Opportunities and challenges for data physicalization

Physical representations of data have existed for thousands of years. Yet it is now that advances in digital fabrication, actuated tangible interfaces, and shape-changing displays are spurring an emerging area of research that we call Data Physicalization. It aims to help people explore, understand, and communicate data using computer-supported physical data representations. We call these representations physicalizations, analogously to visualizations -- their purely visual counterpart. In this article, we go beyond the focused research questions addressed so far by delineating the research area, synthesizing its open challenges and laying out a research agenda

Designing for emergence and innovation: Redesigning design

We reveal the surprising and counterintuitive truth that the design process, in and of itself, is not always on the forefront of innovation. Design is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for the success of new products and services. We intuitively sense a connection between innovative design and emergence. The nature of design, emergence and innovation to understand their interrelationships and interdependencies is examined. We propose that design must harness the process of emergence; for it is only through the bottom-up and massively iterative unfolding of emergence that new and improved products and services are successfully refined, introduced and diffused into the marketplace. The relationships among design, emergence and innovation are developed. What designers can learn from nature about emergence and evolution that will impact the design process is explored. We examine the roles that design and emergence play in innovation. How innovative organizations can incorporate emergence into their design process is explored. We demarcate the boundary between invention and innovation. We also articulate the similarities and differences of design and emergence. We then develop the following three hypotheses: Hypothesis 1: “An innovative design is an emergent design.” Hypothesis 2: “A homeostatic relationship between design and emergence is a required condition for innovation.”Hypothesis 3: “Since design is a cultural activity and culture is an emergent phenomenon, it follows that design leading to innovation is also an emergent phenomenon” We provide a number of examples of how design and emergence have worked together and led to innovation. Examples include the tool making of early man; the evolutionary chain of the six languages speech, writing, math, science, computing and the Internet; the Gutenberg printing press and techniques of collaborative filtering associated with the Internet. We close by describing the relationship between human and naturally “designed” systems and the notion a key element of a design is its purpose as is the case with a living organism

Preference Transitivity and Symbolic Representation in Capuchin Monkeys (Cebus apella)

BACKGROUND: Can non-human animals comprehend and employ symbols? The most convincing empirical evidence comes from language-trained apes, but little is known about this ability in monkeys. Tokens can be regarded as symbols since they are inherently non-valuable objects that acquire an arbitrarily assigned value upon exchange with an experimenter. Recent evidence suggested that capuchin monkeys, which diverged from the human lineage 35 million years ago, can estimate, represent and combine token quantities. A fundamental and open question is whether monkeys can reason about symbols in ways similar to how they reason about real objects. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Here we examined this broad question in the context of economic choice behavior. Specifically, we assessed whether, in a symbolic context, capuchins' preferences satisfy transitivity--a fundamental trait of rational decision-making. Given three options A, B and C, transitivity holds true if A > or = B, B > or = C and A > or = C (where > or = indicates preference). In this study, we trained monkeys to exchange three types of tokens for three different foods. We then compared choices monkeys made between different types of tokens with choices monkeys made between the foods. Qualitatively, capuchins' preferences revealed by the way of tokens were similar to those measured with the actual foods. In particular, when choosing between tokens, monkeys displayed strict economic preferences and their choices satisfied transitivity. Quantitatively, however, values measured by the way of tokens differed systematically from those measured with the actual foods. In particular, for any pair of foods, the relative value of the preferred food increased when monkeys chose between the corresponding tokens. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: These results indicate that indeed capuchins are capable of treating tokens as symbols. However, as they do so, capuchins experience the cognitive burdens imposed by symbolic representation

Accounting: A General Commentary on an Empirical Science

Many researchers have questioned the view of accounting as a science. Some maintain that it is a service activity rather than a science, yet others entertain the view that it is an art or merely a technology. While it is true that accounting provides a service and is a technology (a methodology for recording and reporting), that fact does not prevent accounting from being a science. Based upon the structure and knowledge base of the discipline, this paper presents the case for accounting as an empirical science