, felt). In addition to its aesthetic properties, fabric is deformable, and the degree of deformability can be controlled. Our printer, which works by gluing layers of laser-cut fabric to each other also allows for dual material printing, meaning that layers of conductive fabric can be inserted. This allows fabric objects to also easily support embedded electronics. This work has been in the news recently, and was featured at Adafruit; Futurity; Gizmodo; Geek.com and TechCrunch, among others.

Jennifer Mankoff

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Research | Students | Teaching | Bio | CV | Advice | Fun | Contact

Research

My work is focused on giving people with disabilities the voice, tools and agency to advocate for themselves. I take a multifaceted approach that includes machine learning, 3D printing, and tool building. At a high level, my goal is to tackle the technical challenges necessary for individuals and communities of people with disabilities to solve real-world problems (see all the Make4all projects).

Some of my writing about my disability experience and my Lyme blog

Some of my most recent projects (All):

“Policies and laws” are social determinants of health for access to telehealth care. “Policies and laws” intervene with the status quo and influence digital determinants of health for telehealth care; therefore, it can be considered a digital determinants of health of telehealth.

Telehealth and Digital Health Innovations

A table with an assortment of cane tips, cane handles and feet in various shapes.

“A Tool for Freedom”

Stylized illustration of a person with robotic features sitting at a café table, looking at a phone, with a glowing light around them. Four human figures sit at surrounding tables, engaged in conversation. The central figure has a robot icon on their chest and a speech bubble with the same icon, symbolizing artificial intelligence or feeling like a robot in a social setting.

Autoethnographic Insights from Neurodivergent GAI “Power Users”

Figure 1: The flowchart offers a map through the results. At the top we have communication access, which branches into two directions: 1) access needs (e.g., caption use, speechreading) and 2) language landscape (e.g., frequency, context, comfort, overall repertoire). There are two way arrows between these two, representing the question 'How do these interact/inform/shape each other?'. Below the question, as answer we have two groups: first, factors for a particular langauge (fluency, linguistic affordances, cultural perceptions) and second, practices across languages (translation, transliteration, translanguaging).

Toward Language Justice

A purple freestanding lace piece on top of a jar lid, adding a rigid, grippable base.

Shaping Lace

An AI generated decorative image of a person standing alone outside of a corporate boardroom, excluded.

Identifying and improving disability bias in GPT-based resume screening

A computationally generated image of three different configurations of hangers and chains to support a bird feeder.

FabHacks with Everyday Objects

Wordcloud of alt text assigned to images in notebooks prominently featuring useless text such as "png" "image" "alt" and "Colab"

Notably Inaccessible

Left: A hand is shown moving back and forth on a laptop touchpad. Right: A TED video is playing and the slider is highlighted to indicate that the hands motion controls the video position.

Touchpad Mapper

Students

Current PhD students:

Aashaka Desai

Han Zhang

Former PhD Students:

3D printed prosthetic bow holder with bow and velcro for attaching to the arm.

Megan Hofmann

A white person with light brown hair short on one side and long on the other and a yellow earing. They are wearing a teal jacket and standing next to a wooden and concrete wall.

Kelly Avery Mack

Venkatesh Potluri

Orson (Xuhai) Xu (PhD, co-advised with Anind Dey)

Head shot of Amy Hurst

Amy Hurst (co-advised with Scott Hudson)

Kirstin Early (co-advised with Steven E. Feinberg)

Nikola Banovic (PhD, co-advised with Anind Dey)

Tawanna Dillahunt

Also those with no make4all page: Mark Baldwin (co-advised with Gillian Hayes); Christian Koehler; Sunyoung Kim; Scott Carter; Tara Matthews; Julia Schwarz 

I love to work with undergraduate and masters students and have mentored more than I can count. My mentorship always tries to include career advice as well as project advice, whether students are going on to research or not. Many undergraduate students I advised have gone on to careers in research, however, including some current faculty (Julie Kientz, Gary Hsieh, Ruth Wylie). There are at least 50 other students who are alumni of my group who are not currently listed on this page but who all made important contributions to my work over the years. Some current mentees:

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Recent Alumni I mentored/advised:

Taylor Gotfrid

Yasaman Sefigar

Xin Liu

Aleks Tapinsh

Gary Yang

Nidhi Vyas

Additional alumni can be found on the People page.

Teaching

I love to teach, and have put significant time into curriculum development over the years.

CLASSES DEVELOPED FOR AND TAUGHT AT CMU
  • I am currently developing a new course on data centric computing, called The Data Pipeline. The course is accessible to novice programmers and includes a series of tutorials that can support independent online learning.
  • I helped to redesign the HCI Masters course User Centered Research and Evaluation, specifically bringing a real world focus to our skills teaching around contextual inquiry
  • I developed an online course specifically for folks who want to know enough program to be able to prototype simple interfaces (targeted at our incoming masters students). The course is available free online at CMU’s Open Learning Initiative under “Media Programming”
  • I developed and taught the Environment and Society course over the last five years. This was a project oriented course that took a very multifaceted look at the role of technology in solving environmental problems.
  • I helped to develop a reading course that is required for our PhD students to ensure that they have depth in technical HCI: CS Mini
  • Assistive Technology: I developed and taught one of the first Assistive Technology courses in the country (specifically from an HCI perspective), and I used a service learning model to do so. Original class
  • I have helped to revamp Process and Theory over the years, a skills course intended for our first year PhD students.

Bio

My Bachelor’s of Arts was done at Oberlin College, where I was a member of two great societies — FOO and ACM. I received my Ph.D. as a member of the Future Computing Environments research group in the College of Computing at Georgia Tech , Gregory Abowd and Scott Hudson were my advisors. I then spent three formative years at UC Berkeley as an Assistant Professor working with the I/O group and 12 years at CMU before joining the faculty of the University of Washington. This is my “Academic genealogy” on the Abowd side. I am also disabled, with an invisible chronic illness, and I am happy to talk about my experience of navigating both medical and social barriers in academia and provide mentorship. Please reach out if I can help. 

CREATE Bio: Jennifer Mankoff directs the Center for Research and Education on Accessible Technology and Experiences (CREATE) at the University of Washington. CREATE’s mission is to make technology accessible, and make the world accessible through technology. Mankoff’s own research uses technologies including generative AI, data science, 3D printing, and computational knitting to solve accessibility problems. She strives to bring both structural and personal perspectives to her work. Jennifer received her PhD at Georgia Tech, advised by Gregory Abowd and Scott Hudson, and her B.A. from Oberlin College. She has identified as disabled since graduate school.

Individual Bio: Jennifer Mankoff is the Richard E. Ladner Professor in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington. Her research is focused on accessibility through giving disabled people the voice, tools and agency to advocate for themselves.  She strives to bring both structural and personal perspectives to her work. Mankoff’s work tackles the technical challenges necessary for individuals and communities to solve real-world problems in accessibility, including in domains such as higher education, health, and DIY solutions. She uses technologies including generative AI, data science, 3D printing, and computational knitting in her work. Jennifer received her PhD at Georgia Tech, advised by Gregory Abowd and Scott Hudson, and her B.A. from Oberlin College. She has identified as disabled since graduate school.

Her previous faculty positions include UC Berkeley’s EECS department and Carnegie Mellon’s HCI Institute. Jennifer is a CHI Academy member and has been recognized with a SIGCHI Social Impact Award, an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship and IBM Faculty Fellowship, and an ASSETS 10 year impact award.

Other Thoughts and Links

  • Advice about searching through literature, doing reviews, etc.
  • Please email me if you need information or help regarding RSI (or are experiencing any computer-related pain).
  • I have chronic lyme disease. Lyme disease is the most common vector born disease in America today. I write about my experiences on A Lyme Disease Journal
  • Best Conference Experience Ever: The CHI Straggles Seder

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Contact Information

Jennifer Mankoff
jmankoff [at] acm.org
​206-685-3035
Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering
University of Washington
Paul G. Allen Center
185 Stevens Way
Campus Box 352350
Seattle, WA 98195