Designing for Embodied and Rich Interaction in Home IoT

Internet of things (IoT) artifacts form systems where touchscreen and speech interaction is the norm. As IoT systems are inherently open (artifacts can be added or removed, software can be updated), we observe that the natural state of an IoT system is changed, “growth.” This chapter describes a designerly experiment exploring how to design for embodied and rich interaction in these “growing” IoT systems. We present four design cases showcasing four approaches to the design challenge: a hybrid, a modular, a shape changing, and a service approach. We describe and appraise the four approaches and discuss insights from the designerly experiment. We conclude that it is indeed possible to design for embodied and rich interaction in “growing” IoT systems and see our work as a first step toward diversifying IoT interaction styles

Music Worlding in Palau

Music Worlding in Palau: Chanting, Atmospheres, and Meaningfulness is a detailed study of the performing arts in Palau, Micronesia as holistic techniques enabling the experiential corporeality of music’s meaningfulness—that distinctly musical way of making sense of the world with which the felt body immediately resonates but which, to a significant extent, escapes interpretive techniques. Drawing on long-term ethnographic research alongside Pacific Islander and neo-phenomenological conceptual frameworks, Music Worlding distinguishes between meaning(s) and meaningfulness in Palauan music-making. These are not binary phenomena, but deeply intertwined. However, unlike meaning, meaningfulness to a significant extent suspends language and is thus often prematurely considered ineffable. The book proposes a broader understanding of how the performing arts give rise to a sense of meaningfulness whose felt-bodily affectivity is pivotal to music-making and lived realities. Music Worlding thus seeks to draw the reader closer to the holistic complexity of music-making both in Palau and more generally

Ontology-based user modeling in an augmented audio reality system for museums

Ubiquitous computing is a challenging area that allows us to further our understanding and techniques of context-aware and adaptive systems. Among the challenges is the general problem of capturing the larger context in interaction from the perspective of user modeling and human–computer interaction (HCI). The imperative to address this issue is great considering the emergence of ubiquitous and mobile computing environments. This paper provides an account of our addressing the specific problem of supporting functionality as well as the experience design issues related to museum visits through user modeling in combination with an audio augmented reality and tangible user interface system. This paper details our deployment and evaluation of ec(h)o – an augmented audio reality system for museums. We explore the possibility of supporting a context-aware adaptive system by linking environment, interaction object and users at an abstract semantic level instead of at the content level. From the user modeling perspective ec(h)o is a knowledge based recommender system. In this paper we present our findings from user testing and how our approach works well with an audio and tangible user interface within a ubiquitous computing system. We conclude by showing where further research is needed

Situated play in a tangible interface and adaptive audio museum guide

This paper explores the design issues of 9 situated play within a museum through the study of a 10 museum guide prototype that integrates a tangible interface, audio display, and adaptive modeling. We discuss our use of design ethnography in order to situate our interaction and to investigate the liminal and engagement qualities of a museum visit. The paper provides an overview of our case study and analysis of our user evaluation. We discuss the implications including degrees of balance in the experience design of play in interaction; the challenge in developing a discovery-based information model, and the need for a better understanding of the contextual aspects of tangible user interfaces (TUIs). We conclude that learning effectiveness and functionality can be balanced productively with playful interaction through an adaptive audio and TUI if designers balance the engagement between play and the environment, and the space between imagination and interpretation that links the audio content to the artifacts

Music Worlding in Palau

Music Worlding in Palau: Chanting, Atmospheres, and Meaningfulness is a detailed study of the performing arts in Palau, Micronesia as holistic techniques enabling the experiential corporeality of music’s meaningfulness—that distinctly musical way of making sense of the world with which the felt body immediately resonates but which, to a significant extent, escapes interpretive techniques. Drawing on long-term ethnographic research alongside Pacific Islander and neo-phenomenological conceptual frameworks, Music Worlding distinguishes between meaning(s) and meaningfulness in Palauan music-making. These are not binary phenomena, but deeply intertwined. However, unlike meaning, meaningfulness to a significant extent suspends language and is thus often prematurely considered ineffable. The book proposes a broader understanding of how the performing arts give rise to a sense of meaningfulness whose felt-bodily affectivity is pivotal to music-making and lived realities. Music Worlding thus seeks to draw the reader closer to the holistic complexity of music-making both in Palau and more generally

Line tracking applications for Gravitational Wave data and searching for long-duration burst signals

The line-tracking filter iWave can be applied in several different contexts with gravitational wave data from the LIGO interferometers. In this thesis we explore several of these applications with regards to signal processing and hardware. The filter can be used to remove lines which pollute data from the detectors in a less aggressive method than the currently adopted LPEF filter. A technique for recursively removing these lines using iWave is described in this work. We also discuss the topic of parametric instabilities which pose a limiting factor to the sensitivity of the LIGO detectors. Parametric instabilities are formed from an opto-mechanical feedback loop between the TEM modes of the laser in the 4km arm cavity and the cavity mirrors. A damping scheme to control these instabilities was developed at the LIGO Hanford detector. The results from implementing this scheme are presented in this thesis. The analysis pipeline X-SphRad is discussed as a method for detecting long duration burst signals in the all-sky regime. This pipeline uses spherical harmonics as an efficient method for measuring correlation between detectors as well as providing statistics for rejecting detector glitches. The results from running separate analyses for 2-detector and 3-detector networks over the O2 observation run are presented

Situated play in a tangible interface and adaptive audio museum guide

Abstract This paper explores the design issues of situated play within a museum through the study of a museum guide prototype that integrates a tangible interface, audio display, and adaptive modeling. We discuss our use of design ethnography in order to situate our interaction and to investigate the liminal and engagement qualities of a museum visit. The paper provides an overview of our case study and analysis of our user evaluation. We discuss the implications including degrees of balance in the experience design of play in interaction; the challenge in developing a discovery-based information model, and the need for a better understanding of the contextual aspects of tangible user interfaces (TUIs). We conclude that learning effectiveness and functionality can be balanced productively with playful interaction through an adaptive audio and TUI if designers balance the engagement between play and the environment, and the space between imagination and interpretation that links the audio content to the artifacts