2 research outputs found
THE VARIETIES OF USER EXPERIENCE BRIDGING EMBODIED METHODOLOGIES FROM SOMATICS AND PERFORMANCE TO HUMAN COMPUTER INTERACTION
Embodied Interaction continues to gain significance within the field of Human
Computer Interaction (HCI). Its growing recognition and value is evidenced in part by
a remarkable increase in systems design and publication focusing on various aspects of
Embodiment. The enduring need to interact through experience has spawned a variety
of interdisciplinary bridging strategies in the hope of gaining deeper understanding of
human experience. Along with phenomenology, cognitive science, psychology and the
arts, recent interdisciplinary contributions to HCI include the knowledge-rich domains
of Somatics and Performance that carry long-standing traditions of embodied practice.
The common ground between HCI and the fields of Somatics and Performance is based
on the need to understand and model human experience. Yet, Somatics and
Performance differ from normative HCI in their epistemological frameworks of
embodiment. This is particularly evident in their histories of knowledge construction
and representation. The contributions of Somatics and Performance to the history of
embodiment are not yet fully understood within HCI. Differing epistemologies and their
resulting approaches to experience identify an under-theorized area of research and an
opportunity to develop a richer knowledge and practice base. This is examined by
comparing theories and practices of embodied experience between HCI and Somatics
(Performance) and analyzing influences, values and assumptions underlying
epistemological frameworks. The analysis results in a set of design strategies based in
embodied practices within Somatics and Performance. The subsequent application of
these strategies is examined through a series of interactive art installations that
employ embodied interaction as a central expression of technology. Case Studies
provide evidence in the form of rigorously documented design processes that illustrate
these strategies. This research exemplifies 'Research through Art' applied in the
context of experience design for tangible, wearable and social interaction
Synthetic social relationships for computational entities
Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2002.Includes bibliographical references (p. 179-189).Humans and many other animals form long term social relationships with each other. These relationships confer a variety of benefits upon us, both as individuals and as groups. Computational systems that can form social relationships like those formed by animals could reap many of the benefits of sociality, both within their own groups and in their interactions with people. This dissertation explores two main questions: *What kinds of internal and external representations are necessary for computational entities to form social relationships like those formed by animals? *How can people participate in and direct the relationships of these entities? To explore these questions, I designed and implemented a system by which computational entities may form simple social relationships. In particular, these synthetic social relationships are modeled after the social behavior of the gray wolf (Canis lupus). The system comprises a novel combination of simple models of emotion, perception and learning in an emotional memory-based mechanism for social relationship formation. The system also includes supporting technologies through which people may participate in and direct the relationships. The system was presented as an interactive installation entitled AlphaWolf in the Emerging Technologies program at SIGGRAPH 2001. This installation featured a pack of six virtual wolves - three fully autonomous adults and three semi-autonomous pups whom people could direct by howling, growling, whining or barking into microphones.(cont.) In addition to observing the interactions of several hundred SIGGRAPH participants, I performed two main evaluations of the AlphaWolf system - a 32-subject human user study and a set of simulations of resource exploitation among the virtual wolves. Results from these evaluations support the hypothesis that the AlphaWolf system enables the formation of social relationships among groups of computational entities and people, and that these relationships are beneficial to both the inter-machine interactions and the human-machine interactions in a variety of ways. This research represents one of many possible steps towards synthetic social relationships with the complexity of the relationships found in real wolves, let alone in humans. Much further work will be necessary to create entities who can fully engage us in our own social terms. The system presented here provides a basic scaffolding on which such entities may be built, including an implemented, real-time example; new ideas in directable characters and character-based interactive installations; a simple, ethologically plausible model of computational social relationships; and statistically significant support for these claims.by William Michael Tomlinson, Jr.Ph.D