Case Studies Temp. Page

Gravity Pods

http://www.wickedpissahgames.com/games/gravitypods/GravityPods.html

Gravity Pods is a vector-based physics shooter / puzzle. The objective is simple: shoot a projectile at a target. There are some barriers throughout each stage and naturally there is a way around those barriers. By strategically placing ‘Gravity Pods’ around the stage, you can bend the path your projectile takes in order to go around walls, down halls, curves back on itself etc. The trick is figuring out where to put them to lead the projectile to the target. The first levels are simple, but it gets progressively tougher as the courses get harder, and more elements come into play.

There are simply three controllable items in this game: moving the cannon up and down, changing the angle of the cannon on an axis-by axis degree and placement of the gravity pods.

Our project team have been deeply influenced by this game as the basic functionality of the game served the basis of what our team have aimed to achieve in our ’search and destroy’ project. Ultimately, our ’search and destroy’ project aims to encourage ‘the analyzing process’ and make it practical use for ’strategic planning’.

Similarly to how we play chess, we aim to use this type of strategic exercise to train our logical brain. Our team have found our inspiration from this game by the game’s ulitmate goal - to reach the beam through to the destination. This particular case is similar to our project concept but instead of having the physical elements in this game, there are only digital representations of the concept. Paths to exits in each area must be decided by all players, and the right combination of working technicians must be found in order to clear a route.

ReacTable

The reactable is a collaborative electronic music instrument with a tabletop tangible multi-touch interface. Several simultaneous performers share complete control over the instrument by moving and rotating physical objects on a luminous round table surface. By moving and relating these objects, representing components of a classic modular synthesizer, users can create complex and dynamic sonic topologies, with generators, filters and modulators, in a kind of tangible modular synthesizer or graspable flow-controlled programming language.

The reactable intends to be:

• collaborative: several performers (locally or remotely)
• intuitive: zero manual, zero instructions
• sonically challenging and interesting
• learnable and masterable (even for children)
• suitable for novices (installations) and advanced electronic musicians (concerts)

The important feature that we found interesting is the player’s ability move around the ‘phicons’ to lead lazer beam to the direction you’ve intended; however this action has increased difficulty as this is a collaborative gameplay, which needs multiplayers to play the game.

We are exploring ways of both improving the quality and broadening the bandwith of interaction between people and digital information by allowing the players to ‘grasp & manipulate’ tangible objects and enabling players to work collaboratively to achieve a shared goal. We wish to introduce our collaborative game play to induce challenge and communication amongst players, which will ultimately be learnable and masterable for people of any age.

Khet

It’s the game that combines lasers with classic strategy. Players alternate turns moving Egyptian-themed pieces having two, one or no mirrored surfaces. All four types of pieces (pharaoh, obelisk, pyramid and djed column) can either move one square forward, back, left, right, or diagonal, or can stay in the same square and rotate by a quarter twist. Each turn ends by firing one of the lasers built into the board. The laser beam bounces from mirror to mirror; if the beam strikes a non-mirrored surface on any piece, it is immediately removed from play. The ultimate goal is to illuminate your opponent’s pharaoh, while shielding yours from harm!

We’ve aimed to create a Tangible User Interface by augmenting the real physical world by coupling digital information to everyday physical objects and environments. Our goal shares the vision of Ishii’s Tangible Bits as we attempt to bridge the gap between cyberspace and the physical environment by making digital information (bits) tangible.

We have in our ’search & destroy’ project, an interactive surfaces - we have a desktop as an active interface for players to play with. We have incorporated graspable objects with digital information that pertains to them, like the LED lights, and we use ambient media, which is predominantly the directional movement of lights for the background interfaces on our desktop interface.

In addition to being a fun and innovative strategy game, ‘Search and Desotry’ can also be used as an educational tool to teach geometry, physics, and many optics principles. ‘Search and destroy’ could be used in classrooms as an intriguing teaching demonstration that the students can directly interact with and enjoy.

Chip’s Challenge

Chip’s Challenge is a tile-based, puzzle video game. The design of the original game was done by Chuck Sommerville, who also made about a third of the levels. The basic plot of the game is that high-school nerd Chip has met Melinda The Mental Marvel in the school science laboratory and must navigate through Melinda’s “Clubhouse” (a series of increasingly difficult puzzles) in order to prove himself and gain membership to the very exclusive Bit Buster Club.

The game consists of a series of 148 two-dimensional levels which feature the player character, Nerdy Chip McCallahan, often called just Chip, and various game elements such as computer chips, buttons, locked doors and lethal monsters. Gameplay involves using arrow keys, directional pad or mouse to move Chip about each of the levels in turn, collecting enough chips to open the chip socket at the end of each level, get to the exit, and move onto the next level. Levels can be skipped by entering an appropriate four-letter non-case-sensitive password. Progress is not just measured in terms of completed levels but also in terms of the player’s score, which is a sum of the scores obtained on each level. Level scores for timed levels can be improved by completion in less time than previously, and scores on all levels can be improved by using fewer attempts to complete the level.While the same set of rules applies to each level, there are many different kinds of levels. Some are action-oriented and some are puzzle-oriented. Most but not all levels have a time limit. Types of levels include:

• Chip solving a block-pushing puzzle (similar to Sokoban) to clear a path to the level exit.
• Chip must actively dodge enemies (creatures which move in various ways) and make his way to the end.
• Chip must find his way through a maze. The maze can take various forms, such as a path across an icy surface with set points where he can make turns.

Our project team seek this classic puzzle game as an appropriate reference to our project concept as we share two key features. First, is we try to encourage players to ‘read’ the situation and come up with a ’strategy’ in order to clear the present stage/level. Secondly, there are tasks that must be done in specific orders to clear the stage, which is similar to our ’search and destory’ project as we require the players to collaborate and plan where they need to place their gravitional UFOs and who should ’stand/sit’ to open/close appropriate doors. Our shared goal is not to limit one specific solution but several combinations to pass each level; depending on the player’s imagination.

Reference List
Innovention Toys LLC. 2006. Khet: The Laser Game >> strategy at the speed of light. http://khet.com/ (Accessed August 13, 2007).

Lida, K. AGH Lynx Review - Chip’s Challenge. http://www.atarihq.com/reviews/lynx/chips_challenge.html (accessed August 13, 2007).

Music Technology Group. 2007. reactable.http://mtg.upf.edu/reactable/ (Accessed August 13, 2007).Peters, K. 2007. Wicked Pissah Games. http://wickedpissahgames.com/?page_id=3 (accessed August 14, 2007).

Peters, K. 2007. Wicked Pissah Games. http://wickedpissahgames.com/?page_id=3 (accessed August 14, 2007).

Case Study - Chip's Challenge

Chip's Challenge is a tile-based, puzzle video game. The design of the original game was done by Chuck Sommerville, who also made about a third of the levels. The basic plot of the game is that high-school nerd Chip has met Melinda The Mental Marvel in the school science laboratory and must navigate through Melinda's "Clubhouse" (a series of increasingly difficult puzzles) in order to prove himself and gain membership to the very exclusive Bit Buster Club.

The game consists of a series of 148 two-dimensional levels which feature the player character, Nerdy Chip McCallahan, often called just Chip, and various game elements such as computer chips, buttons, locked doors and lethal monsters. Gameplay involves using arrow keys, directional pad or mouse to move Chip about each of the levels in turn, collecting enough chips to open the chip socket at the end of each level, get to the exit, and move onto the next level. Levels can be skipped by entering an appropriate four-letter non-case-sensitive password. Progress is not just measured in terms of completed levels but also in terms of the player's score, which is a sum of the scores obtained on each level. Level scores for timed levels can be improved by completion in less time than previously, and scores on all levels can be improved by using fewer attempts to complete the level.

While the same set of rules applies to each level, there are many different kinds of levels. Some are action-oriented and some are puzzle-oriented. Most but not all levels have a time limit. Types of levels include:

• Chip solving a block-pushing puzzle (similar to Sokoban) to clear a path to the level exit.
• Chip must actively dodge enemies (creatures which move in various ways) and make his way to the end.
• Chip must find his way through a maze. The maze can take various forms, such as a path across an icy surface with set points where he can make turns.

Our project team seek this classic puzzle game as an appropriate reference to our project concept as we share two key features. First, is we try to encourage players to 'read' the situation and come up with a 'strategy' in order to clear the present stage/level. Secondly, there are tasks that must be done in specific orders to clear the stage, which is similar to our 'search and destory' project as we require the players to collaborate and plan where they need to place their gravitional UFOs and who should 'stand/sit' to open/close appropriate doors. Our shared goal is not to limit one specific solution but several combinations to pass each level; depending on the player's imagination.

Reference List
Lida, K. AGH Lynx Review - Chip's Challenge. http://www.atarihq.com/reviews/lynx/chips_challenge.html (accessed August 13, 2007).

Case Study - Khet

It's the game that combines lasers with classic strategy. Players alternate turns moving Egyptian-themed pieces having two, one or no mirrored surfaces. All four types of pieces (pharaoh, obelisk, pyramid and djed column) can either move one square forward, back, left, right, or diagonal, or can stay in the same square and rotate by a quarter twist. Each turn ends by firing one of the lasers built into the board. The laser beam bounces from mirror to mirror; if the beam strikes a non-mirrored surface on any piece, it is immediately removed from play. The ultimate goal is to illuminate your opponent's pharaoh, while shielding yours from harm!

We've aimed to create a Tangible User Interface by augmenting the real physical world by coupling digital information to everyday physical objects and environments. Our goal shares the vision of Ishii's Tangible Bits as we attempt to bridge the gap between cyberspace and the physical environment by making digital information (bits) tangible.

We have in our 'search & destroy' project, an interactive surfaces - we have a desktop as an active interface for players to play with. We have incorporated graspable objects with digital information that pertains to them, like the LED lights, and we use ambient media, which is predominantly the directional movement of lights for the background interfaces on our desktop interface.

In addition to being a fun and innovative strategy game, 'Search and Desotry' can also be used as an educational tool to teach geometry, physics, and many optics principles. 'Search and destroy' could be used in classrooms as an intriguing teaching demonstration that the students can directly interact with and enjoy.

Reference List
Innovention Toys LLC. 2006. Khet: The Laser Game >> strategy at the speed of light. http://khet.com/ (Accessed August 13, 2007).

Case Study - ReacTable

The reactable is a collaborative electronic music instrument with a tabletop tangible multi-touch interface. Several simultaneous performers share complete control over the instrument by moving and rotating physical objects on a luminous round table surface. By moving and relating these objects, representing components of a classic modular synthesizer, users can create complex and dynamic sonic topologies, with generators, filters and modulators, in a kind of tangible modular synthesizer or graspable flow-controlled programming language.

The reactable intends to be:

• collaborative: several performers (locally or remotely)
• intuitive: zero manual, zero instructions
• sonically challenging and interesting
• learnable and masterable (even for children)
• suitable for novices (installations) and advanced electronic musicians (concerts)

The important feature that we found interesting is the player's ability move around the 'phicons' to lead lazer beam to the direction you've intended; however this action has increased difficulty as this is a collaborative gameplay, which needs multiplayers to play the game.

We are exploring ways of both improving the quality and broadening the bandwith of interaction between people and digital information by allowing the players to 'grasp & manipulate' tangible objects and enabling players to work collaboratively to achieve a shared goal. We wish to introduce our collaborative game play to induce challenge and communication amongst players, which will ultimately be learnable and masterable for people of any age.

Reference List

Music Technology Group. 2007. reactable.http://mtg.upf.edu/reactable/ (Accessed August 13, 2007).

References

http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/cat_augmented_reality.php

Challenges in Collaborative Game Design -Developing Learning Environments for Creating Games
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel5/9721/30684/01419790.pdf?arnumber=1419790

Case Study - Gravity Pods

Gravity Pods is a vector-based physics shooter / puzzle. The objective is simple: shoot a projectile at a target. There are some barriers throughout each stage and naturally there is a way around those barriers. By strategically placing 'Gravity Pods' around the stage, you can bend the path your projectile takes in order to go around walls, down halls, curves back on itself etc. The trick is figuring out where to put them to lead the projectile to the target. The first levels are simple, but it gets progressively tougher as the courses get harder, and more elements come into play.

There are simply three controllable items in this game: moving the cannon up and down, changing the angle of the cannon on an axis-by axis degree and placement of the gravity pods.

Our project team have been deeply influenced by this game as the basic functionality of the game served the basis of what our team have aimed to achieve in our 'search and destroy' project. Ultimately, our 'search and destroy' project aims to encourage 'the analyzing process' and make it practical use for 'strategic planning'.

Similarly to how we play chess, we aim to use this type of strategic exercise to train our logical brain. Our team have found our inspiration from this game by the game's ulitmate goal - to guide the light beams to reach the destination. This particular case is similar to our project concept but instead of having the physical elements in this game, there are only digital representations of the concept. Paths to exits in each area must be decided by all players, and the right combination of working technicians must be found in order to clear a route.

Reference List
Peters, K. 2007. Wicked Pissah Games. http://wickedpissahgames.com/?page_id=3 (accessed August 14, 2007).

Link to Flash Game:
http://www.wickedpissahgames.com/games/gravitypods/GravityPods.html

http://au.gamespot.com/pages/tags/index.php?tags=mercury+wii

A1 part b

Technical Summary:

1. can we go over technical details?
2. the beam will just keep going all the time until it hits a door, and then it will bounce off?
3. *or hits a wall
4. so you have to co-ordinate chair sitting to open and close the right doors to get the beam to the exits
5. and use the gravity discs to curve the beam's trajectory?

Assignment 01b: Criteria

Must present:

1. Prototype Design: low-fidelity construction to allow exploration of physical interface. Consider process illustration by 'Lowgren'.
2. Storyboard of the interaction
3. Show the progress of the design ideas: how your design have changed and reflect why and how you've changed directions or rejected certain elements. Use this to support your design principles.
4. How will you evaluate your idea?
5. What design principles underlie your design? Use reference material from weekly readings/lectures
   

Jane's Assignment 1a Feedback:

1. Demonstrate potential workability
2. Show solution as visualized as holistic entity
3. Demonstrate solution functions as robust

Michael's Assignment 1a Feedback:

1. Group roles in the solution should be evident and clearly articulated and the presentation should be clear, concise and conforms to time limit. The group must show that they have clearly worked together, evidence of individual strengths exploited and presentation must appear rehearsed.
2. The solution demonstrates potential workability need to be carefully thought through and demonstrates both current and future feasibility
3. The solution should be visualised as a holistic entity whereby the design is thoughtful, it should connect the concept and rationale and has the potential for evolution.
4. The solution should demonstrate flaire and innovation by having fresh or involve an innovate application.

Week 04: Case Studies

Tangible Bits - Ishii

• passive
• actives
• queens
• backpacks
• robo-topobo
• remix

Design Philisophy

• accessible yet sophisicated
• robust
• meaningful even if power is turned off
• expressive
• engage multiple senses
• scalable

Jabberstamp - Ishii

Lecture 04: Tangible User Interface

Air Traffic Control system:

• Spend a lot of data & write a system - but scrapped and went to old system.

1. Reason 1: 2 years to get used to the system.
2. Reason 2: The way you interact with the system is too difficult/different.

• Old system:
• designed by traffic controllers
• physical/tangible objects to utilize
• visible
• entire system evolved - didn't have air ports before, only start to emerge after the air traffic controllers have developed a system.

• Focus on the work and setting of the work
• two roles of flight strips
• a representational role
• a coordinational role
• making work visible
• public availability of action over flight strips
• strips as a record of history
• work and the setting are intertwined
  

Ethnography - looking at how humans behave.
Social computing - people are remarkably sensitive to the behaviour of those around them, and make countless decisions that are shaped by their social context.

Design-focused social computing

• gathering field data and studying working settings - begin prototyping and see what works, what doesn't and why.
  
• Beyond single-user interfaces
• Participating
  

Tangible Computing

Social Computing

Assignment 01a Week 4 Presentation Scripts

Inspiration
Three primary cases that inspired our team for the Lullaby Project:-

1. William W. Gaver - Telegotchi
2. Shep Korvin - Weather Flower
3. Bill Gaver and Heather Martin - Worry Stone

Ultimately, these three distinctive project demonstrate different aspects in the field of tangible media and our team have closely examined each project's unique input/output systems to further develop our project Lullaby.

Telegotchi
Telegotchi is a version of the popular children’s toy (Tamagotchi) with no buttons (below). In the long run the goal would be to rely on psionic communication alone to keep the little virtual creature happy.

Our Lullaby follows such ambiguity of relationship by developing a toy, which responds to the player's audio inputs and react via tangible, audio and visual outputs. Our project's focus is not to rely on traditional keyboard or mouse input; instead we aim for a far more ambiguous input system similar to the ones demonstrated in Telegotchi. At this initial stage of our project development, our primary input system would focus on vocalisations.

These two project concepts share the same personal interaction between the device and the player. Furthermore there are emotional as well as tangible attachments in both devices.

Weather Flower
This project is an impressionistic display of a virtual weather flower. Similar to how real world flowers feed on water and dirt, virtual flowers, on the other hand, feed on climate data from a real world location. The data received affects the physical appearance of the flower.

The soft aesthetics of these sorts of displays seem well-suited for domestic environments; perhaps less demanding than more precise information, but it permits a degree of ambiguity that might encourage imagination and speculation.

An important fact to note is that this weather flower project is only a non-interactive ambiguous visual display; our project Lullaby is similar but instead of being just an ambiguous visual display, we are creating a tangible media that is aimed to be interactive between the device and the player.

Worry Stone
Worry Stone is basically an electronic to-do list that uses its processing power to endlessly and visibly rehearse entries. By taking on the fretting of the user, the intention is that it should free time for less neurotic activities. This proposal takes an appropriate use of digital technologies to perform tasks that are onerous for humans.

Our Lullaby toy demonstrates such potential - not to offload a player's worries but to stimulate player's emotions and allowing them to externalize their emotions. For instance, the player could display their true emotions in front of the Lullaby toy and the toy would respond accordingly. The player would obtain feedback if their attitude was too strong or too emotional - then they would be able to readjust their emotions before they encounter another human being. This also helps the player to let out their anger when, for example, they have to enter an important meeting.

Case from Bill Gaver and Heather Martin - Alternatives

Many people desire to understand and change their experience of their selves and the world around them. Nonetheless, designs might reflect them in ways that can be meaningful without beng solemn, externalising psychological mechanisms into digital technologies either to escape or encourage them.

From the Case - Worry Stone is basically an eletronic to-do list that uses its processing power to endlessly and visibly rehearse entries. By taking on the fretting of the user, the intention is that it should free time for less neurotic activities. This proposal takes an appropriate use of digital tehnologies to perform tasks that are onerous for humans.

The worry stone would be a device that allows people to externalise their cares so that they need not to dweel on them. Speaking into the device would ofload a task to a small database via speeh convertor. The user would scroll through the list, delete obsolete entries, or print out a 'to do' list.

But the primary function of the Worry Stone would be to take over the user's anxious fretting. To show that the device had truly internalised the user's concerns, its processing power would be dedicated to displaying the list of worries in random order, as quickly as possible. The user could let go of the problem for the moment, knowing that it was safely held in the Worry Stone's memory.

Our Lullaby toy demonstrates such potential - not to offload a user's worries but to stimulate user's emotions and allowing them to externalize their emotions. For instance, the user could display their true emotions in front of the Lullaby toy and the toy would respond accordingly. The user would obtain feed back as to their attitude was too strong or too emotion - then they would be able to readjust their emotions before they encounter another human being. This also helps the user to pertain their anger when they have to enter an important meeting.

Reference
Gaver, B. and Martin, H. 2000. Alternatives - Exploring Information Appliances through Conceptual Design Proposals. Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 209 - 216. http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/332040.332433 (Accessed August 03, 2007).

Case from Shep Korvin - Weather Flower

Impressionistic Displays - Weather Flower

Real world flowers feed on water and dirt... virtual flowers, on the other hand, feed on data!

Each "weather flower" is linked to a first-life geographic location. Whenever the flower feels "hungry", it links out to the internet and taps into an xml feed containing weather data for its real-life "home" location.

Like a real flower, the appearance of the weather flower is affected by the food it consumes. If it's a sunny day in real-life, the flower petals turn a deep red colour.... and as the temperature drops, the hues turn towards colder whites and blues. Similarly, the shape and texture of the flowerhead mutates according to prevailing weather conditions... so, for example, on a bright sunny day, the flower has an almost daisy-like appearance... during thunderstorms, the petals adopt a spikier, harsher look. There are 168 different "mutations" that the flower could take on, depending on the prevailing climate

The soft aesthetics of these sorts of displays seem well-suited for domestic environments. Perhaps les demanding than more precise information, which permits a degree of ambiguity that might encourage imagination and speculation.

Reference
Shep Korvin. 2006. Blog is the new black.
http://shep.typepad.com/shep_korvin/2006/09/weatherflower.html (Accessed August 03, 2007).

Case from William W. Gaver, Jacob Beaver and Steve Benford - Converence on Human Factors in Computing Systems

The Telegotchi is an electronic pet with no buttons, relying on psionic powers for influence. Both these designs work within understood contexts – of spirituality on the one hand, and telepathy on the other – and invite users to share the experience of believers.

Designs like these do not simply engender ambivalence, or contradictory emotion. They push us to imagine how we might personally use such products, and what our lives would be like in consequence. As a result of this speculation, we form intellectual, aesthetic, emotional, and
moral judgements that can become available for self reflection.

The result of this process can be experiences that are uniquely personal: delightful, disturbing, or both.

In summary, the three kinds of ambiguity raise different sorts of problem and ask for different sorts of interpretation. Ambiguity of information asks us to project our expectations into an interpretation of incomplete information. Ambiguity of context requires an integration of seemingly incompatible frames of reference. Ambiguity of relationship, finally, evokes a projection of our subjective experiences and attitudes onto new situations.

References
Gaver, W.W., Beaver, J. and Benford, S. 2003. Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems, 223 - 240. http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/642611.642653 (Accessed August 03, 2007).

Case from William W. Gaver - Curious Things for Curious People

Telegotchi: a version of the popular children’s toy with no buttons (Left). Starter sets might include physiological monitors such as GSR or heart-rate sensors to help you establish an initial rapport, but in the long run the goal would be to relay on psionic
communication alone to keep the little virtual creature happy.

Reference
Goldsmiths Colleague. 2007. Curious things for curious people. http://www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/interaction/pdfs/36.gaver.curiousThings.inPress.pdf (accessed August 03, 2007).

Inspiration from William W. Gaver - Auditory Interfaces

Data Auralisation

Alarms and Musical Messages

Inspirations from Bill Gaver - Designing for Homo Ludens

Homo Ludens - human defined as playful creatures (Huizinga, J., 1950).

As we toy with things and ideas, as we chat and daydream, we find new perspectives and new ways to create, new ambitions, relationships, and ideals. Play goes well beyond entertainment: it's a serious business.

Telegotchi was an electronic pet with no buttons that relied on psionic communication for happiness.

Each case raises issues around the possibilities for inter-generational communication, to the ethics of taming nature.

We aim to design for Homo Ludens by allowing room for people to appropriate technologies. Playing involves pursuing one's inner narratives in safe situations, through perceptual projection, or ideally, action. If computational devices channel people's activities and perceptions too closely, then people have to live out of somebody else' story, not their own (c.f. Wejchert, 2001).

Of course, our final and most important inspiration from Gaver is the importance of:- pleasure before performance, and engagement before clarity. We aim to design for Homo Ludens by focusing on the intrigue and delight at all levels of design, from the aesthetics of form and interaction, to functionality, to conceptual implications at psychological, social and cultural levels.

Inspiration from Bill Gaver and Heather Martin - Alternatives

"Exploring Information Appliances through Conceptual Design Proposals"

We aim to utilize Impressionistic Displays - the soft aesthetics of these sorts of displays seem well-suited for domestic environments. Less demanding than more precise information, they permit a degree of ambiguity that might encourage imagination and speculation just like our Lullaby toy inflating/deflating as a display of their current emotional state.

A prototype 'works' when it successfully captures the experience of using a given device. However, in science fiction concepts which rely on technological effects that can or do not exist. Therefore the concept proposals are intended to be technologically plausible, in the sense that it seem likely that they can be realised even if the exact means are unknown or unspecified. In order for our team to achieve plausibility, we will be largely depending on our designers' knowledge and judgment, while an evaluation of the results may depend on discussions with technical experts.

Worry Stone - a device that allows people to externalise their cares so that they need not dwell on them. Speaking into the device would offload a task to a small database via a speech convertor. The user could scroll through the list, delete obsolete entries, or print out a 'to do' list.

But the primary function of the Worry Stone would be to take over the user's anxious fretting. To show that the device had truly internalised the user's concerns, its processing power would be dedicated to displaying the list of worries in random order, as quickly as possible. The user could let go of the problem for the moment, knowing that it was safely held in the Worry Stone's memory.

Our Lullaby toy demonstrates such potential - not to offload a user's worries but to stimulate user's emotions and allowing them to externalize their emotions. For instance, the user could display their true emotions in front of the Lullaby toy and the toy would respond accordingly. The user would obtain feed back as to their attitude was too strong or too emotion - then they would be able to readjust their emotions before they encounter another human being. This also helps the user to pertain their anger when they have to enter an important meeting.

Inspiration from Paul Dourish - Seeking a Foundation for Context-Aware Computing

Physically-based interaction and augmented environments - Ubiquitous Computing (Weiser): Technical Conceptions of Context

Ishii's Tangible Bits

the world of computation - bits

the world of physical reality - atoms

Ishii inspired our team to forge a much stronger relationship between physical and computational interaction by allowing computation to engage with and harness our physical and tactile abilities to support computational tasks.

Our team have developed an concept of new technology that bridge between the world of atoms of the world of bits, manifesting computational entities as living creatures in the physical world, and using physical interactions as a means of controlling computational entities. For example, our Lullaby toy , Ideally, it is a responsive tangible device, capable of acting spontaneously, altering its own form to express changes in mood, and recognizing sounds produced by its owner.

The tangible itnerfaces rely on the user's creative use of physical and spatial manipulations to control the Lullaby toy. For instance: if the owner talks or sings to it in a loud voice, it will inflate its soft body, expanding in size. However, if they whisper to it in a soft voice, it will deflate slightly and shrink.

Our aim is to exploit our natural familiarity with the everyday environment and our highly-developed spatial and physical skills to specialize and control how computation could be used in concert with naturalistic activities.

Interactive systems around understanding of the generally operative social processes surrounding everyday interaction:Context in Social Analysis

solical analyses look beyond simply the interaction between an individual user and a computer system - the social, cultural and organizational factors that affect interaction, and on which the user will draw in making decisions about actions to take and in itnerpreting the system's response.

Ethnomethodology - an analytic approach to the organization of social action, to provide a forceful critique of the then-dominant formal planning model in Artificial Intelligence. We in turn took on ethnomethodology and began our investigation of social order by involving careful examination of specific instances of organized action - to uncover the means by which people produced the rationality they exhibit.

Schutz's contribution of Husserl's phenomenology with Weber's work on social interaction inspired our team to incorporate the problem of intersubjectivity - that is how two people, who have access only to their own thoughts and immediate experiences, can nonetheless come to find each other's actions meaningful, and can establish shared meaning and common understandings.

We aim to design the interaction of the toy to be intersubjectively rooted in our common experience of the world and on the way in which we can interpret and understand the actions and motivations of others by appeal to the assumption of a shared life-world that, first, grounds our common experience and, second, gives us the necessary background to understand your actions as being rational.

Week 03: Case Studies

Khrono Video Projector
Silence of the Alians - Art.com