An aesthetics of touch: investigating the language of design relating to form

How well can designers communicate qualities of touch? This paper presents evidence that they have some capability to do so, much of which appears to have been learned, but at present make limited use of such language. Interviews with graduate designer-makers suggest that they are aware of and value the importance of touch and materiality in their work, but lack a vocabulary to fully relate to their detailed explanations of other aspects such as their intent or selection of materials. We believe that more attention should be paid to the verbal dialogue that happens in the design process, particularly as other researchers show that even making-based learning also has a strong verbal element to it. However, verbal language alone does not appear to be adequate for a comprehensive language of touch. Graduate designers-makers’ descriptive practices combined non-verbal manipulation within verbal accounts. We thus argue that haptic vocabularies do not simply describe material qualities, but rather are situated competences that physically demonstrate the presence of haptic qualities. Such competencies are more important than groups of verbal vocabularies in isolation. Design support for developing and extending haptic competences must take this wide range of considerations into account to comprehensively improve designers’ capabilities

Undercurrents – A Computer-Based Gameplay Tool to Support Tabletop Roleplaying

This paper introduces Undercurrents, a computer-based gameplay tool for providing additional communication and media streams during tabletop roleplaying sessions. Based upon a client-server architecture, the system is intended to unobtrusively support secret communication, timing of audio and visual presentations to game events, and real-time documentation of the game session. Potential end users have been involved in the development and the paper provides details on the full design process

Phase 1 of the near term hybrid passenger vehicle development program

In order to meet project requirements and be competitive in the 1985 market, the proposed six-passenger vehicle incorporates a high power type Ni-Zn battery, which by making electric-only traction possible, permits the achievement of an optimized control strategy based on electric-only traction to a set battery depth of discharge, followed by hybrid operation with thermal primary energy. This results in a highly efficient hybrid propulsion subsystem. Technical solutions are available to contain energy waste by reducing vehicle weight, rolling resistance, and drag coefficient. Reproaching new 1985 full size vehicles of the conventional type with hybrids of the proposed type would result in a U.S. average gasoline saving per vehicle of 1,261 liters/year and an average energy saving per vehicle of 27,133 MJ/year

Advantages of using Virtual Reality as a financial instrument

In recent years, the phenomenon of Virtual Reality has been highlighted by most technology-interested persons around the world. The technology allows visualization and interaction with environments, which in real life would be too costly to recreate. At the same time, the banking sector’s ways of presenting financial information are relatively old fashioned and still consist of lists and 2D graphs. This study will examine whether VR can be used by financial actors as an instruments and what the technology can contribute to in economics. The present work will lay the foundation for a VR test environment that will be tested and evaluated by potential users. The design process of the environment will include 1) Investigation phase – flaws in current systems will be identified, meetings with bank representatives and end user identification will be conducted. 2) Idea-generating - through brainstorming, ideas on the design of the environment will be developed. 3) Prototypes - In this phase, prototypes from sketches will be forwarded into 3D simulation which will be developed and evaluated. The prototypes will form the development of the final creation of the environment. 4) Final phase - The final part of the process will include testing on the developed environment and present conclusions as to whether VR has a future in the banking system. The testing will be conducted in two different groups, one with people with financial experience and one with people without economics knowledge. The test embraces a scenario-based model with physical and analytical tasks ending with a feedback survey.Fenomenet Virtual Reality (VR) har dom senaste åren uppmärksammats av de flesta teknikintresserade världen över. Tekniken möjliggör bland annat visualisering och interaktion med miljöer och som i verkligheten skulle bli för kostsamma att återskapa. Samtidigt så står bankernas sätt att presentera finansiell information förhållandevis stilla och utgörs fortfarande av listor och 2D-grafer. I studien kommer det undersökas huruvida VR kan användas av finansiella aktörer som instrument och vad tekniken kan bidra till inom ekonomi. Föreliggande arbete kommer lägga grunden för en VR-testmiljö som kommer att testas och utvärderas av tänkta användare. Designprocessen av miljön kommer att innefatta 1) Definierande fas – då kommer brister i nuvarande system identifieras, möten från bankrepresentanter och identifiering av slutanvändare att genomföras. 2) Idegenererande – genom brainstorming kommer idéer på utformningen av miljön att tas fram. 3) Protyper –I denna fas kommer prototyper i form av skisser vidare fram till 3D-ritningar att tas fram och utvärderas. Prototyperna kommer att lägga grunden till utvecklingen av det slutgiltiga skapandet av miljön. 4) Slutfasen – Sista delen av processen kommer att innehålla testning på den framtagna miljö och presentera slutsatser huruvida VR har en framtid inom bankväsendet. Testningen kommer att genomföras på två olika grupper, en med personer som har ekonomisk erfarenhet och en med personer utan ekonomierfarenheter. Testet anammar en scenariobaserad modell med fysiska och analyserande uppgifter som avslutas med en feedback-enkät

Large Wind Energy Converter: Growian 3 MW

The final report on the projected application of larger-scale wind turbine on the northern German coast is summarized. The designs of the tower, machinery housing, rotor, and rotor blades are described accompanied various construction materials are examined. Rotor blade adjustment devices auxiliary and accessory equipment are examined