Intergenerational interpretation of the Internet of Things

This report investigates how different generations within a household interpret individual members’ data generated by the Internet of Things (IoT). Adopting a mixed methods approach, we are interested in interpretations of the IoT by teenagers, their parents and grandparents, and how they understand and interact with the kinds of data that might be generated by IoT devices. The first part of this document is a technical review that outlines the key existing and envisaged technologies that make up the IoT. It explores the definition and scope of the Internet of Things. Hardware, networking, intelligent objects and Human-Computer Interaction implications are all discussed in detail. The second section focuses on the human perspective, looking at psychological and sociological issues relating to the interpretation of information generated by the IoT. Areas such as privacy, data ambiguity, ageism, and confirmation bias are explored. The third section brings both aspects together, examining how technical and social aspects of the IoT interact in four specific application domains: energy monitoring, groceries and shopping, physical gaming, and sharing experiences. This section also presents three household scenarios developed to communicate and explore the complexities of integrating IoT technologies into family life. The final section draws together all the findings and suggests future research

How to tell stories using visualization: strategies towards narrative visualization

Os benefícios da utilização das narrativas são desde há muito conhecidos e o seu potencial para simplificar conceitos, transmitir valores culturais e experiências, criar ligações emocionais e capacidade para ajudar a reter a informação tem sido explorado em diferentes áreas. As narrativas não são só a principal forma como as pessoas obtêm o sentido do mundo, mas também a forma mais fácil que encontrámos para partilhar informações complexas. Devido ao seu potencial, as narrativas foram recentemente abordadas na área da Visualização de Informação e do Conhecimento, muitas vezes apelidada de Visualização Narrativa. Esta questão é particularmente importante para os media, uma das áreas que tem impulsionado a investigação em Visualização Narrativa. A necessidade de incorporar histórias nas visualizações surge da necessidade de partilhar dados complexos de um modo envolvente. Hoje em dia somos confrontados com a elevada quantidade de informação disponível, um desafio difícil de resolver. Os avanços da tecnologia permitiram ir além das formas tradicionais de narrativa e de representação de dados, dando-nos meios mais atraentes e sofisticados para contar histórias. Nesta tese, exploro os benefícios da introdução de narrativas nas visualizações. Adicionalmente também exploro formas de combinar histórias com a visualizações e métodos eficientes para representar e dar sentido aos dados de uma forma que permite que as pessoas se relacionem com a informação. Esta investigação está bastante próxima da área do jornalismo, no entanto estas técnicas podem ser aplicadas em diferente áreas (educação, visualização científica, etc.). Para explorar ainda mais este tema foi adotada um avaliação que utiliza diferentes metodologias como a tipologia, vários casos de estudo, um estudo com grupos de foco, e ainda estudos de design e análise de técnicas.The benefits of storytelling are long-known and its potential to simplify concepts, convey cultural values and experiences, create emotional connection, and capacity to help retain information has been explored in di erent areas, such as journalism, education, marketing, and others. Narratives not only have been the main way people make sense of the world, but also the easiest way humans found out to share complex information. Due to its potential narratives have also recently been approached in the area of Information and Knowledge Visualization, several times being referred to as Narrative Visualization. This matter is also particularly important for news media, one of the areas that has been pushing the research on Narrative Visualization. The necessity to incorporate storytelling in visualizations arises from the need to share complex data in a way that is engaging. Nowadays we also have the challenge of the high amount of information available, which can be hard to cope with. Advances in technology have enabled us to go beyond the traditional forms of storytelling and representing data, giving us more attractive and sophisticated means to tell stories. In this dissertation, I explore the benefits of infusing visualizations with narratives. In addition I also present ways of combining storytelling with visualization and e cient methods to represent and make sense of data in a way that allows people to relate with the information. This research is closely related to journalism, but these techniques can be applied to completely di erent areas (education, scientific visualization, etc.). To further explore this topic a mixedmethod evaluation that consists of a typology, several case studies and a focus group study was chosen, as well as design studies and techniques review. This dissertation is intended to contribute to the evolving understanding of the field of narrative visualization

Proceedings of the CUNY Games Conference 4.0: The Interactive Course

Proceedings of the CUNY Games Conference, held from January 22-23, 2018, at the CUNY Graduate Center and Borough of Manhattan Community College. Critical Play with History (Panel) - Composition & Storytelling - Health & Cognitive Sciences - Gaming Anthropology: Teaching Culture and Power Through Games and Design (Panel) - Twine & Writing Games - Easy Ideas II - STEM Games - Global Games for Change Catalog (Panel) - Comics & Active Learning - Fact Checking & Research - Computer Science & Game Design - SimGlobal: Building a Serious Roleplay Course for the Social Sciences (Panel) - Role Playing Games, Narrative, & Story - Course Review Through Games - Business & Finance Games - Game Design and Programming in Unity - What’s Your Game Plan? - The Allure of Play in the Classroo

Playing at a Distance

An essential exploration of video game aesthetic that decenters the human player and challenges what it means to play. Do we play video games or do video games play us? Is nonhuman play a mere paradox or the future of gaming? And what do video games have to do with quantum theory? In Playing at a Distance, Sonia Fizek engages with these and many more daunting questions, forging new ways to think and talk about games and play that decenter the human player and explore a variety of play formats and practices that require surprisingly little human action. Idling in clicker games, wandering in walking simulators, automating gameplay with bots, or simply watching games rather than playing them—Fizek shows how these seemingly marginal cases are central to understanding how we play in the digital age. Introducing the concept of distance, Fizek reorients our view of computer-mediated play. To “play at a distance,” she says, is to delegate the immediate action to the machine and to become participants in an algorithmic spectacle. Distance as a media aesthetic framework enables the reader to come to terms with the ambiguity and aesthetic diversity of play. Drawing on concepts from philosophy, media theory, and posthumanism, as well as cultural and film studies, Playing at a Distance invites a wider understanding of what digital games and gaming are in all their diverse experiences and forms. In challenging the common perception of video games as inherently interactive, the book contributes to our understanding of the computer's influence on practices of play—and prods us to think more broadly about what it means to play

Make Room for Video Games: Exergames and the "Ideal Woman".

This study, a textual analysis, examines the social and cultural construction of the ideal woman in the contemporary exergames ecology, during the years of 2006-2014. This time period has been called a “casual revolution,” where, beginning with the Nintendo Wii, casual video games have permeated our culture as a technology designed for everyone (Juul 2010). Exergames are a genre of casual games that are designed for the primary purpose of fitness and health. Today, video game culture is an exclusionary boy’s club, and studies have mainly focused on over displays of misogyny, overlooking more subtle displays. The following research questions are answered: How do contemporary, console-based exergames and related paratexts define what it means to be a woman in video game culture? What does this construction reveal about contemporary cultural ideals about women, technology, and domestic space? How does the socio-historical context inform this construction of womanhood? By examining exergames and related paratexts, including advertisements, game boxes, articles and reviews, this study found that exergames construct adult women through a complex and contradictory blend traditional and modern notions of womanhood. In particular, the ideal woman construct is a covert form of misogyny because it invites adult women to participate, but only a particular segment of women. This ultimately excludes the majority of women from gaming culture, narrowly defining who can and cannot participate. There are several reasons why this is the case. First, this is the result of the broader narratives in the misogynist, exclusionary gaming culture. In addition, this construct draws from traditional notions of gendered work and leisure within the home. Finally, this is a symptom of the socio-cultural context of the 2000s, in order to justify video games as a “good thing” for women and redress what the genre of video games has been blamed for in our culture.PhDCommunication StudiesUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/111350/1/jglange_1.pd