7,165 research outputs found
Artefact Ecologies: Supporting Embodied Meeting Practices with Distance Access
Frameworks such as activity theory, distributed cognition and structuration theory, amongst others, have shown that detailed study of contextual settings where users work (or live) can help the design of interactive systems. However, these frameworks do not adequately focus on accounting for the materiality (and embodiment) of the contextual settings. Within the IST-EU funded AMIDA project (Augmented Multiparty Interaction with Distance Access) we are looking into supporting meeting practices with distance access. Meetings are inherently embodied in everyday work life and that material artefacts associated with meeting practices play a critical role in their formation. Our eventual goal is to develop a deeper understanding of the dynamic and embodied nature of meeting practices and designing technologies to support these. In this paper we introduce the notion of "artefact ecologies" as a conceptual base for understanding embodied meeting practices with distance access. Artefact ecologies refer to a system consisting of different digital and physical artefacts, people, their work practices and values and lays emphasis on the role artefacts play in embodiment, work coordination and supporting remote awareness. In the end we layout our plans for designing technologies for supporting embodied meeting practices within the AMIDA project. \u
MetaSpace II: Object and full-body tracking for interaction and navigation in social VR
MetaSpace II (MS2) is a social Virtual Reality (VR) system where multiple
users can not only see and hear but also interact with each other, grasp and
manipulate objects, walk around in space, and get tactile feedback. MS2 allows
walking in physical space by tracking each user's skeleton in real-time and
allows users to feel by employing passive haptics i.e., when users touch or
manipulate an object in the virtual world, they simultaneously also touch or
manipulate a corresponding object in the physical world. To enable these
elements in VR, MS2 creates a correspondence in spatial layout and object
placement by building the virtual world on top of a 3D scan of the real world.
Through the association between the real and virtual world, users are able to
walk freely while wearing a head-mounted device, avoid obstacles like walls and
furniture, and interact with people and objects. Most current virtual reality
(VR) environments are designed for a single user experience where interactions
with virtual objects are mediated by hand-held input devices or hand gestures.
Additionally, users are only shown a representation of their hands in VR
floating in front of the camera as seen from a first person perspective. We
believe, representing each user as a full-body avatar that is controlled by
natural movements of the person in the real world (see Figure 1d), can greatly
enhance believability and a user's sense immersion in VR.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures. Video:
http://living.media.mit.edu/projects/metaspace-ii
FM radio: family interplay with sonic mementos
Digital mementos are increasingly problematic, as people acquire large amounts of digital belongings that are hard to access and often forgotten. Based on fieldwork with 10 families, we designed a new type of embodied digital memento, the FM Radio. It allows families to access and play sonic mementos of their previous holidays. We describe our underlying design motivation where recordings are presented as a series of channels on an old fashioned radio. User feedback suggests that the device met our design goals: being playful and intriguing, easy to use and social. It facilitated family interaction, and allowed ready access to mementos, thus sharing many of the properties of physical mementos that we intended to trigger
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Education in the Wild: Contextual and Location-Based Mobile Learning in Action. A Report from the STELLAR Alpine Rendez-Vous Workshop Series
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Augmenting the field experience: a student-led comparison of techniques and technologies
In this study we report on our experiences of creating and running a student fieldtrip exercise which allowed students to compare a range of approaches to the design of technologies for augmenting landscape scenes. The main study site is around Keswick in the English Lake District, Cumbria, UK, an attractive upland environment popular with tourists and walkers. The aim of the exercise for the students was to assess the effectiveness of various forms of geographic information in augmenting real landscape scenes, as mediated through a range of techniques and technologies. These techniques were: computer-generated acetate overlays showing annotated wireframe views from certain key points; a custom-designed application running on a PDA; a mediascape running on the mScape software on a GPS-enabled mobile phone; Google Earth on a tablet PC; and a head-mounted in-field Virtual Reality system. Each group of students had all five techniques available to them, and were tasked with comparing them in the context of creating a visitor guide to the area centred on the field centre. Here we summarise their findings and reflect upon some of the broader research questions emerging from the project
Interactive Sound in Performance Ecologies: Studying Connections among Actors and Artifacts
This thesis’s primary goal is to investigate performance ecologies, that is the compound
of humans, artifacts and environmental elements that contribute to the result of a per-
formance. In particular, this thesis focuses on designing new interactive technologies for
sound and music. The goal of this thesis leads to the following Research Questions (RQs):
• RQ1 How can the design of interactive sonic artifacts support a joint expression
across different actors (composers, choreographers, and performers, musicians, and
dancers) in a given performance ecology?
• RQ2 How does each different actor influence the design of different artifacts, and
what impact does this have on the overall artwork?
• RQ3 How do the different actors in the same ecology interact, and appropriate an
interactive artifact?
To reply to these questions, a new framework named ARCAA has been created. In this
framework, all the Actors of a given ecology are connected to all the Artifacts throughout
three layers: Role, Context and Activity. This framework is then applied to one systematic
literature review, two case studies on music performance and one case study in dance
performance. The studies help to better understand the shaded roles of composers, per-
formers, instrumentalists, dancers, and choreographers, which is relevant to better design
interactive technologies for performances. Finally, this thesis proposes a new reflection on
the blurred distinction between composing and designing a new instrument in a context
that involves a multitude of actors.
Overall, this work introduces the following contributions to the field of interaction
design applied to music technology: 1) ARCAA, a framework to analyse the set of inter-
connected relationship in interactive (music) performances, validated through 2 music
studies, 1 dance study and 1 systematic literature analysis; 2) Recommendations for de-
signing music interactive system for performance (music or dance), accounting for the
needs of the various actors and for the overlapping on music composition and design of in-
teractive technology; 3) A taxonomy of how scores have shaped performance ecologies in NIME, based on a systematic analysis of the literature on score in the NIME proceedings;
4) Proposal of a methodological approach combining autobiographical and idiographical
design approaches in interactive performances.O objetivo principal desta tese é investigar as ecologias performativas, conjunto formado
pelos participantes humanos, artefatos e elementos ambientais que contribuem para o
resultado de uma performance. Em particular, esta tese foca-se na conceção de novas
tecnologias interativas para som e música. O objetivo desta tese originou as seguintes
questões de investigação (Research Questions RQs):
• RQ1 Como o design de artefatos sonoros interativos pode apoiar a expressão con-
junta entre diferentes atores (compositores, coreógrafos e performers, músicos e
dançarinos) numa determinada ecologia performativa?
• RQ2 Como cada ator influencia o design de diferentes artefatos e que impacto isso
tem no trabalho artÃstico global?
• RQ3 Como os diferentes atores de uma mesma ecologia interagem e se apropriam
de um artefato interativo?
Para responder a essas perguntas, foi criado uma nova framework chamada ARCAA.
Nesta framework, todos os atores (Actores) de uma dada ecologia estão conectados a todos
os artefatos (Artefacts) através de três camadas: Role, Context e Activity. Esta framework
foi então aplicada a uma revisão sistemática da literatura, a dois estudos de caso sobre
performance musical e a um estudo de caso em performance de dança. Estes estudos aju-
daram a comprender melhor os papéis desempenhados pelos compositores, intérpretes,
instrumentistas, dançarinos e coreógrafos, o que é relevante para melhor projetar as tec-
nologias interativas para performances. Por fim, esta tese propõe uma nova reflexão sobre
a distinção entre compor e projetar um novo instrumento num contexto que envolve uma
multiplicidade de atores.
Este trabalho apresenta as seguintes contribuições principais para o campo do design
de interação aplicado à tecnologia musical: 1) ARCAA, uma framework para analisar o
conjunto de relações interconectadas em performances interativas, validado através de
dois estudos de caso relacionados com a música, um estudo de caso relacionado com
a dança e uma análise sistemática da literatura; 2) Recomendações para o design de sistemas interativos musicais para performance (música ou dança), tendo em conta as
necessidades dos vários atores e a sobreposição entre a composição musical e o design de
tecnologia interactiva; 3) Uma taxonomia sobre como as partituras musicais moldaram
as ecologias performativas no NIME, com base numa análise sistemática da literatura
dos artigos apresentados e publicados nestas conferência; 4) Proposta de uma aborda-
gem metodológica combinando abordagens de design autobiográfico e idiográfico em
performances interativas
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