Cartographic Interfaces for Hybrid Spaces: Communication Design in the Spatial turn.

Marco Quaggiotto Research Fellow Politecnico di Milano Italy [email protected] Giovanni Baule Full Professor Politecnico di Milano Italy [email protected] The paradigm brought by the Spatial turn and its merging of material and immaterial spaces in a new hybrid space, together with the widespread use of geolocalisation, establishes a deep connection between everyday actions and their immediate and constant geo-spatial positioning. In this context, Communication Design is required to provide access to a hybrid territory that mixes physical locations with the immaterial qualities of context and information. Maps, as interfaces to the spatial dimension, provide tools to represent, narrate, access and act on the complexity of the territory. As narratives, maps are able to address the complexity of space providing shared abstractions and virtual spaces of interpretation. As tools, maps build synthetic spaces for action, which allow manipulating virtual territories that merge real and abstract qualities for specific purposes. As containers, maps reveal accumulations of hidden resources, making implicit contents readable. In a scenario in which digital tools drive design actions toward the design of representation processes, the need is that to supply methods and tools capable of managing narrative and instrumental components of cultural artefacts. Digital cartography, from a Design perspective, is not only about portraying the complexity of space, but also about designing interfaces to provide access to hybrid spaces

Wearable proximity sensors for monitoring a mass casualty incident exercise: a feasibility study

Over the past several decades, naturally occurring and man-made mass casualty incidents (MCI) have increased in frequency and number, worldwide. To test the impact of such event on medical resources, simulations can provide a safe, controlled setting while replicating the chaotic environment typical of an actual disaster. A standardised method to collect and analyse data from mass casualty exercises is needed, in order to assess preparedness and performance of the healthcare staff involved. We report on the use of wearable proximity sensors to measure proximity events during a MCI simulation. We investigated the interactions between medical staff and patients, to evaluate the time dedicated by the medical staff with respect to the severity of the injury of the victims depending on the roles. We estimated the presence of the patients in the different spaces of the field hospital, in order to study the patients' flow. Data were obtained and collected through the deployment of wearable proximity sensors during a mass casualty incident functional exercise. The scenario included two areas: the accident site and the Advanced Medical Post (AMP), and the exercise lasted 3 hours. A total of 238 participants simulating medical staff and victims were involved. Each participant wore a proximity sensor and 30 fixed devices were placed in the field hospital. The contact networks show a heterogeneous distribution of the cumulative time spent in proximity by participants. We obtained contact matrices based on cumulative time spent in proximity between victims and the rescuers. Our results showed that the time spent in proximity by the healthcare teams with the victims is related to the severity of the patient's injury. The analysis of patients' flow showed that the presence of patients in the rooms of the hospital is consistent with triage code and diagnosis, and no obvious bottlenecks were found

Social data mining and seasonal influenza forecasts: The FluOutlook platform

FluOutlook is an online platform where multiple data sources are integrated to initialize and train a portfolio of epidemic models for influenza forecast. During the 2014/15 season, the system has been used to provide real-time forecasts for 7 countries in North America and Europe

High-resolution measurements of face-to-face contact patterns in a primary school

Little quantitative information is available on the mixing patterns of children in school environments. Describing and understanding contacts between children at school would help quantify the transmission opportunities of respiratory infections and identify situations within schools where the risk of transmission is higher. We report on measurements carried out in a French school (6-12 years children), where we collected data on the time-resolved face-to-face proximity of children and teachers using a proximity-sensing infrastructure based on radio frequency identification devices. Data on face-to-face interactions were collected on October 1st and 2nd, 2009. We recorded 77,602 contact events between 242 individuals. Each child has on average 323 contacts per day with 47 other children, leading to an average daily interaction time of 176 minutes. Most contacts are brief, but long contacts are also observed. Contacts occur mostly within each class, and each child spends on average three times more time in contact with classmates than with children of other classes. We describe the temporal evolution of the contact network and the trajectories followed by the children in the school, which constrain the contact patterns. We determine an exposure matrix aimed at informing mathematical models. This matrix exhibits a class and age structure which is very different from the homogeneous mixing hypothesis. The observed properties of the contact patterns between school children are relevant for modeling the propagation of diseases and for evaluating control measures. We discuss public health implications related to the management of schools in case of epidemics and pandemics. Our results can help define a prioritization of control measures based on preventive measures, case isolation, classes and school closures, that could reduce the disruption to education during epidemics

The GLEaMviz computational tool, a publicly available software to explore realistic epidemic spreading scenarios at the global scale

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Computational models play an increasingly important role in the assessment and control of public health crises, as demonstrated during the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic. Much research has been done in recent years in the development of sophisticated data-driven models for realistic computer-based simulations of infectious disease spreading. However, only a few computational tools are presently available for assessing scenarios, predicting epidemic evolutions, and managing health emergencies that can benefit a broad audience of users including policy makers and health institutions.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We present "GLEaMviz", a publicly available software system that simulates the spread of emerging human-to-human infectious diseases across the world. The GLEaMviz tool comprises three components: the client application, the proxy middleware, and the simulation engine. The latter two components constitute the GLEaMviz server. The simulation engine leverages on the Global Epidemic and Mobility (GLEaM) framework, a stochastic computational scheme that integrates worldwide high-resolution demographic and mobility data to simulate disease spread on the global scale. The GLEaMviz design aims at maximizing flexibility in defining the disease compartmental model and configuring the simulation scenario; it allows the user to set a variety of parameters including: compartment-specific features, transition values, and environmental effects. The output is a dynamic map and a corresponding set of charts that quantitatively describe the geo-temporal evolution of the disease. The software is designed as a client-server system. The multi-platform client, which can be installed on the user's local machine, is used to set up simulations that will be executed on the server, thus avoiding specific requirements for large computational capabilities on the user side.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The user-friendly graphical interface of the GLEaMviz tool, along with its high level of detail and the realism of its embedded modeling approach, opens up the platform to simulate realistic epidemic scenarios. These features make the GLEaMviz computational tool a convenient teaching/training tool as well as a first step toward the development of a computational tool aimed at facilitating the use and exploitation of computational models for the policy making and scenario analysis of infectious disease outbreaks.</p

Data Interfaces

In ambito scientifico le immagini costituiscono un attore importante del processo di esplorazione, produzione e validazione del sapere. L’immagine, in quanto risultato di un’operazione di rappresentazione, rende visibili oggetti altrimenti irraggiungibili perché troppo piccoli, troppo distanti, troppo veloci. Le immagini con cui lavora la scienza, quelle prodotte da telescopi, microscopi, radar, risonanze magnetiche, sono strumenti che danno accesso a realtà altrimenti inaccessibili: catturano l’impronta di fenomeni, amplificano segnali lontani, guardano attraverso la materia. Nel discorso scientifico, tali immagini sono presentate come icone perfettamente tecniche, determinate esclusivamente da processi ottici o elettronici: immagini senza autore e quindi senza progetto. Recentemente tuttavia, in seguito ad un importante cambiamento nelle dinamiche della produzione scientifica, sta emergendo un ruolo importante per un nuovo tipo di immagini. La mole incredibile di dati e di potenza computazionale resa disponibile dalle tecnologie informatiche e telematiche ha dato luogo a un nuovo modo di fare scienza. Fenomeni sociali, biologici, epidemiologiche, e comunicativi possono essere analizzati a partire da enormi quantità di dati. In tale contesto, emerge la necessità di una nuova tipologia di immagini in grado di rappresentare contesti ad alta densità di dati al fine di fornire rappresentazioni su cui diventa possibile operare. Come il microscopio ha rivoluzionato la scienza di fine ‘600 fornendo rappresentazioni dell’incredibilmente piccolo, lo sviluppo di modalità di rappresentazione in grado di fornire interfacce di accesso ai dati si sta rivelando fondamentale per lo sviluppo della ricerca scientifica. Le immagini che emergono da questo nuovo contesto, diversamente da quelle prodotte dalla lente di un microscopio, sono immagini progettate. Più simili all’immagine cartografica che alle radiografie, queste nuove mappe costituiscono un artefatto culturale, oltre che tecnico, in cui il progettista grafico è chiamato a mettere in gioco le proprie competenze grafico-visive al fine di creare non tanto un’impronta quanto un modello che interviene sull’oggetto della raffigurazione al fine di restituire non tanto un’immagine rimpicciolita, quanto un’astrazione dello spazio progettata ai fini di un obiettivo. Diversi tipi di dati (contatti sociali tra i partecipanti a una conferenza, dati estratti da una simulazione di pandemia, relazioni estratte da social network) vengono trasformati da scienziati e progettisti grafici in rappresentazioni del fenomeno in cui entrano in gioco fattori tecnologici e percettivi, umani e scientifici. Diversi obiettivi danno luogo a diverse rappresentazioni, che forniscono molteplici astrazioni dello stesso fenomeno nello sviluppo di una nuova cartografia degli spazi del sapere

Social sensors and post-pandemic communities. Introducing proximity sensing and personal data management challenges in design education

In the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, social contacts, proximity relationships, and physical relationships have been subject to major restrictions. The scientific, policy, and design communities have implemented a number of initiatives to limit face-to-face contacts, avoid gatherings, and control physical relationships in order to slow the spread of the virus. These initiatives have led to the development of several social contact tracking innovations. Existing systems such as Bluetooth low-energy and GPS and new contact-tracing protocols have been used globally to detect and notify possible contacts with infected people, through the development of “sensors” capable of detecting social interactions and gathering situations. In this contribution, we present the case of the university workshop “Social Sensors. Design for post-pandemic communities” developed as part of the curriculum of the Communication Design BSc of Politecnico di Milano, which was designed to introduce students to the issues related to the use of mobile devices as sensors, both in terms of the new interaction possibilities enabled by recent technologies developments and in terms of challenges related to personal data, privacy and tracking risks. In order to reach such objectives, the workshop has been designed and carried out in collaboration with the “Data Science for Social Impact and Sustainability” research area of ISI Foundation, a private research institute with extensive research experience both in the field of computational epidemiology and on the use of proximity detection technologies, that was able to provide the students with the technological background and with the real-life experience. During the workshop, the students are tasked to design an application that uses contact tracing capabilities of mobile devices to facilitate community relationships, personal contacts, and social interactions. This allows exploring how mobile technology and in particular these recent developments can be used, in a post-epidemic context, to develop digital applications for local communities, to restore the sense of closeness and community, stimulate socialization and lead to the development of personal interactions between neighbours. The workshop development highlights the need for highly interdisciplinary skills in order to successfully account for the different components of communication, interaction, and digital design projects. The workshop results highlight the range of unexplored potential allowed by the development of proximity detection technologies as well as the potential risks related to their use in contexts of reduced transparency or poorly designed data policies

Due mappe del territorio

Da sempre l'uomo ha cercato di costruire un proprio orientamento all'interno del mondo che abita. La complessità della realtà e l'immensa quantità di stimoli a cui siamo sottoposti richiede una costante selezione di informazioni ritenute utili: la costruzione dell'orientamento è dunque un'attività principalmente eliminativa. Questa operazione di framing della complessità è stata veicolata nel tempo dal linguaggio lineare (sottoforma di narrazioni e miti), da sistemi di classificazione (prevalentemente di tipo tassonomico), da rappresentazioni grafiche (atlanti, guide e mappe), ecc. Nel corso degli ultimi decenni questi modelli sono entrati in crisi: il crollo delle grandi narrazioni preclude la costruzione di un immaginario collettivo condiviso, i sistemi di classificazione dinamica rendono obsoleti i modelli tassonomici, gli atlanti e le guide stanno lasciando il posto a sistemi di navigazione on demand. La crisi dell'orientamento nasce dalla complessità delle correlazioni tra numerose emergenze diverse, il cui effetto più visibile è una complessiva tendenza alla frammentazione, alla individualizzazione, alla selezione, alla separazione, alla monetarizzazione del contesto sociale

Pictorials in design research. A comprehensive analysis of IASDR 2023 contributions

In the context of scholarly publication, Pictorials represent a valuable approach to knowledge dissemination, particularly in design, HCI, and related disciplines. These academic contributions elevate visual elements to central roles in scholarly communication, facilitating a holistic understanding of research findings. They provide a setting where visual elements, including diagrams, sketches, photographs, and illustrations, take center stage, fostering innovative ways of communicating research. They also offer an alternative framework for sharing complex concepts that resist traditional textual transcription. This shift acknowledges the cognitive significance of visual representations and the limitations of text-centric formats. In this contribution we analyze Pictorials submitted to IASDR 2023 in terms of recurring themes, visual elements, relationship between visuals and text, communication functions, narrative structure, and visual quality. We find a wide variety of approaches, with some achieving seamless integration while others remain somewhat disjointed. Common composition strategies include annotated images, text-rich diagrams, and captions. Narrative structures within Pictorials include sequences of images, storyboards, juxtapositions, and complex formats, each serving unique purposes in conveying research findings. The analysis culminates in the development of a set of comprehensive categories, which discerningly classifies Pictorials into distinct typologies: information-driven, narrative-driven, informative, and technical or scientific, reflecting diverse design and communication goals. In conclusion, Pictorials celebrate diversity in expression and the integration of visual and textual communication, transforming how knowledge is shared