Embodied Design Ideation Methods: Analysing the Power of Estrangement

Embodied design ideation practices work with relationships between body, material and context to enliven design and research potential. Methods are often idiosyncratic and - due to their physical nature - not easily transferred. This presents challenges for designers wishing to develop and share techniques or contribute to research. We present a framework that enables designers to understand, describe and contextualise their embodied design ideation practices in ways that can be understood by peers, as well as those new to embodied ideation. Our framework - developed over two conference workshops - provides a frame for discussion of embodied design actions that leverage the power of estrangement. We apply our framework to eight embodied design ideation methods. Our contribution is thus twofold: (1) a framework to understand and leverage the power of estrangement in embodied design ideation, and (2) an inspirational catalogue demonstrating the diversity of ideas that embodied design ideation methods can foster. Copyright is held by the owner/author(s). Publication rights licensed to ACM

Designing towards inward-oriented fashion technology: Demo projects

Fashion technology designs typically combine sensing technology and actuators to register and respond to information about the environment and/or the human body. The ways in which designers use and integrate these data into garments, however, varies on a scale from highly theatrical and outward-oriented designs to subtle and inward-oriented applications. This pictorial presents five garment designs created between 2013 and 2020, that occupy the more utilitarian and inward-oriented end of the fashion technology spectrum. We demonstrate five designs that combine sensing and actuation, highlighting the benefits of direct biofeedback and of keeping the personal data within the garment. The selection of projects aims to search the right balance between sensing and actuation

Orochi: Investigating Requirements and Expectations for Multipurpose Daily Used Supernumerary Robotic Limbs

Supernumerary robotic limbs (SRLs) present many opportunities for daily use. However, their obtrusiveness and limitations in interaction genericity hinder their daily use. To address challenges of daily use, we extracted three design considerations from previous literature and embodied them in a wearable we call Orochi. The considerations include the following: 1) multipurpose use, 2) wearability by context, and 3) unobtrusiveness in public. We implemented Orochi as a snake-shaped robot with 25 DoFs and two end effectors, and demonstrated several novel interactions enabled by its limber design. Using Orochi, we conducted hands-on focus groups to explore how multipurpose SRLs are used daily and we conducted a survey to explore how they are perceived when used in public. Participants approved Orochi's design and proposed different use cases and postures in which it could be worn. Orochi's unobtrusive design was generally well received, yet novel interactions raise several challenges for social acceptance. We discuss the significance of our results by highlighting future research opportunities based on the design, implementation, and evaluation of Orochi

Empowerment or Engagement? Digital Health Technologies for Mental Healthcare

We argue that while digital health technologies (e.g. artificial intelligence, smartphones, and virtual reality) present significant opportunities for improving the delivery of healthcare, key concepts that are used to evaluate and understand their impact can obscure significant ethical issues related to patient engagement and experience. Specifically, we focus on the concept of empowerment and ask whether it is adequate for addressing some significant ethical concerns that relate to digital health technologies for mental healthcare. We frame these concerns using five key ethical principles for AI ethics (i.e. autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, justice, and explicability), which have their roots in the bioethical literature, in order to critically evaluate the role that digital health technologies will have in the future of digital healthcare

Cyborgs as Frontline Service Employees: A Research Agenda

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.Purpose This paper identifies and explores potential applications of cyborgian technologies within service contexts and how service providers may leverage the integration of cyborgian service actors into their service proposition. In doing so, the paper proposes a new category of ‘melded’ frontline service employees (FLEs), where advanced technologies become embodied within human actors. The paper presents potential opportunities and challenges that may arise through cyborg technological advancements and proposes a future research agenda related to these. Design/methodology This study draws on literature in the fields of services management, Artificial Intelligence [AI], robotics, Intelligence Augmentation [IA] and Human Intelligence [HIs] to conceptualise potential cyborgian applications. Findings The paper examines how cyborg bio- and psychophysical characteristics may significantly differentiate the nature of service interactions from traditional ‘unenhanced’ service interactions. In doing so, we propose ‘melding’ as a conceptual category of technological impact on FLEs. This category reflects the embodiment of emergent technologies not previously captured within existing literature on cyborgs. We examine how traditional roles of FLEs will be potentially impacted by the integration of emergent cyborg technologies, such as neural interfaces and implants, into service contexts before outlining future research directions related to these, specifically highlighting the range of ethical considerations. Originality/Value Service interactions with cyborg FLEs represent a new context for examining the potential impact of cyborgs. This paper explores how technological advancements will alter the individual capacities of humans to enable such employees to intuitively and empathetically create solutions to complex service challenges. In doing so, we augment the extant literature on cyborgs, such as the body hacking movement. The paper also outlines a research agenda to address the potential consequences of cyborgian integration

Designing experiences with wearables: A case study exploring the blurring boundaries of art, design, technology, culture and distance

This paper details a workshop aimed at exploring opportunities for experience design through wearable art and design concepts. Specifically it explores the structure of the workshop with respect to facilitating learning through technology in the development of experiential wearable art and design. A case study titled Cloud Workshop: Wearables and Wellbeing; Enriching connections between citizens in the Asia-Pacific region was initiated through a cooperative partnership between Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU), Queensland University of Technology (QUT) and Griffith University (GU). Digital technologies facilitated collaboration through an inter-disciplinary, inter-national and inter- cultural approach (Facer & Sandford, 2010) between Australia and Hong Kong. Students cooperated throughout a two-week period to develop innovative wearable concepts blending art, design and technology. An unpacking of the approach, pedagogical underpinning and final outcomes revealed distinct educational benefits as well as certain learning and technological challenges of the program. Qualitative feedback uncovered additional successes with respect to student engagement and enthusiasm, while uncovering shortcomings in the delivery and management of information and difficulties with cultural interactions. Potential future versions of the program aim to take advantage of the positives and overcome the limitations of the current pedagogical approach. It is hoped the case study will become a catalyst for future workshops that blur the boundaries of art, design and technology to uncover further benefits and potentials for new outcomes in experience design

Projecting the Community Pharmacy into Home Health Care: An IS Perspective

Community pharmacies deliver accessible and personalized health care to populations worldwide. Provision of medicine therapy is central to this business but the continuous interactions with clients in their homes is problematic. This paper models an ecosystem of wellness for community pharmacies and presents five generations of smart pharmaceutical care systems (SPCS) for home interventions. Our project follows the design science research paradigm and is supported in an extensive review of 56 recent information systems papers. Two key challenges of Health 5.0 are addressed: digital medication management and sustainable medicine use. SPCS reveal potential to change the business model of community pharmacies. However, spanning the pharmacy boundaries with digital technologies requires (1) socio-technical strategies to differentiate their offer, (2) technologies tailored to the needs of each client, (3) collective intelligence production in medicine supply chains, and (4) humanized telecare

Indefinite origin: decentralizing knowledge

The RISD Digital Commons notes that “graduate education is focused on producing original contributions to a field, based on research and advance practice. What is collaborative thesis, and what value does it bring to the process? Indefinite Origin, is a thesis advocating for knowledge to be decentralized and treated as a shared resource. Deviating from a focus on originality, it engages in the creation of knowledge as a collaborative effort. Design flexibility is practiced through intellectual humility, negotiating methodologies and welcoming chance. This thesis explores ideas from Furtherfield’s Do-It-With-Other (DIWO) or Do-It-Together (DIT)4 philosophies that promote synergy around commons5, cultural and natural resources that are accessible to all members of society

Federated Learning on Edge Sensing Devices: A Review

The ability to monitor ambient characteristics, interact with them, and derive information about the surroundings has been made possible by the rapid proliferation of edge sensing devices like IoT, mobile, and wearable devices and their measuring capabilities with integrated sensors. Even though these devices are small and have less capacity for data storage and processing, they produce vast amounts of data. Some example application areas where sensor data is collected and processed include healthcare, environmental (including air quality and pollution levels), automotive, industrial, aerospace, and agricultural applications. These enormous volumes of sensing data collected from the edge devices are analyzed using a variety of Machine Learning (ML) and Deep Learning (DL) approaches. However, analyzing them on the cloud or a server presents challenges related to privacy, hardware, and connectivity limitations. Federated Learning (FL) is emerging as a solution to these problems while preserving privacy by jointly training a model without sharing raw data. In this paper, we review the FL strategies from the perspective of edge sensing devices to get over the limitations of conventional machine learning techniques. We focus on the key FL principles, software frameworks, and testbeds. We also explore the current sensor technologies, properties of the sensing devices and sensing applications where FL is utilized. We conclude with a discussion on open issues and future research directions on FL for further studie