Matthias Rauterberg

Physical and Virtual Tools: ActivityTheory Applied to the Design of Groupware

Activity theory is based on theconcept of tools mediating between subjects andobjects. In this theory, an individualscreative interaction with his or hersurroundings can result in the production oftools. When an individuals mental processesare exteriorized in the form of tools – termedobjectification – they become more accessibleto other people and are therefore useful forsocial interaction. This paper shows how ourunderstanding of activity theory has shaped ourdesign philosophy for groupware and how we haveapplied it. Our design philosophy and practiceis exemplified by a description of the BUILD-ITsystem. This is an Augmented Reality system wedeveloped to enhance group work; it is a kindof graspable groupware which supportscooperative planning. The system allows a groupof people, co-located around a table, tointeract, by means of physical bricks, withmodels in a virtual three-dimensional (3D)setting. Guided by task analysis, a set ofspecific tools for different 3D planning andconfiguration tasks was implemented as part ofthis system. We investigate both physical andvirtual tools. These tools allow users toadjust model height, viewpoint, and scale ofthe virtual setting. Finally, our designpractice is summarized in a set of designguidelines. Based on these guidelines, wereflect on our own design practice and theusefulness of activity theory for design.

The evolution of first person vision methods : a survey

The emergence of new wearable technologies, such as action cameras and smart glasses, has increased the interest of computer vision scientists in the first person perspective. Nowadays, this field is attracting attention and investments of companies aiming to develop commercial devices with first person vision (FPV) recording capabilities. Due to this interest, an increasing demand of methods to process these videos, possibly in real time, is expected. The current approaches present a particular combinations of different image features and quantitative methods to accomplish specific objectives like object detection, activity recognition, user-machine interaction, and so on. This paper summarizes the evolution of the state of the art in FPV video analysis between 1997 and 2014, highlighting, among others, the most commonly used features, methods, challenges, and opportunities within the field.

An empirical comparison of menu-selection (((CUI) and desktop (GUI) computer programs carried out by beginners and experts

Abstract As advantages and disadvantages of graphical user interfaces are still controversial, this study focuses on an empirical comparison of a desktop interface (GUI) and a conventional user interface with menu selection (CUI). A total of 24 users (six novices and six experts with GUI; six novices and six experts with CUI). were given 20 benchmark tasks. Except for an introduction given by the investigator (1·5 h) the beginners had no or very little previous experience with electronic data processing, while the experts had previous experience of 3,700 h (desktop) or 7,500 h (menu selection), respectively. The results showed for both beginners and experts a statistically significant superiority of GUI of the desktop user interface with ‘mouse’ over the conventional user interface with menu selection and function keys (CUI). The experts in GUI needed 51% less time to complete the tasks averaged across all tasks, as compared to the experts using CUI. Moreover a significant interaction was found between ta...

A computer support tool for the early stages of architectural design

Even in the current computer age, there are still many important application areas, such as early architectural design, where traditional tools like sketching on paper continue to be preferred by many professionals over computer-based tools. There is a growing awareness that there are often very good grounds for this preference. Hence, instead of trying to replace such traditional ways of working, it is now often considered more opportune to try and preserve the strengths of these traditional ways of working, while at the same time improving them by providing access to new media. This is one of the main objectives of the augmented reality approach that we adopt here. In this paper, we specifically discuss the realization of a tool for early architectural design on an existing augmented reality system, called the Visual Interaction Platform. We describe the development process, the resulting tool and its performance for elementary tasks such as positioning and overdrawing. We also identify directions for future research and applications.

BUILD-IT: a planning tool for construction and design

It is time to go beyond the established approaches in humancomputer interaction. With the Augmented Reality (AR) design strategy humans are able to behave as much as possible in a natural way: behavior of humans in the real world with other humans and/or real world objects. Following the fundamental constraints of natural way of interacting we derive a set of recommendations for the next generation of user interfaces: the Natural User Interface (NUI). The concept of NUI is presented in form of a runnable demonstrator: a computer vision-based interaction technique for a planning tool for construction and design tasks.

A new framework for entertainment computing: from passive to active experience

In this paper a new framework for entertainment computing is introduced and discussed. Based on already existing models and concepts the different links and relationships between enjoyment, flow, presence, and different forms of experiences are shown and their contributions to the new framework reviewed. To address the more fundamental and theoretical issues regarding entertainment, we have to utilize existing theories in information processing, enjoyment and flow theory. Some already possible and probably important conclusions for the design of new entertainment system are drawn.

An activity theory-based model for serious games analysis and-conceptual design

There are currently a number of models, frameworks and methodologies for serious games analysis and design that provide useful interpretations of the possibilities and limitations offered by serious games. However, these tools focus mostly on high-level aspects and requirements and do not help understand how such high-level requirements can be concretely satisfied. In this paper, we present a conceptual model, called Activity Theory-based Model of Serious Games (ATMSG), that aims to fill this gap. ATMSG supports a systematic and detailed representation of educational serious games, depicting the ways that game elements are connected to each other throughout the game, and how these elements contribute to the achievement of the desired pedagogical goals. Three evaluation studies indicate that ATMSG helped participants, particularly those with gaming experience, identify and understand the roles of each component in the game and recognize the games educational objectives. We present a model for serious games analysis and conceptual design, called ATMSG.Activity theory is used as the underlying theoretical framework.ATMSG supports a systematic and detailed representation of educational serious games.ATMSG depicts how the combination of serious games elements supports pedagogical goals.A taxonomy of serious games elements is presented to assist the analysis of SGs.

BUILD-IT: An Intuitive Design Tool Based on Direct Object Manipulation

Natural interaction, in the context of this paper, means human action in a world of tangible objects and live subjects. We introduce the concept of action regulation and relate it to observable human behaviour. A tool bringing together motor and cognitive action is a promising way to assure complete task regulation. Aiming for such tools, we propose a set of guidelines for the next generation of user interfaces, the Natural User Interface (NUI). We present a NUI instantiation called BUILD-IT, featuring video-mediated interaction in a task specific context. This multi-brick interaction tool renders virtual objects tangible and allows multiple user simultaneous interaction in one common space. A few user experiences are briefly described

About a framework for information and information processing of learning systems

Information and information processing are one of the most important aspects of dynamic systems. The term ‘information’, that is used in various contexts, might better be replaced with one that incorporates novelty, activity and learning. Many important communications of learning systems are non-ergodic. The ergodicity assumption in Shannon’s communication theory restricts his and all related concepts to systems that can not learn. For learning systems that interact with their environments, the more primitive concept of ‘variety’ will have to be used, instead of probability. Humans have a fundamental need for variety: he can’t permanently perceive the same context, he can’t do always the same things. The fundamental need for variety leads to a different interpretation of human behaviour that is often classified as “errors”. Variety is the basis to measure complexity. Complexity in the relationship between a learning system and his context can be expressed as incongruity. Incongruity is the difference between internal complexity of a learning system and the complexity of the context. Traditional concepts of information processing are models of homeostasis on a basic level without learning. Activity and the irreversible learning process are driving forces that cause permanently in-homeostasis in the relationship between a learning system and his context. A suitable model for information processing of learning systems must be conceptualised on a higher level: a homeostatic model of ‘in-homeostasis’. A concept to information processing is presented that derives an inverted U-shaped function between incongruity and information. This concept leads to some design recommendations for man-machine systems.

Unconscious emotions: quantifying and logging something we are not aware of

Lifelogging tools aim to precisely capture daily experiences of people from the first-person perspective. Although there have been numerous lifelogging tools developed for users to record the external environment around them, the internal part of experience characterized by emotions seems to be neglected in the lifelogging field. However, the internal experiences of people are important and, therefore, lifelogging tools should be able to capture not only the environmental data, but also emotional experiences, thereby providing a more complete archive of past events. Moreover, there are implicit emotions that cannot be consciously experienced, but still influence human behaviors and memories. It has been proven that conscious emotions can be recognized from physiological signals of the human body. This fact may be used to enhance life-logs with information about unconscious emotions, which otherwise would remain hidden. On the other hand, it is not clear if unconscious emotions can be recognized from physiological signals and differentiated from conscious emotions. Therefore, an experiment was designed to elicit emotions (both conscious and unconscious) with visual and auditory stimuli and to record cardiovascular responses of 34 participants. The experimental results showed that heart rate responses to the presentation of the stimuli are unique for every category of the emotional stimuli and allow differentiation between various emotional experiences of the participants.