Evaluating Engagement in Digital Narratives from Facial Data

Engagement researchers indicate that the engagement level of people in a narrative has an influence on people's subsequent story-related attitudes and beliefs, which helps psychologists understand people's social behaviours and personal experience. With the arrival of multimedia, the digital narrative combines multimedia features (e.g. varying images, music and voiceover) with traditional storytelling. Research on digital narratives has been widely used in helping students gain problem-solving and presentation skills as well as supporting child psychologists investigating children's social understanding such as family/peer relationships through completing their digital narratives. However, there is little study on the effect of multimedia features in digital narratives on the engagement level of people. This research focuses on measuring the levels of engagement of people in digital narratives and specifically on understanding the media effect of digital narratives on people's engagement levels. Measurement tools are developed and validated through analyses of facial data from different age groups (children and young adults) in watching stories with different media features of digital narratives. Data sources used in this research include a questionnaire with Smileyometer scale and the observation of each participant's facial behaviours

Task 9 -- Centrifugal membrane filtration. Semi-annual report, April 1--September 30, 1997

This project is designed to establish the utility of a novel centrifugal membrane filtration technology for the remediation of liquid mixed waste streams at US Department of Energy (DOE) facilities in support of the DOE Environmental Management (EM) program. The Energy and Environmental Research Center (EERC) has teamed with SpinTek Membrane Systems, Inc., a small business and owner of the novel centrifugal membrane filtration technology, to establish the applicability of the technology to DOE site remediation and the commercial viability of the technology for liquid mixed waste stream remediation. The technology is a uniquely configured process that makes use of ultrafiltration and centrifugal force to separate suspended and dissolved solids from liquid waste streams, producing a filtered water stream and a low-volume contaminated concentrate stream. This technology has the potential for effective and efficient waste volume minimization, the treatment of liquid tank wastes, the remediation of contaminated groundwater plumes, and the treatment of secondary liquid waste streams from other remediation processes, as well as the liquid waste stream generated during decontamination and decommissioning activities

Psychophysiology in games

Psychophysiology is the study of the relationship between psychology and its physiological manifestations. That relationship is of particular importance for both game design and ultimately gameplaying. Players’ psychophysiology offers a gateway towards a better understanding of playing behavior and experience. That knowledge can, in turn, be beneficial for the player as it allows designers to make better games for them; either explicitly by altering the game during play or implicitly during the game design process. This chapter argues for the importance of physiology for the investigation of player affect in games, reviews the current state of the art in sensor technology and outlines the key phases for the application of psychophysiology in games.The work is supported, in part, by the EU-funded FP7 ICT iLearnRWproject (project no: 318803).peer-reviewe

Task 9- Centrifugal Membrane Filtration. Semiannual report, November 1, 1996--March 31, 1997

The overall project consists of several integrated research phases related to the applicability, continued development, demonstration, and commercialization of the SpinTek centrifugal membrane filtration process. This phase of work is a continuation of the Phase 1 evaluation of the SpinTek centrifugal membrane filtration technology. During Phase 1 testing conducted at the EERC using the SpinTek ST-IIL unit operating on a surrogate tank waste, a solids cake developed on the membrane surface. Solids cake development was observed where linear membrane velocities were less than 17.5 feet per second and resulted in a reduction of unobstructed membrane surface area of up to 25%, reducing overall filtration performance. The primary goal of the Phase 2 research effort is to enhance filtration performance through the development and testing of alternative designs of the turbulence promoters to generate a shear force across the entire membrane surface that is sufficient to maintain a self-cleaning membrane capability and improve filtration efficiency and long term performance. Specific Phase 2 research activities include the following: System modifications to accommodate an 11-inch-diameter, two-disk rotating membrane assembly. Development and fabrication of alternative designs to the existing turbulence promoters. *Testing and evaluation of the existing and alternative turbulence promoters under selected operating conditions using a statistically designed test matrix Data reduction and analysis