There's a monster in my kitchen: using aversive feedback to motivate behaviour change

In this paper we argue that “persuasive technologies,” developed to motivate behaviour change in users, have so far failed to exploit the established body of empirical research within behavioural science. We propose that persuasive technologies may benefit from both adapting to individual preferences, and a constructive use of aversive, in addition to appetitive, feedback. We detail an example application that demonstrates how this approach can be incorporated into an application designed to train users to adopt more environmentally friendly behaviours in their domestic kitchens

Wearable Computing for Health and Fitness: Exploring the Relationship between Data and Human Behaviour

Health and fitness wearable technology has recently advanced, making it easier for an individual to monitor their behaviours. Previously self generated data interacts with the user to motivate positive behaviour change, but issues arise when relating this to long term mention of wearable devices. Previous studies within this area are discussed. We also consider a new approach where data is used to support instead of motivate, through monitoring and logging to encourage reflection. Based on issues highlighted, we then make recommendations on the direction in which future work could be most beneficial

The pervasive nature of heterodox economic spaces at a time of neoliberal crisis: towards a “postneoliberal” anarchist future

Re-reading the economic landscape of the western world as a largely non-capitalist landscape composed of economic plurality, this paper demonstrates how economic relations in contemporary western society are often embedded in non-commodified practices such as mutual aid, reciprocity, co-operation and inclusion. By highlighting how the long-overlooked lived practices in the contemporary world of production, consumption and exchange are heavily grounded in the very types and essences of non-capitalist economic relations that have long been proposed by anarchistic visions of employment and organization, this paper displays that such visions are far from utopian: they are embedded firmly in the present. Through focusing on the pervasive nature of heterodox economic spaces in the UK in particular, some ideas about how to develop an anarchist future of work and organization will be proposed. The outcome is to begin to engage in the demonstrative construction of a future based on mutualism and autonomous modes of organization and representation. © 2012 The Authors. Antipode© 2012 Antipode Foundation Ltd.

Determinants of successful aging: implications from Japan

W obliczu zjawiska wydłużania się średniej długości ludzkiego życia, ważne jest, by naukowo zająć się problematyką jego jakości, ponieważ dłuższemu życiu nie zawsze towarzyszy dobre zdrowie. Ludzie żyją dłużej, ale ich stan zdrowia może się pogarszać. Optymistyczny jest fakt, że ludność Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej, w tym Polacy, żyją coraz dłużej i dłużej pozostają w dobrej kondycji, pojawiają się jednak problemy charakterystyczne dla szybko starzejących się społeczeństw. Z tego punktu widzenia Japonia może służyć jako cenny przykład do zrozumienia wyzwań stojących przed starzejącym się społeczeństwem. Rząd japoński zogniskował swoją uwagę na integracji społecznej (problemie niesprawiedliwego i bolesnego wykluczenia z powodu podeszłego wieku), która okazuje się niezmiernie istotna dla starszych osób. Ponadto w Japonii funkcjonują odpowiednie programy państwowe i prywatne, a także opracowano mechanizmy pozwalające cieszyć się przywilejami wieku poprzez promowanie aktywnego stylu życia. Poza tym obserwuje się rosnące zainteresowanie nowymi technologiami, przede wszystkim robotami, wykorzystywanymi m.in. w dziedzinie opieki nad seniorami. Podsumowując, ponieważ zjawisko starzenia się społeczeństw jest powszechne i ostatecznie będzie dotyczyć każdego kraju na świecie, przypadek Japonii może służyć jako przykład empiryczny dla innych krajów, które wkrótce staną przed podobnymi wyzwaniami. Autorka stwierdza, że wskazane jest podejmowanie większej liczby przedsięwzięć, dzięki którym można szerzyć wiedzę i wymieniać się doświadczeniami i właśnie konferencja „2014 – New Opportunities for Japan and V-4 Cooperation” znakomicie wpisuje się swoimi założeniami w ten nurt.The organizers of the conference wish to acknowledge the National Bank of Poland’s generous funding of this publication

Feasibility and performance analysis of middleware support for a situated virtual-physical civic engagement platform

Abstract. With the prevalent ubiquitous computing technologies, it is possible to explore novel solutions for supporting civic engagement as a set of urban practices. One interesting urban practice is the soapbox, traditionally conceived as wooden structure, from where to hold impromptu speeches. For this thesis, a novel soapbox prototype with ubiquitous computing mediated technologies is introduced, with our focus on the feasibility and performance analysis of its middleware support, investigating how our middleware is able to meet the goals of a situated virtual-physical civic engagement platform. Based on our empirical evaluations, it is demonstrated that our prototype is effective to support civic engagement and serve purpose of continuously soapbox streaming

Increasing Passersby Engagement with Public Large Interactive Displays: A Study of Proxemics and Conation

This is the author’s version of the work. It is posted here by permission of ACM for your personal use. Not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in the Proceedings of the 2018 International Conference on Human Factors on Computing Systems on the ACM Digital Library at https://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3279778.3279789Prior research has shown that large interactive displays de- ployed in public spaces are often underutilized, or even un- noticed, phenomena connected to ‘interaction’ and ‘display blindness’, respectively. To better understand how designers can mitigate these issues, we conducted a field experiment that compared how different visual cues impacted engagement with a public display. The deployed interfaces were designed to progressively reveal more information about the display and entice interaction through the use of visual content designed to evoke direct or indirect conation (the mental faculty related to purpose or will to perform an action), and different ani- mation triggers (random or proxemic). Our results show that random triggers were more effective than proxemic triggers at overcoming display and interaction blindness. Our study of conation – the first we are aware of – found that “conceptual” visuals designed to evoke indirect conation were also useful in attracting people’s attention.Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canad

Media sharing in an open network of place-based displays

In this study, we aim to uncover emerging media practices for open place-based displays and understand how people appropriate the opportunities created by this new medium. Based on usage data from 43 displays, we study the role played by different publication paradigms, more specifically subscription of pre-defined content channels, integration of arbitrary content sources from social media and direct media creation. The results suggest that these different publication paradigms can all play an important role in an open model for public displays and that they complement each other in a very flexible way. This seems to confirm that openness can represent an important step towards more effective and more relevant uses of large screen displaysProject 11304 (16/SI/2015) , supported by Norte Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A Community-Based Participatory Action Research for Roma Health Justice in a Deprived District in Spain

Addressing health disparities and promoting health equity for Roma has been a challenge. The Roma are the largest disadvantaged ethnic minority population in Europe and have been the victims of deep social and economic injustices, institutional discrimination, and structural antigypsyism over many centuries. This has resulted in a much worse health status than their non-Roma counterparts. Current strategies based on ameliorative and top-down approaches to service delivery have resulted in paradoxical e_ects that solidify health disparities, since they do not e_ectively address the problems of vulnerable Roma groups. Following a health justice approach, we present a community-based participatory action research case study generated by a community and university partnership intended to address power imbalances and build collaboration among local stakeholders. This case study involved a group of health providers, Roma residents, researchers, Roma community organizations, and other stakeholders in the Poligono Sur, a neighborhood of Seville, Spain. The case study comprises four phases: (1) identifying Roma health assets, (2) empowering Roma community through sociopolitical awareness, (3) promoting alliances between Roma and community resources/institutions, and (4) building a common agenda for promoting Roma health justice. We highlighted best practices for developing processes to influence Roma health equity in local health policy agendas

A Framework for Responsive Environments

In this paper, we define Responsive Environments as adaptive ven- ues that possess context awareness, deliver ubiquitous computing and natural interaction. They also yield a pre-determined User Experience. We propose a framework for the development and assessment of such environments and we discuss applying the framework to some examples. Highlighting benefits and usefulness of the framework