Proceedings of the Designing interactive secure systems workshop (DISS 2012).

In recent years, the field of usable security has attracted researchers from HCI and Information Security, and led to a better understanding of the interplay between human factors and security mechanisms. Despite these advances, designing systems which are both secure in, and appropriate for, their contexts of use continues to frustrate both researchers and practitioners. One reason is a misunderstanding of the role that HCI can play in the design of secure systems. A number of eminent security researchers and practitioners continue to espouse the need to treat people as the weakest link, and encourage designers to build systems that Homer Simpson can use. Unfortunately, treating users as a problem can limit the opportunities for innovation when people are engaged as part of a solution. Similarly, while extreme characters (such as Homer) can be useful for envisaging different modes of interaction, when taken out of context they risk disenfranchising the very people the design is meant to support. Better understanding the relationship between human factors and the design of secure systems is an important step forward, but many design research challenges still remain. There is growing evidence that HCI design artefacts can be effective at supporting secure system design, and that some alignment exists between HCI, security, and software engineering activities. However, more is needed to understand how broader insights from the interactive system design and user experience communities might also find traction in secure design practice. For these insights to lead to design practice innovation, we also need usability and security evaluation activities that better support interaction design, together with software tools that augment, rather than hinder, these design processes. Last, but not least, we need to share experiences and anecdotes about designing usable and secure systems, and reflect on the different ways of performing and evaluating secure interaction design research. The objective of this workshop is to act as a forum for those interested in the design of interactive secure systems. By bringing together a like-minded community of researchers and practitioners, we hope to share knowledge gleaned from recent research, as well as experiences designing secure and usable systems in practice

Processpatching: defining new methods in aRt&D

In the context of a rapidly changing domain of contemporary electronic art practice- where the speed of technological innovation and the topicality of art 'process as research' methods are both under constant revision- the process of collaboration between art, computer science and engineering is an important addition to existing 'R&D'. Scholarly as well as practical exploration of artistic methods, viewed in relation to the field of new technology, can be seen to enable and foster innovation in both the conceptualisation and practice of the electronic arts. At the same time, citing new media art in the context of technological innovation brings a mix of scientific and engineering issues to the fore and thereby demands an extended functionality that may lead to R&D, as technology attempts to take account of aesthetic and social considerations in its re-development. This new field of new media or electronic art R&D is different from research and development aimed at practical applications of new technologies as we see them in everyday life. A next step for Research and Development in Art (aRt&D) is a formalisation of the associated work methods, as an essential ingredient for interdisciplinary collaboration. This study investigates how electronic art patches together processes and methods from the arts, engineering and computer science environments. It provides a framework describing the electronic art methods to improve collaboration by informing others about one's artistic research and development approach. This investigation is positioned in the electronic art laboratory where new alliances with other disciplines are established. It provides information about the practical and theoretical aspects of the research and development processes of artists. The investigation addresses fundamental questions about the 'research and development methods' (discussed and defined at length in these pages), of artists who are involved in interdisciplinary collaborations amongst and between the fields of Art, Computer Science, and Engineering. The breadth of the fields studied necessarily forced a tight focus on specific issues in the literature, addressed herein through a series of focused case studies which demonstrate the points of synergy and divergence between the fields of artistic research and development, in a wider art&D' context. The artistic methods proposed in this research include references from a broad set of fields (e. g. Technology, Media Arts, Theatre and Performance, Systems Theories, the Humanities, and Design Practice) relevant to and intrinsically intertwined with this project and its placement in an interdisciplinary knowledge domain. The aRt&D Matrix provides a complete overview of the observed research and development methods in electronic arts, including references to related disciplines and methods from other fields. The new Matrix developed and offered in this thesis also provides an instrument for analysing the interdisciplinary collaboration process that exclusively reflects the information we need for the overview of the team constellation. The tool is used to inform the collaborators about the backgrounds of the other participants and thus about the expected methods and approaches. It provides a map of the bodies of knowledge and expertise represented in any given cross-disciplinary team, and thus aims to lay the groundwork for a future aRt&D framework of use to future scholars and practitioners alike

CUBICA: An Example of Mixed Reality

Nowadays, one of the hot issues in the agenda is, undoubtedly, the concept of Sustainable Computing. There are several technologies in the intersection of Sustainable Computing and Ambient Intelligence. Among them we may mention “Human-Centric Interfaces for Ambient Intelligence” and “Collaborative Smart Objects” technologies. In this paper we present our efforts in developing these technologies for “Mixed Reality”, a paradigm where Virtual Reality and Ambient Intelligence meet. Cubica is a mixed reality educational application that integrates virtual worlds with tangible interfaces. The application is focused on teaching computer science, in particular “sorting algorithms”. The tangible interface is used to simplify the abstract concept of array, while the virtual world is used for delivering explanations. This educational application has been tested with students at different educational levels in secondary education, having obtained promising results in terms of increased motivation for learning and better understanding of abstract concepts.We want to thank the faculty of the I.E.S. “Joan Coromines”, at Benicarló (Valencia, Spain), for their support while evaluating the system. In particular, the contribution of Lorenzo Otero was essential during that process. The work described in this paper was partially funded by the Spanish National Plan of I+D+i (TIN2010-17344), and by the Spanish Ministry of Industry (TSI-020100-2010-743)

The role of the teacher in computer-supported collaborative inquiry learning

The article presents an analysis of practices in teaching with computer-supported collaborative inquiry learning environments. We describe the role of the teacher in computer-supported collaborative inquiry learning by five principles which span the whole instructional process, from the preparation of the lesson up to the assessment of learning achievement. For successful implementation of computer-supported projects the teacher has to (1) envision the lesson, (2) enable collaboration, (3) encourage students, (4) ensure learning, and (5) evaluate achievement. We analyse classroom scenarios provided by eight teachers or mentors who implemented one of four different approaches developed by multimedia researchers: WISE, Modeling Across the Curriculum, Co-Lab, or ReCoIL. Teachers or mentors responded to a semistructured questionnaire about their experiences in implementing the inquiry lesson. A comparison of different classroom scenarios according to the mentioned five principles informed our analysis of teacher activities that contribute to the success of student inquiry while using such technology-enhanced approaches. We conclude with a discussion of the often neglected role of the teacher in computer-supported learning

Toward New Ecologies of Cyberphysical Representational Forms, Scales, and Modalities

Research on tangible user interfaces commonly focuses on tangible interfaces acting alone or in comparison with screen-based multi-touch or graphical interfaces. In contrast, hybrid approaches can be seen as the norm for established mainstream interaction paradigms. This dissertation describes interfaces that support complementary information mediations, representational forms, and scales toward an ecology of systems embodying hybrid interaction modalities. I investigate systems combining tangible and multi-touch, as well as systems combining tangible and virtual reality interaction. For each of them, I describe work focusing on design and fabrication aspects, as well as work focusing on reproducibility, engagement, legibility, and perception aspects