John Waterworth

The Layers of Presence: A Bio-cultural Approach to Understanding Presence in Natural and Mediated Environments

This paper proposes a bio-cultural theory of presence based on four different positions related to the role and structure of presence, as follows. First, presence is a defining feature of self and it is related to the evolution of a key feature of any central nervous system: the embedding of sensory-referred properties into an internal functional space. Without the emergence of the sense of presence it is impossible for the nervous system to experience distal attribution: the referencing of our perception to an external space beyond the limits of the sensory organs themselves. Second, even if the experience of the sense of presence is a unitary feeling, conceptually it can be divided in three different layers, phylogenetically different and strictly related to the three levels of self identified by Damasio. In particular we can make conceptual distinctions between proto presence (self vs. non self), core presence (self vs. present external world), and extended presence (self relative to present external world). Third, given that each layer of presence solves a particular facet of the internal/external world separation, it is characterized by specific properties. Finally, in humans the sense of presence is a direct function of these three layers: the more they are integrated, the more we are present. In the experience of optimal presence, biologically and culturally determined cognitive processes are working in harmony--to focus all levels of the self on a significant situation in the external world, whether this is real or virtual.

Brain training with non-action video games enhances aspects of cognition in older adults: a randomized controlled trial

Age-related cognitive and brain declines can result in functional deterioration in many cognitive domains, dependency, and dementia. A major goal of aging research is to investigate methods that help to maintain brain health, cognition, independent living and wellbeing in older adults. This randomized controlled study investigated the effects of 20 1-h non-action video game training sessions with games selected from a commercially available package (Lumosity) on a series of age-declined cognitive functions and subjective wellbeing. Two groups of healthy older adults participated in the study, the experimental group who received the training and the control group who attended three meetings with the research team along the study. Groups were similar at baseline on demographics, vocabulary, global cognition, and depression status. All participants were assessed individually before and after the intervention, or a similar period of time, using neuropsychological tests and laboratory tasks to investigate possible transfer effects. The results showed significant improvements in the trained group, and no variation in the control group, in processing speed (choice reaction time), attention (reduction of distraction and increase of alertness), immediate and delayed visual recognition memory, as well as a trend to improve in Affection and Assertivity, two dimensions of the Wellbeing Scale. Visuospatial working memory (WM) and executive control (shifting strategy) did not improve. Overall, the current results support the idea that training healthy older adults with non-action video games will enhance some cognitive abilities but not others.

Creativity and Sensation: The Case for Synaesthetic Media

The most salient and vital aspect of interacting with computer systems is consistently overlooked: the importance of computer systems as perceptual rather than conceptual tools. Insofar as people interact with them, computer systems function primarily as sensual transducers. The author posits that computer-based multimedia should be considered “synaesthetic media” due to their capacity to translate between modes of sensory perception. Synaesthetic media are the result of focusing design efforts on the perceptual possibilities of human-computer interaction (HCI). The author claims that such computer tools can serve as powerful supporters of human creativity. Rather than expending more effort on the fruitless quest for cognitive artifacts, he states, we need to recognize that we are already creating synaesthetic media and to direct our HCI design efforts accordingly.

A Pattern of Islands: Exploring Public Information Space in a Private Vehicle

Increasingly, we are entangled during our daily working lives in a web of distributed, networked information sources offering varied means of electronic communication. We have become information explorers in this complex, electronic world-at-large. In addressing the problems of navigation and orientation that these developments raise, a user interaction model is developed which also deals with some of the issues of workspace management addressed by systems such as Rooms and the Information Visualizer. In this model, the world-at-large is represented as Information Islands, each of which contains Buildings which themselves house items of information. The user explores this world in a Vehicle which has two views of the world; the public, comprehensive view, and a private, customised view. The Vehicle can also be seen as the users own private workspace. Wherever the user wanders in cyberspace, he is always at home.

A randomized controlled trial of brain training with non-action video games in older adults: results of the 3-month follow-up

This randomized controlled study (ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02007616) investigated the maintenance of training effects of 20 1-hr non-action video game training sessions with selected games from a commercial package on several age-declining cognitive functions and subjective wellbeing after a 3-month no-contact period. Two groups of cognitively normal older adults participated in both the post-training (posttest) and the present follow-up study, the experimental group who received training and the control group who attended several meetings with the research team during the study but did not receive training. Groups were similar at baseline on demographics, vocabulary, global cognition, and depression status. Significant improvements in the trained group, and no variation in the control group had been previously found at posttest, in processing speed, attention and visual recognition memory, as well as in two dimensions of subjective wellbeing. In the current study, improvement from baseline to 3 months follow-up was found only in wellbeing (Affection and Assertivity dimensions) in the trained group whereas there was no change in the control group. Previous significant improvements in processing speed, attention and spatial memory become non-significant after the 3-month interval. Training older adults with non-action video games enhanced aspects of cognition just after training but this effect disappeared after a 3-month no-contact follow-up period. Cognitive plasticity can be induced in older adults by training, but to maintain the benefits periodic boosting sessions would be necessary.

Effects of desktop 3D world design on user navigation and search performance

Desktop virtual reality (VR) offers a powerful environment for visualizing structure in large information sets. In well-designed virtual worlds, users can employ skills from wayfinding in the real world. The paper reports on the development and testing of a series of prototype VR worlds, designed to support navigation during information visualization and retrieval. Results indicated that users subjectively preferred naturalistic environments over abstract ones, but that users objectively searched better in environments that had rigorous hierarchical structure, and support for both overview and detail. In comparison with a hypertext interface, the final virtual world design elicited more enjoyment, without worsening search performance significantly, when appropriate training time was allowed. This prototype shows the potential value of navigable VR that is engaging and useful for everyday information exploration.

Ageing in a networked society: social inclusion and mental stimulation

Research into ageing and cognition has demonstrated the close relationship of sensory functioning and social communication to maintaining cognitive performance and mood in the elderly, yet in modern societies elderly people are increasingly isolated and under-stimulated, both physically and psycho-socially. This situation results in accelerated cognitive decline and the suffering associated with loneliness and confusion. Health services cannot keep up with the demand for home visits and day care centres that can alleviate this problem. Incorporating new healthcare technologies for proactive health and elder care into everyday living environments can contribute significantly to support the elderly and their carers and is to become a major priority over the next decade. The approach followed in the AGNES project is to keep the elderly mentally and socially stimulated and in contact with others by combining state detection and social network technologies. This paper provides some scientific background for the chosen approach and describes the technological concept of the project.

Being and time: judged presence and duration as a function of media form

We briefly describe a novel immersive environmentthe interactive tentand an artistic production within it, the Illusion of Being. In this production, immersants experience a vivid cycle of the elements in a way that depends on their bodily movements. This elemental story has four versions in all, with each created to have differential effects on sense of presence and of subjective duration, according to a theoretical model. The model proposes three orthogonal dimensions of experience: focus, the level of abstraction;locus, real versus virtual; andsensus, the overall level of attention of the observer. An experiment, conducted to assess the effects of the different versions, is reported. The results confirmed the models prediction that rated presence is relatively high when experienced media is of a form that elicits predominantly concrete (perceptual) processing, and relatively low when the emphasis is on more-abstract (conceptual) processing. But the concrete-abstract dimension had no direct effect on judged duration, contrary to our predictions. However, some evidence suggests that judged presence and estimated duration were positively correlated for media categorized as virtual, but not for content captured from the real world.

Interacting with presence: HCI and the sense of presence in computer-mediated environments

Our experience of using and interacting with the newest computer information technologies is profoundly affected by the extent to which we feel ourselves to be really ‘present’ in the computer-medi ...

AGNES: Connecting people in a multimodal way

Western societies are confronted with a number of challenges caused by the increasing number of older citizens. One important aspect is the need and wish of older people to live as long as possible in their own home and maintain an independent life. As people grew older, their social networks disperse, with friends and families moving to other parts of town, other cities or even countries. Additionally, people become less mobile with age, leading to less active participation in societal life. Combined, this normal, age-related development leads to increased loneliness and social isolation of older people, with negative effects on mental and physical health of those people. In the AGNES project, a home-based system has been developed that allows connecting elderly with their families, friends and other significant people over the Internet. As most older people have limited experience with computers and often special requirements on technology, one focus of AGNES was to develop with the users novel technological means for interacting with their social network. The resulting system uses ambient displays, tangible interfaces and wearable devices providing ubiquitous options for interaction with the network, and secondary sensors for additionally generating carefully chosen information on the person to be relayed to significant persons. Evaluations show that the chosen modalities for interaction are well adopted by the users. Further it was found that use of the AGNES system had positive effects on the mental state of the users, compared to the control group without the technology.