Musical expectancy within movement sonification to overcome low self-efficacy

While engaging in physical activity is important for a healthy lifestyle, low self-efficacy, i.e. one's belief in one's own ability, can prevent engagement. Sound has been used in a variety of ways for physical activity: movement sonification to inform about movement, music to encourage and direct movement, and auditory illusions to adapt people's bodily representation and movement behaviour. However, no approach provides the whole picture when considering low self-efficacy. For example, sonification does not encourage movement past a person's expectation of their ability, music gives no information of one's capabilities, and auditory illusions do not direct changes in movement behaviour in a directed way. This thesis proposes a combined method that leverages the agency felt over sonification, our embodiment of music and movement altering feedback to design \textit{``musical expectancy sonifications''} which incorporate musical expectancy within sonification to alter movement perception and behaviour. This thesis proposes a Movement Sonification Expectation Model (MoSEM), which explores expectation within a movement sonification impact on people's perception of their abilities and the way they move. This MoSEM is then interrogated and developed in four initial control studies that investigate these sonifications for different types of movement as well as how they interact with one's expectation of a given movement. These findings led to an exploration of how the MoSEM can be applied to design sonification to support low-self efficacy in two case study populations: chronic pain rehabilitation, including one control study and one mixed methods study, and general well-being, including one interview study and two control studies. These studies show the impact of musical expectation on people's movement perception and behaviour. The findings from this thesis demonstrate not only how sonifications can be designed to use musical expectancy, but also shows a number of considerations that are needed when designing movement sonifications

The Benefits and Costs of Informal Sector Pollution Control: Mexican Brick Kilns

In developing countries, urban clusters of manufacturers which are "informal"—small-scale, unlicensed and virtually unregulated—can have severe environmental impacts. Yet pollution control efforts have traditionally focused on large industrial sources, in part because the problem is not well-understood. This paper presents a benefit-cost analysis of four practical strategies for reducing emissions from traditional brick kilns in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. To our knowledge, it is the first such analysis of informal sources. We find very significant net benefits for three of the four control strategies. These results suggest that informal polluters should be a high priority for environmental regulators.

Movement sonification expectancy model: leveraging musical expectancy theory to create movement-altering sonifications

When designing movement sonifications, their effect on people’s movement must be considered. Recent work has shown how real-time sonification can be designed to alter the way people move. However, the mechanisms through which these sonifications alter people’s expectations of their movement is not well explained. This is especially important when considering musical sonifications, to which people bring their own associations and musical expectation, and which can, in turn, alter their perception of the sonification. This paper presents a Movement Expectation Sonification Model, based on theories of motor-feedback and expectation, to explore how musical sonification can impact the way people perceive their movement. Secondly, we present a study that validates the predictions of this model by exploring how harmonic stability within sonification interacts with contextual cues in the environment to impact movement behaviour and perceptions. We show how musical expectancy can be built to either reward or encourage movement, and how such an effect is mediated through the presence of additional cues. This model offers a way for sonification designers to create movement sonifications that not only inform movement but can be used to encourage progress and reward successes

Staying Active While Staying Home: The Use of Physical Activity Technologies During Life Disruptions

One impact of the Covid-19 lockdowns was a restriction on people's ability to engage in physical activity in previously routine ways. This paper presents a two-stage mixed-method study exploring how people used technology to stay physically active during this period. We found that activity trackers reminded people to be active, while virtual coaching (i.e., video tutorials and online classes) helped them stay connected. The lockdown increased people's awareness of their activity levels and removed barriers to exercise, for example by giving them greater control over their time. However, it also created new challenges, with lack of time and space, injuries due to sudden changes in activity, and anxiety around lockdown, putting limits on physical activity. We highlight future directions that must be addressed to maximise the benefits of physical activity technologies for people trying to stay active during major life disruptions

Chemical spectral analysis through sonification

Presented at the 21st International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD2015), July 6-10, 2015, Graz, Styria, Austria.Chemical spectra are an important part of how research chemists analyse the outcomes of experiments. However these complex spectra can be very difficult and time consuming to analyse. This paper outlines an investigation into using sonification to improve the understanding and ease of analysis of chemical spectral data. The project specifically uses sonification techniques to display Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectra. Two sonification methods were designed to offer different perspectives on the data; “Spectral Audification” allows a quick overview of the data while maintaining its subtleties whereas a simple parameter mapping method allows more in-depth analysis of the spectra such as the use of rhythmic patterns to make sets of peaks easily identifiabl

Remote Work, Work Measurement and the State of Work Research in Human-Centred Computing

Over the past few decades, a small but growing group of people have worked remotely from their homes. With the arrival of the coronavirus pandemic, millions of people found themselves joining this group overnight. In this position paper, we examine the kinds of work that ‘went remote’ in response to the pandemic, and consider the ways in which this transition was influenced by (and in turn came to influence) contemporary trends in digital workplace measurement and evaluation. We see that employers appeared reluctant to let certain classes of employee work remotely. When the pandemic forced staff home, employers compensated by turning to digital surveillance tools, even though, as we argue, these tools seem unable to overcome the significant conceptual barriers to understanding how people are working. We also observed that, in the United Kingdom context, the pandemic didn’t mean remote work for a significant proportion of the population. We assert that, to maximize its impact, ‘future of work’ research in human-centred computing must be more inclusive and representative of work, rather than focusing on the experiences of knowledge workers and those involved in new forms of work

Automatic Detection of Reflective Thinking in Mathematical Problem Solving based on Unconstrained Bodily Exploration

For technology (like serious games) that aims to deliver interactive learning, it is important to address relevant mental experiences such as reflective thinking during problem solving. To facilitate research in this direction, we present the weDraw-1 Movement Dataset of body movement sensor data and reflective thinking labels for 26 children solving mathematical problems in unconstrained settings where the body (full or parts) was required to explore these problems. Further, we provide qualitative analysis of behaviours that observers used in identifying reflective thinking moments in these sessions. The body movement cues from our compilation informed features that lead to average F1 score of 0.73 for binary classification of problem-solving episodes by reflective thinking based on Long Short-Term Memory neural networks. We further obtained 0.79 average F1 score for end-to-end classification, i.e. based on raw sensor data. Finally, the algorithms resulted in 0.64 average F1 score for subsegments of these episodes as short as 4 seconds. Overall, our results show the possibility of detecting reflective thinking moments from body movement behaviours of a child exploring mathematical concepts bodily, such as within serious game play

Eworklife: developing effective strategies for remote working during the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic means governments have advised citizens to engage in “social distancing” measures, which include working from home. Many people have had to learn how to work from home and develop effective strategies in a very short period. This especially rapid move to remote working is unprecedented, so we do not know how this shift is affecting people’s working lives. We developed a mixed-methods survey and a series of in-depth interviews, through which we investigated the new challenges for people in managing digital self-control, maintaining productivity and work-life balance that have surfaced during the COVID-19 crisis. We also catalogued the strategies participants adopted through the first stages of lockdown in response to these challenges. From this, we draw research and policy implications for supporting neophyte remote workers when managing digital self-control, productivity, and work-life balance during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic

ThermoPixels:Toolkit for Personalizing Arousal-based Interfaces through Hybrid Crafting

Much research has shown the potential of affective interfaces to support people reflect on, and understand their bodily responses. Yet, people find it difficult to engage with, and understand their biodata which they have limited prior experience with. Building on affective interfaces and material-centered design, we developed ThermoPixels, a toolkit including thermochromic and heating materials, as well as galvanic skin response sensors for creating representations of physiological arousal. Within 10 workshops, 20 participants created personalized representations of physiological arousal and its real-time changes using the toolkit. We report on participants’ material exploration, their experience of creating shapes and the use of colors for emotional awareness and regulation. Reflecting on our findings, we discuss embodied exploration and creative expression, the value of technology in emotion regulation and its social context, and the importance of understanding material limitations for effective sense-making