2014 Projects Day Booklet

https://scholarworks.seattleu.edu/projects-day/1029/thumbnail.jp

Integration of Assistive Technologies into 3D Simulations: Exploratory Studies

Virtual worlds and environments have many purposes, ranging from games to scientific research. However, universal accessibility features in such virtual environments are limited. As the impairment prevalence rate increases yearly, so does the research interests in the field of assistive technologies. This work introduces research in assistive technologies and presents three software developments that explore the integration of assistive technologies within virtual environments, with a strong focus on Brain-Computer Interfaces. An accessible gaming system, a hands-free navigation software system, and a Brain-Computer Interaction plugin have been developed to study the capabilities of accessibility features within virtual 3D environments. Details of the specification, design, and implementation of these software applications are presented in the thesis. Observations and preliminary results as well as directions of future work are also included

Autonomous vehicle futures : designing experiences that enable trust and adoption

This thesis is an investigation of the user experience design necessary for a fully autonomous vehicle that would enable trust and adoption of autonomous vehicle-based services. Autonomous vehicles are destined to revolutionize mobility, yet few companies are focusing on how people will best use these new autonomous-based services. This thesis used various forms of user testing to understand user’s expectations and hesitations for riding in an autonomous vehicle. These tests included improv workshops, surveys, interviews and a simulated autonomous vehicle service ride-along. Research revealed that user’s primary concerns were travel time, comfort (spatial and privacy) and personal safety. These concerns culminated as a series of proposals for how vehicles will communicate trip status to its passengers. Establishing a trustworthy service that would lead to adoption is possible if designers treat the design of experiences as ‘interactions with robots’, not as cars

M-health review: joining up healthcare in a wireless world

In recent years, there has been a huge increase in the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) to deliver health and social care. This trend is bound to continue as providers (whether public or private) strive to deliver better care to more people under conditions of severe budgetary constraint

The Internet of Things: the future or the end of mechatronics.

The advent and increasing implementation of user configured and user oriented systems structured around the use of cloud configured information and the Internet of Things is presenting a new range and class of challenges to the underlying concepts of integration and transfer of functionality around which mechatronics is structured. It is suggested that the ways in which system designers and educators in particular respond to and manage these changes and challenges is going to have a significant impact on the way in which both the Internet of Things and mechatronics develop over time. The paper places the relationship between the Internet of Things and mechatronics into perspective and considers the issues and challenges facing systems designers and implementers in relation to managing the dynamics of the changes required

A Farm Management Information System With Task-Specific, Collaborative Mobile Apps And Cloud Storage Services

Modern production agriculture is beginning to advance beyond deterministic, scheduled operations between relatively few people to larger scale, information-driven efficiency in order to respond to the challenges of field variability and meet the needs of a growing population. Since no two farms are the same with respect to information and management structure, a specialized farm management information system (FMIS) which is tailored to the realities on the ground of individual farms is likely to be more effective than generalized FMIS available today. This thesis presents the design of a FMIS using proven user-centered design principles. This approach resulted in the creation of the OpenAgToolkit (OpenATK), and a suite of task-specific, collaborative Android apps. The OpenATK system architecture enabled apps to share data between apps on a device with shared local databases, and across devices on the farm using Trello application programming interface (API). Five Android apps, Rock App, Tillage App, Trello Sync App, Field Notebook App, and Planting App, were developed in the proposed architecture. Other apps such as the Anhydrous App, and Spraying App were discussed with respect to their role in the OpenATK FMIS. The OpenATK approach proved to be technically viable with current, consumer-grade technologies including free cloud storage, Wi-Fi, and task-specific, collaborative Android apps running on tablet devices. The Tillage and Trello Sync Apps were used to generate artificial records for one year on a 404 ha (1,000 acre) farm to evaluate data storage needs. The total amount of data generated for the six field operations on the 13 fields was 260 kilobytes. Four OpenATK Apps were evaluated individually by four evaluators using the personal interview procedure for interface usability. The heuristic evaluation method was an appropriate evaluation method for the goals of this project as it enabled the observer to easily identify two critical interface usability problems: the long-hold method to move rock marker icons on the map and the method to draw field boundaries. Solutions to improve the usability problems were proposed, and recommendations were given for future research

Towards a Practitioner Model of Mobile Music

This practice-based research investigates the mobile paradigm in the context of electronic music, sound and performance; it considers the idea of mobile as a lens through which a new model of electronic music performance can be interrogated. This research explores mobile media devices as tools and modes of artistic expression in everyday contexts and situations. While many of the previous studies have tended to focus upon the design and construction of new hardware and software systems, this research puts performance practice at the centre of its analysis. This research builds a methodological and practical framework that draws upon theories of mobile-mediated aurality, rhetoric on the practice of walking, relational aesthetics, and urban and natural environments as sites for musical performance. The aim is to question the spaces commonly associated with electronic music – where it is situated, listened to and experienced. This thesis concentrates on the creative use of existing systems using generic mobile devices – smartphones, tablets and HD cameras – and commercially available apps. It will describe the development, implementation and evaluation of a self-contained performance system utilising digital signal processing apps and the interconnectivity of an inter-app routing system. This is an area of investigation that other research programmes have not addressed in any depth. This research’s enquiries will be held in dynamic and often unpredictable conditions, from navigating busy streets to the fold down shelf on the back of a train seat, as a solo performer or larger groups of players, working with musicians, nonmusicians and other participants. Along the way, it examines how ubiquitous mobile technology and its total access might promote inclusivity and creativity through the cultural adhesive of mobile media. This research aims to explore how being mobile has unrealised potential to change the methods and experiences of making electronic music, to generate a new kind of performer identity and as a consequence lead towards a practitioner model of mobile music

JPEG: the quadruple object

The thesis, together with its practice-research works, presents an object-oriented perspective on the JPEG standard. Using the object-oriented philosophy of Graham Harman as a theoretical and also practical starting point, the thesis looks to provide an account of the JPEG digital object and its enfolding within the governmental scopic regime. The thesis looks to move beyond accounts of digital objects and protocols within software studies that position the object in terms of issues of relationality, processuality and potentiality. From an object-oriented point of view, the digital object must be seen as exceeding its relations, as actual, present and holding nothing in reserve. The thesis presents an account of JPEG starting from that position as well as an object-oriented account of JPEG’s position within the distributed, governmental scopic regime via an analysis of Facebook’s Timeline, tagging and Haystack systems. As part of a practice-research project, the author looked to use that perspective within photographic and broader imaging practices as a spur to new work and also as a “laboratory” to explore Harman’s framework. The thesis presents the findings of those “experiments” in the form of a report alongside practice-research eBooks. These works were not designed to be illustrations of the theory, nor works to be “analysed”. Rather, following the lead of Ian Bogost and Mark Amerika, they were designed to be “philosophical works” in the sense of works that “did” philosophy

Microsoft Ecosystem

Mobile technology landscape has changed drastically in recent times. The change is due to the merging of mobile systems with the Internet and the Web. Mobile devices functions expanded much beyond their traditional use and became part of bigger systems. These systems have been given name ecosystems by using analogy with biological ecosystems. Mobile ecosystems are characterized by integration of devices, applications and services creating a dynamic, living business system. Ecosystem attracts large number of independent application and service developers who can develop and sell their products using application stores. Ecosystem owners provide strategic tools and services which are quickly evolving. This creates very strong drive for innovation in the ecosystem and attracts huge number of users who are willing to pay for new applications and services. Ecosystem owners get huge profits from advertising and profiling the users. This makes mobile ecosystem alive and expanding. There are two existing mobile ecosystems created by Apple and Google which became huge success. This has undermined position of Nokia in the mobile world and challenged the role of Microsoft in the information technology world. In this thesis we analyze efforts of Microsoft to create another mobile ecosystem in which Nokia could play major role. Apple and Google ecosystems are described and evaluated in detail. Components of Microsoft platform are described next and compared with Apple and Google. Challenges for Microsoft to create its own ecosystem are analyzed and conclusions are formulated

Streaming and 3D mapping of agri-data on mobile devices

Farm monitoring and operations generate heterogeneous AGRI-data from a variety of different sources that have the potential to be delivered to users ‘on the go’ and in the field to inform farm decision making. A software framework capable of interfacing with existing web mapping services to deliver in-field farm data on commodity mobile hardware was developed and tested. This raised key research challenges related to: robustness of data steaming methods under typical farm connectivity scenarios, and mapping and 3D rendering of AGRI-data in an engaging and intuitive way. The presentation of AGRI-data in a 3D and interactive context was explored using different visualisation techniques; currently the 2D presentation of AGRI- data is the dominant practice, despite the fact that mobile devices can now support sophisticated 3D graphics via programmable pipelines. The testing found that WebSockets were the most reliable streaming method for high resolution image/texture data. From our focus groups there was no single visualisation technique that was preferred demonstrating that a range of methods is a good way to satisfy a large user base. Improved 3D experience on mobile phones is set to revolutionize the multimedia market and a key challenge is identifying useful 3D visualisation methods and navigation tools that support the exploration of data driven 3D interactive visualisation frameworks for AGRI-data