Familiars: social gaming with PASION

The PASION (Psychologically Augmented Social Interaction Over Networks) project is designed to research social presence technologies and their effect on individual and group behaviour within mediated collaborative environments. A mobile multiplayer social game called Familiars is being designed, where the success and rank of a player within the game is directly linked to the qualities of the player's in-game social network. By examining the structures of the game-wide social network generated through playing the game, the aim is to identify patterns in the interactions which can be used to direct further studies and build future versions of the game that will enhance the game experience, bringing more of the face-to-face social value to technologically mediated games and hence mediated collaborations in general

Gophers: socially oriented pervasive gaming

Gophers is an open-ended gaming environment which relies on location data, user generated content and player interactions to shape gameplay. It seeks to investigate social collaboration within localised and distributed gaming communities, the potential of pervasive gaming as a technique to collect useful data about the physical world and additionally, use of novel peer-judging methods to allow self-governing of the game world. In this paper, we introduce the game in its current state and provide an overview of early test results

Co-viewing TV with Twitter: more interesting than the shows?

Social media services, and Twitter in particular, are changing the way in which many people consume traditional broadcast media. Real-time backchannel conversations are now common-place as audiences simultaneously watch TV whilst using Twitter to broadcast their own thoughts, sentiments, opinions and emotions related to what they are watching. This individual behavior, when aggregated, results in a new social experience comprising of mass, real-time, coconsumption of TV services that has, thus far, been neither recognized nor investigated by the HCI community nor the broadcast industry. This paper describes a work-in-progress which aims to understand user behaviour in this burgeoning area and provides some preliminary analysis of viewers’ Twitter activity surrounding the popular UK TV show, The X Factor

Return of the man-machine interface: violent interactions

This paper presents the design and evaluation of “the man-machine interface” a punchable interface designed to criticise and react against the values inherent in modern systems that tacitly favour one type of user (linguistically and technically gifted) and alienate another (physically gifted). We report a user study, where participants used the device to express their opinions before engaging in a group discussion about the implications of strength-based interactions. We draw connections between our own work and that of evolutionary biologists whose recent findings indicate the shape of the human hand is likely to have been partly evolved for the purpose of punching, and conclude by examining violent force as an appropriate means for expressing thoughts and feelings

User powered games for research

This paper describes how user-generated content can be harnessed to create compelling games for research purposes. We show that by entrusting the complicated processes of asset creation and management to the players themselves, research based games can still allow for rich, deep and unique experiences - experiences that would be impossible to create manually under the typical time and resource constraints found in research projects. It is contended that “user power” as a game design element is especially powerful for use by researchers who are most likely working on their own or in small groups with limited budgets, and for whom the research objectives may be more important than the design of the game itself. The paper explores the recent history of applications that take advantage of user-generated content and discusses how these principles have been used to develop two user-powered games: Gophers and Familiars. The worlds created by the users of these games are explored and the strengths and weaknesses of using user-generated content to power games are discussed

Computer graphic control over human face and head appearance: to, genetic optimisation of perceptual characteristics

The aims of this thesis are two-fold. The first is to develop computer graphics that allow quantitative manipulation of complex visual stimuli. The second is to show that such techniques have utility in the domain of perceptual psychology. There are three main sections to this thesis. The first section creates methods for performing transformations of facial appearance along particular perceptual dimensions. This work begins with 2-D image manipulations and then extends the general principles to 3-D. Effectiveness of the techniques is illustrated with plates showing transformation in age, gender and identity. The second section uses Genetic Algorithms to control the appearance of 3-D computer graphics objects and investigates methods of evolving objects that embody various consumer concepts. Computer graphic models of shampoo bottles are successfully evolved to satisfy a selection of aesthetic and perceptual characteristics. The final section returns to facial stimuli and extends the Genetic Algorithm approach to investigate aesthetic preference for 3-D facial surfaces. The study shows that individual human subjects can evolve facial surfaces based upon their own attractiveness preferences. The faces evolved are non-average and there is consistency between subjects about preferred characteristics. The three parts of this thesis have different theoretical backgrounds and literature relevant to each topic is therefore reviewed at the start of each section

Disinhibited abuse of othered communities by second-screening audiences

Second-screening and live-tweeting alongside broadcast television generates new concerns with respect to online abuse. We present an investigation into the nature of Twitter-facilitated second-screening posts relating to Thelma's Gypsy Girls, one of a series of controversial documentary programmes portraying the Irish Traveller community that have recently been aired by the UK public-service television broadcaster Channel 4. Sentiment analysis highlighted the general negativity of these posts whilst a detailed thematic inquiry revealed the often abusive and aggressive messages aimed directly at the community and individuals portrayed in the broadcast material. We discuss why users might be susceptible to exhibiting these behaviours, and the implications for the broadcast industry, and social TV designers and developers

Familiars: manipulating social networks with mobile gaming

This paper presents the mobile multiplayer gaming application Familiars. Familiars leverages social networking and locative technologies to create a reactive social experience for the game’s participants over extended periods of time. The game is based around the concept of each player owning a Familiar –a virtual sprite or creature somewhat similar in concept to Pullman’s dæmons - which has a visual appearance and a location in the real world. A player’s interactions with their own, and other players’, Familiars is used to directly inform the state of the game and status of the player – inviting them to become more aware of the impact of their social activity, and to discover novel strategies for becoming more socially effective in computer-mediated environments. We begin by explaining the design for the game and the unique challenges of the mobile medium as a platform for social gaming. We discuss the theoretical and technical background of the social and contextual analysis system used in the mobile mediated environment and go on to describe how this informed the implementation of the mobile and server applications that power the game. Finally we discuss the findings of the application test groups, lessons learnt during development and important design considerations for mediated mobile social gaming

Is Long-Term Exposure to Ambient Air Pollution a Risk Factor for Parkinson’s Disease.

Objectives This paper links prescriptions data for the Northern Ireland population with data from the Northern Ireland Longitudinal Study and localized ambient air pollution data from 2002 onwards to estimate the association between long-term exposure to ambient air pollutant from fine particulates (PM2.5) and Parkinson’s Disease (PD). Approach Cox Proportional Hazards models are used to examine the impact of air pollution on PD, first unconditionally, and then conditioning on a rich set of observable individual, family and contextual characteristics. Long-term exposure to PM2.5 is defined as exposure averaged over the previous 5 years. Onset of PD is proxied by first receipt of a prescription for PD medication.  Estimates are presented in the form of hazard ratios for the effect of long-term PM2.5 exposure on the risk of PD onset. Results There is a non-trivial magnitude and statistically significant unconditional association between long-term exposure to ambient PM2.5 pollution and receiving a prescription for PD, with those exposed to higher levels of pollution more likely to receive a prescription for PD. This estimated association disappears (becomes insignificantly different from zero), however, when the model accounts for confounding variables at household, individual and geographical levels. Conclusions This study contributes to an emerging literature examining the association between ambient PM2.5 pollution and onset of PD. Despite finding an unconditional association, we find no evidence for an association once individual, family and contextual characteristics are controlled for, at least in the relatively low-pollution context of Northern Ireland