Technology inspired design for pervasive healthcare

Pervasive healthcare technologies are increasingly using novel sensory devices that are able to measure phenomena that could not be measured before. To develop novel healthcare applications that use these largely untested technologies, it is important to have a design process that allows proper exploration of the capabilities of the novel technologies. We focus on the technology-inspired design process that was used in the development of a system to support posture and provide guidance by nudging people, and how this has lead us to explore pervasive healthcare applications

Towards pedagogies of creative collaboration: guiding secondary school students' music compositions

The pedagogy of creative collaboration in music classrooms is hardly clear from the literature. There are plenty of strategies for setting up composition activities and some useful models for peer and self-assessment. But what about the nature of the interaction between the teacher and the students, and amongst the students themselves, as the composition is unfolding? How can these interactions facilitate the development of the students’ independent thinking? And what is the influence of the teachers’ background on their approach to facilitating creative collaborations? This chapter explores these matters by first reviewing some literature and then profiling a case study of an English secondary class that has composition as part of the music curriculum. Transcripts of student and teacher observations were studied and then summarised for illustration, in the form of vignettes. In the discussion the music teacher background is considered, charting critical incidents in her education and professional path. The chapter closes with suggestions of building blocks for the design of pedagogies of creative collaboration

Plug-in to fear: game biosensors and negative physiological responses to music

The games industry is beginning to embark on an ambitious journey into the world of biometric gaming in search of more exciting and immersive gaming experiences. Whether or not biometric game technologies hold the key to unlock the “ultimate gaming experience” hinges not only on technological advancements alone but also on the game industry’s understanding of physiological responses to stimuli of different kinds, and its ability to interpret physiological data in terms of indicative meaning. With reference to horror genre games and music in particular, this article reviews some of the scientific literature relating to specific physiological responses induced by “fearful” or “unpleasant” musical stimuli, and considers some of the challenges facing the games industry in its quest for the ultimate “plugged-in” experience

Current Challenges and Visions in Music Recommender Systems Research

Music recommender systems (MRS) have experienced a boom in recent years, thanks to the emergence and success of online streaming services, which nowadays make available almost all music in the world at the user's fingertip. While today's MRS considerably help users to find interesting music in these huge catalogs, MRS research is still facing substantial challenges. In particular when it comes to build, incorporate, and evaluate recommendation strategies that integrate information beyond simple user--item interactions or content-based descriptors, but dig deep into the very essence of listener needs, preferences, and intentions, MRS research becomes a big endeavor and related publications quite sparse. The purpose of this trends and survey article is twofold. We first identify and shed light on what we believe are the most pressing challenges MRS research is facing, from both academic and industry perspectives. We review the state of the art towards solving these challenges and discuss its limitations. Second, we detail possible future directions and visions we contemplate for the further evolution of the field. The article should therefore serve two purposes: giving the interested reader an overview of current challenges in MRS research and providing guidance for young researchers by identifying interesting, yet under-researched, directions in the field

Supporting creative composition: the FrameWorks approach

We present a new system for music composition using structured sequences. FrameWorks has been developed on the basis of Task Analysis research studying composition processes and other user-centred design techniques. While the program only uses MIDI information, it can be seen as a ‘proof of concept’ for ideas generally applicable to the specification and manipulation of other music control data, be it raw audio, music notation or synthesis parameters. While this first implementation illustrates the basic premise, it already provides composers with an interesting and simple to use environment for exploring and testing musical ideas. Future research will develop the concept, in particular to enhance the scalability of the system