Ambient recommendations in the pop-up shop

In this paper we present the design and first-stage analysis of a purposely built, smart, pop-up wine shop. Our shop learns from visitors’ choices and recommends wine using collaborative filtering and ambient feedback displays integrated into its furniture. Our ambient recommender system was tested in a controlled laboratory environment. We report on the qualitative feedback and between subjects study, testing the influence the system had in wine choice behavior. Participants reported the system helpful, and results from our empirical analysis suggest it influenced buying behavior

Content retrieval and mobile users: An outdoor investigation of an ambient travel guide

People's information needs change as they encounter new situations. The need for an ambient information environment becomes more evident in the case of the mobile traveller where situated information access is one of the main challenges. The motivation for this work has been to provide relevant information to the right situation and user in an ambient manner. Our way to solve this is to deliver personalised and context-aware information to the mobile user. To this end we have developed a platform, and prototype applications for travellers, and tourists. The system integrates our own tag technology with information from content service providers covering both general travel guide and local information. The development methodology is user-centred, iterative, and progressive in nature. It combines information retrieval (IR) test and evaluation techniques with iterative and user-centred development techniques at the test and evaluation phase. Combining the two disciplines gives us the ability to test and evaluate both the information aspects and the interaction aspects of any information system in parallel. Another advantage would be that one can develop content and software in parallel. This paper focuses on the IR test and evaluation framework that has been used in conjunction with the user-centred development. We emphasize the importance of performing IR test and evaluation for mobile systems in terms of users’ situations and tasks. The paper presents the results of some of the findings from a preliminary user test in an outdoor scenario. The test took place in a popular tourist destination in Spain

Flight representative positive isolation disconnect

Resolutions were developed for each problem encountered and a tradeoff analysis was performed to select a final configuration for a flight representative PID (Positive Isolation Disconnect) that is reduced in size and comparable in weight and pressure drop to the developmental PID. A 6.35 mm (1/4-inch) line size PID was fabricated and tested. The flight representative PID consists of two coupled disconnect halves, each capable of fluid isolation with essentially zero clearance between them for zero leakage upon disconnect half disengagement. An interlocking foolproofing technique prevents uncoupling of disconnect halves prior to fluid isolation. Future development efforts for the Space Shuttle subsystems that would benefit from the use of the positive isolation disconnect are also recommended. Customary units were utilized for principal measurements and calculations with conversion factors being inserted in equations to convert the results to the international system of units

Popular music, psychogeography, place identity and tourism: The case of Sheffield

Tourism and cultural agencies in some English provincial cities are promoting their popular music ‘heritage’ and, in some cases, contemporary musicians through the packaging of trails, sites, ‘iconic’ venues and festivals. This article focuses on Sheffield, a ‘post-industrial’ northern English city which is drawing on its associations with musicians past and present in seeking to attract tourists. This article is based on interviews with, among others, recording artists, promoters, producers and venue managers, along with reflective observational and documentary data. Theoretical remarks are made on the representations of popular musicians through cultural tourism strategies, programmes and products and also on the ways in which musicians convey a ‘psychogeographical’ sense of place in the ‘soundscape’ of the city

Hedonic consumption: how does sound please consumers in servicescapes

As lojas, mais do que qualquer outro meio, têm o desafio de fazer com que os consumidores verdadeiramente experimentem a marca. Os varejistas, por seu lado, têm o desafio de adicionar, de forma sistemática, valor às suas marcas. Assim, os varejistas têm-se vindo a aperceberem que para os consumidores cada vez mais exigentes verdadeiramente experimentarem a marca e diferenciá-la da concorrência os componentes tradicionais do marketing mix já não são suficientes. Os varejistas também se têm vindo a aperceber que na era do comércio electrónico, estímulos da marca relacionados com a música, imagem, sabor, aroma e textura podem ser a chave para distinguir “bricks” de “clicks” e melhorar a experiência da marca e as respostas dos consumidores. Portanto, o objetivo desta pesquisa foi investigar o papel que estímulos sensoriais, como o género, o volume e a congruência da música com a imagem da marca, têm em influenciar o ambiente da loja, em criar experiências hedónicas e em moldar o comportamento dos consumidores sem que estes se apercebam de tal. O estudo exploratório foi realizado na Calzedonia, uma loja de roupa interior, acessível e moderna. O estudo foi baseado: na revisão da literatura empírica e conceitual, incluindo um número significativo de variáveis relacionadas com a música e seus efeitos sobre as várias dimensões da experiência de varejo hedónica; e em dados recolhidos a partir de entrevistas e questionários aplicados a varejistas e consumidores. Os resultados revelaram que, embora os consumidores sigam motivações utilitárias eles também são influenciados por sentimentos hedónicos. No entanto, o estímulo sonoro não se mostrou capaz de interferir com o ritmo de compras e apenas a congruência do som com a imagem da marca teve um impacto positivo nas despesas dos consumidores.Stores, more than other medium, have the challenge of providing the greatest opportunity for consumers truly experience the brand. Retailers, on their own, have the challenge of adding, systematically, value to their brands. Thus retailers have been realizing that for the more and more demanding consumer truly experiences the brand and differentiates it from competition the traditional components of the retail mix are no longer enough. Retailers have also been realizing that in the e-tailing era brand related stimuli as brand soundtrack, brand look, brand flavor, brand scent and brand texture may be the key to distinguish bricks from clicks and to enhance the brand experience and consumers’ responses. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to further investigate the role that sensory stimuli, as background sound genre, volume and fit with the brand image, plays in influencing store environments, creating the retail hedonic experience and changing consumers’ behavior in ways beyond consciousness. For this purpose the exploratory study was conducted in a servicescape as a trendy, mid-price apparel store such is Calzedonia. The study was based on: the review of empirical and conceptual literature, including a significant number of sound/music stimulus related variables and their effect on various dimensions of hedonic retail experience; and on the data collected from interviews and a survey conducted to store associates and consumers. Findings revealed that although consumers follow utilitarian motivations they are also influenced by hedonic feelings. However, the sound stimulus wasn’t showed to interfere with the pace of shopping and only the sound fit was showed to influence positively shopping expenditure

People Watcher: an app to record and analyzing spatial behavior of ubiquitous interaction technologies

In this paper we argue that interfaces embedded in the world, one of the core objectives of ubiquitous computing, require interaction designers and researchers to have a stronger understanding of the environment as an aspect of the interaction process. We suggest that the interaction community needs new tools to accurately record and, as importantly, analyze interaction in space. We present one solution: People Watcher, a freely downloadable, iPad Application, specifically designed to address the ‘usability in space’ issues. The paper reports a case study of the software’s use. We go on to encourage researchers to adopt this tool as part of the wider process of understanding the effect of the spatial context in interaction design

The Shuttle Environment Workshop

Results of shuttle environmental measurement programs were presented. The implications for plasma, infrared and ultraviolet experiments were discussed. The prelaunch environmental conditions, results of key environmental measurements made during the flights of STS 1, 2, 3, 4, and postlanding environmental conditions were covered

TOSSIT: a low-cost, hand deployable, rope-less and acoustically silent mooring for underwater passive acoustic monitoring

© The Author(s), 2022. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Zitterbart, D., Bocconcelli, A., Ochs, M., & Bonnel, J. TOSSIT: a low-cost, hand deployable, rope-less and acoustically silent mooring for underwater passive acoustic monitoring. HardwareX, 11, (2022): e00304, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ohx.2022.e00304.Passive Acoustic Monitoring (PAM) has been used to study the ocean for decades across several fields to answer biological, geological and meteorological questions such as marine mammal presence, measures of anthropogenic noise in the ocean, and monitoring and prediction of underwater earthquakes and tsunamis. While in previous decades the high cost of acoustic instruments limited its use, miniaturization and microprocessor advances dramatically reduced the cost for passive acoustic monitoring instruments making PAM available for a broad scientific community. Such low-cost devices are often deployed by divers or on mooring lines with a surface buoy, which limit their use to diving depth and coastal regions. Here, we present a low-cost, low self-noise and hand-deployable PAM mooring design, called TOSSIT. It can be used in water as deep as 500 m, and can be deployed and recovered by hand by a single operator (more comfortably with two) in a small boat. The TOSSIT modular mooring system consists of a light and strong non-metallic frame that can fit a variety of sensors including PAM instruments, acoustic releases, additional power packages, environmental parameter sensors. The TOSSIT’s design is rope-less, which removes any risk of entanglement and keeps the self-noise very low.The development of the TOSSIT mooring was supported by a Woods Hole Oceanographic institution Innovative Technology Award (Award number 25226). TOSSIT deployment in Argentina was supported by a Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Mary Sears visitor award (Award number 24700) and TOSSIT deployments during SBCEX were funded by the Office of Naval Research Task Force Ocean (ONR TFO, Award number: N000141912627). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript