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Andrew Christian
Engineering Fellow
HCI Systems, NRCC

 

Background

I joined NRC Cambridge in November 2005 to pursue my interests in featherweight mobile communications and the user experience.

Over the years I've worked in many different areas and fields: open-source operating systems, user interface design, educational software, building robots, product design management, machine vision and public kiosks, location-tracking infrastructures, and even plastic case design. I believe that everything is tied together by a common thread: my desire to create user-friendly systems that solve real problems. For me, the goal is always to identify a real need and create a complete solution that fulfils that need in an elegant and easy-to-use way.

Because I'm systems-focused, PowerPoint just doesn't cut it. I believe that you don't understand a system until you've built a working prototype and gotten it into the hands of users. There's a flip side to this as well; nothing explains the goals and benefits of a research problem quite as well as handing out a device and showing why it is useful.

Software

I spent many early years writing educational software; even now I find that healthy discipline of designing software for completely non-technical users informs my efforts. My more recent open source efforts include:

  • The Mojo Project: rebuilding desktop distributions for small embedded devices
  • TCP/IP services over 802.15.4 (in TinyOS).
  • Infrastructure-based location tracking software systems for Bluetooth, WiFi, and Infrared.
  • Ported and implemented many parts of Linux for handhelds.org
 

Research Interests

My research interests:

  • Complete-system user interface design
  • Featherweight wireless devices
  • Mobile, opportunistic communication
 

Personal Information

Work

Prior to joining Nokia, I was a member of technical staff at the Cambridge Research Laboratory. Originally Digital Equipment Corporation it later become Compaq Computer Corporation and then the Hewlett-Packard Company. At Digital I formed the HCI systems group: a small team focused on creating user-friendly interactions with computers in non-standard settings. We build attentive, interactive public kiosks that sense people (machine vision/sonar/infrared) and present awareness of their presence.

Under Compaq we shifted to featherweight computing devices: sub-cellphone in-building wireless mobile devices and supporting infrastructure. Pursuing these led to long explorations in hardware development and power management, operating system work (Linux and TinyOS), communications protocols (low-power MAC-layer optimization all the way up through SIP), and wireless location tracking (most in-building services are location-based).

 

Supporting/Other Information

Education

  • Ph.D. Mechanical Engineering, 1995, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA., Product design management.
  • S.M.E. Mechanical Engineering, 1989, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA., Robotics.
 

Publications

A. Christian, J. Healey.
"Gathering Motion Data Using Featherweight Sensors and TCP/IP over 802.15.4". IEEE International Symposium on Wearable Computers, On-Body Sensing Workshop, October 2005
A. Christian, B. Avery, S. Ayer, F. Bomba, J. Hicks.
"HPL-2005-113 SNAP Computing: Wireless Location-based Plug and Play". HP Labs Tech Report. June 2005.
A. Christian, J. Hicks, B. Avery, B. Kuris, D. Denning, S. Ayer, J. Ankcorn.
"HPL-2005-114 Fingertips of the Network: Featherweight Communicators and Sensors". HP Labs Tech Report. June 2005.
J. Hicks, A. Christian, B. Avery.
"HPL-2005-115 Integrating Presence and Location Services using SIP". HP Labs Tech Report. June 2005.
A. Christian, B. Avery.
"Speak Out and Annoy Someone: Experiences with Intelligent Kiosks". ACM SIGCHI 2000, April 2000
A. Christian, B. Avery.
"Digital Smart Kiosk Project". CHI '98, 18-23 April 1998.
A. Christian, K. Grasso, W. Seering
"Validation Studies of an Information-Flow Model of Design". ASME DTM, September 1996.
A. Christian, W. Seering
"A Model of Information Exchange in the Design Process". ASME DTM, September 1995.
A. Christian, W. Seering
"Initial Experiments with a Flexible Robot". IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, May 1990.
A. Christian, W. Seering
"Design Considerations for an Earth-Based Flexible Robotic System". IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, May 1989.

Patents & Pendings

U.S. Patent 6,043,827
A. Christian, B. Avery, Technique for acknowledging multiple objects using a computer generated face, March 2000
U.S. Patent 6,052,132
A. Christian, B. Avery, K. Waters, Technique for providing a computer generated face having coordinated eye and head movement, April 2000
U.S. Patent 6,141,434
A. Christian, B. Avery, Technique for processing images, October 2000
U.S. Patent 6,163,822
A. Christian, B. Avery, Technique for controlling and processing a section of an interactive presentation simultaneously with detecting stimulus event in manner that overrides process, December 2000
U.S. Patent 6,184,858
A. Christian, B. Avery, Technique for updating a background image, February 2001
U.S. Patent 6,240,197
A. Christian, B. Avery, Technique for disambiguating proximate objects within an image, May 2001
U.S. Patent 6,239,292
A. Christian, B. Avery, Technique for controlling a presentation of a computer generated object having a plurality of movable components, June 2001
U.S. Patent 6,400,830
A. Christian, B. Avery, Technique for tracking objects through a series of images, June 2002
U.S. Patent 6,421,462
A. Christian, B. Avery, Technique for differencing an image, July 2002
U.S. Patent 6,434,271
A. Christian, B. Avery, Technique for locating objects within an image, August 2002
U.S. Patent 6,556,708
A. Christian, B. Avery, Technique for classifying objects within an image, April 2003