The nature and evaluation of commercial expert system building tools, revision 1

This memorandum reviews the factors that constitute an Expert System Building Tool (ESBT) and evaluates current tools in terms of these factors. Evaluation of these tools is based on their structure and their alternative forms of knowledge representation, inference mechanisms and developer end-user interfaces. Next, functional capabilities, such as diagnosis and design, are related to alternative forms of mechanization. The characteristics and capabilities of existing commercial tools are then reviewed in terms of these criteria

Underdogs and superheroes: Designing for new players in public space

We are exploring methods for participatory and public involvement of new 'players' in the design space. Underdogs & Superheroes involves a game-based methodology – a series of creative activities or games – in order to engage people experientially, creatively, and personally throughout the design process. We have found that games help engage users’ imaginations by representing reality without limiting expectations to what's possible here and now; engaging experiential and personal perspectives (the 'whole' person); and opening the creative process to hands-on user participation through low/no-tech materials and a widely-understood approach. The methods are currently being applied in the project Underdogs & Superheroes, which aims to evolve technological interventions for personal and community presence in local public spaces

In design we trust: dealing with the innovation imperative

This research was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (Grant number: AH/J005126/1).Preprin

The creative process in graphic design: breaking out of established work modes through modularity

The field of graphic design is influenced by rapid technological and social changes, challenging us to redefine how we think about the creative design process. In this thesis, the well-known concept of modularity will be investigated from a contemporary perspective as a way to break out of established work modes which rely on a linear design process. Six types of modularity, as defined for use in product design, create the framework for a series of visual explorations. The underlying method is an iterative design process of graphic prototyping and modeling, followed by a critical review of the visual outcome. These explorations demonstrate how modularity can encourage creativity in the graphic design process. The benefit of a modular approach to the creative process is supported by research from the fields of psychology and design

Mage - Reactive articulatory feature control of HMM-based parametric speech synthesis

In this paper, we present the integration of articulatory control into MAGE, a framework for realtime and interactive (reactive) parametric speech synthesis using hidden Markov models (HMMs). MAGE is based on the speech synthesis engine from HTS and uses acoustic features (spectrum and f0) to model and synthesize speech. In this work, we replace the standard acoustic models with models combining acoustic and articulatory features, such as tongue, lips and jaw positions. We then use feature-space-switched articulatory-to-acoustic regression matrices to enable us to control the spectral acoustic features by manipulating the articulatory features. Combining this synthesis model with MAGE allows us to interactively and intuitively modify phones synthesized in real time, for example transforming one phone into another, by controlling the configuration of the articulators in a visual display. Index Terms: speech synthesis, reactive, articulators 1

Co-Producing Social Futures Through Design Research

A report resulting from the research project 'Developing Participation in Social Design: Prototyping Projects, Programmes and Policies' (ProtoPublics) commissioned by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. A key aim of this report is to clarify how a design-oriented approach complements and is distinct from other kinds of cross-disciplinary, co-produced research in relation to social issues. The report is accompanied by an animation published online which summarises the argument

Co-Producing Social Futures Through Design Research

This report summarises findings and outcomes from a 9-month, AHRC-funded research programme called Developing Participation in Social Design: Prototyping Projects, Programmes and Policies (henceforward ProtoPublics) that took place during 2015. A key aim of this report is to clarify how a design-oriented approach complements and is distinct from other kinds of cross-disciplinary, co-produced research in relation to social issues

Innovation as a community-spanning process: strategies to handle path dependency.

In this paper, we further develop and apply the notions of path creation and path dependency during technological innovation processes. The process of technological innovation is portrayed as an activity of spanning boundaries between and across communities of practitioners. Communities of practice are characterised by shared beliefs, evaluation routines and artefacts. These beliefs, routines and artefacts create powerful path-dependencies that inhibit path-breaking innovations. Based on exploratory empirical research, a model on handling path-dependency during the creation of technological innovations is proposed.Processes; Strategy; Evaluation; Innovations; Model;

An analysis of the application of AI to the development of intelligent aids for flight crew tasks

This report presents the results of a study aimed at developing a basis for applying artificial intelligence to the flight deck environment of commercial transport aircraft. In particular, the study was comprised of four tasks: (1) analysis of flight crew tasks, (2) survey of the state-of-the-art of relevant artificial intelligence areas, (3) identification of human factors issues relevant to intelligent cockpit aids, and (4) identification of artificial intelligence areas requiring further research

The Scan. Prototyping a post-human scenography

In our digital age, the human eye has lost its privileged positon as the sole and central audience of an unfolding perspectval world as it fnds itself challenged by a plethora of post-human eyes. Emerging technologies of vision such as 3D laser scanning—regarded as less faulty, faster and more accurate than the human eye— fnd an ever more central role in producton, analytcs, control and decision making. Architecture and scenography, practces that are both frmly shaped around the centrality of vision of the human subject, are challenged to fnd novel ways to address a hybrid audience of human and non-human modes of vision. How do we perform and build facing this new audience? How do we deceive or delight these new eyes? How do we infltrate and inhabit the parallel digital data space they create? How can we uncover their shadows, their glitches and fallacies and subvert the realism of their representaton? How can we design an architecture or scenography for the post-human eye