Research Interests

The scope of my work is the development of novel user interface technologies and new interaction techniques that aim to minimize the complexity of human-computer interaction and improve the experience of working and playing with technology.

I am particularly interested in the use of embedded systems - programmable microcontrollers, wireless communication devices, sensors and actuators - as building blocks in the design of physical interactive objects and user interface devices that are engaging, useful and usable.

One aspect of my current research focuses on understanding and developing technologies that enable interactive devices to be rapidly prototyped, manufactured and deployed. The work is driven by a vision for customizable and reusable devices that are fully specified in software, and designed to be adaptable, upgradeable and modular.

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.NET Gadgeteer

Microsoft .NET Gadgeteer is a rapid prototyping platform for small electronic gadgets and embedded hardware devices. It combines the advantages of object-oriented programming, solderless assembly of electronics using a kit of hardware modules, and quick physical enclosure fabrication using computer-aided design.

More information about .NET Gadgeteer is available through the project's website.

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Previous Work

I was previously at the Lancaster University Computing Department, where I worked as a Research Associate and PhD student in the Embedded Interactive Systems research group. During that time I had the good fortune to be involved in a number of very interesting collaborative projects, including the Equator IRC, Pin&Play, Smart Surroundings and Smart-Its.

VoodooIO My PhD work was centred around the development of VoodooIO: a novel platform for flexible user interfaces that allows end-users to compose and adapt physical control interfaces in a manner that is both versatile and simple to use. With VoodooIO, users can quickly put together fully functional interfaces out of a pliable substrate material and physical control devices such as buttons, switches, sliders and dials. Every control is in fact a minimal computing device, equipped with small pin-like connectors at their base . By pinning a control into the substrate material, the control becomes connected to a power and communication network that is built into the substrate. Controls can be freely attached, detached and arranged in any orientation, even during use: physical attachment equals digital connectivity.

More information about VoodooIO, including videos and a list of relevant publications, can be found on the project website here.

Details of some of the other projects that I worked on and collaborations carried out during my time at the Lancaster University Computing Department can be found on my personal website there.

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Publications

Norman Pohl, Steve Hodges, John Helmes, Nic Villar, and Tim Paek, An Interactive Belt-worn Badge with a Retractable String-based Input Mechanism, in In Proceedings of CHI 2013, ACM Sig CHI 2013, 30 April 2013
Steve Hodges, James Scott, Sue Sentance, Colin Miller, Nicolas Villar, Scarlet Schwiderski-Grosche, Kerry Hammil, and Steven Johnston, .NET Gadgeteer: A New Platform for K-12 Computer Science Education, in SIGCSE '13 Proceedings of the 44th ACM technical symposium on computer science education , ACM, March 2013
Steve Hodges, Stuart Taylor, Nicolas Villar, James Scott, Dominik Bial, and Patrick Tobias Fischer, Prototyping Connected Devices for the Internet of Things, in IEEE Computer, IEEE Computer Society, February 2013
Steve Hodges, Stuart Taylor, Nicolas Villar, James Scott, and John Helmes, Exploring Physical Prototyping Techniques for Functional Devices using .NET Gadgeteer, in Proceedings of TEI 2013, ACM, February 2013
Nicolas Villar, James Scott, Steve Hodges, Kerry Hammil, and Colin Miller, .NET Gadgeteer: A Platform for Custom Devices, in Proceedings of Pervasive 2012, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, June 2012
Steve Whittaker, Vaiva Kalnakaite, Daniella Petrelli, Abigail Sellen, Nicolas Villar, Ofer Bergman, P Clough, and J Brockmeier, Socio-technical lifelogging: Deriving design principles for a future proof digital past, in Human-Computer Interaction (Special Issue on Personal Memories), ACM, 2012
John Sarik, Alex Butler, Nicolas Villar, James Scott, and Steve Hodges, Combining 3D printing and printable electronics, in Proceedings of TEI 2012 Works in Progress, ACM, 2012
Steve Hodges, Nicolas Villar, James Scott, and Albrecht Schmidt, A New Era for Ubicomp Development, in IEEE Pervasive Computing, vol. 11, no. 1, IEEE Computer Society, January 2012
John Helmes, Kenton O'Hara, Nicolas Vilar, and Alex Taylor, Meerkat and tuba: design alternatives for randomness, surprise and serendipity in reminiscing, in INTERACT'11: Proceedings of the 13th IFIP TC 13 international conference on Human-computer interaction, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, September 2011
Scott Davidoff, Nicolas Villar, Alex S. Taylor, and Shahram Izadi, Mechanical hijacking: how robots can accelerate UbiComp deployments, in UbiComp '11: Proceedings of the 13th international conference on Ubiquitous computing, ACM, New York, NY, USA, September 2011
James Scott, A.J. Bernheim Brush, John Krumm, Brian Meyers, Mike Hazas, Steve Hodges, and Nicolas Villar, PreHeat: Controlling Home Heating Using Occupancy Prediction, in Proceedings of UbiComp 2011, ACM, September 2011
A. Badshah, S. Gupta, G. Cohn, N. Villar, S. Hodges, and S.N. Patel, Interactive generator: a self-powered haptic feedback device, in Proceedings of the 2011 annual conference on Human factors in computing systems, ACM Conference on Computer-Human Interaction, 2011
John Helmes, Alex S. Taylor, Xiang Cao, Kristina Höök, Peter Schmitt, and Nicolas Villar, Rudiments 1, 2 & 3: design speculations on autonomy, in Proceedings of the fifth international conference on Tangible, embedded, and embodied interaction, TEI '11, Association for Computing Machinery, Inc., New York, NY, USA, January 2011
John Helmes, Alexander Taylor, alex taylor, Kristina Höök, Peter Schmitt, Nicolas Villar, and Xiang Cao, Rudiments 1, 2 & 3: Design Speculations on Autonomy, Association for Computing Machinery, Inc., January 2011
N. Villar, J. Scott, and S. Hodges, Prototyping with Microsoft .NET Gadgeteer, in Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction, 2011
Steve Hodges and Nicolas Villar, The Hardware Is Not a Given, in IEEE Computer, IEEE, August 2010
Nicolai Marquardt, Alex S. Taylor, Nicolas Villar, and Saul Greenberg, Rethinking RFID: awareness and control for interaction with RFID systems, in Proceedings of the 28th international conference on Human factors in computing systems , Association for Computing Machinery, Inc., April 2010
Daniela Petrelli, Nicolas Villar, Vaiva Kalnikaite, Lina Dib, and Steve Whittaker, FM radio: family interplay with sonic mementos, in Proceedings of the 28th international conference on Human factors in computing systems, Association for Computing Machinery, Inc., April 2010
Nicolai Marquardt, Alex S. Taylor, Nicolas Villar, and Saul Greenberg, Visible and controllable RFID tags, in Proceedings of the 28th of the international conference extended abstracts on Human factors in computing systems , Association for Computing Machinery, Inc., April 2010
Xiang Cao, Nicolas Villar, and Shahram Izadi, Comparing user performance with single-finger, whole-hand, and hybrid pointing devices, in Proceedings of the 28th international conference on Human factors in computing systems , Association for Computing Machinery, Inc., April 2010
Florian Block, Hans Gellersen, and Nicolas Villar, Touch-display keyboards: transforming keyboards into interactive surfaces, in Proceedings of the 28th international conference on Human factors in computing systems , Association for Computing Machinery, Inc., April 2010
Nicolas Villar and Steve Hodges, The Peppermill: a Human-powered User Interface Device, in Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction , Association for Computing Machinery, Inc., January 2010
Jonathan Hook, Stuart Taylor, Alex Butler, Nicolas Villar, and Shahram Izadi, A Reconfigurable Ferromagnetic Input Device, in Proceeding of UIST 2009, Association for Computing Machinery, Inc., 4 October 2009
Nicolas Villar, Shahram Izadi, Dan Rosenfeld, Hrvoje Benko, John Helmes, Jonathan Westhues, Steve Hodges, Eyal Ofek, Alex Butler, Xiang Cao, and Billy Chen, Mouse 2.0: Multi-touch meets the mouse., in Proceedings of UIST 2009, ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology. p. 33-42. UIST 2009 Best Paper Award., Association for Computing Machinery, Inc., October 2009
David Kirk, Abigail Sellen, Stuart Taylor, Nicolas Villar, and Shahram Izadi, Putting the Physical into the Digital:Issues in Designing Hybrid Interactive Surfaces, in In Proceedings of BCS HCI 2009, Cambridge University Press, 1 September 2009