Real and virtual convergences: the LOCUS Project: playful connected rural territories

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Intergenerational interpretation of the Internet of Things

This report investigates how different generations within a household interpret individual members’ data generated by the Internet of Things (IoT). Adopting a mixed methods approach, we are interested in interpretations of the IoT by teenagers, their parents and grandparents, and how they understand and interact with the kinds of data that might be generated by IoT devices. The first part of this document is a technical review that outlines the key existing and envisaged technologies that make up the IoT. It explores the definition and scope of the Internet of Things. Hardware, networking, intelligent objects and Human-Computer Interaction implications are all discussed in detail. The second section focuses on the human perspective, looking at psychological and sociological issues relating to the interpretation of information generated by the IoT. Areas such as privacy, data ambiguity, ageism, and confirmation bias are explored. The third section brings both aspects together, examining how technical and social aspects of the IoT interact in four specific application domains: energy monitoring, groceries and shopping, physical gaming, and sharing experiences. This section also presents three household scenarios developed to communicate and explore the complexities of integrating IoT technologies into family life. The final section draws together all the findings and suggests future research

Co-design of augmented reality textbook for children’s collaborative learning experience in primary schools

Augmented Reality (AR) is a recent technology that allows a seamless composition between virtual objects and the real world. This practice-based research uses the affordances of AR to design an AR textbook for collaborative learning experience. It identifies the key concepts of children s AR textbooks for the designing and evaluation of collaborative learning experiences. These concepts were used to develop a conceptual framework for the AR textbook that considers collaborative experience, learning and usability. Informed by these concepts, the research also has identified the design features which are unique to AR affordances which can be integrated in the school textbooks to develop a collaborative AR textbook for primary school children. The research follows a participatory design approach to involve the users of the AR textbook in the design process. The researcher has conducted three co-design studies involving primary school children and adults using cooperative inquiry techniques. The first study uses low-tech prototyping to find the overall direction of designing the AR textbook. After the development of the first AR textbook prototype, two formative evaluations have been conducted using cooperative inquiry critiquing, and layered elaboration techniques. Throughout these studies, a conceptual framework has been developed namely, Experience, Learn and Use (ELU) for the designing and evaluation of children s AR textbooks for collaborative learning experience. This framework is based on the adaption of Janet Read s Play, Learn, Use (PLU) model that defines children s relationships with the interactive technologies. The research proposes the ELU framework as a useful classification framework in the evaluation process, which informs the design features of the AR textbook which are related to the concepts of collaborative experience, learning and usability. The practical component of the thesis proposes a sample of an AR textbook that is integrated in the regular school curriculum. It demonstrates the design features which can be implemented in other textbooks to support collaborative learning experiences for primary school children. The documentation of the co-design process provides a practical framework for co-designing an AR textbook with children, as well as an evidence of using the ELU framework in practice. 4 This research also contributes in bridging the gap between AR and Child-Computer Interaction (CCI) communities, through the use of common CCI methods in the AR development. This research has resulted in key design principles which contribute original knowledge to the literature of the AR for children s education considering the CCI perspective. These important principles are informed by the collaborative experiences, learning and usability aspects that establish a framework for the design and evaluation of collaborative AR textbook for children. The eight identified principles by this research are, Joint Textbooks, Personalised AR Experience, Interactive AR Book, Communication-Based Learning, Rewarding AR feedback, Audio AR Textbook, Intuitive AR Markers, and Mutual AR Display. The research introduces the definition for each of the concepts and a demonstration of the related design features in the outcome of the AR textbook prototype

Enhancing South Asian Folktales through Mixed Reality: Exploring Accessibility, Contextualization, and Discovery

The rich cultural heritage of South Asian folktales gets shared across generations through various storytelling styles and channels, such as oral traditions, books, cartoons, comics, and blogs. However, with the rapid evolution of new media, there is a growing need to adapt these traditional stories to modern formats to ensure their continued accessibility, contextualization, and discovery. This project aims to explore the potential of Mixed Reality (MR) in enhancing the experience of South Asian folktales by creating immersive and engaging story environments that connect to their geographical roots. Using Research Through Design (RTD) methodology, I iteratively developed and evaluated prototype setups to identify critical design decisions that shape the user experience. The findings from this study will provide insights into the design of MR applications for storytelling and contribute to the preservation and dissemination of South Asian folklore in the digital age

Social gaming: A systematic review

Digital games often constitute a shared activity where people can spend time together, communicate and socialize. Several commercial titles place social interaction at the center of their design. Prior works have investigated the social outcomes of gaming, and factors that impact the experience. Yet, we lack a comprehensive understanding of how social gaming has been approached and explored before. In this work, we present a systematic review covering 263 publications, gathered in February 2021, that study gaming experiences involving more than one person, with a focus on the social element that emerges among partakers (players and/or spectators). We contribute with a systematized understanding of (1) how the topic is being defined and approached, (2) what facets (mainly in terms of outcomes and determinants of the experience) are being acknowledged and (3) the methodologies leveraged to examine these. Our analysis, based on mixed deductive and inductive coding, reveals relevant gaps and tendencies, including (1) the emphasis in novel technologies and unconventional games, (2) the apparent negligence of player diversity, and (3) lower ecological validity associated with totally mediated evaluations and a lack of established constructs to assess social outcomes

Mixed Reality Storytelling for Social Engagement with Older Adults

Aging is a natural process that brings social and physical challenges among adults, due to which they have to make shifts in habits and routines. Adults belonging to an older age group lose touch with people which provides an opportunity for researchers to think and implement novel ways to engage the population with their loved ones. The advent of technology within the Mixed Reality (MR) space aims to facilitate diverse groups of people to engage in immersive and interactive ways, opening possibilities to address the predicament of aging in an isolated environment. Utilizing participatory design in a virtual setting, inclusive design frameworks and design thinking practices, the contributions of this research are to present the broad concepts of storytelling, social engagement and Mixed Reality existing in the literature, and then take inspiration to co-design a Mixed Reality storytelling system with older adults and their friends & family for the purpose of cultivating meaningful social connections through sharing stories

Sequels and SAMs: Re-contextualized Media and Affective Memory

Electronic media allows for the repetition of the audiovisual in new contexts. Bernard Stiegler argues that, as people are exposed to these contexts (television, commercials), consumer-based art threatens the singular, a connection to a particular aesthetic in a particular space. When art is repeated, films remember for the audience. This allows for history to be continually re-written according to dominant media institutions. While there are other ways to combat this grand narrative, I argue that there are memories that, like the singular, are not consumer-based. I refer to these as staple associative memories (SAMs). These are not memories of the audiovisual art but are associated with the social component attached to the viewing experience. Through the repetition of a temporal aesthetic, the narratives are expected, but the other elements or associations can create unexpected affectual memories. SAMs are valuable for increasing participation and for the creation of selfhood, but they are being threatened by the use of the sequel. I analyze Blade Runner 2049 as a representation of a sequel that reuses old scenes in new contexts. Because of the affectual elements of these scenes, the memory of the original viewing experience can be warped, changed, or forgotten. I finish by discussing the future of staple associative memories in the context of online streaming and augmented reality

Hearing the Past

Recent developments in computer technology are providing historians with new ways to see—and seek to hear, touch, or smell—traces of the past. Place-based augmented reality applications are an increasingly common feature at heritage sites and museums, allowing historians to create immersive, multifaceted learning experiences. Now that computer vision can be directed at the past, research involving thousands of images can recreate lost or destroyed objects or environments, and discern patterns in vast datasets that could not be perceived by the naked eye. Seeing the Past with Computers is a collection of twelve thought-pieces on the current and potential uses of augmented reality and computer vision in historical research, teaching, and presentation. The experts gathered here reflect upon their experiences working with new technologies, share their ideas for best practices, and assess the implications of—and imagine future possibilities for—new methods of historical study. Among the experimental topics they explore are the use of augmented reality that empowers students to challenge the presentation of historical material in their textbooks; the application of seeing computers to unlock unusual cultural knowledge, such as the secrets of vaudevillian stage magic; hacking facial recognition technology to reveal victims of racism in a century-old Australian archive; and rebuilding the soundscape of an Iron Age village with aural augmented reality. This volume is a valuable resource for scholars and students of history and the digital humanities more broadly. It will inspire them to apply innovative methods to open new paths for conducting and sharing their own research

Designing Sugaropolis:digital games as a medium for conveying transnational narratives

In this paper, the authors present a case study of ‘Sugaropolis’: a two-year practice-based project that involved interdisciplinary co-design and stakeholder evaluation of two digital game prototypes. Drawing on the diverse expertise of the research team (game design and development, human geography, and transnational narratives), the paper aims to contribute to debates about the use of digital games as a medium for representing the past. With an emphasis on design-as-research, we consider how digital games can be (co-)designed to communicate complex histories and geographies in which people, objects, and resources are connected through space and time