Tokyo behind Screens: Participant Observation in a City of Mobile Digital Communication

This paper critically discusses the method of participant observation (as ethnographic method and everyday practice), which consists of participation, observation and mediation, and suggests adjustments, through the lens of perception, which seem necessary in smartphone-saturated cities. The author argues that digital and material forms of mediation lead to different possibilities and limitations of sensory perception. These therefore need to be consciously acknowledged in the social production and construction of space and place. Through a focus on human perception, the challenges that individualised on-site media consumption provides to the concepts of participation, perception and mediation are discussed. In this regard, the interface, most prominently the screen, functions as a nexus that retranslates information through mediation back into the field of human perception. Mobile digital communication can therefore enrich the sphere of perception (at site), but what is digitally mediated is at the same time constrained by the technical and translational possibilities of the medium and the interface. The case study of the Shimokitazawa Curry Festival in Tokyo is used to show how participation, multisensory perception and mediation are practiced in an urban setting. The same case also provides empirical data concerning multisensory participation as a method that is facing new challenges through increasing mobile digital communication

Computational Intelligence and Human- Computer Interaction: Modern Methods and Applications

The present book contains all of the articles that were accepted and published in the Special Issue of MDPI’s journal Mathematics titled "Computational Intelligence and Human–Computer Interaction: Modern Methods and Applications". This Special Issue covered a wide range of topics connected to the theory and application of different computational intelligence techniques to the domain of human–computer interaction, such as automatic speech recognition, speech processing and analysis, virtual reality, emotion-aware applications, digital storytelling, natural language processing, smart cars and devices, and online learning. We hope that this book will be interesting and useful for those working in various areas of artificial intelligence, human–computer interaction, and software engineering as well as for those who are interested in how these domains are connected in real-life situations

Accessibility of Health Data Representations for Older Adults: Challenges and Opportunities for Design

Health data of consumer off-the-shelf wearable devices is often conveyed to users through visual data representations and analyses. However, this is not always accessible to people with disabilities or older people due to low vision, cognitive impairments or literacy issues. Due to trade-offs between aesthetics predominance or information overload, real-time user feedback may not be conveyed easily from sensor devices through visual cues like graphs and texts. These difficulties may hinder critical data understanding. Additional auditory and tactile feedback can also provide immediate and accessible cues from these wearable devices, but it is necessary to understand existing data representation limitations initially. To avoid higher cognitive and visual overload, auditory and haptic cues can be designed to complement, replace or reinforce visual cues. In this paper, we outline the challenges in existing data representation and the necessary evidence to enhance the accessibility of health information from personal sensing devices used to monitor health parameters such as blood pressure, sleep, activity, heart rate and more. By creating innovative and inclusive user feedback, users will likely want to engage and interact with new devices and their own data

« O.K. Google, assiste-moi » : les parcours des utilisateurs et des familles qui domestiquent le Google Home

Les cinq dernières années ont été marquées par la multiplication d’applications de l’intelligence artificielle. Les assistants personnels intelligents, tels que les Google Home, sont parmi ces applications populaires qui intègrent les domiciles des consommateurs et ils visent plus particulièrement les familles. À la base, ce sont des haut-parleurs, mais ils peuvent faire bien plus que jouer de la musique (ex. : répondre aux questions, faire fonctionner les objets connectés, raconter des histoires, etc.). Leur nouveauté et leurs nombreuses fonctionnalités qui sont d’ailleurs personnalisables rendent alors ces appareils intéressants pour étudier la malléabilité et l’intégration des technologies dans le quotidien. Ainsi, cette recherche explorera comment 26 utilisateurs du Google Home, dont six familles, ont intégré (ou pas) cet appareil dans leurs routines quotidiennes. On s’intéressa à leurs problèmes avec cette technologie, à leurs stratégies pour les surmonter et aux significations qu’ils attribuent au Google Home au fil de leurs parcours avec cet objet. Dans les entrevues, les témoignages des participants nous font comprendre que le Google Home ne devient pas un « assistant » du jour au lendemain. Nous verrons alors les parcours des utilisateurs et des familles qui doivent l’ « apprivoiser » pour en arriver à cette symbolique. Enfin, nous montrons qu’au-delà de l’assistance individuelle, le Google Home a le potentiel de reconfigurer la dynamique familiale quand il devient un assistant familial.The last five years have been marked by the proliferation of applications that are based on artificial intelligence. Intelligent personal assistants, such as the Google Home, are among these popular apps that integrate consumer’s homes and they specifically target families. Basically, these devices are speakers, but they can do much more than just play music (eg, answering questions, voice control your home, telling stories, etc.). Their novelty and the many ways they can be customized make them interesting to study the malleability and integration of technologies in everyday life. This research explores how 26 Google Home users, including six families, have integrated (or not) this device into their daily routines. We looked at the problems they encounter with this technology, their strategies for overcoming them, and the meanings they ascribe to their Google Home over their journey with this object. In interviews, participants demonstrated how a Google Home does not become an "assistant" overnight. Using domestication theory, we retrace the paths of the users and families who have to “tame” it before it takes on this meaning for them. Finally, we show how, beyond individual assistance, the Google home has the potential to reconfigure family dynamics as it becomes a family assistant

Connecting the Echo Dots: An Exploratory Ethnographic Study of ‘Alexa’ in the Classroom

Educational research literature regarding epistemic curiosity and voice technology could not be found to answer a burning question of, ‘Why aren’t my students curious?’. The aim of the study was therefore to critically analyse teachers pedagogical approaches and how voice technology was used by students as a more knowledgeable other and the extent to which it affected students’ epistemic curiosity. Using an exploratory ethnographic approach, Amazon’s Echo Dot voice technology was studied in lessons at Hillview School. Data was collected through participant observation, informal interviews and recordings of students’ interactions with ‘Alexa’. Students asked questions to Alexa in large numbers. Alexa was asked 87 questions during two lessons suggesting that Alexa was a digital more knowledgeable other. Types of questions asked to Alexa, such as ‘Can fish see water?’, were epistemic questions and suggestive of epistemic curiosity. Teachers used the Echo Dots infrequently and in a limited number of ways. Teachers relied upon a pedagogical approach and talk oriented around performance which overlooked students’ learning talk. The answer to why students might not be curious was not found. However, evidence to understand how and why they might appear not curious was revealed. The study makes contributions to knowledge through the novel use of the Echo Dots to collect data and through a new data visualisation technique called ‘heatmaps’. The study contributes to knowledge by proposing three tentative notions that emerged inductively from the research: ‘performance-oriented talk’, ‘metricalisation’ and ‘regulativity’. The study aims to make a further contribution to knowledge by suggesting evidence of a ‘pedagogy of performance’. The study recommends ‘learning-oriented talk’ and development of Alexa ‘Skills’ as a way to disrupt the pedagogy of performance and as an area for further research

ICS Materials. Towards a re-Interpretation of material qualities through interactive, connected, and smart materials.

The domain of materials for design is changing under the influence of an increased technological advancement, miniaturization and democratization. Materials are becoming connected, augmented, computational, interactive, active, responsive, and dynamic. These are ICS Materials, an acronym that stands for Interactive, Connected and Smart. While labs around the world are experimenting with these new materials, there is the need to reflect on their potentials and impact on design. This paper is a first step in this direction: to interpret and describe the qualities of ICS materials, considering their experiential pattern, their expressive sensorial dimension, and their aesthetic of interaction. Through case studies, we analyse and classify these emerging ICS Materials and identified common characteristics, and challenges, e.g. the ability to change over time or their programmability by the designers and users. On that basis, we argue there is the need to reframe and redesign existing models to describe ICS materials, making their qualities emerge

Multidisciplinary Aspects of Design. Objects, Processes, Experiences and Narratives

The book addresses the contemporary perspectives of design on a multidisciplinary through 4 key words: objects, processes, experiences, narratives. It aims at further investigating the role of the archive for the design culture reflecting on “Memory and Future” and “The Tools of Design and the Language of Representation”, and also themes that are yet at the center of the multidisciplinary debate on design. The tenets of the conference (OPEN: objects, processes, experiences and narratives) will hence also correspond to the book sections: -Objects. Design as focused on the object, on its functional and symbolic dimension, and at the same time on the object as a tool for representing cultures; -Processes. The designer’s self-reflective moment which is focused on the analysis and on the definition of processes in various contexts, spanning innovation, social engagement, reflection on emergencies or forecasting. -Experiences. Design as a theoretical and practical strategy aimed at facilitating experiential interactions among people, people and objects or environments. -Narratives. Making history, representing through different media, archiving, narrating, and exhibiting design