Thomas W. Hazelton

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Project Snapshots

This page outlines some of the projects that I have been involved in as I've completed my degrees. I love to chat about my projects, so for more details, please don't hesitate to contact me.



M.Sc. Thesis – HALO: The Haptic-Affect Loop

Computer interfaces commonly make large demands on our visual and auditory attention, which can make multi-tasking with multiple systems difficult. In cases where a primary task demands constant, unbroken attention from the user, it is often implausible for such a user to employ a system for a secondary task, even when it might be desirable to do so.

Using leading-edge research in physiological affect modeling and haptic communication as a starting point, we propose an interaction paradigm that supports an appropriate level of device interruption and autonomously infers system behaviour based on biometrics to mitigate the multi-tasking concern. Developing the associated interaction language for the portable audio usage context was the scope of my M.Sc. thesis.

During this process, I developed prototype software to drive haptic output through various force and vibrotactile devices, collect tap-based input via waveform analysis, and control the playback of an audio stream. I facilitated focus groups with a number of participants, as well as a highly iterative, one-on-one participatory design sequence. A controlled experiment was undertaken to assess the technological feasibility of physiological modeling in musical contexts.

Related publication: Master's thesis [please email for a copy]



Interaction loop diagram


Waveform analyzer for tap input

M.Sc. Course Work – Prototyping Tool for Haptic Icons

In support of a colleague's M.Sc. thesis, and as part of a course project (CPSC 543), I developed a prototyping tool for the production of haptic icons, short, meaningful stimuli that have rhythmic and melodic components. This tool was rapidly authored using Java technologies and eased the burden of developing and previewing large stimulus sets for user testing.

This software represents my philosophy of producing cheap, throw-away software at low cost and time effort. While in this case the software was for internal use (i.e., no end-users would interact with it), this form of development is especially useful for early interaction design testing.

Related publication: Swerdfeger, B. A., Fernquist, J., Hazelton, T. W., and MacLean, K. E. 2009. Exploring melodic variance in rhythmic haptic stimulus design. In Proceedings of Graphics interface 2009 (Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada, May 25 - 27, 2009). [pdf] [acm]


Stimulus design tool

M.Sc. Course Work – Adaptive Menu Paradigms

As part of a course project (CPSC 554C), I extended an existing adaptive menu system written in Java (Findlater and McGrenere, 2008) to support multiple new adaptation paradigms. The adaptations were designed to give users suggestions for menu items of interest in an accessible manner, as to reduce selection errors and searching time. The existing adaptation paradigm, which copied three suggestions from each menu to a shaded portion at the top of the menu, was compared against two new paradigms (although many others were developed):
  • Highlighting suggested menu items in place without moving them; and
  • Centralizing suggested menu items in a single, colour-coded menu (rather than placing them at the top of each menu).
The centralized suggestions paradigm appeared to reduce mouse movement for item selections and decrease selection time as compared to the initial system, although results were not statistically significant.
Adaptive suggestions menu




M.Sc. Course Work – Google Maps Augmentation

As part of a course project (CPSC 544), I developed prototype software (with a team) to facilitate pre-planning trips (by car, transit or walking) and producing rich, informative maps on a desktop computer for subsequent transmission to mobile devices for single-click viewing. Our goal was to reduce the user's cost (monetary and time) of operating with the mobile device itself.

B.C.S. Course Work – Bone Annotator Prototype for Archaeologists

As part of a course project at the University of Waterloo, my project team and I interacted with an archaeologist, following the traditional user-centred design process for developing software solutions to mitigate pain points and increase task efficiency. Our solution, which was reified in a series a partially functioning low and high-fidelity prototypes, offered her a means to categorize, annotate and catalogue bones from dig expeditions.
Cultural model development on white board

B.C.S. Course Work – User Interfaces Assignments

My introduction into the world of human-computer interaction came with a course at the University of Waterloo in the Spring of 2006. Over the course of the term, I honed interface design and implementation skills for games and application GUIs. Specifically, I developed:
  • A basic side-scrolling game where the user collects donuts (mmm!) and avoids vegetables (eww!)
  • A clone of Windows Paint
  • A full-featured MVC-based animation studio for shapes and text (pictured right)
  • A simulator of a multi-hinged crane using Affine transforms


MVC shape animator, written from scratch