Implicit Interactions

How do we design robots and autonomous vehicles that understand the unwritten rules of human behavior? Kyle speaks with Cornell Tech professor Wendy Ju about implicit interaction, “Wizard of Oz” prototyping, and what studying pedestrians, self-driving cars, and even robotic furniture can teach us about designing technology that behaves the way people expect.

Guest

Wendy Ju: Wendy Ju is Professor of Information Science at the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute at Cornell Tech and inaugural faculty in Cornell’s new multi-college Design Tech department. Wendy’s work in the areas of automated vehicle interfaces and human robot interaction highlights the ways that interactive devices can communicate and engage people without interrupting or intruding. Her current focus is on everyday urban interaction. Prof. Ju has innovated numerous methods for early-stage prototyping of automated systems to understand how people will respond to systems before the systems are built. Wendy's research has been featured in The New York Times, The Economist, BBC, CNN, WIRED, The Atlantic, Financial Times, Washington Post, and NPR. She has a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford, and a Master’s in Media Arts and Sciences from MIT. Her monograph on The Design of Implicit Interactions was published in 2015.