Orecchio: Extending Body-Language through Actuated Static and Dynamic Auricular Postures

In this paper, we propose using the auricle – the visible part of the ear – as a means of expressive output to extend body language to convey emotional states. With an initial exploratory study, we provide an initial set of dynamic and static auricular postures. Using these results, we examined the relationship between emotions and auricular postures, noting that dynamic postures involving stretching the top helix in fast (e.g., 2Hz) and slow speeds (1Hz) conveyed intense and mild pleasantness while static postures involving bending the side or top helix towards the center of the ear were associated with intense and mild unpleasantness. Based on the results, we developed a prototype (called Orrechio) with miniature motors, custommade robotic arms and other electronic components. A preliminary user evaluation showed that participants feel more comfortable using expressive auricular postures with people they are familiar with, and that it is a welcome addition to the vocabulary of human body language

Mallory 2.0

Abstract Privacy and security features are definitely not the driving forces in the creation and mainstream adoption of online communities. Most people taking part in online social networking (OSN) appear to be unaware of the serious security and privacy implications of sharing their personal information and experiences online, and thus there is no real demand for such innovation. This ignorance and lack of proper security and privacy models opens the door to would-be attackers. Indeed, with their facilities for exchanging messages and sharing content with the other members of the community, they provide a platform for many forms of online crime. This paper gives an overview of the privacy and security risks involved in the social web and discusses some possible solutions

Socially-aware congestion control in ad-hoc networks: Current status and the way forward

Ad-hoc social networks (ASNETs) represent a special type of traditional ad-hoc network in whicha user’s social properties (such as the social connections and communications metadata as wellas application data) are leveraged for offering enhanced services in a distributed infrastructurelessenvironments. However, the wireless medium, due to limited bandwidth, can easily suffer from theproblem of congestion when social metadata and application data are exchanged among nodes—a problem that is compounded by the fact that some nodes may act selfishly and not share itsresources. While a number of congestion control schemes have been proposed for the traditional ad-hoc networks, there has been limited focus on incorporating social awareness into congestion controlschemes. We revisit the existing traditional ad-hoc congestion control and data distribution protocolsand motivate the need for embedding social awareness into these protocols to improve performance.We report that although some work is available in opportunistic network that uses socially-awaretechniques to control the congestion issue, this area is largely unexplored and warrants more researchattention. In this regards, we highlight the current research progress and identify multiple futuredirections of research

Sensing and Visualizing Social Context from Spatial Proximity

The concept of pervasive computing, as introduced by Marc Weiser under the name ubiquitous computing in the early 90s, spurred research into various kinds of context-aware systems and applications. There is a wide range of contextual parameters, including location, time, temperature, devices and people in proximity, which have been part of the initial ideas about context-aware computing. While locational context is already a well understood concept, social context---based on the people around us---proves to be harder to grasp and to operationalize. This work continues the line of research into social context, which is based on the proximity and meeting patterns of people in the physical space. It takes this research out of the lab and out of well controlled situations into our urban environments, which are full of ambiguity and opportunities. The key to this research is the tool that caused dramatic change in individual and collective behavior during the last 20 years and which is a manifestation of many of the ideas of the pervasive computing paradigm: the mobile phone. In this work, the mobile is regarded as a proxy for people. Through it, the social environment becomes accessible to digital measurement and processing. To understand the large amount of data that now becomes available to automatic measurement, we will turn to the discipline of social network analysis. It provides powerful methods, that are able to condense data and extract relevant meaning. Visualization helps to understand and interpret the results. This thesis contains a number of experiments, that demonstrate how the automatic measurement of social proximity data through Bluetooth can be used to measure variables of personal behavior, group behavior and the behavior of groups in relation to places. The principal contributions are: * A methodology to visualize personal social context by using an ego proximity network. Specific episodes can be localized and compared. * method to compare different days in terms of social context, e.g. to support automatic diary applications. * A method to compose social geographic maps. Locations of similar social context are detected and combined. * Functions to measure short-term changes in social activity, based on the distinction between strange and familiar devices. * The characterization of Bluetooth inquiries for social proximity sensing. * A dataset of Bluetooth sightings from an ego perspective in seven different settings. Additionally, some settings feature multiple stationary scanners and Cell-ID measurements. * Soft- and hardware to capture, collect, store and analyze Bluetooth proximity data

Construction kit for computationally enabled textiles

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2006.Includes bibliographical references (p. 87-89).As technology moves forward, electronics have enmeshed with every aspect of daily life. Some pioneers have also embraced electronics as a means of expression and exploration, creating the fields of wearable computing and electronic textiles. While wearable computing and electronic textiles seem superficially connected as fields of investigation, in fact they are currently widely separated. However, as the field of electronic textiles grows and matures, it has become apparent that better tools and techniques are necessary in order for artists and designers interested in using electronic textiles as a means of expression and function to be able to use the full capabilities of the available technology. It remains generally outside the reach of the average designer or artist to create e-textile experiences, thus preventing them from appropriating the technology, and in turn allowing the general public to accept and exploit the technology. There is clearly a need to facilitate this cross-pollination between the technical and design domains both in order to foster greater creativity and depth in the field of electronic textiles, and in order to bring greater social acceptability to wearable computing.(cont.) This thesis introduces behavioral textiles, the intersection of wearable computing and electronic textiles that brings the interactive capability of wearable electronics to electronic textiles. As a means of harnessing this capability, the thesis also presents subTextile, a powerful and novel visual programming language and development. Design guidelines for hardware that can be used with the development environment to create complete behavioral textile systems are also presented. Using a rich, goal-oriented interface, subTextile makes it possible for novices to explore electronic textiles without concern for technical details. This thesis presents the design considerations and motivations that drove the creation of subTextile. Also presented are the result of a preliminary evaluation of the language, done with a sample chosen to represent users with varying capabilities in both the technical and design domains.by Sajid H. Sadi.S.M

Positive expressive technologies for social wellness

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.Drawing on research from the fields of HCI, social and positive psychology, this thesis investigates the design of technologies that encourage the expression of positive emotions. In parallel, it details the deployment of effective design steps to guide, frame and eventually support understandings of positive mental and social usage effects of technology. Different artefacts termed PosiPost have been iteratively developed as exemplars for the discussion and exploration of the ways in which technologies can support positive communication and social sharing. Studies with these technologies have been conducted to explore how these can encourage positive communication and understand how they contribute to social wellness. Specifically, the studies undertaken validate the hypothesis that the sharing of positive emotions as mediated by technology has beneficial social and mental effects. The first stage of the research examined whether and how social technology can be designed for positive affect. A theoretical framework, named THE Medium model was developed to support the design process. Furthermore, design considerations were produced for technologies that encourage the sharing of positive emotions. This latter involved two studies, paper-based and online, which showed the potential for a prefixbased elicitation of positive emotions and drove the design and development of a mobile tool called PosiPost Me (Mobile edition). The second stage of the design process focused on how positive emotions can be mediated by technology in a mobile context and how such tools were used and understood. The iterative design study process continued, resulting in PosiPost Be, a Bluetooth edition, which allows sharing of positive messages with people in close proximity to explore the social and potential positive effects of contextualizing posiposting by adding location as a factor. Results suggest that by using a prefix-strategy, messages of a positive and mundane nature can be shared and mediated by mobile technology. Analysis of the shared messages provides insights into people’s pleasant moments in daily life. A questionnaire instrument named SPOT was developed and used for the measurement of the effects of sharing pleasant moments with the developed mobile expressive technologies in further detail. The results suggest that lightweight positive expressive technologies can have beneficial social wellness effects. In particular, the study showed significant beneficial effects in reducing depressed feelings and increasing social interest in others. Participants also believed that the mobile PosiPost applications supported social connectedness, socio-pleasure, social and positive awareness, and positive thinking

Positive expressive technologies for social wellness

Drawing on research from the fields of HCI, social and positive psychology, this thesis investigates the design of technologies that encourage the expression of positive emotions. In parallel, it details the deployment of effective design steps to guide, frame and eventually support understandings of positive mental and social usage effects of technology. Different artefacts termed PosiPost have been iteratively developed as exemplars for the discussion and exploration of the ways in which technologies can support positive communication and social sharing. Studies with these technologies have been conducted to explore how these can encourage positive communication and understand how they contribute to social wellness. Specifically, the studies undertaken validate the hypothesis that the sharing of positive emotions as mediated by technology has beneficial social and mental effects. The first stage of the research examined whether and how social technology can be designed for positive affect. A theoretical framework, named THE Medium model was developed to support the design process. Furthermore, design considerations were produced for technologies that encourage the sharing of positive emotions. This latter involved two studies, paper-based and online, which showed the potential for a prefixbased elicitation of positive emotions and drove the design and development of a mobile tool called PosiPost Me (Mobile edition). The second stage of the design process focused on how positive emotions can be mediated by technology in a mobile context and how such tools were used and understood. The iterative design study process continued, resulting in PosiPost Be, a Bluetooth edition, which allows sharing of positive messages with people in close proximity to explore the social and potential positive effects of contextualizing posiposting by adding location as a factor. Results suggest that by using a prefix-strategy, messages of a positive and mundane nature can be shared and mediated by mobile technology. Analysis of the shared messages provides insights into people’s pleasant moments in daily life. A questionnaire instrument named SPOT was developed and used for the measurement of the effects of sharing pleasant moments with the developed mobile expressive technologies in further detail. The results suggest that lightweight positive expressive technologies can have beneficial social wellness effects. In particular, the study showed significant beneficial effects in reducing depressed feelings and increasing social interest in others. Participants also believed that the mobile PosiPost applications supported social connectedness, socio-pleasure, social and positive awareness, and positive thinking.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo