Matthew Swarts

CLIM: An Interactive Tabletop for Landscape Modeling

In this paper we describe our development of an interactive touch tabletop user interface for a landscape design tool. The user interface provides a view of the data, which combines the affordances of a multi-touch tabletop display with a vertical screen for real-time feedback. While the table metaphor fits well with the concepts of a top down view of land-scape, approachable from any direction, the board metaphor provides a clear, shared orientation for reading output charts. We also present a data model for landscape projects, which provides a knowledge-based approach to design decision making. We discuss the sourcing of the datasets that drive our landscape model.

The application of a rodent-based Morris water maze (MWM) protocol to an investigation of age-related differences in human spatial learning.

The current study applied a rodent-based Morris water maze (MWM) protocol to an investigation of search performance differences between young and older adult humans. To investigate whether similar age-related decline in search performance could be seen in humans based on the rodent-based protocol, we implemented a virtual MWM (vMWM) that has characteristics similar to those of the MWM used in previous studies of spatial learning in mice. Through the use of a proximity to platform measure, robust differences were found between healthy young and older adults in search performance. After dividing older adults into good and poor performers based on a median split of their corrected cumulative proximity values, the age effects in place learning were found to be largely related to search performance differences between the young and poor-performing older adults. When compared with the young, poor-performing older adults exhibited significantly higher proximity values in 83% of 24 place trials and overall in the probe trials that assessed spatial learning in the absence of the hidden platform. In contrast, good-performing older adults exhibited patterns of search performance that were comparable with that of the younger adults in most place and probe trials. Taken together, our findings suggest that the low search accuracy in poor-performing older adults stemmed from potential differences in strategy selection, differences in assumptions or expectations of task demands, as well as possible underlying functional and/or structural changes in the brain regions involved in vMWM search performance.

Structural, Deployable Folds — Design and Simulation of Biological Inspired Folded Structures

This paper presents a concept of folding as a form-generator for a structural system that allows the ability to deploy large spanning structures. The presented approach studies the embedded kinetic possibilities of folded structures and focuses on a parametric modeling process that allows structural performance evaluation of different types of the same origami family in order to optimize the geometry for a given scenario. The workflow between scripting based form generation – within Rhinoceros and Excel – and LS-DYNA is presented in detail. Additionally, within the context of an architectural project we discuss the question of scalability from a thin microstructure to a thickened roof structure.

Campus Information-and-Knowledge Modeling: Embedding Multidisciplinary Knowledge into a Design Environment for University Campus Planning

This article gives an overview of our research approach in collecting specific information and multidisciplinary knowledge with the aim of integrating them into a model for the planning of a university, supported by a design environment. Our goal is to develop a strategy for modeling raw information and expert knowledge for the Georgia Tech Campus. This research was divided into three stages: First, we identified a variety of written sources of information for campus planning, extracting and distinguishing raw information from disciplinary knowledge. Second, we selected the elicitation methods to gather knowledge directly from experts, with the objective of performing qualitative assessments –effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction– of certain features of the Georgia Tech Campus. Third, we interpreted the information and knowledge obtained and structured them into Blooms taxonomy of factual, conceptual, procedural and meta-cognitive, to define the specific modeling implementation strategies. Currently, we are implementing a Campus Landscape Information Modeling Tabletop in two phases. First, constructing an information-model based on raster and vector models that represent land types and landscape elements respectively, to perform quantitative assessments of campus possible scenarios. Second, embedding knowledge and qualitative aspects into a knowledge-model. The long-term goal is to include quantitative as well as qualitative aspects into a computational model, to support informed and balanced design decisions for university campus planning. This paper specifically focuses on the construction of the knowledge-model for Georgia Tech Landscape planning, its structure, its content, as well as the elicitation methods used to collect it.

The Light Orchard: an immersive display platform for collaborative tangible interaction

This paper describes the Light Orchard, an installation that encourages crowds to collaboratively interact with a tangible field of information, visualized by 36 lantern stations. The interface is presented through as a stack of lantern shades, which can track user interaction through touch, motion, and sound. The system is designed as a platform capable of displaying multiple different games, animations, and simulations, and adapts to support many different group interactions.

Sharing the lights: exploration on teaching electronics for sensory augmentation development

In the spring of 2014 a workshop on Sensory Augmentation was held at the National University of Singapores Connective Ubiquitous Technology and Embodiments (CUTE) Center. During the workshop, three tutorials were presented followed by individual and team based projects. This paper takes a look at the tutorials developed for the workshop and suggests evaluation through enactive cognition theory.