Ann Morrison

Like bees around the hive: a comparative study of a mobile augmented reality map

We present findings from field trials of MapLens, a mobile augmented reality (AR) map using a magic lens over a paper map. Twenty-six participants used MapLens to play a location-based game in a city centre. Comparisons to a group of 11 users with a standard 2D mobile map uncover phenomena that arise uniquely when interacting with AR features in the wild. The main finding is that AR features facilitate place-making by creating a constant need for referencing to the physical, and in that it allows for ease of bodily configurations for the group, encourages establishment of common ground, and thereby invites discussion, negotiation and public problem-solving. The main potential of AR maps lies in their use as a collaborative tool.

Worlds of information: designing for engagement at a public multi-touch display

In designing for engagement at a public multi-touch installation, we identified supporting multiple users and allowing for gradual discovery as challenges. In this paper, we present Worlds of Information, a multi-touch application featuring 3D Worlds, which provide access to different content. These 3D widgets gradually unfold and allow for temporal navigation of multimedia in parallel, while also providing a 2D plane where media can be shared. We report on a field trial at an exhibition using questionnaires and video ethnography. We studied engagement through questions adapted from Flow, Presence and Intrinsic Motivation questionnaires, which showed that users, overall, had a positive and social experience with the installation. The worlds effectively invited multiple users and provided for parallel interaction. While functionality was discovered gradually through social learning, the study demonstrates the challenges of designing multi-touch applications for walk-up-and-use displays.

Bodily Explorations in Space: Social Experience of a Multimodal Art Installation

We contribute with an extensive field study of a public interactive art installation that applies multimodal interface technologies. The installation is part of a Theater production on Galileo Galilei and includes: projected galaxies that are generated and move according to motion of visitors changing colour depending on their voices; projected stars that configure themselves around shadows of visitors. In the study we employ emotion scales (PANAS), qualitative analysis of questionnaire answers and video-recordings. PANAS rates indicate dominantly positive feelings, further described in the subjective verbalizations as gravitating around interest, ludic pleasure and transport. Through the video analysis, we identified three phases in the interaction with the artwork (circumspection, testing, play) and two pervasive features of these phases (experience sharing and imitation), which were also found in the verbalizations. Both video and verbalisations suggest that visitors experience and ludic pleasure are rooted in the embodied, performative interaction with the installation, and is negotiated with the other visitors.

The lens of ludic engagement: evaluating participation in interactive art installations

Designers and artists have integrated recent advances in interactive, tangible and ubiquitous computing technologies to create new forms of interactive environments in the domains of work, recreation, culture and leisure. Many designs of technology systems begin with the workplace in mind, and with function, ease of use, and efficiency high on the list of priorities. [1] These priorities do not fit well with works designed for an interactive art environment, where the aims are many, and where the focus on utility and functionality is to support a playful, ambiguous or even experimental experience for the participants. To evaluate such works requires an integration of art-criticism techniques with more recent Human Computer Interaction (HCI) methods, and an understanding of the different nature of engagement in these environments. This paper begins a process of mapping a set of priorities for amplifying engagement in interactive art installations. I first define the concept of ludic engagement and its usefulness as a lens for both design and evaluation in these settings. I then detail two fieldwork evaluations I conducted within two exhibitions of interactive artworks, and discuss their outcomes and the future directions of this research.

On the role of presence in mixed reality

Previous paradigms for presence research were primarily established in the context of virtual reality (VR). The objective of this paper is to introduce a new agenda for research on presence suitable for the domain of mixed reality (MR). While established assumptions and methods of presence research from VR are applicable to MR experiences, we argue that they are not necessarily meaningful or informative. Specifically, a shift of attention is needed away from psycho-physiological studies coming from a laboratory experiment tradition, toward an ecological-cultural approach that is applicable in real world situations and relies on ethnographic rather than fully controlled methods. We give a series of examples taken from the work on the European integrated research project IPCity, and discuss the implications of our findings.

Building sensitising terms to understand free-play in open-ended interactive art environments

In this paper we introduce and discuss the nature of free-play in the context of three open-ended interactive art installation works. We observe the interaction work of situated free-play of the participants in these environments and, building on precedent work, devise a set of sensitising terms derived both from the literature and from what we observe from participants interacting there. These sensitising terms act as guides and are designed to be used by those who experience, evaluate or report on open-ended interactive art. That is, we propose these terms as a common-ground language to be used by participants communicating while in the art work to describe their experience, by researchers in the various stages of research process (observation, coding activity, analysis, reporting, and publication), and by inter-disciplinary researchers working across the fields of HCI and art. This work builds a foundation for understanding the relationship between free-play, open-ended environments, and interactive installations and contributes sensitising terms useful for the HCI community for discussion and analysis of open-ended interactive art works.

Multitouch and surface computing

Natural user interfaces (NUI) such as multitouch and surface computing are positioned as the next major evolution in computing and user interfaces. Just graphical user interfaces (GUIs) brought unprecedented interaction capabilities to their command-line predecessors, we believe multitouch and surface computing will spawn novel ways to interact with media and improve social usage patterns. Since experimentation and deployment are currently limited, the exploration of applications and interfaces in this area is still at an early stage.

Urban Vibrations: Sensitivities in the Field with a Broad Demographic

In this paper we describe a field study conducted with a wearable vibration belt where we test to determine the vibration intensity sensitivity ranges on a large diverse group of participants with evenly distributed ages and gender, ranging from seven to 79 years. We test for alterations in sensitivity in the field by introducing an escalating level of distraction in increasingly busy environments. The findings on sensitivity detection range differ from previous lab studies in that we found a decreased detection rate in busy environments. Here we test with a much larger sample and age range, and contribute with the first vibration sensitivity testing outside the lab in an urban public environment.

Ubiquitous media for collocated interaction

Has ubiquitous computing entered our lives as anticipated in the early 90s or at the turn of the millennium? In this last decade, the processing of media combined with sensing and communication capabilities has been slowly entering our lives through powerful smartphones, multimodal game consoles, instrumented cars, and large displays pervading public spaces. However, the visionary formulations (Weiser 1991) and updated scenarios (Abowd and Mynatt 2000) have not been realized, despite the fact that the technology has become increasingly accessible.

Designing a Vibrotactile Language for a Wearable Vest

We designed a wearable vest that houses a set of actuators to be placed at specific points on the body. We developed vibrotactile patterns to induce five sensation types: 1 Calming, 2 patterns, Up and Down back 2 Feel Good 4 patterns in different directions around the waist, 3 Activating 2 patterns, Tarzan and Shiver, on top front of body and then down the back as well for Shiver, 4 Navigation 2 patterns, Turn Left and Turn Right, prompting on back then opposite side front waist for full body turning and 5 Warning, 1 pattern on solar plexus to slow down or stop the wearers. We made an overlap between the pulses, which were of longer durations than the short burst saltation pulses designed to induce muscle movement. Our participants responded well to the Calming and Feel Good patterns, but reported mixed responses to Activation, Navigation and Warning patterns.