164,870 research outputs found
Enabling intuitive and efficient physical computing
Making tools for technology accessible to everyone is important for diverse and inclusive innovation. Significant effort has already been made to make software innovation more accessible, and this effort has created a movement of citizen developers. These citizen developers have the drive to create, but not necessarily the technical skill to innovate with technology. Software, however, has limited impact in the real world compared to hardware and here, physical computing is democratising access to technological innovation. Using microcontroller programming and networking, citizens can now build interactive devices and systems that respond to the real world. But building a physical computing device is riddled with complexity. Memory efficient but hard to use low-level programming languages are used to program microcontrollers, implementation efficient but hard to use wired protocols are used to compose microcontrollers and peripherals, and energy efficient but hard to configure wireless protocols are used to network devices to each other and to the Internet. This consistent trade off between efficiency and ease of use means that physical computing is inaccessible to some. This thesis seeks to democratise microcontroller programming and networking in order to make physical computing accessible to all. It provides a deep exploration of three areas fundamental to physical computing: programming, hardware composition, and wireless networking, drawing parallels with consumer technologies throughout. Based upon these parallels, it presents requirements for each area that may lead to a more intuitive physical computing experience. It uses these requirements to compare existing work in the space and concludes that no existing technology correctly strikes the balance between efficient operation for microcontrollers and intuitive experiences for citizen developers. It therefore goes onto describe and evaluate three new technologies designed to make physical computing accessible to everyone
Niel's Chess -- The Battle of the Quantum Age
In this paper, a quantum variant of chess is introduced, which can be played
on a traditional board without the need of using computers or other electronic
devices. The rules of the game arise naturally by combining the rules of
conventional chess with key quantum-physical effects such as superposition and
entanglement. Niel's Chess is recommended for ages 10 and above, to everyone
who wishes to play a creative game with historical roots and at the same time
gain intuition about the foundational quantum effects that power cutting-edge
technologies like quantum computing and quantum communication, which are poised
to revolutionise our society in the coming decades.Comment: 16 pages, 42 figure
Computational Thinking Education in Kâ12
A guide to computational thinking education, with a focus on artificial intelligence literacy and the integration of computing and physical objects. Computing has become an essential part of today's primary and secondary school curricula. In recent years, Kâ12 computer education has shifted from computer science itself to the broader perspective of computational thinking (CT), which is less about technology than a way of thinking and solving problemsââa fundamental skill for everyone, not just computer scientists,â in the words of Jeanette Wing, author of a foundational article on CT. This volume introduces a variety of approaches to CT in Kâ12 education, offering a wide range of international perspectives that focus on artificial intelligence (AI) literacy and the integration of computing and physical objects. The book first offers an overview of CT and its importance in Kâ12 education, covering such topics as the rationale for teaching CT; programming as a general problem-solving skill; and the âphenomenon-based learningâ approach. It then addresses the educational implications of the explosion in AI research, discussing, among other things, the importance of teaching children to be conscientious designers and consumers of AI. Finally, the book examines the increasing influence of physical devices in CT education, considering the learning opportunities offered by robotics. Contributors Harold Abelson, Cynthia Breazeal, Karen Brennan, Michael E. Caspersen, Christian Dindler, Daniella DiPaola, Nardie Fanchamps, Christina Gardner-McCune, Mark Guzdial, Kai Hakkarainen, Fredrik Heintz, Paul Hennissen, H. Ulrich Hoppe, Ole Sejer Iversen, Siu-Cheung Kong, Wai-Ying Kwok, Sven Manske, JesĂșs Moreno-LeĂłn, Blakeley H. Payne, Sini Riikonen, Gregorio Robles, Marcos RomĂĄn-GonzĂĄlez, Pirita Seitamaa-Hakkarainen, Ju-Ling Shih, Pasi Silander, Lou Slangen, Rachel Charlotte Smith, Marcus Specht, Florence R. Sullivan, David S. Touretzk
Return of the man-machine interface: violent interactions
This paper presents the design and evaluation of âthe man-machine interfaceâ
a punchable interface designed to criticise and react against the values inherent in
modern systems that tacitly favour one type of user (linguistically and technically
gifted) and alienate another (physically gifted). We report a user study, where participants
used the device to express their opinions before engaging in a group discussion
about the implications of strength-based interactions. We draw connections between
our own work and that of evolutionary biologists whose recent findings indicate the
shape of the human hand is likely to have been partly evolved for the purpose of punching,
and conclude by examining violent force as an appropriate means for expressing
thoughts and feelings
Creating Interaction Scenarios With a New Graphical User Interface
The field of human-centered computing has known a major progress these past
few years. It is admitted that this field is multidisciplinary and that the
human is the core of the system. It shows two matters of concern:
multidisciplinary and human. The first one reveals that each discipline plays
an important role in the global research and that the collaboration between
everyone is needed. The second one explains that a growing number of researches
aims at making the human commitment degree increase by giving him/her a
decisive role in the human-machine interaction. This paper focuses on these
both concerns and presents MICE (Machines Interaction Control in their
Environment) which is a system where the human is the one who makes the
decisions to manage the interaction with the machines. In an ambient context,
the human can decide of objects actions by creating interaction scenarios with
a new visual programming language: scenL.Comment: 5th International Workshop on Intelligent Interfaces for
Human-Computer Interaction, Palerme : Italy (2012
The Future of the Internet III
Presents survey results on technology experts' predictions on the Internet's social, political, and economic impact as of 2020, including its effects on integrity and tolerance, intellectual property law, and the division between personal and work lives
Students and mobile devices: choosing which dream
There is a crisis looming and a paradox emerging. Many educators advocate, promote and encourage the dreams of agency, control, ownership and choice amongst students whilst educational institutions take the responsibility for provision, equity, access, participation and standards. The institutions traditionally procure, provide and control the technology for learning but now students are acquiring their own personal technologies for learning and institutions are challenged to keep pace. These allow students to produce, store, transmit and consume information, images and ideas; this potentially realises the educatorsâ dream but is for institutions potentially a nightmare, one of loss of control and loss of the quality, consistency, uniformity and stability that delivered the dreams of equity, access and participation. This paper traces the conflicting dreams and responsibilities
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