Learning recursively: integrating PBL as an authentic problem experience [Plenary presentation]

[Abstract]: Problem based learning (PBL) is widely recognised as a desirable approach to education of future professionals. One strong basis for its appeal is the use of authentic problems of practice, which make the relevance of what is being learned apparent to the learners and encourage development of attitudes and skills that will be central to continuing professional growth beyond graduation. However, the change from traditional lecture-based courses to PBL presents challenges to educators and the institutions in which they work. In many respects, the implementation of PBL can be itself an experience in PBL for the educator. This presentation will address some of the challenges associated with integrating PBL in a university setting from the perspective of those who design and teach courses using PBL, which will be understood as a spectrum of practices rather than a single approach that must be replicated in every instance

Ec(h)o: Situated play in a tangible and audio museum guide

In this paper we discuss an adaptive museum guide prototype in which playfulness is a key design goal for the interaction experience. The interface for our prototype is a combined tangible user interface and audio display. We discuss how we determined the specific requirements for play through an ethnographic study and analysis based on ecological concepts of Bell and Nardi & O’Day. We found that we could consider play in two main forms in regard to the interface: content and physical play. We also found that play is highly contextual. Designers need to consider the situated nature of play for two reasons: 1) to best serve the overall design purpose; 2) in order to understand the nature and degree of play required. We augmented traditional user experience evaluation methods of questionnaires and interviews with observational analysis based on Djajadiningrat’s descriptions of aesthetic interaction

Exploration of mid-air haptics experience design

Ultrasonic Mid-air Haptics (UMH) is a novel technology that uses the mechanical properties of sound waves to create a pressure point in mid-air. This pressure point, called focal point, can slightly bend the skin and be felt in mid-air without any attachment to the body. This thesis focuses on both studying how to integrate this technology with other senses (i.e. vision and audition) and exploring the range of tactile sensations it can provide. The first two projects presented in this document present the integration of ultrasonic mid-air haptics with audio-visual content. The first project describes the process of creating a unique haptic experience that was part of a six-weeks multisensory exhibition in a museum. The second project moved from the museum to a controlled environment and explored the creation of haptic experiences based on physiologic measurements for six short films. Both studies showed the positive value of adding ultrasonic mid-air haptics to traditional media through higher reported arousal and participants’ high enthusiasm for multisensory content. In the two latter projects of this thesis, it was explored how we could extend the range of possible tactile sensations provided by UMHs. We introduced a new technique called Spatio-Temporal Modulation (STM). It enabled the creation of brand-new tactile experiences, including more salient shapes and wider range of textures. We also provided some guidelines on how to control some of the tactile properties of the sensation, including strength,roughness,or regularity. The findings of those four projects contribute to the growing body of knowledge of UMHs. A summary of the key contributions is provided at the end of the thesis as well as several leads for future works

Robo-ethics design approach for cultural heritage: Case study - Robotics for museum purpose

The thesis shows the study behind the design process and the realization of the robotic solution for museum purposes called Virgil. The research started with the literature review on museums management and the critic analysis of signi cant digital experiences in the museum eld. Then, it continues analyzing the museum and its relation with the territory and the cultural heritage. From this preliminary analysis stage, signi cant issue related to museum management analysis comes out: nowadays many museum areas are not accessible to visitors because of issues related to security or architectural barriers. Make explorable these areas is one of the important topics in the cultural debate related to the visiting experience. This rst stage gave the knowledge to develop the outlines which brought to the realization of an ef cient service design then realized following robot ethical design values. One of the pillars of the robot ethical design is the necessity to involve all the stakeholders in the early project phases, for this reason, the second stage of the research was the study of the empathic relations between museum and visitors. In this phase, facilitator factors of this relation are de ned and transformed into guidelines for the product system performances. To perform this stage, it has been necessary create a relation between all the stakeholders of the project, which are: Politecnico di Torino, Tim (Telecom Italia Mobile) JOL CRAB research laboratory and Terre dei Savoia which is the association in charge of the Racconiggi’s Castle, the context scenario of the research. The third stage of the research, provided the realization of a prototype of the robot, in this stage telepresence robot piloted the Museum Guide it is used to show, in real time, the inaccessible areas of the museum enriched with multimedia contents. This stage concludes with the nal test user, from the test session feedback analysis, many of people want to drive themselves the robot. To give an answer to user feedback an interactive game has been developed. The game is based both on the robot ability to be driven by the visitors and also on the capacity of the robot to be used as a platform for the digital telling. To be effective, the whole experience it has been designed and tested with the support of high school students, which are one of the categories less interested in the traditional museum visit. This experience wants to demonstrate that the conscious and ethical use of the robotic device is effectively competitive, in term of performances, with the other solutions of digital visit: because it allows a more interactive digital experience in addition to the satisfaction of the physical visit at the museum

Creating value with Qwiki in the firm's business mode : a strategic perspective of implementing a wiki platform by taking advantage of smartphone technology and its mobility in the corporate business world

This dissertation addresses the strategic use of the Qwiki platform in the firm’s business model. The objective of this dissertation is to access the strategic potential of the Qwiki platform, under certain assumptions, contribute with knowledge regarding the possibilities and opportunities with its usage and the ability to potentially create and sustain value to the company that holds Qwiki and its clients. This dissertation presents the available information and knowledge regarding the wiki and smartphone technologies in terms of its developments, its advantages and shortcomings and its incentive to be used by companies, as well as how they can be used together to create value to the holder company and clients. Additionally, it describes the possible opportunities and threats expected with the use of wikis and smartphones with Qwiki. Two analysis are conducted in this dissertation: the Resource-Based View framework and implementation of Qwiki in businesses and the value created for both the holding company and the implemented companies. These analysis serve the purpose of assessing if Qwiki has the conditions to generate sustained competitive advantage for the holding company and how to implement this platform in order to potentially profit from this technology with said competitive advantage. It is concluded from the Resource-Based View model that it can, under some conditions, have a strategic impact on the holder business by creating and sustaining competitive advantage. These conditions are namely Qwiki’s value increase within the business through user learning processes, experience and network effects, which are tacit knowledge. That is, these attributes cannot be transferable and easily copied to other companies, thus increasing both user switching costs to the competition and the barriers for other companies that attempt to implement similar strategies. It is also concluded with this reasoning that the Qwiki platform and the involving wiki and smartphone technologies can create value to the Qwiki holder company and to companies that adopt it and offer the possibility to potentially profit from the competitive advantage that the platform creates, based on its correct implementation and validation of this work’s assumptions and Qwiki future challenges

3D in Medical Fields

Tiis document contains mainly about the 3D development and its characteristics. The topics liscussed are mainly about the implementation of 3D in medical fields. Under introduction, here are four topics which are the background statement, the problem statement, the .bjectives of the project and the feasibility studies. In the background statement, there is ;ertain comparison between 2D images and 3D images. One ofthem is 3D image results in a dgher quality of image. In the problem statement, the main problem of using old methods vithin the medical fields is that they need more space and costs great amount of money. One >f the objectives discussed in the objectives' topic is to create a learning environment using 5D. In the feasibility studies, there are some constraints mentioned to build the project. In the literature and Review section, the facts and findings of the research regarding 3D and a luman arm is stated. The methodology section stated that the project uses the incremental nethodology. It consists of 6 main phases. In the results and discussion section, there are some comparisons between methods used in medic. The methods are compared and the idvantages ofusing 3D are stated. As for the conclusions and recommendations section, 3D should be implemented in medical fields and also should be used as an alternative solution towards other problems in other events. 1

Ontology-based user modeling in an augmented audio reality system for museums

Ubiquitous computing is a challenging area that allows us to further our understanding and techniques of context-aware and adaptive systems. Among the challenges is the general problem of capturing the larger context in interaction from the perspective of user modeling and human–computer interaction (HCI). The imperative to address this issue is great considering the emergence of ubiquitous and mobile computing environments. This paper provides an account of our addressing the specific problem of supporting functionality as well as the experience design issues related to museum visits through user modeling in combination with an audio augmented reality and tangible user interface system. This paper details our deployment and evaluation of ec(h)o – an augmented audio reality system for museums. We explore the possibility of supporting a context-aware adaptive system by linking environment, interaction object and users at an abstract semantic level instead of at the content level. From the user modeling perspective ec(h)o is a knowledge based recommender system. In this paper we present our findings from user testing and how our approach works well with an audio and tangible user interface within a ubiquitous computing system. We conclude by showing where further research is needed