Theory-based Taxonomy of Feedback Application Design for Electricity Conservation: A User-Centric Approach

Electricity consumption feedback applications are considered one of the critical technologies in alleviating the increasing trends of energy consumption and greenhouse gases emissions. Feedback applications are used to motivate electricity users to conserve energy in their households. In this paper, we have relied on an integrative theoretical framework and literature review to propose a comprehensive taxonomy for salient design elements of electricity consumption feedback applications. Using a survey method, we collected data to evaluate the preference and relative importance of the design elements. We found that there is a preferred set of design elements for the feedback applications. Our results could serve as a basis to evaluate the design of existing electricity consumption feedback applications, and help in studying the influence of design elements on beliefs and behaviors related to individuals’ electricity conservation

The Duality of Social Media: Structuration and Socialization through Organizational Communication

Drawing on Habermas’ theory of communicative action, this conceptual paper proposes the Organizational Social Media Lifeworld (OSML) as a useful model for disentangling the complex use of social media in organizations and its enabling role for organizational communication. Based on the OSML model, we show how social media are intrinsic to each of these four elements—actors, action, entity and culture—and how it enables the two overarching organizational processes of structuration and socialization. Herefrom we delineate a set of communication archetypes for making sense of the plethora of social media activities in organizational contexts, which can further guide research and practice. In order to illustrate the OSML model, we provide seven illustrative vignettes of the use of Facebook Pages for organizational communication pertaining to the various foundational actions and processes within an organization that are supported through four functional material properties. Finally, we provide implications for future research

Dualistic Model of Passionate Video Gameplay: Addiction or Flow?

The video game industry is expanding rapidly and video games have become an important part of our society. However, it is still unclear if the increasing amount of time spent on playing video games causes positive or negative consequences. This research-in-progress paper proposes a model, rooted in the Dualistic Model of Passion, to explain why video games can create addiction or non-pathological flow in video game players based on gamers’ type of passion for video gameplay. Moreover, this research aims to explain the environmental and personal factors that define different forms of passion towards video games. The findings of this research will also clarify the role of emotional reactions during video gameplay on gamers’ subjective well-being

A Learning-Based Framework for Two-Dimensional Vehicle Maneuver Prediction over V2V Networks

Situational awareness in vehicular networks could be substantially improved utilizing reliable trajectory prediction methods. More precise situational awareness, in turn, results in notably better performance of critical safety applications, such as Forward Collision Warning (FCW), as well as comfort applications like Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control (CACC). Therefore, vehicle trajectory prediction problem needs to be deeply investigated in order to come up with an end to end framework with enough precision required by the safety applications' controllers. This problem has been tackled in the literature using different methods. However, machine learning, which is a promising and emerging field with remarkable potential for time series prediction, has not been explored enough for this purpose. In this paper, a two-layer neural network-based system is developed which predicts the future values of vehicle parameters, such as velocity, acceleration, and yaw rate, in the first layer and then predicts the two-dimensional, i.e. longitudinal and lateral, trajectory points based on the first layer's outputs. The performance of the proposed framework has been evaluated in realistic cut-in scenarios from Safety Pilot Model Deployment (SPMD) dataset and the results show a noticeable improvement in the prediction accuracy in comparison with the kinematics model which is the dominant employed model by the automotive industry. Both ideal and nonideal communication circumstances have been investigated for our system evaluation. For non-ideal case, an estimation step is included in the framework before the parameter prediction block to handle the drawbacks of packet drops or sensor failures and reconstruct the time series of vehicle parameters at a desirable frequency

Accessibility of 3D Game Environments for People with Aphasia: An Exploratory Study

People with aphasia experience difficulties with all aspects of language and this can mean that their access to technology is substantially reduced. We report a study undertaken to investigate the issues that confront people with aphasia when interacting with technology, specifically 3D game environments. Five people with aphasia were observed and interviewed in twelve workshop sessions. We report the key themes that emerged from the study, such as the importance of direct mappings between users’ interactions and actions in a virtual environment. The results of the study provide some insight into the challenges, but also the opportunities, these mainstream technologies offer to people with aphasia. We discuss how these technologies could be more supportive and inclusive for people with language and communication difficulties