INTERACTIVE TO ME – INTERACTIVE TO YOU?

Previous research has indicated that although online interactive features are not used by the visitors of different web sites, such features can be appreciated by the same visitors. This paper examines the use and appreciation of interactive features by visitors on Swedish newspaper web sites. By means of an online survey (1343 respondents) focusing on different traits and habits of the online news media audience, the study presents a typology of newspaper web site visitor personas, characterized by the different ways they use and appreciate interactive features in the online news media context. Although certain personas tend to make extensive use of the features studied, the overall results of the survey points towards rather low levels of both use and appreciation. As such, newspaper web site visitors might be characterized as “slow learners”, taking their time to adapt to the interactive capabilities offered by the online news media

Adopt Me: An interactive video game to encourage people to adopt animals from shelters

People buy pets and use their imagination in envisioning how their pet will ideally be, not the reality of raising a pet. More and more pets are abandoned by their owners for various reasons and the stray animals often cause accidents. But people keep purchasing animals from puppy mill stores. That is the main reason why the number of animals taken into shelters is increasing, along with the rate of euthanization. These factors are of interest for people who care about animals. To address this problem, research was focused on the reasons why people abandon their pet and the factors will influence people choosing a new pet. Additionally, special attention was paid to the relationship between gamification and persuasion. The use of color, storytelling, and digital imaging skills were applied to the final visual design. In order to raise awareness of taking care of pets and understanding how simple actions can significantly change animals’ lives, an interactive animation game, a virtual shelter, illustrates the miserable experiences that animals endure being sent to a shelter. Users learn why pets are abandoned and how to help them in various situations. Moreover, the user can get a recommended pet based on their real situations, such as family structure, condition, housing type, and personalities. The prototype for Adopt Me was created through motion graphics. User testing proved the application prototype to be successful. To help more people find their dream pet, Adopt Me will add more connections and functions with real shelter in the future

Keefektifan Pelatihan Pembuatan Worksheet Interaktif dengan Wizer.Me untuk Mengoptimalkan Pembelajaran di SDN 26 Mataram

This study aims to determine the effectiveness of training in making interactive worksheets with Wizer. me on the ability and knowledge of SDN 26 Mataram teachers in making interactive worksheets. This research is quantitative research with a pre-experimental design type one group pretest-posttest. This research includes population research because all 12 teachers are the research subjects. The instrument used was 10 multiple choice questions which were used as pretest and posttest questions. The data analysis technique used a normality test as a prerequisite for analysis, paired sample t-test, an effect size test, and an N-Gain test. All data are normally distributed as indicated by the normality test. The paired sample t-test test shows that there is a difference between the pretest and posttest values ​​where the posttest value is higher than the pretest value. The average value of the N-Gain score is 45.6944 or 46% (less effective). The minimum N-gain score is 0 and the maximum is 83.33%. The conclusion is that training on making interactive worksheets with Wizer. me is less effective in improving the skills and knowledge of SDN 26 teachers in making interactive worksheets

Evaluating Interactive teaching on conceptual understanding on medium enrolment classes

Interactive learning is increasingly being valued as an ideal environment that promotes critical thinking, conceptual understanding, intellectual development and success. The beneficial effects of interactive lectures though very well established for small classrooms are often debated for larger classes. My hypothesis is that interactive lectures can easily be introduced to large classrooms and that students’ engagement understanding and academic achievements can be greatly improved by constructively aligned interactive lectures. The purpose of my project is to evaluate the effect of interactive teaching on students’ engagement, conceptual understanding, as well as academic achievement and performance on medium enrolment(~55 students) classes. This is particular important for me as up to now I have been successfully implementing interactive lectures in small enrolment classes (<20 students) and now faced with the challenge to teach by myself a medium enrolment class (50 students) of the 2nd year students. To test my hypothesis I applied a series of actions on the course Nanobio 1 of the Nanoscience education some of which are shortly mentioned here: A) Interview with group of students after the end of the course. B) compare their understanding (using online tools) between subject taught using classical lecturing/preaching and subjects taught by interactive discussions C) compare students performance (grades) on subjects that are “preached” in theform of classical lectures, subject interactively discussed in the class and 338 Nikos S. Hatzakis subjects that are both interactively discussed and applied during practical exercises. My results showed a remarkable increase in correctly answering the exam question, from 45% for subjects only lectured to 70% for subjects interactively discussed and 87% for subjects interactive discussed and applied in practical exercises. Similarly online quizzes using Student Response Systems (SRS) like Socrative showed an increase from <30% to often more than 90% in students ability to apprehend and interactively discussed subject and correctly answer a multiple choice question when knowledge is attained in the form of interactive processing of information

Exploring Representations of Interactive Space

Space has been conceived in many different ways by as many different disciplines. Lefebvre and Harvey suggest conceptions of space as approaches to understanding human interactions within our world. These same conceptions can be employed in a discussion of interactive space and how it is experienced and engaged with. Additionally, the very nature of interactivity facilitates other ideas that can be used to understand its landscape such as recursive space and the notion of how a person's perception of a space impacts their engagement with it. This research explores representations of interactive space within screen mediated environments. The work uses existing conceptions of space to understand interactivity as well as to inform new ways of challenging the stability of these spaces both theoretically and practically. The project takes a practice-led approach involving the creation and conceptualisation of my own work to theorise some of the possibilities of interactive media. The intent of this study is not so much to define interactive space in its entirety but rather to explore some of the potential ways that it can be theorised using a practice-led approach through the theoretical frameworks of assemblage and affect which, for me, are deeply embedded in the constructions of these spaces

Narratives of ocular experience in interactive 360° environments

The purpose of this research project was to examine how immersive digital virtual technologies have the potential to expand the genre of interactive film into new forms of audience engagement and narrative production. Aside from addressing the limitations of interactive film, I have explored how interactive digital narratives can be reconfigured in the wake of immersive media. My contribution to knowledge stems from using a transdisciplinary synthesis of the interactive systems in film and digital media art, which is embodied in the research framework and theoretical focal point that I have titled Cynematics (chapter 2). Using a methodology that promotes iterative experimentation I developed a series of works that allowed me to practically explore the limitations of interactive film systems that involve non-haptic user interaction. This is evidenced in the following series of works: Virtual Embodiment, Narrative Maze, Eye Artefact Interactions and Routine Error - all of which are discussed in chapter 4 of this thesis. Each of these lab experiments collectively build towards the development of novel interactive 360° film practices. Funneling my research towards these underexplored processes I focused on virtual gaze interaction (chapters 4-6), aiming to define and historically contextualise this system of interaction, whilst critically engaging with it through my practice. It is here that gaze interaction is cemented as the key focus of this thesis. The potential of interactive 360° film is explored through the creation of three core pieces of practice, which are titled as follows: Systems of Seeing (chapter 5), Mimesis (chapter 6), Vanishing Point (chapter 7). Alongside the close readings in these chapters and the theoretical developments explored in each are the interaction designs included in the appendix of the thesis. These provide useful context for readers unable to experience these site-specific installations as virtual reality applications. After creating these systems, I established terms to theoretically unpack some of the processes occurring within them. These include Datascape Mediation (chapter 2), which frames agency as a complex entanglement built on the constantly evolving relationships between human and machine - and Live-Editing Practice (chapter 7), which aims to elucidate how the interactive 360° film practice designed for this research leads to new way of thinking about how we design, shoot and interact with 360° film. Reflecting on feedback from exhibiting Mimesis I decided to define and evaluate the key modes of virtual gaze interaction, which led to the development of a chapter and concept referred to as The Reticle Effect (chapter 6). This refers to how a visual overlay that is used to represent a user's line of sight not only shapes their experience of the work, but also dictates their perception of genre. To navigate this, I combined qualitative and quantitative analysis to explore user responses to four different types of gaze interaction. In preparing to collect this data I had to articulate these different types of interaction, which served to demarcate the difference between each of these types of gaze interaction. Stemming from this I used questionnaires, thematic analysis and data visualisation to explore the use and response to these systems. The results of this not only supports the idea of the reticle effect, but also gives insight into how these different types of virtual gaze interaction shape whether these works are viewed as games or as types of interactive film. The output of this allowed me to further expand on interactive 360° film as a genre of immersive media and move beyond the realm of interactive film into new technological discourses, which serves to validate the nascent, yet expansive reach of interactive 360° film as a form of practice. The thesis is concluded by framing this research within the wider discourse of posthuman theory as given that the technologies of immersive media perpetuate a state of extended human experience - how we interact and consider the theories that surround these mediums needs to be considered in the same way. The practice and theory developed throughout this thesis contribute to this discourse and allow for new ways of considering filmic language in the wake of interactive 360° film practice

Corona Haikus

When I moved from linear documentary production to the newly emerging field of interactive storytelling in early 2000, I was excited by the potentialities of the Web, especially the possibility of co-creation in factual storytelling. Looking back, I can clearly see that what attracted me was the exploration of how factual narratives could make use of two unique affordances of digital media: user agency and interactivity. More than twenty years later, I am still experimenting with ways to use interactivity to facilitate co-creation of reality and move away from the representational tendency of linear documentaries (Gaudenzi 2013). In this paper, I will use the Corona Haikus project (2020) to question the current understanding of user agency in participatory interactive narratives. I have chosen such project because I have personally been involved in it as a co-author, but also as a participant, and therefore I have both co-designed its user’s agency, and experienced it as a user. I will argue that agency in interactive documentary (i-doc) should be considered as a space of user empowerment that does not always have to affect the interactive narrative itself, because it can also be placed outside of the narrated story. The Corona Haikus example will be used to demonstrate that, in participatory narratives, deep individual and societal impact can be designed by mixing different types of mini-agencies and by orchestrating them as a journey of empowerment that is gradual and evolutive. Reflexive and evolutive agencies will be defined and presented as new ways to approach impact design in interactive narratives

Museum of Formosan Aborigines

In the beginning, the purpose of this thesis was to explore the feasibility of creating a computer-based visual museum. I wanted to experiment with 3-D interactivity, such as how to set up the cursor movement in a 3-D world and how to use 3-D animation in interactive multimedia. I wanted to use Native Americans as the subject of this 3-D museum project. After I sent my thesis proposal to our department, I found my classmate\u27s project was about Native Americans also. Therefore, I decided on another topic. In July 1995, 1 went back to Taiwan to visit my friends. I found that Sinorama magazine had a series of articles discussing Taiwan\u27s indigenous culture. By this chance, I reviewed their culture from hunting to battle, agriculture to fishing; from weddings to funerals, worship to exorcism, prayers for good harvests to harvest celebrations; from leg ends to stories, myths to ethnic-origin tales, concepts of nature to the view of the world. Their culture was so exciting to me. I started to think about changing the subject of my thesis. I discussed the idea with my friends. All of them encouraged me to do this project and also helped me to do research. This thesis still focuses on the 3-D museum, which attempts to preserve the tribes\u27 rich past and present it in an intuitive way. Interactive media is used to maintain the audience\u27s attention while introducing them to a foreign society. The interactive program was created using numerous computer software packages, combined together to comprise the heart of the thesis. The program has been built around Macromind Director,Video Fusion, Strata StudioPro, Adobe Premiere, Adobe Photoshop and SoundEditl6. The combination of all these programs results in the end product: an inter active program

Semi-automated mobile television interactive application generation based on XHTML and Java ME

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University, 11/02/2011.Mobile Digital TV (MDTV), the hybrid of Digital Television (DTV) and mobile devices (such as mobile phones), has introduced a new way for people to watch DTV and has brought new opportunities for development in the DTV industry. Nowadays, the development of the next generation MDTV service has progressed in terms of both hardware layers and software, with interactive services/applications becoming one of the future MDTV service trends. However, current MDTV interactive services still lack in terms of attracting the consumers and the service creation and implementation process relies too much on commercial solutions, resulting in most parts of the process being proprietary. In addition, this has increased the technical demands for developers as well as has increased substantially the cost of producing and maintaining MDTV services. In light of the aforementioned situation, the Thesis has contributed to this field, by proposing an innovative MDTV service creation and consumption system based on XHTML and Java ME. On the head-end it introduces a semi-automatic creation mechanism to facilitate a less technical and more efficient interactive service creation process. This enables designers and creative individuals to be actively involved in the MDTV service creation process and to develop interactive-rich MDTV service. On the client-end it employs an open-source software environment as the interactive service MDTV consumption platform, rendering the MDTV service implementation process as less proprietary as possible. Furthermore, the Thesis offers a discussion on the different MDTV interactive application models currently used and based on the proposed software, a novel MDTV service presentation method is further introduced and adopted instead of the Rich Media and ECMAScript based methods. Finally, a series of qualitative testing procedures have been implemented with regards to conducting an essential evaluation on the operability of the proposed software system

Users acting in mixed reality interactive storytelling

“Do you expect me to talk? Oh no, Mr. Bond. I expect you to die!” Bond and Auric Goldfinger – from “Goldfinger” Abstract. Entertainment systems promise to be a significant application for Mixed Reality. Recently, a growing number of Mixed Reality applications have included interaction with synthetic characters and storytelling. However, AIbased Interactive Storytelling techniques have not yet been explored in the context of Mixed Reality. In this paper, we describe a first experiment in the adaptation of an Interactive Storytelling technique to a Mixed Reality system. After a description of the real time image processing techniques that support the creation of a hybrid environment, we introduce the storytelling technique and the specificities of user interaction in the Mixed Reality context. We illustrate these experiments by discussing examples obtained from the system.