Human-Connectedness in Technology-Caring

The dominant issue of high-tech and high-touch has popularized the supposed dichotomy between technology and caring in health care. In today's highly technological world, the notion of the “lost touch” in human connectedness is clearly within the realm of human caring. Fostered by different technologies facilitating health care work, the process of caring in the human health experience creates unique individual identities as professional practitioners of human care. The argument is centered on technologies as essential in shaping professionalization by redefining practice boundaries and expanding societal roles and contributions. Consequently, the concept of caring is shared as the hallmark of health care professions. An assertion is made that although technology facilitates caring and competency in the human experience, the idea of human-connectedness can seem “lost” - missing in the discourse and practice within the technological world. Human-connectedness is presented as a concept, positioning its role and relevance in the continued dialogical engagement of technology and caring. A contemporary appreciation of reconciling human connectedness as integral to the process of knowing in a technological world bridging the seemingly paradoxical nature of technology and caring is proposed

Situating Community through Creative Technologies and Practice

This interdisciplinary scoping study critically discusses the relationship between communities and their creative uses of digital technologies: the nature of this use, its impact on the formation and sustenance of communities, and the potential this holds for social change. We start by providing brief working definitions of creativity, digital technologies and community as understood in this study, while drawing attention to the ways that technologies have helped shape communities and societies since the nineteenth century. Further, we discuss the interconnection between design, creative uses of technology and community empowerment, underlining the potential of digital tools for communities that are not inherent to the technology but embedded by design and realised through use. We then highlight how the use of digital technologies have helped redefine the nature, organisation and identity of communities, as well as enabled the emergence of community types. We problematize these implications in relation to space, social bonds and everyday life, as well as present current forms of enabled collective actions aimed at social change. Finally, we provide recommendations for future research based on themes of community empowerment, digital literacy, open information sharing, technology design and cultural expressions that have emerged from this study

A framework for developing motion-based games

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Engenharia InformáticaNowadays, whenever one intents to develop an application that allows interaction through the use of more or less complex gestures, it is necessary to go through a long process. In this process, the gesture recognition system may not obtain high accuracy results, particularly among different users. Since the total number of applications for mobile systems, like Android and iOS, is close to a million and a half and is still increasing, it appears essential the development of a platform that abstracts developers from all the low-level gesture gathering and that streamlines the process of developing applications that make use of this kind of interaction, in a standardize way. In this case such was developed for the iOS system. At the present time, given the existing environment issues, it is ideal to attract the attention, motivate and influence the greatest number of people into having more proenvironmental behaviors. Thus, as a proof of concept for the developed framework, an educational game was created, using persuasive technology, to influence players’s behaviors and attitudes in a pro-environmental way. Therefore, having this idea as a basis, it was also developed a game that is presented in a public ambient display and can be played by any participant close to the displaywho has a device with iOS mobile system

Mobile persuasive interfaces for public ambient displays

Dissertação apresentada na Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade Nova de Lisboa para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia InformáticaThrough the use of persuasive technology, it is possible to influence the attitudes and behaviors of people in order to lead them to perform actions that, probably, they would not do otherwise. Thus, this technology can be used in several domains such as health, education, business, safety and environment in order to obtain positive changes. This dissertation aims to bring awareness of the consequences of users’ actions on the natural resources of our planet, which are not infinite. Therefore, it was designed and implemented Gaea, a prototype that introduces new forms of interaction between mobile devices and public ambient displays, allied to the use of persuasive technology. Gaea allows users to recycle virtual objects spread on a geographical area, using a mobile device to locate and collect the virtual objects that should be dropped on the correct virtual recycle bins, that are available when near the public ambient display. It is also studied the impact of this type of interaction in the users’ environmental behavior, and if the use of persuasion through social networks has an impact on the popularity of the prototype. The results obtained were very positive, and may give a considerable contribution to the future development of pervasive applications, that increase people awareness and influence a large number of people to change their attitudes and behaviors, regardless the area of study

Enhancing social awareness at the workplace

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2007.Includes bibliographical references (p. 59-61).Social awareness in the workspace has been a classical architectural problem that has been tackled in various ways-ranging from architectural ways, such as the design of building atria, to technological ways, like connecting of two remote spaces using two-way audio-video tunnels. Any attempt at enhancing social awareness is fundamentally at odds with high levels of user privacy. In this document, we shall discuss a novel sensor network based approach to enhancing the social awareness of people while maintaining low levels of privacy invasiveness. We use a grid of motion sensors to collect anonymous information about activity in various locations of our prototypical workspace. The real time and historical components of the data are then visualized in six different ways. These visualizations are meant to be deployed as glanceable displays in public areas and personal workspaces to allow people to gain an almost subconscious awareness of the space around them. The system developed is evaluated through one on one critique interviews with users drawn randomly from the prototypical workspace. Finally the results of the evaluation are discussed and future directions for the research are outlined.by Ishwinder Kaur.S.M

Positive expressive technologies for social wellness

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.Drawing on research from the fields of HCI, social and positive psychology, this thesis investigates the design of technologies that encourage the expression of positive emotions. In parallel, it details the deployment of effective design steps to guide, frame and eventually support understandings of positive mental and social usage effects of technology. Different artefacts termed PosiPost have been iteratively developed as exemplars for the discussion and exploration of the ways in which technologies can support positive communication and social sharing. Studies with these technologies have been conducted to explore how these can encourage positive communication and understand how they contribute to social wellness. Specifically, the studies undertaken validate the hypothesis that the sharing of positive emotions as mediated by technology has beneficial social and mental effects. The first stage of the research examined whether and how social technology can be designed for positive affect. A theoretical framework, named THE Medium model was developed to support the design process. Furthermore, design considerations were produced for technologies that encourage the sharing of positive emotions. This latter involved two studies, paper-based and online, which showed the potential for a prefixbased elicitation of positive emotions and drove the design and development of a mobile tool called PosiPost Me (Mobile edition). The second stage of the design process focused on how positive emotions can be mediated by technology in a mobile context and how such tools were used and understood. The iterative design study process continued, resulting in PosiPost Be, a Bluetooth edition, which allows sharing of positive messages with people in close proximity to explore the social and potential positive effects of contextualizing posiposting by adding location as a factor. Results suggest that by using a prefix-strategy, messages of a positive and mundane nature can be shared and mediated by mobile technology. Analysis of the shared messages provides insights into people’s pleasant moments in daily life. A questionnaire instrument named SPOT was developed and used for the measurement of the effects of sharing pleasant moments with the developed mobile expressive technologies in further detail. The results suggest that lightweight positive expressive technologies can have beneficial social wellness effects. In particular, the study showed significant beneficial effects in reducing depressed feelings and increasing social interest in others. Participants also believed that the mobile PosiPost applications supported social connectedness, socio-pleasure, social and positive awareness, and positive thinking

A sensitising tool for smart home designers: Based on user-oriented product design research into the home life of older adults in the UK

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.Focusing on the needs of users, design can leverage new product development process by offering insightful knowledge of those needs. This research investigates the technology development of smart homes. Design is utilised as a product research tool to identify key insights of the home life of the older adults living in the UK, and for the purpose of informing the front-end of the new product development process. The review of the literature in the field of smart homes suggests that the developments have lagged by a technology-push approach, the lack of appropriate concepts from users’ perspectives as well as the lack of development strategy, which has consequently been reflected in consumers’ reluctance towards smart homes. As a result, this doctoral research aimed to ‘develop a user-oriented product design research tool that improves the understanding of the home life of older adults.’ To achieve the aim, this research employs qualitative methodology to develop a research process that utilises the cultural probe, semi-structured interview and video tour. Informed by ethnographic tradition, this research establishes its trustworthiness and credibility by employing a thorough process of analysis (qualitative analysis with computer-assisted software NVivo 8 and peers debriefing) and evaluation (creative workshop and evaluative interview) with practitioners from the field of product design, design management and design education. The result of the field investigation is presented as ten personas and taxonomy of nodes, which form the contribution of this research, a sensitising tool and process. This research contributes a sensitising tool - a design-led, user-inspired and participatory product design research that the offers insightful knowledge of those older adults and their relationships with their homes living in the UK. This sensitising tool is developed for the smart home designers for the purpose of generating new product ideas and challenges designers’ preconception of users and smart homes, and provokes reflections on the practices of user-centred and user-participatory design, as examined in the creative workshop. In addition, this research also contributes to the growing debate surrounding the issues relating to ethnographic user research and the use of cultural probe for the design of new smart homes

Spatial displays for visual awareness of remote locations

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2009.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. [113]-116).uCom enables remote users to be visually aware of each other using "spatial displays" - live views of a remote space assembled according to an estimate of the remote space's layout. The main elements of the system design are a 3D representation of each space and a multi-display physical setup. The 3D image-based representation of a space is composed of an aggregate of live video feeds acquired from multiple viewpoints and rendered in a graphical visualization resembling a 3D collage. Its navigation controls allow users to transition among the remote views, while maintaining a sense of how the images relate in 3D space. Additionally, the system uses a configurable set of displays to portray always-on visual connections with a remote site integrated into the local physical environment. The evaluation investigates to what extent the system improves users' understanding of the layout of a remote space.by Ana Luisa de Araujo Santos.S.M

Positive expressive technologies for social wellness

Drawing on research from the fields of HCI, social and positive psychology, this thesis investigates the design of technologies that encourage the expression of positive emotions. In parallel, it details the deployment of effective design steps to guide, frame and eventually support understandings of positive mental and social usage effects of technology. Different artefacts termed PosiPost have been iteratively developed as exemplars for the discussion and exploration of the ways in which technologies can support positive communication and social sharing. Studies with these technologies have been conducted to explore how these can encourage positive communication and understand how they contribute to social wellness. Specifically, the studies undertaken validate the hypothesis that the sharing of positive emotions as mediated by technology has beneficial social and mental effects. The first stage of the research examined whether and how social technology can be designed for positive affect. A theoretical framework, named THE Medium model was developed to support the design process. Furthermore, design considerations were produced for technologies that encourage the sharing of positive emotions. This latter involved two studies, paper-based and online, which showed the potential for a prefixbased elicitation of positive emotions and drove the design and development of a mobile tool called PosiPost Me (Mobile edition). The second stage of the design process focused on how positive emotions can be mediated by technology in a mobile context and how such tools were used and understood. The iterative design study process continued, resulting in PosiPost Be, a Bluetooth edition, which allows sharing of positive messages with people in close proximity to explore the social and potential positive effects of contextualizing posiposting by adding location as a factor. Results suggest that by using a prefix-strategy, messages of a positive and mundane nature can be shared and mediated by mobile technology. Analysis of the shared messages provides insights into people’s pleasant moments in daily life. A questionnaire instrument named SPOT was developed and used for the measurement of the effects of sharing pleasant moments with the developed mobile expressive technologies in further detail. The results suggest that lightweight positive expressive technologies can have beneficial social wellness effects. In particular, the study showed significant beneficial effects in reducing depressed feelings and increasing social interest in others. Participants also believed that the mobile PosiPost applications supported social connectedness, socio-pleasure, social and positive awareness, and positive thinking.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo