6,043 research outputs found
Bringing Video Communication to the Community: Opportunities and Challenges
The rise of online social networks, the wide availability of video communication technology and the deployment of high-speed broadband networks together provide the opportunity for video to become a medium for mass social communication among communities. However, current solutions provide poor support for ad hoc social interactions among multiple groups of participants. This position paper summarises the results of more than 5 yearsâ research to make communication and engagement easier between groups of people separated in space. It shows how communication can be effectively combined with different shared activities, and how the technical capabilities of Communication Orchestration and Dynamic Composition work together to improve the quality of human interactions. The paper also describes ongoing work to develop the Service-Aware Network as a means of optimising the quality of a userâs communication experience while making most efficient use of network resources. We believe these developments could enable video-mediated communication to become an effective and accepted enabler for social communication within community groups globall
Toward hyper-realistic and interactive social VR experiences in live TV scenarios
© 2022 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, 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 component of this work in other works.Social Virtual Reality (VR) allows multiple distributed users getting together in shared virtual environments to socially interact and/or collaborate. This article explores the applicability and potential of Social VR in the broadcast sector, focusing on a live TV show use case. For such a purpose, a novel and lightweight Social VR platform is introduced. The platform provides three key outstanding features compared to state-of-the-art solutions. First, it allows a real-time integration of remote users in shared virtual environments, using realistic volumetric representations and affordable capturing systems, thus not relying on the use of synthetic avatars. Second, it supports a seamless and rich integration of heterogeneous media formats, including 3D scenarios, dynamic volumetric representation of users and (live/stored) stereoscopic 2D and 180Âș/360Âș videos. Third, it enables low-latency interaction between the volumetric users and a video-based presenter (Chroma keying), and a dynamic control of the media playout to adapt to the sessionâs evolution. The production process of an immersive TV show to be able to evaluate the experience is also described. On the one hand, the results from objective tests show the satisfactory performance of the platform. On the other hand, the promising results from user tests support the potential impact of the presented platform, opening up new opportunities in the broadcast sector, among others.This work has been partially funded by the European Unionâs Horizon 2020 program, under agreement nÂș 762111 (VRTogether project), and partially by ACCIĂ, under agreement COMRDI18-1-0008 (ViVIM project). Work by Mario Montagud has been additionally funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities with a Juan de la Cierva â IncorporaciĂłn grant (reference IJCI-2017-34611). The authors would also like to thank the EU H2020 VRTogether project consortium for their relevant and valuable contributions.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft
Multi-party holomeetings: toward a new era of low-cost volumetric holographic meetings in virtual reality
© 2022 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, 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 component of this work in other works.Fueled by advances in multi-party communications, increasingly mature immersive technologies being adopted, and the COVID-19 pandemic, a new wave of social virtual reality (VR) platforms have emerged to support socialization, interaction, and collaboration among multiple remote users who are integrated into shared virtual environments. Social VR aims to increase levels of (co-)presence and interaction quality by overcoming the limitations of 2D windowed representations in traditional multi-party video conferencing tools, although most existing solutions rely on 3D avatars to represent users. This article presents a social VR platform that supports real-time volumetric holographic representations of users that are based on point clouds captured by off-the-shelf RGB-D sensors, and it analyzes the platformâs potential for conducting interactive holomeetings (i.e., holoconferencing scenarios). This work evaluates such a platformâs performance and readiness for conducting meetings with up to four users, and it provides insights into aspects of the user experience when using single-camera and low-cost capture systems in scenarios with both frontal and side viewpoints. Overall, the obtained results confirm the platformâs maturity and the potential of holographic communications for conducting interactive multi-party meetings, even when using low-cost systems and single-camera capture systems in scenarios where users are sitting or have a limited translational movement along the X, Y, and Z axes within the 3D virtual environment (commonly known as 3 Degrees of Freedom plus, 3DoF+).The authors would like to thank the members of the EU H2020 VR-Together consortium for their valuable contributions, especially Marc Martos and
Mohamad Hjeij for their support in developing and evaluating tasks. This work has been partially funded by: the EUâs Horizon 2020 program, under
agreement nÂș 762111 (VR-Together project); by ACCIĂ (Generalitat de Catalunya), under agreement COMRDI18-1-0008 (ViVIM project); and by Cisco
Research and the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, under the grant Extended Reality Multipoint Control Unit (ID: 1779376). The work by Mario
Montagud has been additionally funded by Spainâs Agencia Estatal de InvestigaciĂłn under grant RYC2020-030679-I (AEI / 10.13039/501100011033) and
by Fondo Social Europeo. The work of David RincĂłn was supported by Spainâs Agencia Estatal de InvestigaciĂłn within the Ministerio de Ciencia e
InnovaciĂłn under Project PID2019-108713RB-C51 MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version
Exploring art therapy techniques within service design as a means to greater home life happiness
This thesis presents new theories and creative techniques for exploring âdesigning for home
happinessâ. Set in the context of a primarily unsustainable and unhappy world, home is
understood as a facilitator of current lifestyle practices that could also support long-term
happiness activities, shown to promote more sustainable behaviour. It has yet to be examined
extensively from a happiness perspective and many homes lack opportunities for meaningful
endeavours. Service Design, an approach that supports positive interactions, shows potential
in facilitating âdesigning for home happinessâ but its tools are generally employed for
visualising new systems/services or issues within existing ones instead of exploring related
subjectivity. Art therapy techniques, historically used for expressing felt experiences, present
applicable methods for investigating such subjective moments and shaping design
opportunities for home happiness but have yet to be trialled in a design research context.
This thesis therefore explores how Art Therapy and Service Design can be used successfully
for âdesigning for home happinessâ.
A first study proposes photo elicitation as a creative method to explore, with participants
from UK family households, several significant home happiness needs. Subsequently, art
therapy techniques are proposed in Study 2 through two bespoke Happy-Home Workshops.
This gives way to the Home Happiness Theory and Designing for Home Happiness Theory,
which enable designers to design for home happiness. The Designing for Home Happiness
Framework emerges from these studies proposing a new design creative method delivered
through a workshop with specialised design tools and accompanying process for creating
home happiness designs (i.e. services, product-service-systems). Through two Main Studies
the framework is tested and validated with design experts in two different contexts,
Loughborough (UK) and Limerick (Ireland), confirming its suitability and transferability in
âdesigning for home happinessâ. Resulting concepts support collective home happiness and
social innovations by facilitating appropriate social contexts for their development. Overall,
this research is the first to combine art therapy techniques with service design methods,
offering original theories and approaches for âdesigning for home happinessâ within Service
Design and for social innovation. Collectively, this research delivers new creative methods
for service designers, social innovators and designers more generally to investigate and
support happier experiences within and outside the home for a more sustainable future
Art-led communitas for developing improved mental health in higher education in a time of rapid change
Aimed at those who have a responsibility for policy and practice in relation to
education, health improvement and community, this position paper explores how
the corporatization of the modern university has arguably shifted how students see
themselves â and how academics see students and how students see academics.
Increasingly, education is being economized in an age of neo-liberalist ideology.
Universities spend considerable resources on recruiting students, promoting why
students should attend university but arguably spend far less on how they enable
students to be effective learners. The author argues that it is time to pay attention
to two key responsibilities in higher education: well-doing and well-being.
However, it is argued in this paper that universities are far too focused on
behavioural well-doing agendas and not sufficiently focused on experiential wellbeing of staff and students. This paper concludes that there is an urgent case for
realigning higher education through acknowledging the fundamental importance
of communitas â defined as âinspired fellowshipâ to enable human, personal,
spiritual and social well-being. It is argued that universities must take seriously the
mental health of their staff and students, and in so doing, the role of the arts may
provide plausible answers in realigning the culture of higher education
Distant local-guided tour perceptions and experiences of online travellers
This paper investigated travellersâ perceptions and experiences of using distant local guided tours during the COVID-19 pandemic utilising a qualitative methodology. The reviewsâ content of online travellers regarding distant local-guided tours offered by a sharing economy platform â Withlocals â in different destinations was analysed. The results demonstrated that travellersâ distant local-guided tour experiences include celebration, togetherness and socialising, escape and relaxation, memorable, educational, and hedonic components. Additionally, travellers perceived distant local-guided tours as an alternative travel type, preparation for an actual visit, and inspiration for face-to-face experiences. Therefore, distant local-guided tours can be defined as engaging alternative travel types that provide multidimensional experiences and help explore a destination before the in-person visit. Apart from playing a guidance role for scholars and practitioners, this research fills the gap of research on distant local-guided tours in the literature. However, future attempts could shed more light on the subject
Beyond the Centerfold: Masculinity, Technology, and Culture in Playboy's Multimedia Empire, 1953-1972.
This project utilizes Playboy as a case study for understanding changes in the configurations of white, middle class masculinity in the United States after World War II and draws attention to the role of media and entertainment technologies in circulating and defining these masculinities. More than a girlie magazine, Playboy in its most prosperous years, 1953-1972, offers multiple sitesâthe magazine, two television series, and the chain of Playboy Clubsâin which relationships of gender, class, race, and taste are contested. The most significant contribution of this project is its focus on the sonic dimensions of the Playboy lifestyle and its demonstration of the ways in which popular music and sound technologies were utilized to interpellate Playboy men as socially conscious citizens and to circulate gendered discourses concerning taste and mass culture.
This project relies on the analysis of over 228 issues of Playboy plus the analysis of womenâs, home, and other magazines; archival documents; episodes of Playboyâs Penthouse and Playboy After Dark; and other primary and secondary sources. I take a grounded theory approach to my analysis, utilizing the constant comparative method to draw out and make connections between themes as they emerge. This approach enabled me to develop a deep understanding of the image Playboy created for itself and how this image is related to other white middle class masculinities, femininity, heterosexuality, notions of taste, consumer goods, leisure competence, and socioeconomic class.
The chapters are arranged thematically and examine and historically situate Playboy masculinity, the role of architecture and design in the Playboy lifestyle, the gendering of home
entertainment technologies, and the role of popular music in reinforcing Playboy masculinity and establishing the Playboy man as socially conscious. Through this analysis, I reveal Playboyâs interventions into mid-twentieth century debates about mass culture, demonstrating how Playboy distanced itself from the low culture of a girlie magazine by arguing that women and undesirable men had the lowest tastes. I argue against the idea that Playboy merely masculinized consumption and demonstrate Playboyâs advocacy for consumption as a performative act that produces gender and other aspects of oneâs social location.PhDCommunication StudiesUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/120874/1/bmonique_1.pd
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