134,689 research outputs found
Smart Signs: Showing the way in Smart Surroundings
This paper presents a context-aware guidance and messaging
system for large buildings and surrounding venues. Smart Signs are
a new type of electronic door- and way-sign based on wireless sensor networks.
Smart Signs present in-situ personalized guidance and messages,
are ubiquitous, and easy to understand. They combine the easiness of
use of traditional static signs with the flexibility and reactiveness of navigation
systems. The Smart Signs system uses context information such
as user’s mobility limitations, the weather, and possible emergency situations
to improve guidance and messaging.
Minimal infrastructure requirements and a simple deployment tool make
it feasible to easily deploy a Smart Signs system on demand.
An important design issue of the Smart Signs system is privacy: the
system secures communication links, does not track users, allow almost
complete anonymous use, and prevent the system to be used as a tool
for spying on users
An aesthetics of touch: investigating the language of design relating to form
How well can designers communicate qualities of touch?
This paper presents evidence that they have some capability to do so, much of which appears to have been learned, but at present make limited use of such language. Interviews with graduate designer-makers suggest that they are aware of and value the importance of touch and materiality in their work, but lack a vocabulary to fully relate to their detailed explanations of other aspects such as their intent or selection of materials. We believe that more attention should be paid to the verbal dialogue that happens in the design process, particularly as other researchers show that even making-based learning also has a strong verbal element to it. However, verbal language alone does not appear to be adequate for a comprehensive language of touch. Graduate designers-makers’ descriptive practices combined non-verbal manipulation within verbal accounts. We thus argue that haptic vocabularies do not simply describe material qualities, but rather are situated competences that physically demonstrate the presence of haptic qualities. Such competencies are more important than groups of verbal vocabularies in isolation. Design support for developing and extending haptic competences must take this wide range of considerations into account to comprehensively improve designers’ capabilities
Rethinking affordance
n/a – Critical survey essay retheorising the concept of 'affordance' in digital media context. Lead article in a special issue on the topic, co-edited by the authors for the journal Media Theory
Evaluating the development of wearable devices, personal data assistants and the use of other mobile devices in further and higher education institutions
This report presents technical evaluation and case studies of the use of wearable and mobile computing mobile devices in further and higher education. The first section provides technical evaluation of the current state of the art in wearable and mobile technologies and reviews several innovative wearable products that have been developed in recent years. The second section examines three scenarios for further and higher education where wearable and mobile devices are currently being used. The three scenarios include: (i) the delivery of lectures over mobile devices, (ii) the augmentation of the physical campus with a virtual and mobile component, and (iii) the use of PDAs and mobile devices in field studies. The first scenario explores the use of web lectures including an evaluation of IBM's Web Lecture Services and 3Com's learning assistant. The second scenario explores models for a campus without walls evaluating the Handsprings to Learning projects at East Carolina University and ActiveCampus at the University of California San Diego . The third scenario explores the use of wearable and mobile devices for field trips examining San Francisco Exploratorium's tool for capturing museum visits and the Cybertracker field computer. The third section of the report explores the uses and purposes for wearable and mobile devices in tertiary education, identifying key trends and issues to be considered when piloting the use of these devices in educational contexts
Smartening the Environment using Wireless Sensor Networks in a Developing Country
The miniaturization process of various sensing devices has become a reality
by enormous research and advancements accomplished in Micro Electro-Mechanical
Systems (MEMS) and Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) lithography. Regardless
of such extensive efforts in optimizing the hardware, algorithm, and protocols
for networking, there still remains a lot of scope to explore how these
innovations can all be tied together to design Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN)
for smartening the surrounding environment for some practical purposes. In this
paper we explore the prospects of wireless sensor networks and propose a design
level framework for developing a smart environment using WSNs, which could be
beneficial for a developing country like Bangladesh. In connection to this, we
also discuss the major aspects of wireless sensor networks.Comment: 5 page
Reflections on the use of Project Wonderland as a mixed-reality environment for teaching and learning
This paper reflects on the lessons learnt from MiRTLE?a collaborative research project to create a ?mixed reality teaching and learning environment? that enables teachers and students participating in real-time mixed and online classes to interact with avatar representations of each other. The key hypothesis of the project is that avatar representations of teachers and students can help create a sense of shared presence, engendering a greater sense of community and improving student engagement in online lessons. This paper explores the technology that underpins such environments by presenting work on the use of a massively multi-user game server, based on Sun?s Project Darkstar and Project Wonderland tools, to create a shared teaching environment, illustrating the process by describing the creation of a virtual classroom. It is planned that the MiRTLE platform will be used in several trial applications ? which are described in the paper. These example applications are then used to explore some of the research issues arising from the use of virtual environments within an education environment. The research discussion initially focuses on the plans to assess this within the MiRTLE project. This includes some of the issues of designing virtual environments for teaching and learning, and how supporting pedagogical and social theories can inform this process
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