Maribeth Back

mbb at media dot mit dot edu

Maribeth Back is a technology researcher and designer. She builds real-world, socially informed exploratory applications for new technologies. As a senior research scientist at FXPAL and Xerox PARC, her methodology has been creating robust working prototypes that employ innovative ideas and technology, and then testing them with proven user-centered evaluation techniques. Research areas include 3D virtual environments, augmented reality, applied ubiquitous computing, and audio systems design and engineering.

Her work has included:

  • Virtual environment applications for the enterprise
  • Augmented reality interfaces for factories and for museum exhibits
  • Interfaces and social system design for wireless and mobile systems
  • Usable ubiquitous computing systems for next-generation conference rooms
  • Innovative reading devices for assisted and general reading
  • User-centered design analysis and contextual evaluation
  • Sound design and audio engineering for interactive and augmented environments
  • Informatics design for advanced medical research systems
Back completed her doctorate at Harvard's Graduate School of Design in May 1996, and spent more than five years in ubiquitous computing research at Xerox PARC. Currently she heads the Usable Smart Environments group at FX Palo Alto Laboratory, working on usability in ubiquitous systems for conference room environments.

history

  • Senior Research Scientist, FX Palo Alto Laboratory.

    - Lead, Mixed and Immersive Realities group. Applied research into 3D virtual environments and augmented/mixed reality for enterprise applications. We look at remote collaboration, industrial collaboration, and process tracking and visualization using 3D environments informed by real-world sensor networks. 2006-current.

    - Lead, Usable Smart Environments group, focused on applied ubiquitous computing in the workplace. The USE conference room system, designed to allow walk-in-and-use capabilities for highly functional next-generation conference rooms. Designed and deployed robust prototype in September 2006. The USE system features an easy-to-use "smart room" with mobile device integration; rich multi-screen, multi-user teleconferencing; document sharing; digital whiteboard and annotation; secure authentication systems including biometrics and RFID; and a unique extensible architecture. 2004-2006.

  • CEO/founder, The Reading Lab. The Reading Lab focused on innovative reading and writing technologies. Projects include design consulting; prototyping assistive reading devices for people with motor control difficulties; designing exhibits for science and technology museums; and creating custom readers for the general public. 2002 - 2004.

  • Lecturer in Computer Science, UC Berkeley. Human-Computer Interaction (CS160); Design Realization: Physical Instruments for Digital Systems(CS294-12). 2002-2003.

  • Senior Member of the Research Staff, Xerox PARC. Project lead on a number of ubiquitous computing projects. Multi-sensory research, application design and system prototyping in RED (Research in Experimental Documents), a multi-disciplinary group specializing in prototyping applications for new technologies. RED produced the touring museum exhibition "XFR: Experiments in the Future of Reading," which has resulted in eleven patents and many publications and has been seen by hundreds of thousands of people. Several other projects at PARC have also resulted in patents and subsequent publication. Active participation in several research communities through publishing, presenting, organizing, and reviewing (notably CHI, IEEE, SIGGRAPH, UIST, ICAD, Web3D, AES). 1996-2002.

  • MIT Media Lab. Researcher, instrument/physical interface designer, audio engineer and sound designer for the Brain Opera, an interactive electronic opera performed at Lincoln Center and Ars Electronica. Fifty-four instances of nine novel computer instruments were designed and deployed for use. 1995-1996.

  • Harvard Graduate School of Design. Researcher, the Advanced Health Care Initiative. Medical informatics and embedded systems. Principal Investigator, Dr. Daniel Schodek, 1994-96.

  • Interval Research Corporation Research intern, Palo Alto, CA, summer 1995.

  • Harvard Graduate School of Design. Researcher, Surgical Room of the Future project. Principal Investigator Kenneth Kaplan, 1993-94.

  • Harvard University, Adjunct faculty. American Repertory Theatre, resident sound designer/engineer, Cambridge, MA, 1989-1993. Created the sound environment (design and engineering) for the Mainstage and New Stages productions, and supervised the audio facilities. Taught sound design and audio engineering seminars as well as directing design work for student productions at Harvard University and at the Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at Harvard, a professional training program.

  • Professional work prior to 1989 ranged from radio announcing and production to music engineering to sound design for professional theater, museum installations, and interaction design. Spent years in commercial radio as a producer/announcer (in Texas and Alaska); as a promoter, producer and announcer for KUAC-FM, a public radio station in Fairbanks, Alaska; and as a staff studio engineer for Big Apple Studios, a major recording studio in Manhattan. Other engineering work includes production engineering and satellite board operation for NBC Radio in New York and the pioneering of one of the first computerized sound systems at The Empty Space Theatre in Seattle. Other theatrical work includes acting, design, musical direction, and/or musical performance for more than a hundred and fifty shows on both Coasts.

major projects

  • At FXPAL:

  • Mixed and Immersive Realities, Group lead. Virtual and augmented environments for the enterprise, including mirroring a real-world chocolate factory in 3D, and creating remote collaboration environments for the workplace.

  • Usable Smart Environments, Group lead. Addressing usability for ubiquitous computing in the workplace. Designed and implemented USE conference room control system in Palo Alto and Japan.

  • The Intelligent Podium. Project lead. Interactive furniture for the next-generation conference room. Hardware and software design and implementation.

  • At PARC:

  • Facets. Project lead. Wireless wearables+smart environments distributed interaction system. With Karen Marcelo and CSL wireless group. 2001.

  • AirBook. Project lead. Assistive reading device for force-free interaction with dynamic (RSVP) text. With M. Szymanski. 2000-2001.

  • XFR: Experiments in the Future of Reading. At the Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose. A 4000-sq.ft. museum installation, a major collaborative design and research effort by the RED group. 1998-2001.

  • Listen Reader. Project lead, architecture, hardware implementation. Award-winning experimental e-book with paper pages and immersive audio. For the XFR exhibit. 1998 - 2000.

  • Speeder Reader. Project lead, architecture, hardware implementation. Experimental dynamic text reader for the XFR exhibit. 1998 - 2000.

  • WalkIn Comix, Project lead. Environmental comic book for the XFR exhibit. Project creator and audio design, 1998 - 2000.

  • Kinetic Mandala. Project lead. Audio artificial life in Web3D systems. Built working prototype integrating Java and VRML. 1997 - 1998. With Maureen Stone.

  • Sonic Mandala. Built test bed for exploring audio possibilities in VRML 2.0 and other 3D environments. 1996-97. With Maureen Stone.

  • Audio Aura. Wearable audio augmented reality. Prototype system built on Active Badge technology with 3D design interface, 1996 - 1997. With Beth Mynatt, Roy Want, Ron Frederick.

patents

  • "Interactive Techniques for Organizing and Retrieving Thumbnails and Notes on Large Displays." Patrick Chiu, Xiaohua Sun, Jeffrey Huang, Maribeth Back, and Wolfgang Polak. Filed 2005.

  • "Post-Bit: Multimedia ePaper Stickies." Takashi Matsumoto, and Maribeth Back. Filed 2004.

  • "Systems and methods to detect a page identification using embedded identification tags." Maribeth Back and Jonathan Cohen. Issued 2003.

  • "Systems and methods providing an interface for navigating dynamic text." Maribeth Back, Rich Gold, Jonathan Cohen, Steve Harrison, Scott Minneman, Matt Gorbet. Issued 2003.

  • "Authoring tools, including content-driven treetable, for Fluid text." Paula S. Newman, Polle Zelleweger, Maribeth Back. Issued 2003.

  • "Method for using IR identification and wireless auditory notification to navigate real world environments." Elizabeth Mynatt, Maribeth Back, Roy Want, Ron Frederick, Michael Baer, Jason Ellis. Issued 2002.

  • "Virtual Interface for Configuring and Audio Augmentation System." Elizabeth Mynatt, Maribeth Back, Roy Want, Ron Frederick, Michael Baer, Jason Ellis. Issued 2002.

  • "Systems and methods that detect proximity information using electric field sensing devices and a page identification using embedded identification tags." Maribeth Back, Rich Gold, Jonathan Cohen, Steve Harrison, Scott Minneman. 1999. Issued 2001.

  • "System and method for controlling output information devices." Maribeth Back, Margaret Szymanski. 2002.

  • "System and method for live capture to print." Maribeth Back, Karen Marcelo, Matt Gorbet. 2002.

  • "System and method for using accelerometers in a handheld physical device for reading and navigating dynamic text." Maribeth Back, Roy Want. 2001.

  • "Method for generating rich sound environments using genetic or shaped algorithms." Maribeth Back and Maureen Stone. 1998.

awards

AIGA Interactive Design Education Award, Loop Journal, May 2003, for graduate course "Design Realization" at UC Berkeley.

Two ID Magazine Design awards in 2001:

  • Gold Medal, the Reading Wall
  • Silver Medal, the Listen Reader

Honorable Mention at Ars Electronica 1998, for Biota's Nerve Garden.

publications

workshops and SIGs (lead)

  • Virtual Worlds SIG, SDForum, Co-chair; Palo Alto, CA.

  • CSCW 2008: Remix rooms: Redefining the smart conference room.
    Organizing committee: Maribeth Back, Scott Carter, Kazunori Horikiri, Masatomi Inagaki, Gerald Morrison and Saadi Lahlou.

  • Ubicomp 2008. UbiWORK: Design and Evaluation of Smart Environments in the Workplace
    Organizing committee: Maribeth Back, Scott Carter, Kazunori Horikiri, Masatomi Inagaki, Gerald Morrison and Saadi Lahlou.

  • Ubicomp 2007: Workshop on Embodied Meeting Support: Mobile, Tangible, Senseable Interaction in Smart Environments
    Organizing committee: Maribeth Back, Scott Carter, Kazunori Horikiri, Jeffrey Huang, Masatomi Inagaki, and Saadi Lahlou.

  • Ubicomp 2006: Usable ubiquitous computing in next generation conference rooms: design, architecture and evaluation.
    Organizing committee: Maribeth Back, Kazunori Horikiri, Jeffrey Huang, Surapong Lertsithichai, Rafael (Tico) Ballagas, Masatomi Inagaki, and Saadi Lahlou.

  • Ubicomp 2005:
    Organizing committee: Maribeth Back, Patrick Chiu, Jeffrey Huang, Kazunori Horikiri, Jun Miyazaki, and Mark Newman.

presentations (selected)

  • "Reading Rooms: the Design of Immersive Social Media Spaces." Invited talk, Emerging Technologies conference (ETech), San Diego, CA. March 2006.

  • "Rethinking Reading" Mills College, Oakland, CA March 2005.

  • "Emotion and Intuition in the Multi-sensory Interface." Tate Modern, London, UK, May 2003.

  • "Rethinking Reading." Media Lab Europe, Dublin, Ireland, May 2003.

  • "Reinventing the Book: Some Experiments in the Future of Reading." Microsoft Visiting Lecturer Series, Redmond WA, February 2003.

  • "The Roads Not Taken: Detours and Deadends on the Design Path of Speeder Reader." DIS 2002, London, July 2002.

  • "The Art of Extreme Robotics," curator and moderator, rhizome.la, February 2002.

  • "XFR: Experiments in the Future of Reading." Panel presentation at Terry Winograd's graphics seminar, Stanford, Novvember 2001.

  • "Dynamic design for multisensory systems." UC Davis, October 2001.

  • "XFR: Experiments in the Future of Reading." Panel presentation at UCLA, August 2001.

  • "Speeder Reader: an experiment in the future of reading." SIGGRAPH 2001, August 2001.

  • "Audio and the Narrative Experience: a methodology for sound design for museum exhibits." Association of Science and Technology Centers, Phoenix, August 2001.

  • "Listen Reader: an electronically augmented paper-based book." CHI 2001, April 2001.

  • "The AirBook: force-free interaction for an assistive reading device." CHI 2001, April 2001.

  • "Lost in Fictional Space: speed, sound and touch in new digital readings." With Anne Mangen. Digital Arts and Culture, Providence, R.I., April 2001.

  • Back, Maribeth. Panel presentation with other RED members. The methods of our madness: research on experimental documents Panel presentation at CHI 2000; 2000 April 1-6; The Hague, Netherlands.

  • Back, Maribeth. Sound Design for Interactive Systems. Lecture at the San Francisco Art Institute, May 12, 2000.

  • Back, Maribeth. Designing Interactive Sound for Museum Exhibitions Lecture to the Northern California Music Library Association San Jose, CA, May 5, 2000

  • Back, Maribeth. Page Detection Using Embedded Tags. UIST 2000, San Diego, November 7, 2000.

  • Back, Maribeth. Expressive Embedded Systems: Theory and Application. Lecture at Stanford University, October 23, 2000.

  • Back, Maribeth. "XFR: Experiments in the Future of Reading. At the Dept. of Media & Communication, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway, November 15, 2000.

  • Back, Maribeth. "Reading the Future: Designing Interactive Documents and Genres," Symposium at the Department of Documentation Studies, Tromso, Norway, November 19, 2000.

references upon request

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