news

Please pardon the construction!

| Michelle Annett

I’m gonna start off by saying that I love the new blogger Dynamic View templates! With next to zero work on my part, my blog now can be viewed/rendered in seven really cool ways (you are currently looking at the ‘Magazine View’). If you don’t really dig the magazine view, and want to see something else, you can use the drop down box in the upper left corner to see a different view (it all feels so much like Flipboard – which I really think should have a Mac app!!).


Needless to say, with the new template(s) there are things that will disappear, reappear, and need some work (e.g., all my posts need to have pictures now so that they are super exciting and there are cool things to look at in the different views). The next week or so will probably be spent updating old posts (to look cooler), figuring out how to make my static pages not look so dull, and writing up a new paragraphs or so on my hobby, Vinylmations!

More multi-touch in the news!

| Michelle Annett

I am super excited that the tabletop I built for the Glenrose was featured in an article in the Wall Street Journal today (as well as a few other places)! It’s great to not only see the impact that the table has had on the Glenrose, but also see all the great research into technology-based rehabilitation interventions that is being conducted at other institutions. I hope that all this publicity will encourage more HCI researchers to think about entering into this awesome field and providing clients in therapy programs with some exciting, engaging technology to work with!

  • “Playing on a tablet as therapy”. Wall Street Journal, July 2011.
  • “Smartphones, Tablets Provide Therapy for Autism, Other Disabilities”. Mobiledia.com, July 2011. Also appeared on Forbes.com, July 2011.

Tabletop Research in the News

| Michelle Annett

On October 20 and 22, the Glenrose held pseudo-press conferences to share the success of my multi-touch tabletop and it’s activities with the local Edmonton and St. Albert media. To date between 40 and 50 patients have used the tabletop, and many patients and therapists reported that it has produced many great results. I hope that these positive benefits will continue with new patients and that we will be able to make a few more tabletops for the Glenrose. I also hope that we can get many more tabletops into other hospitals and clinics around Alberta as well. If you would like more information on this project, please don’t hesitate to contact me!


Media links:

My lack of updates

| Michelle Annett

Over the last few months I have been very busy with supervising interns, getting my tabletop ready for the Glenrose, working on course assignments, etc. I regret that I have not been able to post more because the point of moving my website over to a blog format was so that I would be able to update it more frequently. Starting today, I hope to update it weekly because there are many many exciting things happening! For the next few posts, I am going to try and capture all of the projects and events that have been happening over the last few months.

This week in the news….UBC visitors and scholarships!

| Michelle Annett

Hello! It is only Tuesday, but it has already been a very busy week. Yesterday and today, the AMMI lab was fortunately enough to have Dr. Alan Kingstone, and two of his post-docs Tom Foulsham and Evan Risko visit our lab, share their research with us, and have a great dinner at Walter’s house. I had a great time hearing and watching videos of the projects that Dr. Kingstone’s lab has/is undertaking and appreciated all of their comments and ideas about my (potential) work.


Also, I found out that I was awarded an iCORE PhD Graduate Student Scholarship in Information and Communication Technologies (it’s a long title, i know) to help me pursue my rehabilitation-based research. I am really excited about this because this means that people outside of my lab actually believe in the potential of my research projects and ideas. A real motivation booster that’s for sure!!!