Influence of augmented humans in online interactions during voting events

The advent of the digital era provided a fertile ground for the development of virtual societies, complex systems influencing real-world dynamics. Understanding online human behavior and its relevance beyond the digital boundaries is still an open challenge. Here we show that online social interactions during a massive voting event can be used to build an accurate map of real-world political parties and electoral ranks. We provide evidence that information flow and collective attention are often driven by a special class of highly influential users, that we name "augmented humans", who exploit thousands of automated agents, also known as bots, for enhancing their online influence. We show that augmented humans generate deep information cascades, to the same extent of news media and other broadcasters, while they uniformly infiltrate across the full range of identified groups. Digital augmentation represents the cyber-physical counterpart of the human desire to acquire power within social systems.Comment: 11 page

Sprite Catcher: A Handheld Self Reflection and Mindfulness Tool for Mental Healthcare

This paper describes the rationale behind the ongoing development of Sprite Catcher - a handheld, tangible interactive tool for treating depression and anxiety. The current design, which is intended to encourage the user to practice self-reflection and mindfulness, is the product of participatory design conducted with counsellors from a local mental health charity and with a university psychology researcher. Through a review of previous work in this area, a description of a use scenario and an overview of the design's functions and concepts, we illustrate where the project is heading and which research questions we aim to respond to

Money and housing: evidence for the euro area and the US

This paper examines the relation between money and housing variables in the euro area and in the US. Our empirical model is based on a standard money demand relation which is augmented by housing market variables. In doing so, co-integrated money demand relationships can be established for both the euro area and the US. Furthermore, we find evidence for asset inflation channels, that is, liquidity fuels housing market developments. --money demand,asset inflation,housing,wealth

The Scattering Approach to the Casimir Force

We present the scattering approach which is nowadays the best tool for describing the Casimir force in realistic experimental configurations. After reminders on the simple geometries of 1d space and specular scatterers in 3d space, we discuss the case of stationary arbitrarily shaped mirrors in electromagnetic vacuum. We then review specific calculations based on the scattering approach, dealing for example with the forces or torques between nanostructured surfaces and with the force between a plane and a sphere. In these various cases, we account for the material dependence of the forces, and show that the geometry dependence goes beyond the trivial {\it Proximity Force Approximation} often used for discussing experiments.Comment: Proceedings of the QFEXT'09 conference (Oklahoma, 2009

Augmented Reality to Engage Visitors of Science Museums through Interactive Experiences

In the last years, interactive exhibitions based on digital technologies have become widely common, thanks to their flexibility and effectiveness in engaging visitors and creating memorable experiences. One of the topics in which digital technologies can be particularly effective is the communication of abstract concepts that are difficult for the human mind to imagine. An emblematic example is the astronomy discipline, which requires us to imagine and understand phenomena far away from our everyday life. In this paper, the authors present a research project, MARSS, in which digital technologies are used effectively to enhance the Users' Experience of the Museo Astronomico di Brera located in Milan. Specifically, the MARSS project aims at designing and developing a new digital journey inside the museum to allow different categories of visitors to enjoy the exhibition in an engaging and interactive way. The paper presents the design and development phases of the experience and its evaluation with users. The results of the evaluation indicate that the digital interactive experience is appreciated by users and is successful in translating the content of high scientific value into more engaging and easily understandable elements

Smart Geographic object: Toward a new understanding of GIS Technology in Ubiquitous Computing

One of the fundamental aspects of ubiquitous computing is the instrumentation of the real world by smart devices. This instrumentation constitutes an opportunity to rethink the interactions between human beings and their environment on the one hand, and between the components of this environment on the other. In this paper we discuss what this understanding of ubiquitous computing can bring to geographic science and particularly to GIS technology. Our main idea is the instrumentation of the geographic environment through the instrumentation of geographic objects composing it. And then investigate how this instrumentation can meet the current limitations of GIS technology, and offers a new stage of rapprochement between the earth and its abstraction. As result, the current research work proposes a new concept we named Smart Geographic Object SGO. The latter is a convergence point between the smart objects and geographic objects, two concepts appertaining respectively to

MagicFace: Stepping into Character through an Augmented Reality Mirror

Augmented Reality (AR) is coming of age and appearing in various smartphone apps. One emerging AR type uses the front-facing camera and overlays a user's face with digital features that transform the physical appearance, making the user look like someone else, such as a popstar or a historical character. However, little is known about how people react to such stepping into character and how convincing they perceive it to be. We developed an app with two Egyptian looks, MagicFace, which was situated both in an opera house and a museum. In the first setting, people were invited to use the app, while in the second setting they came across it on their own when visiting the exhibition. Our findings show marked differences in how people approach and experience the MagicFace in these different contexts. We discuss how realistic and compelling this kind of AR technology is, as well as its implications for educational and cultural settings

Editorial: Perceptual issues surrounding the electroacoustic listening experience

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Project-based Learning Practices in Computer Science Education

The EPCoS project (Effective Projectwork in Computer Science) is working to map the range of project-based learning practices in UK higher education and to generate insights into what characterizes the contexts in which particular techniques are effective. In assembling a body of authentic examples, EPCoS aims to provide a resource that enables extrapolation and synthesis of new techniques. To allow educators and researchers to mine this material, EPCoS is systematizing it within a template-based catalogue, augmented with indexing and abstracting devices. Moreover, EPCoS is examining the process by which practices are transferred between institutional contexts, with a view to identifying effective models of the transfer process. Three key elements of transfer are the identification of appropriate practices, the selection of a practice for a purpose, and the integration of a chosen practice into the existing culture. Structured resources and process models are essential tools for supporting responsiveness in the current climate of continual change: the rapid development of computer technology is demanding new range and flexibility in project work, and EPCoS's mapping of project-based teaching allows practitioners to respond to these changes. This is one context in which educational research into how projects work can generalize to professional practice