RealitySketch: Embedding Responsive Graphics and Visualizations in AR through Dynamic Sketching

We present RealitySketch, an augmented reality interface for sketching interactive graphics and visualizations. In recent years, an increasing number of AR sketching tools enable users to draw and embed sketches in the real world. However, with the current tools, sketched contents are inherently static, floating in mid air without responding to the real world. This paper introduces a new way to embed dynamic and responsive graphics in the real world. In RealitySketch, the user draws graphical elements on a mobile AR screen and binds them with physical objects in real-time and improvisational ways, so that the sketched elements dynamically move with the corresponding physical motion. The user can also quickly visualize and analyze real-world phenomena through responsive graph plots or interactive visualizations. This paper contributes to a set of interaction techniques that enable capturing, parameterizing, and visualizing real-world motion without pre-defined programs and configurations. Finally, we demonstrate our tool with several application scenarios, including physics education, sports training, and in-situ tangible interfaces.Comment: UIST 202

MISPE – Mobile Information Sharing in the Presentation Environment

While many studies have developed systems for use by students in educational settings very few of these systems can be implemented practically in a third world country like South Africa. Furthermore, the body of research into developing useful systems for educators and students is very small. This report outlines the design and implement of a high fidelity prototype system which will aid educators and students in performing work tasks. The system described allows educators to distribute presentations via a wireless link to a client system. In addition educators are able to ask questions of students and also to answer student questions. Students on the other hand are able to receive the lecture slides, make annotations on these, ask question on these, answer lecturer questions and vote on lecturer polls. All of the above are done electronically across the wireless link. This report also describes a research study that was conducted to ascertain the usability and usefulness of this system and also the abilities of the backbone support network. Naturalistic observations were conducted. The QUIS questionnaire for assessing usability was also administered to participants along with a questionnaire to assess the usefulness of the system. The network was tested by means of simulations. It was found that the educators and students found the system to be usable and useful, while the network provides sufficient support to the client and server parts

A framework for the design, prototyping and evaluation of mobile interfaces for domestic environments

The idea of the smart home has been discussed for over three decades, but it has yet to achieve mass-market adoption. This thesis asks the question Why is my home not smart? It highlights four main areas that are barriers to adoption, and concentrates on a single one of these issues: usability. It presents an investigation that focuses on design, prototyping and evaluation of mobile interfaces for domestic environments resulting in the development of a novel framework. A smart home is the physical realisation of a ubiquitous computing system for domestic living. The research area offers numerous benefits to end-users such as convenience, assistive living, energy saving and improved security and safety. However, these benefits have yet to become accessible due to a lack of usable smart home control interfaces. This issue is considered a key reason for lack of adoption and is the focus for this thesis. Within this thesis, a framework is introduced as a novel approach for the design, prototyping and evaluation of mobile interfaces for domestic environments. Included within this framework are three components. Firstly, the Reconfigurable Multimedia Environment (RME), a physical evaluation and observation space for conducting user centred research. Secondly, Simulated Interactive Devices (SID), a video-based development and control tool for simulating interactive devices commonly found within a smart home. Thirdly, iProto, a tool that facilitates the production and rapid deployment of high fidelity prototypes for mobile touch screen devices. This framework is evaluated as a round-tripping toolchain for prototyping smart home control and found to be an efficient process for facilitating the design and evaluation of such interfaces

Interaktion mit Medienfassaden : Design und Implementierung interaktiver Systeme für große urbane Displays

Media facades are a prominent example of the digital augmentation of urban spaces. They denote the concept of turning the surface of a building into a large-scale urban screen. Due to their enormous size, they require interaction at a distance and they have a high level of visibility. Additionally, they are situated in a highly dynamic urban environment with rapidly changing conditions, which results in settings that are neither comparable, nor reproducible. Altogether, this makes the development of interactive media facade installations a challenging task. This thesis investigates the design of interactive installations for media facades holistically. A theoretical analysis of the design space for interactive installations for media facades is conducted to derive taxonomies to put media facade installations into context. Along with this, a set of observations and guidelines is provided to derive properties of the interaction from the technical characteristics of an interactive media facade installation. This thesis further provides three novel interaction techniques addressing the form factor and resolution of the facade, without the need for additionally instrumenting the space around the facades. The thesis contributes to the design of interactive media facade installations by providing a generalized media facade toolkit for rapid prototyping and simulating interactive media facade installations, independent of the media facade’s size, form factor, technology and underlying hardware.Die wachsende Zahl an Medienfassenden ist ein eindrucksvolles Beispiel für die digitale Erweiterung des öffentlichen Raums. Medienfassaden beschreiben die Möglichkeit, die Oberfläche eines Gebäudes in ein digitales Display zu wandeln. Ihre Größe erfordert Interaktion aus einer gewissen Distanz und führt zu einer großen Sichtbarkeit der dargestellten Inhalte. Medienfassaden-Installationen sind bedingt durch ihre dynamische Umgebung nur schwerlich vergleich- und reproduzierbar. All dies macht die Entwicklung von Installationen für Medienfassaden zu einer großen Herausforderung. Diese Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit der Entwicklung interaktiver Installationen für Medienfassaden. Es wird eine theoretische Analyse des Design-Spaces interaktiver Medienfassaden-Installationen durchgeführt und es werden Taxonomien entwickelt, die Medienfassaden-Installationen in Bezug zueinander setzen. In diesem Zusammenhang werden ausgehend von den technischen Charakteristika Eigenschaften der Interaktion erarbeitet. Zur Interaktion mit Medienfassaden werden drei neue Interaktionstechniken vorgestellt, die Form und Auflösung der Fassade berücksichtigen, ohne notwendigerweise die Umgebung der Fassade zu instrumentieren. Die Ergebnisse dieser Arbeit verbessern darüber hinaus die Entwicklung von Installationen für Medienfassaden, indem ein einheitliches Medienfassaden-Toolkit zum Rapid-Prototyping und zur Simulation interaktiver Installationen vorgestellt wird, das unabhängig von Größe und Form der Medienfassade sowie unabhängig von der verwendeten Technologie und der zugrunde liegenden Hardware ist

Integrating Technology With Student-Centered Learning

Reviews research on technology's role in personalizing learning, its integration into curriculum-based and school- or district-wide initiatives, and the potential of emerging digital technologies to expand student-centered learning. Outlines implications

Security awareness of computer users: A game based learning approach

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.The research reported in this thesis focuses on developing a framework for game design to protect computer users against phishing attacks. A comprehensive literature review was conducted to understand the research domain, support the proposed research work and identify the research gap to fulfil the contribution to knowledge. Two studies and one theoretical design were carried out to achieve the aim of this research reported in this thesis. A quantitative approach was used in the first study while engaging both quantitative and qualitative approaches in the second study. The first study reported in this thesis was focused to investigate the key elements that should be addressed in the game design framework to avoid phishing attacks. The proposed game design framework was aimed to enhance the user avoidance behaviour through motivation to thwart phishing attack. The results of this study revealed that perceived threat, safeguard effectiveness, safeguard cost, self-efficacy, perceived severity and perceived susceptibility elements should be incorporated into the game design framework for computer users to avoid phishing attacks through their motivation. The theoretical design approach was focused on designing a mobile game to educate computer users against phishing attacks. The elements of the framework were addressed in the mobile game design context. The main objective of the proposed mobile game design was to teach users how to identify phishing website addresses (URLs), which is one of many ways of identifying a phishing attack. The mobile game prototype was developed using MIT App inventor emulator. In the second study, the formulated game design framework was evaluated through the deployed mobile game prototype on a HTC One X touch screen smart phone. Then a discussion is reported in this thesis investigating the effectiveness of the developed mobile game prototype compared to traditional online learning to thwart phishing threats. Finally, the research reported in this thesis found that the mobile game is somewhat effective in enhancing the user’s phishing awareness. It also revealed that the participants who played the mobile game were better able to identify fraudulent websites compared to the participants who read the website without any training. Therefore, the research reported in this thesis determined that perceived threat, safeguard effectiveness, safeguard cost, self-efficacy, perceived threat and perceived susceptibility elements have a significant impact on avoidance behaviour through motivation to thwart phishing attacks as addressed in the game design framework

Interactive Placemaking: Creativity and User Experience at Urban Installations

Interactive placemaking offers many new opportunities for the consideration and design of urban place, particularly through offering engagement with the creativity and experiences of local populations. This thesis explores the recent area of interactive placemaking from analytical and creative perspectives in developing a framework for both describing behaviours and producing design guidelines. The thesis begins by drawing together and building on existing work in HCI and Design to provide an initial framework for the analysis of interactive place. The framework combines theoretical and practical threads to look at two central questions: how do people behave in interactive places, and how do we design such interactive places? The assumption underlying the thesis is that users' behaviours in public spaces can be observed, abstracted, and formalised to the extent that designers can use in designing and evaluating interactive public installations. In observational studies of four interactive installations the thesis progressively develops the original framework so that it is usable, accessible and understandable by designers. The thesis then goes on to evaluate how twenty design students used the framework to realise a number of public interactive installations in the city of Chicago. The thesis concludes by combining insights from existing research and insights from the studies conducted to present a comprehensive and robust framework structure. The main contribution of the thesis is thus a new generative and evaluative framework for interactive placemaking

Very Important Game People in the History of Computer and Video Games

This thesis covers the history of 30 very important game people (in alphabetical order): David Arneson, Ralph Baer, Daniel Bunten, Nolan Bushnell, John Carmack, Chris Crawford, Richard Garriott, Gary Gygax, Trip Hawkins, Rob Hubbard, Toru Iwatani, Eugene Jarvis, Ken Kutaragi, Ed Logg, Sid Meier, Jeff Minter, Shigeru Miyamoto, Peter Molyneux, Yuji Naka, Alexey Pajitnov, John Romero, Hironobu Sakaguchi, Chris Stamper, Tim Stamper, Yu Suzuki, Satoshi Tajiri, Ken Williams, Roberta Williams, Will Wright and Gunpei Yokoi. It includes their background, their most important games and game-related work. It also provides information about the companies they worked for and the people they worked with. The thesis was created by gathering information from large number of sources, including books, internet, magazines, games and contacting some of the actual people. The thesis also contains a timeline of the most important events in the history of computer and video games and a chapter on the precursors of videogames, namely money game machines and pinball. The thesis is illustrated with several hundred pictures