Human-display interaction technology: Emerging remote interfaces for pervasive display environments

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final published article is available from the link below. Copyright @ 2010 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other users, including reprinting/ republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted components of this work in other works.We're living in a world where information processing isn't confined to desktop computers - it's being integrated into everyday objects and activities. Pervasive computation is human centered: it permeates our physical world, helping us achieve goals and fulfill our needs with minimum effort by exploiting natural interaction styles. Remote interaction with screen displays requires a sensor-based, multimodal, touchless approach. For example, by processing user hand gestures, this paradigm removes constraints requiring physical contact and permits natural interaction with tangible digital information. Such touchless interaction can be multimodal, exploiting the visual, auditory, and olfactory senses.Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia and Amper Sistemas, SA

Augmenting objects at home through programmable sensor tokens: A design journey

End-user development for the home has been gaining momentum in research. Previous works demonstrate feasibility and potential but there is a lack of analysis of the extent of technology needed and its impact on the diversity of activities that can be supported. We present a design exploration with a tangible end-user toolkit for programming smart tokens embedding different sensing technologies. Our system allows to augment physical objects with smart tags and use trigger-action programming with multiple triggers to define smart behaviors. We contribute through a field-oriented study that provided insights on (i) household's activities as emerging from people's lived experience in terms of high-level goals, their ephemerality or recurrence, and the types of triggers, actions and interactions with augmented objects, and (ii) the programmability needed for supporting desired behaviors. We conclude that, while trigger action covers most scenarios, more advanced programming and direct interaction with physical objects spur novel uses.This work was supported by the 2015 UC3M Mobility Grant, the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitivity (TIN2014-56534-R, CREAx) and by the Academy of Finland (286440, Evidence)

DIY media architecture: open and participatory approaches to community engagement

Media architecture’s combination of the digital and the physical can trigger, enhance, and amplify urban experiences. In this paper, we examine how to bring about and foster more open and participatory approaches to engage communities through media architecture by identifying novel ways to put some of the creative process into the hands of laypeople. We review technical, spatial, and social aspects of DIY phenomena with a view to better understand maker cultures, communities, and practices. We synthesise our findings and ask if and how media architects as a community of practice can encourage the ‘open-sourcing’ of information and tools allowing laypeople to not only participate but become active instigators of change in their own right. We argue that enabling true DIY practices in media architecture may increase citizen control. Seeking design strategies that foster DIY approaches, we propose five areas for further work and investigation. The paper begs many questions indicating ample room for further research into DIY Media Architecture

Weaving Lighthouses and Stitching Stories: Blind and Visually Impaired People Designing E-textiles

We describe our experience of working with blind and visually impaired people to create interactive art objects that are personal to them, through a participatory making process using electronic textiles (e-textiles) and hands-on crafting techniques. The research addresses both the practical considerations about how to structure hands-on making workshops in a way which is accessible to participants of varying experience and abilities, and how effective the approach was in enabling participants to tell their own stories and feel in control of the design and making process. The results of our analysis is the offering of insights in how to run e-textile making sessions in such a way for them to be more accessible and inclusive to a wider community of participants

T4Tags 2.0: a tool to support the serendipitous use of domestic technologies

The authors present an iterative design exploration to support serendipitous uses of technology: quick reconfigurations of the domestic environment to address inhabitants' current needs, whether they are transient and ephemeral or more habitual. As a result of this exploration, the authors developed T4Tags 2.0, an open-ended toolkit for programming Web-connected and versatile physical tokens embedded with different sensing technologies (including near field communication, physical buttons, and motion and environmental sensors) and can be easily integrated with existing artifacts. The design of the toolkit was informed by fieldwork that provided design drivers for domestic technologies that can be repurposed or appropriated through features such as end-user programming of device behavior and crowd-fueled appropriation by sharing "recipes" of programmed tokens. A user study with three families provides insights into system usefulness and the recipe-sharing functionality. The authors also discuss opportunities and challenges, reflecting on the tradeoffs of an open system in terms of user engagement, creative input, and real-world deployment. This article is part of a special issue on domestic pervasive computing.This research has been partially funded by the 2015 UC3M Post-Doc Mobility Scholarship and by the Academy of Finland (286440, Evidence

Learning with tangible interfaces

Trabalho apresentado no âmbito do Mestrado em Engenharia Informática, como requisito parcial para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia InformáticaTechnology is an active part of our lives and, without even noticing it, part of our daily activities became dependent on it. For that reason, software constructors began to pay special attention on people’s needs and interaction with both hardware and software they must deal with. Children are an emergent users’ group, as they are confronted with technology from an early stage of their development. Knowing that children see the world in a different way adults do and haven’t got yet the necessary dexterity to interact with some physical devices, special concerns arise. This happens especially if the application has an educational purpose, because they are more likely to need an extra motivation to use it than adults. Given that, a new subfield of Human-Computer Interaction appeared with special concerns related to children’s applications and how they interact with them: Child-Computer Interaction. When creating children’s technology the concept of ubiquity seems to rise almost naturally. The idea of children interacting with technology without even noticing it seems perfect. This may be achieved if the interactions are based on everyday objects and actions children are used to. The purpose of this thesis is to create a tool that enables children to build their own educational games, based on physical objects with which they usually interact. This idea follows a Learning-by-Teaching approach in which children are given the instructor’s role. Researchers have found that the best way to create children’s software is to let them take an active part on the construction process. Bearing that in mind three design sessions were conducted with children, based on the Bluebells Method, so they could give us the insight needed to create an intuitive application. Finally, usability tests were made to the created prototype in order not only to study its’ usability but also to understand if children’s motivation to create their own game engages them into learning more about the application’s subject

Interrogating time, space and place within technological approach

Thesis (Master)--Izmir Institute of Technology, City and Regional Planning, Izmir, 2011Includes bibliographical references (leaves: 55-57)Text in English; Abstract: Turkish and Englishvii, 57 leavesTechnology was and is the most powerful tool, humankind used to develop civilizations and improve the quality of their environment and life. Beside this fact, humankind comprehends and creates solutions in their physical surroundings like buildings, vehicles and clothes. This process of creation relies upon certain factors as necessities, search of variation and evolution. As technology evolved when covering necessities and demands, the relationship between physical environment and humankind has changed respectively like bridges or space shuttles. Since information age began with emerging computer technology, this change in relationship has peaked to a different level where physical environment is slightly replaced with virtual interactions through computers and other various devices. Here, in cities where technology has distinctive marks on, this effect can be tracked through citizens " everyday life and from the use of urban spaces. The alternating interaction routine of people from physical environment to space-free virtual space has resulted with lacks in using urban space that are the communication spaces of the city. The aim of this study is to paraphrase the evolution of this transformation from literature and designate potential trails to approach this problem by exploring global practices

Youth, Technology, and DIY: Developing Participatory Competencies in Creative Media Production

Traditionally, educational researchers and practitioners have focused on the development of youths’ critical understanding of media as a key aspect of new media literacies. The 21st Century media landscape suggests an extension of this traditional notion of literacy – an extension that sees creative designs, ethical considerations, and technical skills as part of youth's expressive and intellectual engagement with media as participatory competencies. These engagements with media are also part of a growing Do-It-Yourself, or DIY, movement involving arts, crafts, and new technologies. The purpose of this chapter is to provide a framework and a language for understanding the multiple DIY practices in which youth engage while producing media. In the review, we will first provide a historical overview of the shifting perspectives of two related fields—new media literacies and computer literacy —before outlining the general trends in DIY media cultures that see youth moving towards becoming content creators. We then introduce how a single framework allows us to consider different participatory competencies in DIY under one umbrella. Special attention will be given to the digital practices of remixing, reworking, and repurposing popular media among disadvantaged youth. We will conclude with considerations of equity, access, and participation in after-school settings and possible implications for K-12 education