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Enabling Audiovisual User Interfaces
“Enabling Audiovisual User Interfaces” was a 2-year project, supported by a Marie Curie EU fellowship, conducted at EAVI, Goldsmiths. During the project, I investigated how human-computer interactions can be audiovisualized in order to improve user experience and usability. To address this issue, a new UI paradigm was proposed – AVUI (AudioVisual User Interface). AVUI links interaction, sound and image, building upon the concept of Graphical User Interface (GUI) by adding interconnected sound and image.
The research hypothesis was: the introduction of AVUI, integrating interrelated sonic and visual feedback, reacting to user interactions, would lead to more usable, accessible, playful and engaging UIs, as compared to a traditional GUI – particularly in use cases where accessibility and/or engagement were determinant. I applied AVUIs to case studies, which was the object of user testing. After reaching conclusions from these, I proposed an AVUI framework, including software modules and a set of best practices. Dissemination activities were also implemented
Examining the effects of experimental/academic electroacoustic and popular electronic musics on the evolution and development of human–computer interaction in music
This article focuses on how the development of human–computer interaction in music has been aided and influenced by both experimental/academic electroacoustic art music and popular electronic music. These two genres have impacted upon this ever-changing process of evolution in different ways, but have together been paramount to the establishment of interactivity in music as we understand it today; which is itself having wide-ranging implications upon the modern-day musical landscape as a whole—both in the way that we, as listeners and audience members, purchase and consume music as well as conceptualise and think about it
Padworks – Building a solo live performance with iPad
In the early Spring 2012 my friend asked me to join his project: a band of three iPads. I did, and we started a band called Autokomplete. We played one gig, a short medley of songs in a publication event of a news reader iPad app. We used three iPads, and six or seven different apps. It was a success: the audience liked us, we had great fun, and most importantly the iPads worked very well as musical instruments. As far as I know we were the first band of iPads in Helsinki in 2012.
Playing the iPad was welcomed by the public as something new and exciting. I was excited about it, too. I liked the possibilities that the big touch screen provided, the new sounds that I was about to create, and the new ways of interacting with the music and band mates. This has lead to several occasions where I’ve played iPad live, one of the highlights being a performance of iPad Orchestra in Sibelius Academy in 2014.
Now in 2016 I’m still excited. Playing the iPad has become a fixed part of my musical setup. It raises interest in other people and actually iPad as a musical instrument is still regarded as something fairly new. In last few years, the amount of musical apps in the App Store has increased in number and iPad’s have become faster. But basically it’s still the same device with same possibilities and defects: it’s a portable touchscreen computer with modest computational power and enough memory to run a few apps at the same time. It’s not a musical instrument by design. However, as a musician I find it intriguing.
It is the apps that make the iPad an instrument, together with the different built-in sensors. The apps can be used to produce interesting music and that music can be played live as a solo performance, using the iPad as the main instrument.
This master thesis discusses how it’s possible to build an interesting live solo music performance with iPad. The research is anchored to the ideas of research of computer music and New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME). I use my own practice and experience as a basis to this research. I list factors that influence the creative process of a musician who uses iPad in the live setup. Based on these factors I compose a live performance for the iPad. As a conclusion I reflect different approaches to build a live composition with my own experiences, personal background motivation, attitudes and ideas. The conclusion sums up different factors that constitute a musical live performance done using iPad as the main instrument that I find interesting. This research can be used as groundwork for defining what iPad musicianship is
Towards a framework for socially interactive robots
250 p.En las últimas décadas, la investigación en el campo de la robótica social ha crecido considerablemente. El desarrollo de diferentes tipos de robots y sus roles dentro de la sociedad se están expandiendo poco a poco. Los robots dotados de habilidades sociales pretenden ser utilizados para diferentes aplicaciones; por ejemplo, como profesores interactivos y asistentes educativos, para apoyar el manejo de la diabetes en niños, para ayudar a personas mayores con necesidades especiales, como actores interactivos en el teatro o incluso como asistentes en hoteles y centros comerciales.El equipo de investigación RSAIT ha estado trabajando en varias áreas de la robótica, en particular,en arquitecturas de control, exploración y navegación de robots, aprendizaje automático y visión por computador. El trabajo presentado en este trabajo de investigación tiene como objetivo añadir una nueva capa al desarrollo anterior, la capa de interacción humano-robot que se centra en las capacidades sociales que un robot debe mostrar al interactuar con personas, como expresar y percibir emociones, mostrar un alto nivel de diálogo, aprender modelos de otros agentes, establecer y mantener relaciones sociales, usar medios naturales de comunicación (mirada, gestos, etc.),mostrar personalidad y carácter distintivos y aprender competencias sociales.En esta tesis doctoral, tratamos de aportar nuestro grano de arena a las preguntas básicas que surgen cuando pensamos en robots sociales: (1) ¿Cómo nos comunicamos (u operamos) los humanos con los robots sociales?; y (2) ¿Cómo actúan los robots sociales con nosotros? En esa línea, el trabajo se ha desarrollado en dos fases: en la primera, nos hemos centrado en explorar desde un punto de vista práctico varias formas que los humanos utilizan para comunicarse con los robots de una maneranatural. En la segunda además, hemos investigado cómo los robots sociales deben actuar con el usuario.Con respecto a la primera fase, hemos desarrollado tres interfaces de usuario naturales que pretenden hacer que la interacción con los robots sociales sea más natural. Para probar tales interfaces se han desarrollado dos aplicaciones de diferente uso: robots guía y un sistema de controlde robot humanoides con fines de entretenimiento. Trabajar en esas aplicaciones nos ha permitido dotar a nuestros robots con algunas habilidades básicas, como la navegación, la comunicación entre robots y el reconocimiento de voz y las capacidades de comprensión.Por otro lado, en la segunda fase nos hemos centrado en la identificación y el desarrollo de los módulos básicos de comportamiento que este tipo de robots necesitan para ser socialmente creíbles y confiables mientras actúan como agentes sociales. Se ha desarrollado una arquitectura(framework) para robots socialmente interactivos que permite a los robots expresar diferentes tipos de emociones y mostrar un lenguaje corporal natural similar al humano según la tarea a realizar y lascondiciones ambientales.La validación de los diferentes estados de desarrollo de nuestros robots sociales se ha realizado mediante representaciones públicas. La exposición de nuestros robots al público en esas actuaciones se ha convertido en una herramienta esencial para medir cualitativamente la aceptación social de los prototipos que estamos desarrollando. De la misma manera que los robots necesitan un cuerpo físico para interactuar con el entorno y convertirse en inteligentes, los robots sociales necesitan participar socialmente en tareas reales para las que han sido desarrollados, para así poder mejorar su sociabilida
Designing instruments towards networked music practices
It is commonly noted in New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME) research that
few of these make it to the mainstream and are adopted by the general public. Some
research in Sound and Music Computing (SMC) suggests that the lack of humanistic
research guiding technological development may be one of the causes. Many new
technologies are invented, however without real aim else than for technical
innovation, great products however emphasize the user-friendliness, user involvement
in the design process or User-Centred Design (UCD), that seek to guarantee that
innovation address real, existing needs among users. Such an approach includes not
only traditionally quantifiable usability goals, but also qualitative, psychological,
philosophical and musical such. The latter approach has come to be called experience
design, while the former is referred to as interaction design. Although the Human
Computer Interaction (HCI) community in general has recognized the significance of
qualitative needs and experience design, NIME has been slower to adopt this new
paradigm. This thesis therefore attempts to investigate its relevance in NIME, and
specifically Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) for music applications
by devising a prototype for group music action based on needs defined from pianists
engaging in piano duets, one of the more common forms of group creation seen in the
western musical tradition. These needs, some which are socio-emotional in nature, are
addressed through our prototype although in the context of computers and global
networks by allowing for composers from all over the world to submit music to a
group concert on a Yamaha Disklavier in location in Porto, Portugal. Although this
prototype is not a new gestural controller per se, and therefore not a traditional NIME,
but rather a platform that interfaces groups of composers with a remote audience, the
aim of this research is on investigating how contextual parameters like venue, audience, joint concert and technologies impact the overall user experience of such a
system. The results of this research has been important not only in understanding the
processes, services, events or environments in which NIME’s operate, but also
understanding reciprocity, creativity, experience design in Networked Music
practices.É de conhecimento generalizado que na área de investigação em novos interfaces para
expressão musical (NIME - New Interfaces for Musical Expression), poucos dos
resultantes dispositivos acabam por ser popularizados e adoptados pelo grande
público. Algum do trabalho em computação sonora e musical (SMC- Sound and
Music Computing) sugere que uma das causas para esta dificuldade, reside
numalacuna ao nível da investigação dos comportamentos humanos como linha
orientadora para os desenvolvimentos tecnológicos. Muitos dos desenvolvimentos
tecnológicos são conduzidos sem um real objectivo, para além da inovação
tecnológica, resultando em excelentes produtos, mas sem qualquer enfâse na
usabilidade humana ou envolvimento do utilizador no processo de Design (UCDUser
Centered Design), no sentido de garantir que a inovação atende a necessidades
reais dos utilizadores finais. Esta estratégia implica, não só objectivos quantitativos
tradicionais de usabilidade, mas também princípios qualitativos, fisiológicos,
psicológicos e musicológicos. Esta ultima abordagem é atualmente reconhecida como
Design de Experiência (Experience Design) enquanto a abordagem tradicional é
vulgarmente reconhecida apenas como Design de Interação (Interaction Design).
Apesar de na área Interação Homem-Computador (HCI – Human Computer
Interaction) as necessidades qualitativas no design de experiência ser amplamente
reconhecido em termos do seu significado e aplicabilidade, a comunidade NIME tem
sido mais lenta em adoptar este novo paradigma. Neste sentido, esta Tese procura
investigar a relevância em NIME, especificamente nu subtópico do trabalho
cooperativo suportado por Computadores (CSCW – Computer Supported Cooperative
Work), para aplicações musicais, através do desenvolvimento de um protótipo de um
sistema que suporta ações musicais coletivas, baseado nas necessidades especificas de Pianistas em duetos de Piano, uma das formas mais comuns de criação musical em
grupo popularizada na tradição musical ocidental. Estes requisitos, alguns sócioemocionais
na sua natureza, são atendidos através do protótipo, neste caso aplicado ao
contexto informático e da rede de comunicações global, permitindo a compositores de
todo o mundo submeterem a sua música para um concerto de piano em grupo num
piano acústico Yamaha Disklavier, localizado fisicamente na cidade do Porto,
Portugal. Este protótipo não introduz um novo controlador em si mesmo, e
consequentemente não está alinhado com as típicas propostas de NIME. Trata-se sim,
de uma nova plataforma de interface em grupo para compositores com uma audiência
remota, enquadrado com objectivos de experimentação e investigação sobre o
impacto de diversos parâmetros, tais como o espaço performativo, as audiências,
concertos colaborativos e tecnologias em termos do sistema global. O resultado deste
processo de investigação foi relevante, não só para compreender os processos,
serviços, eventos ou ambiente em que os NIME podem operar, mas também para
melhor perceber a reciprocidade, criatividade e design de experiencia nas práticas
musicais em rede
How a Diverse Research Ecosystem Has Generated New Rehabilitation Technologies: Review of NIDILRR’s Rehabilitation Engineering Research Centers
Over 50 million United States citizens (1 in 6 people in the US) have a developmental, acquired, or degenerative disability. The average US citizen can expect to live 20% of his or her life with a disability. Rehabilitation technologies play a major role in improving the quality of life for people with a disability, yet widespread and highly challenging needs remain. Within the US, a major effort aimed at the creation and evaluation of rehabilitation technology has been the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Centers (RERCs) sponsored by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research. As envisioned at their conception by a panel of the National Academy of Science in 1970, these centers were intended to take a “total approach to rehabilitation”, combining medicine, engineering, and related science, to improve the quality of life of individuals with a disability. Here, we review the scope, achievements, and ongoing projects of an unbiased sample of 19 currently active or recently terminated RERCs. Specifically, for each center, we briefly explain the needs it targets, summarize key historical advances, identify emerging innovations, and consider future directions. Our assessment from this review is that the RERC program indeed involves a multidisciplinary approach, with 36 professional fields involved, although 70% of research and development staff are in engineering fields, 23% in clinical fields, and only 7% in basic science fields; significantly, 11% of the professional staff have a disability related to their research. We observe that the RERC program has substantially diversified the scope of its work since the 1970’s, addressing more types of disabilities using more technologies, and, in particular, often now focusing on information technologies. RERC work also now often views users as integrated into an interdependent society through technologies that both people with and without disabilities co-use (such as the internet, wireless communication, and architecture). In addition, RERC research has evolved to view users as able at improving outcomes through learning, exercise, and plasticity (rather than being static), which can be optimally timed. We provide examples of rehabilitation technology innovation produced by the RERCs that illustrate this increasingly diversifying scope and evolving perspective. We conclude by discussing growth opportunities and possible future directions of the RERC program
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