Demonstration of a prototype for a conversational companion for reminiscing about images

This work was funded by the Companions project (2006-2009) sponsored by the European Commission as part of the Information Society Technologies (IST) programme under EC grant number IST-FP6-034434.This paper describes an initial prototype demonstrator of a Companion, designed as a platform for novel approaches to the following: 1) The use of Information Extraction (IE) techniques to extract the content of incoming dialogue utterances after an Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) phase, 2) The conversion of the input to Resource Descriptor Format (RDF) to allow the generation of new facts from existing ones, under the control of a Dialogue Manger (DM), that also has access to stored knowledge and to open knowledge accessed in real time from the web, all in RDF form, 3) A DM implemented as a stack and network virtual machine that models mixed initiative in dialogue control, and 4) A tuned dialogue act detector based on corpus evidence. The prototype platform was evaluated, and we describe this briefly; it is also designed to support more extensive forms of emotion detection carried by both speech and lexical content, as well as extended forms of machine learning.peer-reviewe

A framework for developing a conversational agent to improve normal age- associated memory loss and increase subjective wellbeing

Research has developed a baseline conversational agent (CA) framework that experiments suggest may improve normal ageing memory problems and increase Subjective Wellbeing (SWB) in participants aged 60+ with normal age-associated memory loss. In 2008, 1.3 million people in the United Kingdom were aged 85+, this figure is projected to reach 3.3 million by 2033 (Morse, 2010). Thus, as the population profile changes, ageing memory impairment problems will become acuter (Morse, 2010). The number of people worldwide with diagnosed clinical memory problems is expected to double every 20 years to 66 million by 2030 and 115 million by 2050 (Casey et al., 2016, Prince et al., 2013). Improving memory impairment reduces distress for individuals and enhances wellbeing and independence (Dorin, 2007); (Wagner et al., 2010). The quality of life in old age can be improved by increasing SWB (George, 2010) that is concerned with how people experience the quality of their lives and includes both emotional reactions and cognitive judgments (George, 2010). Experiments performed as part of the pilot study suggested evidence of increased SWB and improved memory after use of the CA. To support these early findings, modification to the agent and further experimentation was undertaken. Further work enhanced the preliminary work that was carried out and provided the opportunity to run further, more in-depth evaluations of the CA as both a reminiscence aid and as an improver of SWB. This PhD study applied for and gained ethical approval (SE111219) from the Faculty of Science & Engineering Ethics Committee, Manchester Metropolitan University on 25 October 2012

Of Us and Other Things : The Content and Functions of Talk by Adult Visitor Pairs in an Art and a History Museum

Surprisingly little is known about the processes by which objects in museums come to hold meaning for visitors. Reconceptualizing the museum within a mass media framework in which visitors actively negotiate meaning through talk with their companions, this study explores four questions: 1) What are the kinds of interpretive acts that visitor pairs make in museums? 2) Are there patterns to these responses? How might they vary depending upon museum type and gender configuration of pair? 3) What are the social functions of such talk? 4)What does this suggest about the role of the museum in society? To investigate these issues, the talk of 60 visitor pairs - 15 male-female pairs and 15 female-female pairs at one art and one history museum respectively - was tape-recorded as these pairs viewed a target exhibit at their own pace. Each visitor completed an individual interview and questionnaire afterward. The content of visitor talk was analyzed and a 7-step qualitative procedure utilized to compare and interweave the three types of data. All visitor talk in both museums was found to consist of five major interpretive acts - establishment, absolute object description, relating competence, relating personal experience, and evaluation. Visitor pairs combined and emphasized these acts in seven different ways to form interpretive frames - distinct ways of talking and thinking about objects. These frames further collapsed into three major modes of meaning-making - Objective, Subjective, and Combination. In addition to making meaning of objects, visitors\u27 talk was found to communicate several aspects of their individual and relational identities. The invocation of interpretive frame varied most by relationship type, as represented by gender configuration and amount of time pair members knew each other. In sum, visitor pairs filter their competencies and tendencies through the context of their relationship to produce a shared interpretive approach. The resulting talk constructs and reflects the meaning of objects and of selves operative within the relationship. The museum is concluded to be a modified mass medium, a locus for the negotiation of cultural meaning, particularly identity

KeepsakeBox : caregivers platform for supporting reminiscence therapy

Tese de Mestrado, Engenharia Informática (Especialização em Engenharia de Software), 2021, Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de CiênciasCom o aumento da população idosa por todo o mundo existem cada vez mais casos de demência, pois esta aparece mais neste grupo de pessoas. A demência é uma condição irreversível que é caracterizada pela perda de memória, problemas linguísticos, desorientação, mudanças de personalidade, dificuldades em atividades diárias, autonegligência, sintomas psiquiátricos e comportamentos fora do normal. A terapia de reminiscência é um dos tratamentos não farmacológicos usado em pessoas com demência. Esta terapia ajuda pessoas a recordar experiências passadas e promove a comunicação entre as pessoas com demência e o resto do mundo, estimulando as suas memórias. A terapia de reminiscência convencional baseia-se em contar histórias e requer ativadores de memória, incluindo objetos domésticos e objetos relacionados com eventos passados. A pessoa que realiza este tipo de terapia deve ser treinada, e os objetos que funcionam como ativadores de memória devem ser preparados. Existem atualmente algumas soluções digitais para realizar a terapia de reminiscência e verificámos que a maior parte oferece a criação de sessões automáticas, o uso de diretrizes específicas para idosos e o uso de multimédia constituída por material personalizado relativamente a pessoa com demência como sendo características fundamentais deste tipo de aplicações. A privacidade também se mostrou ser um ponto fundamental, especialmente numa aplicação feita para pessoas mais idosas. Apesar de não serem tão considerados: o menor número de passos para realizar uma tarefa, as notificações, o design participativo e o fornecimento de ajuda e treino dos utilizadores também são importantes para o desenvolvimento de uma aplicação deste tipo. Para além disso, os cuidadores estão normalmente empregados a tempo inteiro e não conseguem estar sempre presentes para cuidar dos seus entes queridos. Tornando o processo de terapia mais rápido, os cuidadores poderão ter mais tempo para eles e seguir as pessoas com demência a seu cuidado. Neste trabalho desenvolvemos uma plataforma digital para suportar a realização da terapia de reminiscência, de nome KeepsakeBox, e que teve em conta todos os aspetos referidos anteriormente. Para além disso, o nosso trabalho integra-se na solução para terapia de reminiscência de Alarcão et al. [1] como sendo a interface principal com que o cuidador, que e o utilizador principal da plataforma, vai interagir para realizar a terapia de reminiscência com as pessoas com demência. De momento a plataforma permite criar contas de cuidadores para que estes possam gerir a sua informação bem como as pessoas com demência de quem cuidam. É possível também editar a informação destas pessoas bem como adicionar conteúdo personalizado para cada uma delas, principalmente imagens que poderão ser depois utilizadas nas terapias e ajudar a alcançar um melhor estímulo. A partilha de cuidados de uma pessoa com demência entre vários cuidadores, bem como a sua informação também e suportado pela nossa plataforma, sendo um elemento essencial para o acompanhamento destas pessoas. Para o desenvolvimento da plataforma começámos por efetuar um levantamento de requisitos. Este levantamento foi feito através de questionários online para cada um dos tipos de cuidador: formal e informal. Com os dados obtidos destes questionários e considerando as diretrizes que identificámos para desenhar interfaces para idosos, sendo que estes são um dos nossos principais utilizadores, desenhámos um primeiro protótipo da plataforma. Nas entrevistas semi-estruturadas em videoconferência, ainda dentro deste levantamento de requisitos, esclarecemos algumas informações obtidas dos questionários. Os resultados obtidos deste levantamento de requisitos validaram a informação anteriormente recolhida pelo estudo realizado por Alarcão et al. [1] com cuidadores informais e acrescentaram novos requisitos funcionais relativamente aos cuidadores formais. Percebemos que os cuidadores formais precisam de uma ferramenta que lhes permita gerir todas as pessoas de quem cuidam, bem como a informação pessoal de cada uma delas. Para alem disso, é importante poderem comunicar com outros cuidadores e partilhar os cuidados das pessoas de quem cuidam. Relativamente as sessões, percebemos que estes gostam de ter algum controlo na preparação da sessão, por isso deverão ser consideradas outras formas de preparação de uma sessão para além da automática. Os resultados das sessões, por sua vez, mostraram-se muito importantes para este tipo de cuidadores. Todos os requisitos funcionais identificados neste levantamento de requisitos irão ajudar os cuidadores a acompanhar as pessoas com demência, bem como a reduzir a sua carga de trabalho e stress. Desta forma melhora a qualidade de vida de ambos os cuidadores e das pessoas com demência, visto que esta plataforma irá ajudar a que estas pessoas tenham um melhor acompanhamento e a criar uma relação entre o cuidador e a pessoa com demência. Para além disso, como um dos nossos objetivos era ter um desenho centrado no utilizador e envolve-lo no desenvolvimento da plataforma, nestas entrevistas, os cuidadores formais e informais puderam remotamente experimentar o nosso protótipo da plataforma. Ao observar a interação dos cuidadores com o protótipo e também através dos seus comentários percebemos o que seria necessário mudar e acrescentar na plataforma de forma a alcançar as suas necessidades no que toca a realização da terapia de reminiscência e também a uma melhor usabilidade. A plataforma está estruturada em três partes: frontend, backend e base de dados. Todas foram desenvolvidas neste trabalho, porém a base de dados e o backend foram adaptados e baseados no trabalho desenvolvido por Madalena et al. [34]. Adaptamos os conceitos da base de dados de forma a irem de encontro ao que os cuidadores precisam de gerir dentro da plataforma e realizar a terapia de reminiscência. Usamos o PostgreSQL [24] para incorporar a base de dados na nossa plataforma, e o backend foi feito utilizando o Spring Boot [29] em linguagem Java, e que consiste num serviço REST. Neste, mudamos alguns dos dados e endpoints a serem utilizados pelo frontend para enviar e receber pedidos. Para além disso adicionámos novos endpoints e serviços, tendo em conta as novas funcionalidades identificadas durante o levantamento de requisitos. O frontend, sendo a parte principal deste trabalho, foi desenvolvido em Angular [3] e teve em conta diretrizes identificadas para pessoas mais idosas no início do trabalho, relativamente a acessibilidade e ao desenho de aplicações web. Também mudámos algumas partes do desenho e implementamos algumas funcionalidades de acordo com a opinião dada pelos cuidadores ao nosso protótipo inicial. Para finalizar o trabalho procedemos a uma avaliação remota da nossa plataforma contactando com vários cuidadores. Nesta fase só conseguimos recrutar cuidadores formais, que participaram remotamente em entrevistas individuais, onde puderam interagir com a plataforma e comentar o processo, ou em focus groups, onde foi feita uma apresentação da plataforma para vários cuidadores, e estes puderam comentar e dar opiniões sobre a mesma. No final destas sessões experimentais pedimos aos cuidadores para responderem a um questionário de avaliação relativamente à usabilidade (SUS) e outro sobre a utilidade (TAM). A opinião geral dos cuidadores relativamente à plataforma foi bastante positiva bem como em relação às ideias que irão ser implementadas de futuro. A pontuação do questionário SUS foi em média de 85, o que demonstra que a nossa plataforma está acima da média em termos de usabilidade. Para além disso o questionário TAM também teve um resultado bastante positivo e demonstra que no geral a maior parte dos cuidadores acharam a plataforma útil para ajudar a realizar a terapia de reminiscência. Futuras versões da plataforma deverão começar por implementar as funcionalidades relativas à execução e aos resultados das sessões. Para além disso, todas as opiniões dadas na avaliação final pelos cuidadores, bem como todas as funcionalidades identificadas como sendo importantes de implementar deverão ser consideradas.With the increase of older population all over the world, there are consequently more cases of dementia that mostly appear on this group of people. Dementia is an irreversible condition that is characterized by memory loss, language impairment, disorientation, changes in personality, difficulties with activities of daily living, self-neglect, psychiatric symptoms, and out-of character behaviour. Reminiscence therapy is one of the non-pharmacological treatments used for dementia. It helps people recall their past experiences and promotes communication between people with dementia and the rest of the world, by stimulating their memories. In this work we developed a digital platform, called KeepsakeBox, with the objective to support this type of therapy. The platform is to be used by caregivers to perform reminiscence therapy with people with dementia. It allows caregivers to create their accounts, manage their information and also manage the people with dementia they care for, and edit people with dementia personal data, such as uploading personal images, which can help achieve better stimulus when therapy is performed with them. Sharing the care of people with dementia is also possible. The platform was designed by considering guidelines for older people, as they are one of our main users, and a set of requirements collected through surveys and interviews. As we considered a user-centered design, the prototypes of our platform were evaluated remotely by formal and informal caregivers so we could understand if our platform was meeting their needs. Their feedback helped us improve the platform. After applying all changes identified we got our platform that was evaluated remotely by formal caregivers. The results from this final evaluation were very positive as caregivers liked the platform and the results from SUS showed an average score of 85 which shows that our platform is easy to use. The results from the TAM questionnaire in terms of usefulness also showed that caregivers would like to use this platform to help perform reminiscence therapy. Future versions should implement session related functionalities alongside the ones identified on this final evaluation

Creating intentional environments for impromptu collaboration: Designing forms with affordances to support engagement and collaboration in the atrium of a higher education facility

The impact of a single object’s presence within a space can be immense. This fact alone, calls to mind the power and responsibility of designers as they influence the creation of these objects directly. The idea that the affordances of designed forms can create beneficial opportunities for interaction has inspired the method for designing intentional environments that is discussed in this paper and a larger research exploration: studying the ways in which the affordances of designed forms influence perceptions of and interactions with material landscapes in various contexts and at various scales. The designed forms found within the material landscapes of our lives create a network of objects and spaces. Environments that we repeatedly interact with have the potential to influence and shape our identities and overall wellbeing. The affordances of a single designed form within a material landscape have the potential to shift a visitor’s understanding of that space and inspire, or warn against, specific interactions. As creatures of habit, these affordances become particularly important in areas where people spend the most time; leading to our homes, workplaces, and learning environments having a drastic influence on our behaviors, decision-making, and socialization patterns. Fortunately, designed forms not only have the ability to create spaces, they can also adapt spaces -- transforming existing structures through a user-centered design process. This paper details the research and design development of a flexible workstation pod, designed to create an intentional environment that engages users in creative creation and collaboration through the use of affordances and symbolism. This product was designed as part of the re-imagination of the atrium of Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, on the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus. This re-imagination project began as an interdisciplinary exploration of concepts to refresh the facility’s vast atrium space. From that research and ideation process a product opportunity and research method arose; utilizing an understanding of human cognition and perceptions of the affordances and symbolism of a designed form to create intentional spaces that shape opportunities within a building that is world renowned for advancement through collaboration

The virtualization of the church: new media representations of Neo-Pentecostal performance(s) in South Africa

Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of Degree Master of Arts in Sociology In the Graduate School of Humanities School of Social Sciences Department of Sociology University of the Witwatersrand Johannesburg 2016.The advent of new media, more specifically social media, has galvanized and radically revolutionized how religion is experienced, lived and expressed in (South) Africa. Social media has transmogrified the orthodox and normative modes of religious engagement and interaction. Day-to-day religious practices have become highly reliant on the (new) media. It is only logical therefore to foreground and locate the (new) media within the deeper inquiries relating to social phenomenon and social life. Social media has become the benchmark for understanding the transitions with regards to conceptualizing social phenomenon like Neo-Pentecostalism, which in recent times has taken the African continent by storm. This study explores how church performances and practices of controversial South African Neo-Pentecostal church End Time Disciples Ministries, led by notoriously shady and delinquent Prophet Penuel are represented on Facebook. The study is interested in analysing the online representations of church performance of this particular church. Moreover, the study committed at understanding how audiences (those who engage and interact on Facebook page) decode and interpret the messages and representational exhibitions disseminated through the church’s Facebook page. Through the employment of a rigorous Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis (MCDA), both visual and lexical semiotic choices on the Facebook page were analysed in order to demystify discursive, ideological and investments of power. It must be lamented that the intersections between religion and new/social media have been marginally ignored within qualitative epistemic inquiries. This study provides a breath of fresh air in that regard. The current status quo enlightens us that social relations have become vehemently digitized. It is therefore relevant and expedient for digital platforms to be taken seriously within sociological intellectual inquests. Church performances are receiving great impetus and potency on new/social media domains but minimal scholastic investment has been channelled in that direction. The End Time Disciple Ministries Facebook page is a platform where the most salient and non-salient representational projects of violence, power, exploitation, manipulation, hegemony, patriarchy are exhibited for public broadcast and consumption.MT201

Bio-cartography: towards a new theory of portraying

The project of bio-cartography interconnected the metamorphoses of subjectivity with the progress of representational thought, having drawn on the different fields of reflections concerned with the changing self: poststructuralist philosophies, feminist theories, studies of science and technology, linguistics, postcolonial and social sciences. Thus, through its title, this paper established the interrelations between theory, science, and art practice. The ubiquitous notion of representation (hence its different variations: figuration and transfiguration) was examined on the ground of bio-art works, and various exemplifications became not only illustrations of presented ideas, but also dynamic mappings of vivid metamorphoses. The attempt was to prepare new tools which facilitate the reception of new class of portraits, which I called ‘bio-portraits’. The concept of the bio-portrait was born on the crossroads of the philosophical reappraisal of the representational approach, the etymological roots which came from different origins and the background of bio-technological development. My aim was to show that the art practice no longer represents reality, but it transfigures and transcends it. Therefore, my analysis showed the presented works as effects of sociopolitical power relations and the way of their transformations, having opened possibilities of two-directional way of cooperation between theory and practice, science and art, reality and its representation.El proyecto de biocartografía ha interconectado las metamorfosis de la subjetividad con el progreso del pensamiento representacional, inspirado en los diferentes campos de pensamiento relacionados con el cambio en sí: filosofías postestructuralistas, teorías feministas, estudios científicos y tecnológicos, la lingüística y ciencias postcoloniales y sociales. A través de su título, este trabajo establece las relaciones entre teoría, ciencia y la práctica del arte. Se ha examinado la noción ubicua de la representación (de ahí sus variaciones: figuración and transfiguración) basándose en obras de bioarte, y varias ejemplificaciones se convirtieron no sólo en ilustraciones de las ideas representadas sino también en estructuras dinámicas de metamorfosis vivas. La idea fue preparar nuevas herramientas que facilitan la recepción de una nueva clase de retratos, los cuales llamo ‘biorretratos’. El concepto de biorretratos ha nacido del cruce de la revaloración filosófica con el acercamiento representacional, de las raíces etimológicas que provienen de diferentes orígenes y del fondo de desarrollo biotecnológico. Mi propósito fue indicar que la práctica del arte ya no representa la realidad, sino al contrario la transfigura y la transciende. Por consiguiente, mi análisis ha indicado los trabajos presentados como consecuencia de las relaciones de poder en un contexto sociopolítico y el camino de sus transformaciones, dando mas posibilidades en la creación de un camino bidireccional de cooperación entre la teoría y la práctica, la ciencia y el arte, la realidad y su representación.Máster Erasmus Mundus en Estudios de las Mujeres y de Genero, GEMMA. 4ª ed

Virtual Reality Methods

ePDF and ePUB available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence. Since the mid-2010s, virtual reality (VR) technology has advanced rapidly. This book explores the many opportunities that VR can offer for humanities and social sciences researchers. The book provides a user-friendly, non-technical methods guide to using ready-made VR content and 360° video as well as creating custom materials. It examines the advantages and disadvantages of different approaches to using VR, providing helpful, real-world examples of how researchers have used the technology

Museum, memories and digital stories : A liminal space for human computer interaction.

Objects, material or digital, mediate memories: they act as anchors in between temporal notions and relations of past and present. Through those objects of memory, the act of remembering occurs neither completely relived in the mind, nor fully captured in the medium. Essential to personal memories, objects represent also our collective memory and capture our social history.The papers submitted for this PhD by selected publications look at the design of innovative technology that can make remembering more evocative and affective. They look at both museums, where digital and material are combined in an augmented reality, and personal/family contexts, where the home and mundane objects can be technologically enhanced to encapsulate digital memories.The museum was ideal to experiment with hybrid settings that combine material (the collection and the architectural space) and digital (the information) (papers 1 to 3). Personalization of information was used to augment the reality of rooms and exhibits: whole body interaction (i.e. physical movements in the space) was used to select and personalize the content and engage visitors with both material (the object) and digital (the information). Although the mobile technology is dated, these papers show the value of combining digital and physical to provide a holistic experience that made visitors wonder. Where the fusion occurs, however, is in the digital technology. To balance this perspective, paper 4 looks at the effect of taking the digital content out into the exhibition space. My recent research (papers 5-9) looks at objects of memory in the personal realm, in particular in the family home. Starting from observing the role and function of mementos, I conclude that a more holistic and organic approach has to be taken to make personal digital objects of memory more present in people's life. Materialization can be achieved with digital devices designed for individual and family use, so that the product fits with the mundane aspects of life, is immediate, and stimulates affect, not efficiency.Finally papers 10 and 11 provide evidence of the innovative methodologies I have developed and successfully used in iterative user studies and evaluations across different research projects and many years of research. As a whole this submission shows that there is a huge design space to explore in looking at how technology could be used in public or private spaces to bring together the two aspects of memory: remembering in the mind and capturing through objects, in order to preserve our digital life as tangible interactive objects