617 research outputs found

    Visualisation and auralisation of architectural design in a game engine based collaborative virtual environment

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    This paper describes the development of collaborative virtual environment (CVE) software based on a game engine to support the early stages of design in the context of architectural education. The precedent of narrative drawing technique in architecture is introduced. From this we position the use of a CVE as a means to explore design context in a manner that is not possible when using typical architectural visualization software. Outcomes from software trials are reported that establish the value of working in a real time environment where design iterations can be tested from multiple points of view, and the important role of 3D sound to evoke occupancy and materiality. Negative results are reported in relation to collaborative design functionality and a revised approach based on an integrated project database is described

    Mediated city: Annual review 2012

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    The research projects under Mediated City explore questions that traverse through various disciplines to create new knowledge. Here, design catalyses changes in people’s practices to cross boundary domains, such as art, business, geospatial science, interaction design and creative writing. Common themes under Mediated City are:‱ Activating public engagement in social, environmental and political issues‱ Creating spaces for dialogue and diversity‱ Altering our perception and relationship of place‱ Making histories accessible and meaningful in today’s world.This report documents the 2012 research activities for Mediated City including symposia, conferences, workshops, exhibitions, prototypes, and scholarly outputs including books, book chapters, conference papers, presentations, and journal articles.&nbsp

    The Prospectus of the Invisible University

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    This exhibition and research project, helped by Hardingham, is an updating of the famous Locally Available World Unseen Network (L.A.W.u.N.) project that Greene began in the late-1960s while still in Archigram. The original aim, which has now been substantially revised and mutated, was to look at how newly emerging invisible, trans-spatial communication technologies could lead to a new form of Invisible University as a model for tertiary education. In the interim, much of what was once speculation has now come to pass through the advent of the internet, intranet, text messages, etc. – hence this latest presentation for the 2006 London Architecture Biennale showed what the revised version of the project was becoming. As such it involved taking over a newspaper shop, putting up advertising holdings and posters, holding impromptu workshops, and a number of other discrete outputs. The exhibition installation featured in the local press and raised a good deal of discussion. In terms of workload, Greene was responsible for 90% of the research and presentation material used in the exhibition installation and its ancillary outputs, and Hardingham for the other 10% involved in editing it. This latest research work has constantly been disseminated across the world through exhibitions and lectures, with for instance Greene talking about the Invisible University project in connection with the Archigram exhibition in Mito, Japan (December 2004). Elements of the project have also been exhibited at the Architectural Association, ICA, etc. The ongoing scheme for the Invisible University also featured as the subject for a specially invited interdisciplinary design workshop for the ESPRC Ideas Factory in Middlesbrough (May 2006), set up to look at ideas of designing for uncertainty; this event was jointly organised by Greene and Hardingham, and was then attended by many of Britain’s leading mathematicians and scientists

    Probing streets and the built environment with ambient and community sensing

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    Data has become an important currency in todays world economy. Ephemeral and real-time data from Twitter, Facebook, Google, urban sensors, weather stations, and the Web contain hidden patterns of the city that are useful for informing architectural and urban design

    Real-time recommendations for energy-efficient appliance usage in households

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    According to several studies, the most influencing factor in a household\u27s energy consumption is user behavior. Changing user behavior to improve energy usage leads to efficient energy consumption, saving money for the consumer and being more friendly for the environment. In this work we propose a framework that aims at assisting households in improving their energy usage by providing real-time recommendations for efficient appliance use. The framework allows for the creation of household-specific and appliance-specific energy consumption profiles by analyzing appliance usage patterns. Based on the household profile and the actual electricity use, real-time recommendations notify users on the appliances that can be switched off in order to reduce consumption. For instance, if a consumer forgets their A/C on at a time that it is usually off (e.g., when there is no one at home), the system will detect this as an outlier and notify the consumer. In the ideal scenario, a household has a smart meter monitoring system installed, that records energy consumption at the appliance level. This is also reflected in the datasets available for evaluating such systems. However, in the general case, the household may only have one main meter reading. In this case, non-intrusive load monitoring (NILM) techniques, which monitor a house\u27s energy consumption using only one meter, and data mining algorithms that disaggregate the consumption into appliance level, can be employed. In this paper, we propose an end-to-end solution to this problem, starting with the energy disaggregation process, and the creation of user profiles that are then fed to the pattern mining and recommendation process, that through an intuitive UI allows users to further refine their energy consumption preferences and set goals. We employ the UK-DALE (UK Domestic Appliance-Level Electricity) dataset for our experimental evaluations and the proof-of-concept implementation. The results show that the proposed framework accurately captures the energy consumption profiles of each household and thus the generated recommendations are matching the actual household energy habits and can help reduce their energy consumption by 2–17%

    An aesthetics of touch: investigating the language of design relating to form

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    How well can designers communicate qualities of touch? This paper presents evidence that they have some capability to do so, much of which appears to have been learned, but at present make limited use of such language. Interviews with graduate designer-makers suggest that they are aware of and value the importance of touch and materiality in their work, but lack a vocabulary to fully relate to their detailed explanations of other aspects such as their intent or selection of materials. We believe that more attention should be paid to the verbal dialogue that happens in the design process, particularly as other researchers show that even making-based learning also has a strong verbal element to it. However, verbal language alone does not appear to be adequate for a comprehensive language of touch. Graduate designers-makers’ descriptive practices combined non-verbal manipulation within verbal accounts. We thus argue that haptic vocabularies do not simply describe material qualities, but rather are situated competences that physically demonstrate the presence of haptic qualities. Such competencies are more important than groups of verbal vocabularies in isolation. Design support for developing and extending haptic competences must take this wide range of considerations into account to comprehensively improve designers’ capabilities

    Recent advances in methodology for clinical trials in small populations : the InSPiRe project

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    Where there are a limited number of patients, such as in a rare disease, clinical trials in these small populations present several challenges, including statistical issues. This led to an EU FP7 call for proposals in 2013. One of the three projects funded was the Innovative Methodology for Small Populations Research (InSPiRe) project. This paper summarizes the main results of the project, which was completed in 2017. The InSPiRe project has led to development of novel statistical methodology for clinical trials in small populations in four areas. We have explored new decision-making methods for small population clinical trials using a Bayesian decision-theoretic framework to compare costs with potential benefits, developed approaches for targeted treatment trials, enabling simultaneous identification of subgroups and confirmation of treatment effect for these patients, worked on early phase clinical trial design and on extrapolation from adult to pediatric studies, developing methods to enable use of pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics data, and also developed improved robust meta-analysis methods for a small number of trials to support the planning, analysis and interpretation of a trial as well as enabling extrapolation between patient groups. In addition to scientific publications, we have contributed to regulatory guidance and produced free software in order to facilitate implementation of the novel methods

    Plugin practice: recasting modularity for architects

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    Contemporary digital design practice is reframing a creative dialogue between design and making. Empowered by an increasingly seamless interface between data and material, the domain of the architect is expanding to engage diverse processes across design and fabrication. New practices of prototyping are emerging in which architects creatively extend opportunities for custom production, exploring relationships of form, material, fabrication, and aspects of performance. This research is driven by project work spanning such a broad domain across design and fabrication, through which I have developed a series of prototypes. In these projects I have created, used and appropriated numerous tools and techniques. In this dissertation, I focus on the ways in which I engage with such a diverse toolset, addressing the workflows of projects in order to frame a modularity of process. This modularity operates across multiple scales, from simple functions to more complex systems, and to varying degrees, from discrete elements to fuzzier arrangements. It is not derived from formulas for design but is instead grounded in expertise and experience. It emerges in response to specific demands for resilience and flexibility and frames a practice in which we plug together diverse processes to enable design and prototyping for architecture. The first contribution of this doctorate is to demonstrate a modularity of process and highlighting its role at multiple scales through a set of diagrams. Furthermore, I frame a series of implications of this modularity of process for architecture practice. Modularity is here more than just a means of organisation across design and fabrication. Nor is it employed to improve efficiency, as it is in some areas. Rather this modularity of process is important to enabling the generation and control differentiation, collaboration across fields of knowledge, and exploration of interdependent design criteria. These underpin a plugin practice in which designers can interrogate the ways we calibrate process and outcome, and create and reuse diverse forms of knowledg

    The Modular Garden: towards real-time synthesis of Japanese garden soundscapes

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    This exegesis explains the steps taken in designing The Modular Garden, an artistic impression of a Japanese garden soundscape that uses sound synthesis to generate the audio. The project was undertaken in three main stages that culminate in a sound installation, to be presented at examination. The three design stages of the project were analysis, design and reflection. Analysis was undertaken on recordings taken at two established Japanese gardens located in Tokyo, Kyu Furukawa Teien and Koishikawa Korakuen. This analysis, grounded in techniques taken from the fields of soundscape studies and acoustic ecology, informed the audio events that would be required to compose a Japanese garden soundscape. The eight chosen sound events (suikinkutsu, waterfall, footsteps, crows, pigeons, songbirds, insects and the shakkei) were analysed further and synthesis modules were created that were capable of recreating the sound events. The modules, written using the audio programming language SuperCollider, were designed using a range of synthesis techniques; including additive, subtractive, granular, formant, frequency and amplitude modulation. A composition was created using the eight sound modules. Reflection was undertaken on the modules and their use in the composition. An installation using the modules, and other sound production techniques, will be presented at examination. The installation aims to exhibit lessons learned throughout the undertaking of the project and documented in this exegesis
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