Design of Out-of-the-Lab Science Exhibits for Enabling Learning Experiences: A Research Proposal

The importance of a general public being informed about science and technology has never been greater. Research institutions add to informal science communication with face-to-face events, during which the public interacts with scientific prototypes, functioning as science exhibits, in order to learn about science. The relevance of these out-of-the-lab science exhibits, for enabling the visitor to actively learn through experiences, has neither been explored nor recognised. This article illuminates this relevance, context and background, concluding with a research procedure

Design of Out-of-the-Lab Science Exhibits for Enabling Learning Experiences: A Research Proposal

The importance of a general public being informed about science and technology has never been greater. Research institutions add to informal science communication with face-to-face events, during which the public interacts with scientific prototypes, functioning as science exhibits, in order to learn about science. The relevance of these out-of-the-lab science exhibits, for enabling the visitor to actively learn through experiences, has neither been explored nor recognised. This article illuminates this relevance, context and background, concluding with a research procedure

Design of Out-of-the-Lab Science Exhibits for Enabling Learning Experiences: A Research Proposal

The importance of a general public being informed about science and technology has never been greater. Research institutions add to informal science communication with face-to-face events, during which the public interacts with scientific prototypes, functioning as science exhibits, in order to learn about science. The relevance of these out-of-the-lab science exhibits, for enabling the visitor to actively learn through experiences, has neither been explored nor recognised. This article illuminates this relevance, context and background, concluding with a research procedure

What Early User Involvement Could Look Like—Developing Technology Applications for Piano Teaching and Learning

Numerous technological solutions have been proposed to promote piano learning and teaching, but very few with market success. We are convinced that users’ needs should be the starting point for an effective and transdisciplinary development process of piano-related Tactile Internet with Human-in-the-Loop (TaHIL) applications. Thus, we propose to include end users in the initial stage of technology development. We gathered insights from adult piano teachers and students through an online survey and digital interviews. Three potential literature-based solutions have been visualized as scenarios to inspire participants throughout the interviews. Our main findings indicate that potential end users consider posture and body movements, teacher–student communication, and self-practice as crucial aspects of piano education. Further insights resulted in so-called acceptance requirements for each scenario, such as enabling meaningful communication in distance teaching, providing advanced data on a performer’s body movement for increased well-being, and improving students’ motivation for self-practice, all while allowing or even promoting artistic freedom of expression and having an assisting instead of judging character. By putting the users in the center of the fuzzy front end of technology development, we have gone a step further toward concretizing TaHIL applications that may contribute to the routines of piano teaching and learning

Sensors and actuators

This chapter addresses sensors and actuators for three main sensory modalities: hearing, vision, and touch. Technology in recent years was often focused on flat displays, e.g., or smartwatches. In contrast, the focus of this chapter is on wearable technologies of the post-smartphone area, allowing rich sensory input and output modalities. New approaches for tactile feedback include fiber-based sensors and actuators for e-textiles as well as complex 3D-fiber structures. Wearable sound sources and innovative sound-projection solutions using perceptual knowledge can replace complex distributed channel systems. One way to reduce latencies in vision are Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED) eyeables, that have the potential to significantly improving reaction time and power consumption. Combining the expertise of human perception and action with that on sensors and actuators contributes to augmented perception and interaction to exchange perceptual knowledge, which is needed for holistic sensor and actuator development. Moreover, sensors and actuators combined with tactile electronics in terms of flexible electronics and circuits for interfacing/processing explore new technologies for haptic and robotic systems