Olfoto: designing a smell-based interaction

We present a study into the use of smell for searching digi-tal photo collections. Many people now have large photo libraries on their computers and effective search tools are needed. Smell has a strong link to memory and emotion so may be a good way to cue recall when searching. Our study compared text and smell based tagging. For the first stage we generated a set of smell and tag names from user de-scriptions of photos, participants then used these to tag pho-tos, returning two weeks later to answer questions on their photos. Results showed that participants could tag effec-tively with text labels, as this is a common and familiar task. Performance with smells was lower but participants performed significantly above chance, with some partici-pants using smells well. This suggests that smell has poten-tial. Results also showed that some smells were consistently identified and useful, but some were not and highlighted issues with smell delivery devices. We also discuss some practical issues of using smell for interaction

Which senses dominate at different stages of product experience?

In the area of product design, sensory dominance can be defined as the relative importance of different sensory modalities for product experience. Since product experience is multisensory, it is interesting to know which sensory modality plays a leading role in a particular experience, so that designers could concentrate on the creation of the most relevant product properties. It is often assumed that vision dominates other senses. In the present study, we investigated the importance of different sensory modalities during various episodes of product usage. We asked 120 respondents to describe their experiences with consumer products in the following situations: while buying a product, after the first week, the first month, and the first year of usage. The data suggest that the dominant modality depends on the period of product usage. At the moment of buying, vision is the most important modality, but at later stages other modalities become more important. The dominance of a particular modality may depend on its appropriateness for the particular task. During long-term usage, modality importance depends on product functions and the characteristics of the user-product interaction. We conclude that to create a long-lasting positive product experience, designers need to consider the user-product interaction at different stages of product usage and to determine which sensory modality dominates product experience at each stage. Keywords: Sensory Dominance; User-Product Interaction; Product Design</p

Memories for Life: A Review of the Science and Technology

This paper discusses scientific, social and technological aspects of memory. Recent developments in our understanding of memory processes and mechanisms, and their digital implementation, have placed the encoding, storage, management and retrieval of information at the forefront of several fields of research. At the same time, the divisions between the biological, physical and the digital worlds seem to be dissolving. Hence opportunities for interdisciplinary research into memory are being created, between the life sciences, social sciences and physical sciences. Such research may benefit from immediate application into information management technology as a testbed. The paper describes one initiative, Memories for Life, as a potential common problem space for the various interested disciplines

Vision systems with the human in the loop

The emerging cognitive vision paradigm deals with vision systems that apply machine learning and automatic reasoning in order to learn from what they perceive. Cognitive vision systems can rate the relevance and consistency of newly acquired knowledge, they can adapt to their environment and thus will exhibit high robustness. This contribution presents vision systems that aim at flexibility and robustness. One is tailored for content-based image retrieval, the others are cognitive vision systems that constitute prototypes of visual active memories which evaluate, gather, and integrate contextual knowledge for visual analysis. All three systems are designed to interact with human users. After we will have discussed adaptive content-based image retrieval and object and action recognition in an office environment, the issue of assessing cognitive systems will be raised. Experiences from psychologically evaluated human-machine interactions will be reported and the promising potential of psychologically-based usability experiments will be stressed

Sound for Fantasy and Freedom

Sound is an integral part of our everyday lives. Sound tells us about physical events in the environ- ment, and we use our voices to share ideas and emotions through sound. When navigating the world on a day-to-day basis, most of us use a balanced mix of stimuli from our eyes, ears and other senses to get along. We do this totally naturally and without effort. In the design of computer game experiences, traditionally, most attention has been given to vision rather than the balanced mix of stimuli from our eyes, ears and other senses most of us use to navigate the world on a day to day basis. The risk is that this emphasis neglects types of interaction with the game needed to create an immersive experience. This chapter summarizes the relationship between sound properties, GameFlow and immersive experience and discusses two projects in which Interactive Institute, Sonic Studio has balanced perceptual stimuli and game mechanics to inspire and create new game concepts that liberate users and their imagination

The art of digital scent - people, space and time

The sense of smell is closely related with people across time and space. The aesthetic, affective and evocative aspects of smell are widely portrayed in art practices. Olfactory art has its unique expression that other modalities hardly have. Yet this aesthetic medium seems to be underestimated when it comes to the digital age. Current digital olfaction researches mainly focus on meeting tasks and solving problems. The aesthetic experience and the meaning behind are seldom discussed. This paper proposes a potential area where the people from digital art and digital olfaction can contribute together. This paper firstly gives an overview about the affective and evocative impacts of scent on people across time and space, reviewing how scent is treated as the aesthetic medium in the art form, then examining current usages of olfactory display, and lastly discussing the opportunities lying ahead. It provides the way to appreciate the world aesthetically through this affective and evocative medium. &nbsp

"This brings back a lot of memories": a case study in the analysis of digital video production by young learners

This paper discusses a three and a half minute video written, shot and edited by two eleven year old children in London in the summer of 2003. Key questions which were used to structure the discussion included the following: When the children work in a school setting in a medium which is culturally closer to their experiences of life outside than is usual within the curriculum, how do they choose to represent themselves? Which aspects of their lives and/or media experiences do they employ and in which modes? How are these choices related to the meanings they wish to convey? Which aspects of the form and function of digital video authoring allow the children to move the locus of control of activities closer to themselves? What does a discussion of these issues tell us about possible future directions in researching young learners’ digital video production? Frameworks for analysing the piece were drawn from emerging theories of multimodal literacy, from studies of ICT in Education and from work on media production by young people. Some conclusions were drawn about the position of the work in relation to existing models of curriculum activity in the light of the range of sophisticated and rich representations made by the children in their media text

The Emergence of Symbol-Based Communication in a Complex System of Artificial Creatures

We present here a digital scenario to simulate the emergence of self-organized symbol-based communication among artificial creatures inhabiting a virtual world of predatory events. In order to design the environment and creatures, we seek theoretical and empirical constraints from C.S.Peirce Semiotics and an ethological case study of communication among animals. Our results show that the creatures, assuming the role of sign users and learners, behave collectively as a complex system, where self-organization of communicative interactions plays a major role in the emergence of symbol-based communication. We also strive for a careful use of the theoretical concepts involved, including the concepts of symbol, communication, and emergence, and we use a multi-level model as a basis for the interpretation of inter-level relationships in the semiotic processes we are studying