Virtual realities and real virtualities

Cataloged from PDF version of article.This study endeavors to explicate different conceptions of virtuality in relation to the concept of technology. Departing from the popular conceptions of virtuality discussed within the framework of digital technologies, the study aims to elaborate on the subject within different contexts where the nature of virtuality is not confined to a specific definition but expanded within all different considerations. The nature of relation between virtuality and reality is discussed under the influence of a number of complimentary conceptions introduced by G. Deleuze and H. Bergson.Telhan, OrkanM.S

Spatial theory for biological design

Thesis (Ph. D. in Design and Computation)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2013.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (pages 181-189).Biological design is as ancient as human civilization. For thousands of years, living systems and natural processes have been manipulated by humans and their biological outcomes have been customized for different purposes. While the idea of biological design has always been prevalent throughout history, especially with the discovery of DNA, the ability to manipulate the form, function, and behavior of the living has significantly advanced. Today synthetic biology is pushing the frontiers of biological design even further. Now, living things can be completely abstracted from their original biological contexts, assembled like molecular constructs, and engineered like circuits or programmed like computational hardware. biological designers compose biological form and function by running modeling and simulation software; order standardized biological parts from online libraries and databases; utilize fabrication companies to synthesize gene products to prototype their designs; and build complex artifacts, applications and services that meet human wants, needs, fears, and desires on a daily basis. In this dissertation, I examine different practices of biological design in life sciences and engineering based on different theoretical models. I trace the history of information-based, relational, synthesis-oriented methods and present a new design framework that offers a spatial and a context-driven approach to the design of living matter. Being rooted in a different interpretation of space and spatiality in design, the framework approaches biological design systematically, at three stages: 1) the design of the basic units of the living (Units), 2) how different units are arranged and composed for different functionalities and behavior (Logic), and 3) the design of the biological contexts where biological artifacts live and perform their objectives (Context). This new framework intends to bring together a multitude of approaches from different design fields such as engineering, architecture and product Design that have their unique histories with living matter. The goal here is to demonstrate the ways different design paradigms can potentially shape our relationship with biological design in new ways; altering the design process, the objectives, the outcomes, and the social, cultural, and ethical perception of synthetic living.by Orkan Telhan.Ph.D.in Design and Computatio

Social sensing and its display

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2007.Includes bibliographical references (p. 87-90).This thesis proposes a public interface that functions as a social catalyst in public spaces. Like a smart mirror, it intends to reflect the social identity of the environment and increase sensibility towards the place and among others in the environment by highlighting a particular aspect of it. Here, our particular use of the medium is to raise awareness of the boundaries among the residents; highlighting their differences and similarities of mobility, displacement and geographical limits. The medium is designed as a custom, multimodal interface, which functions as a tangible, interactive sculpture that senses ambient sound, records deliberate user input and displays interactive graphics as its output. The design explores the utility of sound and physical interaction for envisioning new social, cultural and entertainment uses of public places and help us shape our relationships with each other with new social interfaces embedded in urban settings.by Orkan Telhan.S.M

CloudMat: Context-aware Personalization of Fitness Content

Digital video content via broadcast television, Internet and other content distribution networks provide limited interaction for fitness and wellness activities. The content delivery is one-way only and provides no personalization to the pace, programming and progress of the user’s exercise routine. Furthermore, the content is to be viewed only on a screen which makes it awkward and incompatible with full-body activities such as yoga, pilates and T’ai chi. We present CloudMat, a system for context-aware personalization of fitness content with cloudenabled connected surfaces. CloudMat provides real-time closedloop feedback between the state of the user on the physical mat and the state of the content in the cloud service. Content is tagged with actuation signals where events are delegated from the screen to display on an electroluminescent lighting layer on the mat, which provides spatial guidance to the end-user. Through the sensor-layer embedded in the mat, the physical interface captures the pose and timing of the user activity and relays it to the Context-aware Personalization cloud service. This service coordinates sensing and actuation between the content stream and mat by generating pose templates and metadata files about the exercise routine to be delivered to the user. Through this interactive process between the physical mat and the content service, the feedback provided by the user performing the routine continuously adapts the pace and programming to maintain the desired user experience. We demonstrate the utility of the system and evaluate the system performance with a case study on interactive yoga

The Trial The Trail, Act 3 A Virtual Reality Drama Using Intelligent Agents

The Trail is an interactive drama running on an immersive VR system. Imagine Tarkovsky's Stalker, crossed with Alice Through the Looking Glass, crossed with Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Now imagine embarking on a guided journey through this warped yet familiar landscape. Your guides are two intelligent agents, Patofil and Filopat. We consider a virtual reality drama to be a scripted play in which the computational agents are actors who have copies of the script, and one human audience member has been drafted to be a participant, but doesn't have a copy of the script. The computational actors must improvise reactions to the human participant's actions, but keep the play moving along in as close agreement to the script as possible. The goal is to provide the human participant with a specific emotional experience

Psycho-drama in VR

The goal of our group is to produce immersive virtual reality (VR) experiences that engage the user as a central protagonist in compelling interactive dramas. Our dramas are designed for CAVEs or CAVE-like systems – projection-based, 3-D stereo VR displays with one large screen or multiple screens forming a virtual theater. A tracking system and ”wand, ” with joystick and programmable buttons, create the interface between the user an

MGLAIR agents in a virtual reality drama

We provide an overview of the use of intelligent agents, implemented in the new MGLAIR architecture, in a virtual reality drama. For us, a virtual reality drama is a scripted play in which the computational agents are actors who have copies of the script, and one human audience member has been drafted to be a participant, but doesn’t have a copy of the script. The computational actors must improvise reactions to the human partpicipant’s actions, but keep the play moving along in as close agreement to the script as possible. The goal is to provide the human participant with a specific emotional experience. We explicate this philosophy; outline the previously described GLAIR architecture; explain the introduction of an organization into modalities that results in the new MGLAIR architecture; describe our current VR drama, The Trial, The Trail; and discuss the implementation of our actor-agents. Our discussion of the actor-agents focuses on their abilities to react to triggers (cues), their performance of contingent actions that are off the main-line arc of the script, their use of timers to pace the drama, and the organization of the cast of actor-agents into a multi-agent system. 1 Virtual Reality Drama Our goal is to produce immersive virtual reality experiences that engage a participant as a central protagonist in compelling interactive dramas. We use a passive stereo system to project life-sized three dimensional images onto a large screen in front of the participant, who has tracking sensors on her head and both hands. Virtual reality and mixed reality have been shown to be powerful presentation media for interactive fiction (Bobick

Connected Making: Designing for Youth Learning in Online Maker Communities In and Out of Schools

While here is ample research on how youth are connected in online spaces and how youth participate online via sharing and reviewing artifacts, yet less is known about how these social connections and contributions emerge, especially in the context of physical making and what can they contribute to learning and assessment. Thus, our symposium primarily addresses two questions: (1) How do youth connect and learn in online maker communities? and (2) How can we design online maker tools for learning in and out of schools? We share efforts examining how sharing artifacts, documenting design processes, and providing feedback via online tools can support young makers in creating physical artifacts and offer insights to new assessment models