Strategic road mapping for Europe's creative industries: the EU CRe-AM project

The authors present a novel paradigmfor roadmapping Creative sectors in Europe based on three key successively integrated phases that implement mindsets, techniques and technology. In the first instance this roadmapping paradigm is piloted for identifying weak and strong signals as well as trends in the sector of Architecture based on aggregated opinions from leading Architects. Further versions of the process and software will separately explore the current state and ideal evolved future state of the Architecture sector. The roadmapping methodology will also be applied to the other creative sectors comprising the project including Media and Epublishing, Gaming, Design and Art. The roadmapping methodology has been created for the CRe-AM project1, a European Union FP7 funded project that aims to bridge communities of creators with communities of technology providers and innovators, in a collective roadmapping effort to streamline, coordinate and amplify collaborative work. The focus of the project is developing and mainstreaming new Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and tools by addressing the needs of different sectors of the Creative industries

Transitioning from Transmedia to Transreality Storyboarding to Improve the Co-Creation of the Experience Space

Transmedia storytelling is a digital based marketing approach in present day consumer markets. Typically applied to spanning or segueing stories or experiences across media such as film, books, comics and video-games to reach broader target audiences, often triggering a narrative, into which customers can participate and co-create the narrative. Common aims at customer engagement have been through shared stories on present day social media. However, for the creative-consumer, sharing on social media falls short of fully immersive storytelling ecology. Creatives (traditional designers and consumers) would benefit through tools and processes for incrementally expanding dimensions, mediums, fidelity, and shared interactions and senses across multiple media and interactive realities. This paper presents use cases of Transreality Storyboarding Framework (TSF), a design framework that affords creation of experience spaces for consumer-product engagement. Further, we propose a TSF app, to allow non-expert designers/everyday-consumers to contribute to storytelling, participation and production of product experience spaces

The World as an Interface: Exploring the Ethical Challenges of the Emerging Metaverse

Mixed reality is emerging as the next phase of personal computing. Once Apple Glass is released augmented and mixed reality will go mainstream and the impact on our behaviour will be as dramatic as when the iPhone was released. In parallel, what used to be 2D webpages are becoming 3D worlds, collectively forming a meta universe of virtual or mixed reality domains -the ‘Metaverse’. Mixed reality is precisely where the best affordances of the digital and analogue worlds should work together to create entirely new interactive learning, social and economic opportunities. In this paper we reflect on how the physical world will itself become an interface making reality even more machine-readable, click-able, and searchable. We further propose how society will need to ensure that the appropriate boundary management is in place to allow us as co-creators of the metaverse to protect our ethical rights of privacy, integrity, and autonomy

Improving Higher Education Quality in Jordan Using Mobile Technologies for Better Socio-economic Diversity Integration of Disadvantaged Groups Using a Mobile Multimedia/Augmented Reality Workflow

The mEQUITY (Project Website, http://mequity.dipseil.net/) project is the European Union funded initiative to create mobile applications that use augmented reality and multimedia assets adapted for educational purposes amongst disadvantaged groups in Jordan including those having difficulty with housing or employment and typically having refugee status related to neighbouring conflict zones of Gaza and Syria. Within these groups, there is also additional focus in helping those with learning difficulties or having disabilities such as deafness, blindness or physical immobility. Development and adaptation of educational digital resources for mobile devices have been initiated within higher education institutions, such as Jordanian Universities, with the aim of improving engagement and retention of learners

Design and Deployment Considerations for Ethically Advanced Technologies for Human Flourishing in the Workplace

Part 2: Workplace and Work Experience Analysis for Interaction DesignInternational audienceAdvanced technologies are increasingly integrated in to modern workplaces in situations to automate mundane tasks, improve safety, increase speed and efficiency in work production. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is playing an increasingly central role in advanced technology design. In parallel, there may be growing concern from workers that AI in workplace technologies will take away jobs and autonomy from humans. This paper proposes how to include key ethical factors in technology design processes and discusses future implications for AI in the workplace. Key ethical factors considered are privacy, security, integrity and equity. We reflect on employee experience factors of belonging, purpose, achievement, happiness and vigour that can underpin discretionary efforts of workers and discuss how these factors relate to low desire behaviours. We review application areas and propose a layered model approach and design and deployment considerations needed for cultivation of ethically advanced technology (ETHAD), that give potential for human flourishing

Enhancing Crew Training for Exploration Missions: The WEKIT Experience

Training is an essential component of astronauts’ mission preparation. Every astronaut receives specific trainings for the tasks to be performed in orbit, both routine and emergency, during the two years preceding the launch. Moreover, astronauts are assigned to perform On Board Training (OBT), in order to practice and maintain a high level of proficiency, in particular for complex and emergency procedures. The astronaut training process needs to further evolve and adapt to the different conditions and requirements that come with long-duration exploration missions. Currently, the training period for an astronaut takes between 18and 24 months. Projecting this estimate on to a Mars/Moon mission with two-year duration (i.e., including the long-distance journey to Mars and back), a training period of about six years would be required, but is not feasible. In addition, today, the Ground Team continuously supports crew members while they are performing activities onboard the International Space Station (ISS). This will not be possible during a mission to Mars, since the communication between Ground and Mars is affected by a delay that can range from 8 to 20 minutes, depending on how Mars and Earth are aligned in that specific moment. The WEKIT tool introduced in this paper is expected to fill these gaps by reducing the training duration necessary and by providing support to the crew when communication with Ground is not available, increasing their autonomy. WEKIT is a research and innovation project supported by the Horizon 2020 program dedicated to developing and testing novel ways of industrial training enabled by Smart Wearable Technology (WT). The twelve partners representing academia and industry from six countries in Europe have built a new learning technology platform and unique methodology to capture expert experience and share it with trainees making industrial training more efficient, affordable and engaging. This paper describes the methodology utilized by the consortium to design the WEKIT software and hardware, its features, and the feedback obtained from the almost 200 participants who tested the prototype in ALTEC to demonstrate and assess how the learning processes can be improved in terms of effectiveness, time reduction and user perception by using the proposed methodology

Affordances for Capturing and Re-enacting Expert Performance with Wearables

The WEKIT.one prototype is a platform for immersive procedural training with wearable sensors and Augmented Reality. Focusing on capture and re-enactment of human expertise, this work looks at the unique affordances of suitable hard- and software technologies. The practical challenges of interpreting expertise, using suitable sensors for its capture and specifying the means to describe and display to the novice are of central significance here. We link affordances with hardware devices, discussing their alternatives, including Microsoft Hololens, Thalmic Labs MYO, Alex Posture sensor, MyndPlay EEG headband, and a heart rate sensor. Following the selection of sensors, we describe integration and communication requirements for the prototype. We close with thoughts on the wider possibilities for implementation and next steps