Conversational natural language interaction for place-related knowledge acquisition

We focus on the problems of using Natural Language inter- action to support pedestrians in their place-related knowledge acquisi- tion. Our case study for this discussion is a smartphone-based Natu- ral Language interface that allows users to acquire spatial and cultural knowledge of a city. The framework consists of a spoken dialogue-based information system and a smartphone client. The system is novel in com- bining geographic information system (GIS) modules such as a visibility engine with a question-answering (QA) system. Users can use the smart- phone client to engage in a variety of interleaved conversations such as navigating from A to B, using the QA functionality to learn more about points of interest (PoI) nearby, and searching for amenities and tourist attractions. This system explores a variety of research questions involving Natural Language interaction for acquisition of knowledge about space and place

A dialogue based mobile virtual assistant for tourists: The SpaceBook Project

Ubiquitous mobile computing offers innovative approaches in the delivery of information that can facilitate free roaming of the city, informing and guiding the tourist as the city unfolds before them. However making frequent visual reference to mobile devices can be distracting, the user having to interact via a small screen thus disrupting the explorative experience. This research reports on an EU funded project, SpaceBook, that explored the utility of a hands-free, eyes-free virtual tour guide, that could answer questions through a spoken dialogue user interface and notify the user of interesting features in view while guiding the tourist to various destinations. Visibility modelling was carried out in real-time based on a LiDAR sourced digital surface model, fused with a variety of map and crowd sourced datasets (e.g. Ordnance Survey, OpenStreetMap, Flickr, Foursquare) to establish the most interesting landmarks visible from the user's location at any given moment. A number of variations of the SpaceBook system were trialled in Edinburgh (Scotland). The research highlighted the pleasure derived from this novel form of interaction and revealed the complexity of prioritising route guidance instruction alongside identification, description and embellishment of landmark information – there being a delicate balance between the level of information ‘pushed’ to the user, and the user's requests for further information. Among a number of challenges, were issues regarding the fidelity of spatial data and positioning information required for pedestrian based systems – the pedestrian having much greater freedom of movement than vehicles

Methodological triangulation in movement pattern research

The application of GIS and GPS methods together with qualitative sociological methods is one of the current fields of discussion in studies of human behaviour in space. The authors ask about the justification, manner and value of using the ‘triad’: quantitative GIS measurement methods – qualitative sociological methods – quasi-experiment. A mixed-method approach in an analysis of human movement patterns is introduced. Also, the role of the investigator in such projects is discussed

Nonstrict hierarchical reinforcement learning for interactive systems and robots

Conversational systems and robots that use reinforcement learning for policy optimization in large domains often face the problem of limited scalability. This problem has been addressed either by using function approximation techniques that estimate the approximate true value function of a policy or by using a hierarchical decomposition of a learning task into subtasks. We present a novel approach for dialogue policy optimization that combines the benefits of both hierarchical control and function approximation and that allows flexible transitions between dialogue subtasks to give human users more control over the dialogue. To this end, each reinforcement learning agent in the hierarchy is extended with a subtask transition function and a dynamic state space to allow flexible switching between subdialogues. In addition, the subtask policies are represented with linear function approximation in order to generalize the decision making to situations unseen in training. Our proposed approach is evaluated in an interactive conversational robot that learns to play quiz games. Experimental results, using simulation and real users, provide evidence that our proposed approach can lead to more flexible (natural) interactions than strict hierarchical control and that it is preferred by human users

Sensory Urbanism Proceedings 2008

This book contains papers from the January 2008 conference, Sensory Urbanism, held by the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK. Papers deal with issues surrounding the sensory perception of urban design and how to design better for all the senses. The book is illustrated throughout, and contains 26 papers from fields including architecture, urban design, environmental psychology, urban design, planning, sound design and more

Graphic design as urban design: towards a theory for analysing graphic objects in urban environments

This thesis presents a model for analysing the graphic object as urban object, by considering atypical fields of discourse that contribute to the formation of the object domain. The question: what is graphic design as urban design? directs the research through an epistemological design study comprising: an interrogation of graphic design studio practice and the articulation of graphic design research questions; a review and subsequent development of research strategy, design and method towards the articulation of methodology that reflects the nature of the inquiry; a detailed analysis of five different ways to study and research graphic design as urban design, in geography, language, visual communication, art and design, and urban design. The outcome of the investigation is a model that enables future research in the urban environment to benefit from micro-meso-macrographic analysis. The model endeavours to provide a way to evaluate, design and enhance ‘public places and urban spaces’ (Carmona et al., 2010) by considering different scales of symbolic thought and deed. This has been achieved by acknowledging the relationship between the relatively miniscule detail of graphic symbolism, the point at which this becomes visible through increased scale, and the instances when it dominates the urban realm. Examples are considered that show differences between, for example, the size and spacing of letter shapes on a pedestrian sign, compared to the ‘visual’ impact of an iconic building in the cityscape. In between is a myriad of graphic elements that are experienced and designed by many different professional disciplines and occupations. These are evidenced and explained. Throughout the study an indiscriminating literature review is interwoven with the text, accompanied by tabular information, and visual data in the form of photographs and diagrams. This is mainly research-driven data utilising photographs from fieldwork in Brazil, Canada, Hong Kong, Italy, Portugal, South Korea, United Kingdom, and United States of America. The methodology integrates a transdisciplinary adaptive theory approach derived from sociological research, with graphic method (utilising a wider scope of visual data usually associated with graph theory). The following images provide sixteen examples of artefacts representing the graphic object as urban object phenomenon

Multimodal Content Delivery for Geo-services

This thesis describes a body of work carried out over several research projects in the area of multimodal interaction for location-based services. Research in this area has progressed from using simulated mobile environments to demonstrate the visual modality, to the ubiquitous delivery of rich media using multimodal interfaces (geo- services). To effectively deliver these services, research focused on innovative solutions to real-world problems in a number of disciplines including geo-location, mobile spatial interaction, location-based services, rich media interfaces and auditory user interfaces. My original contributions to knowledge are made in the areas of multimodal interaction underpinned by advances in geo-location technology and supported by the proliferation of mobile device technology into modern life. Accurate positioning is a known problem for location-based services, contributions in the area of mobile positioning demonstrate a hybrid positioning technology for mobile devices that uses terrestrial beacons to trilaterate position. Information overload is an active concern for location-based applications that struggle to manage large amounts of data, contributions in the area of egocentric visibility that filter data based on field-of-view demonstrate novel forms of multimodal input. One of the more pertinent characteristics of these applications is the delivery or output modality employed (auditory, visual or tactile). Further contributions in the area of multimodal content delivery are made, where multiple modalities are used to deliver information using graphical user interfaces, tactile interfaces and more notably auditory user interfaces. It is demonstrated how a combination of these interfaces can be used to synergistically deliver context sensitive rich media to users - in a responsive way - based on usage scenarios that consider the affordance of the device, the geographical position and bearing of the device and also the location of the device

Enhancing Virtual City with Collective Memory to Support Urban Design Learning

This research investigates the pedagogical effects of collective memory enhanced virtual city models as an e-learning environment for urban design in an Indonesian university context. In this study, collective memory refers to expressions people made when remembering buildings, spaces and places of the past and present city living. A city's collective memory is either elicited from or produced directly by the city's residents or visitors. The thesis presents the outcomes of designing an experimental collective memory enhanced virtual city (CREATI) platform and applying it to the urban design course at the Department of Architecture, Atma Jaya Yogyakarta University, Indonesia. The Jalan Malioboro area in Yogyakarta was chosen as the case study site for constructing 30 virtual city models and gathering records of collective memory associated with the street and city. Student participants were invited to use CREATI while undertaking the urban design course. The usability and effects of CREATI on the students' learning outcomes are analysed according to the learning experiences reported by the students as well as the urban design proposals they produced for the course. The study finds that students appear more knowledgeable about the urban contextual issues because of accessing and sharing the resources hosted on CREATI. Students also reported that they felt better supported in developing more context­ sensitive design proposals by working with the collective memory enhanced virtual city models

GAYME: The development, design and testing of an auto-ethnographic, documentary game about quarely wandering urban/suburban spaces in Central Florida.

GAYME is a transmedia story-telling world that I have created to conceptually explore the dynamics of queering game design through the development of varying game prototypes. The final iteration of GAYME is @deadquarewalking\u27. It is a documentary game and a performance art installation that documents a carless, gay/queer/quare man\u27s journey on Halloween to get to and from one of Orlando\u27s most well-known gay clubs - the Parliament House Resort. The art of cruising city streets to seek out queer/quare companionship particularly amongst gay, male culture(s) is well-documented in densely, populated cities like New York, San Francisco and London, but not so much in car-centric, urban environments like Orlando that are less oriented towards pedestrians. Cruising has been and continues to be risky even in pedestrian-friendly cities but in Orlando cruising takes on a whole other dimension of danger. In 2011-2012, The Advocate magazine named Orlando one of the gayest cities in America (Breen, 2012). Transportation for America (2011) also named the Orlando metropolitan region the most dangerous city in the country for pedestrians. Living in Orlando without a car can be deadly as well as a significant barrier to connecting with other people, especially queer/quare people, because of Orlando\u27s car-centric design. In Orlando, cars are sexy. At the same time, the increasing prevalence in gay, male culture(s) of geo-social, mobile phone applications using Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and location aware services, such as Grindr (Grindr, LLC., 2009) and even FourSquare (Crowley and Selvadurai, 2009) and Instagram (Systrom and Krieger, 2010), is shifting the way gay/queer/quare Orlandoans co-create social and sexual networks both online and offline. Urban and sub-urban landscapes have transformed into hybrid techno-scapes overlaying the electronic, the emotional and the social with the geographic and the physical (Hjorth, 2011). With or without a car, gay men can still geo-socially cruise Orlando\u27s car-centric, street life with mobile devices. As such emerging media has become more pervasive, it has created new opportunities to quarely visualize Orlando\u27s technoscape through phone photography and hashtag metadata while also blurring lines between the artist and the curator, the player and the game designer. This project particularly has evolved to employ game design as an exhibition tool for the visualization of geo-social photography through hashtag play. Using hashtags as a game mechanic generates metadata that potentially identifies patterns of play and ways of seeing across player experiences as they attempt to make meaning of the images they encounter in the game. @deadquarewalking also demonstrates the potential of game design and geo-social, photo-sharing applications to illuminate new ways of documenting and witnessing the urban landscapes that we both collectively and uniquely inhabit. \u27In Irish culture, quare can mean very or extremely or it can be a spelling of the rural or Southern pronunciation of the word queer. Living in the American Southeast, I personally relate more to the term quare versus queer. Cultural theorist E. Patrick Johnson (2001) also argues for quareness as a way to question the subjective bias of whiteness in queer studies that risks discounting the lived experiences and material realities of people of color. Though I do not identify as a person of color and would be categorized as white or European American, quareness has an important critical application for considering how Orlando\u27s urban design is intersectionally racialized, gendered and classed