Patrick Holroyd

Why is my home not smart

Although the idea of the smart home has been around for over three decades the smart technology that enables it has yet to reach the mass market. Spending on smart technology is expected to rise, but it is still negligible when compared to overall spending on consumer electronics. This paper examines the benefits of the smart home, peoples attitude towards them and smart technologies and the possible reasons for lack of interest and adoption of such technologies.

Real-time compositing framework for interactive stereo fMRI displays

This research concentrates on providing high fidelity animation, only achievable with offline rendering solutions, for interactive fMRI-based experiments. Virtual characters are well established within the film, game and research worlds, yet much remains to be learned about which design, stylistic or behavioural factors combine to make a believable character. The definition of believability depends on context. When designing and implementing characters for entertainment, the concern is making believable characters that the audience will engage with. When using virtual characters in experiments, the aim is to create characters and synthetic spaces that people respond to in a similar manner to their real world counterparts. Research has shown that users show empathy for virtual characters. However, uncanny valley effects -- ie dips in user impressions -- can arise: behavioural fidelity expectations increase alongside increases in visual fidelity and vice versa. Often, characters used within virtual environments tend to be of fairly low fidelity due to technological constraints including rendering in real-time (Garau et al. 2003). This problem is addressed here by using non-linear playback and compositing of pre-rendered high fidelity sequences.

Design Fiction Film-Making: A Pipeline for Communicating Experiences

The use of films in early stages of the design of technology is a practice that is becoming increasingly common. However, the focus of these films is usually centered on exploring the technology and its specifications rather than on the experiences that the technology can potentially create for its user. Previous research emphasises the relevance of experiences created by the technology in the users arguing that the emotions should be taken into account during early design stages and made part of the design itself. In this paper we provide a step-by-step production pipeline on how to make your own design fiction film, and how you can get the experiences across. For this purpose we focus on the experiences and emotions that a specific interaction medium elicits. We gained inspiration from the increased exploration of olfactory experiences in HCI. We used a classification of smell experiences as a starting point to produce a design fiction film for the automotive context, not limited by technology but inspired by experiences.

MAVIS: Mobile Acquisition and VISualization: a professional tool for video recording on a mobile platform

Professional video recording is a complex process which often requires expensive cameras and large amounts of ancillary equipment. With the advancement of mobile technologies, cameras on mobile devices have improved to the point where the quality of their output is sometimes comparable to that obtained from a professional video camera and are often used in professional productions. However, tools that allow professional users to access the information they need to control the technical quality of their filming and make an informed decision about what they are recording are missing on mobile platforms. In this paper we present MAVIS (Mobile Acquisition and VISualization) a tool for professional filming on a mobile platform. MAVIS allows users to access information such as colour vectorscope, waveform monitor, false colouring, focus peaking and all other information that is needed to produce high quality professional videos. This is achieved by exploiting the capabilities of modern mobile GPUs though the use of a number of vertex and fragment shaders. Evaluation with professionals in the film industry shows that the app and its functionalities are well received and that the output and usability of the application align with professional standards.

The effects of video lecture delivery formats on student engagement

Video lectures are the main teaching tool used in e-learning platforms. Different video lecture delivery formats are used to disseminate course content among students. However, there are a limited number of studies that investigate if and how different video lecture delivery formats affect the way a viewer feels engaged with the video content. This paper presents results from a pilot study aimed at further investigating this area of research. During the experiment participants were exposed to five lecture delivery formats: a one-to-one tutoring session, SussexDL a novel video delivery format being developed at the University of Sussex, and three other video lecture delivery formats commonly used in e-learning platforms. Participants were asked to rate the level of engagement they felt with each format. The results suggest that there is a link between the video lecture delivery format and the engagement felt with the video content.

MAVIS: mobile acquisition and VISualization: hands on

With the advancement of mobile technologies cameras on mobile devices have improved to the point where the quality of their output is sometimes comparable to that obtained from a professional video camera. Moreover mobile cameras are being used more and more frequently in professional production environments. However, tools that allow professional users to access and display the accurate information they need to control the technical quality of their filming and make informed decisions about the scenes they are filming is missing on mobile platforms. In this paper the Mobile Acquisition and VISualisation (MAVIS) app is presented, see figure 1. By exploiting the capabilities of modern mobile GPUs, MAVIS integrates the functionalities of a vectorscope, waveform monitor, false colouring and focus peaking monitors together with all the standard functionalities of a video recording app into a single tool. With the extra information that MAVIS displays, the user is able to make informed decisions about how to light and shoot the scene. This enables high quality videos to be obtained from the mobile camera, which can be used alongside outputs of more professional cameras.

Adapting the Twelve Principles of Classic Animation to Lectures

This paper borrows from the fields of classic animation and 3D animation and adapts the fundamental principles of these subjects to the lecturing context. An analogy is drawn between an animator and a lecturer due to their shared objective: to communicate in an engaging way. If the fundamental principles of animation are read under the point of view of how they communicate a message, it is not difficult to see that they summarise some of the key concepts in the fields of education and educational psychology. Once adapted the principles can be used as a guideline by novice lecturers to increase students’ engagement both in traditional lectures and in e-learning environments. The principles have been applied successfully in teaching the Programming for 3D module and a number of modules at the University of Sussex obtaining good feedback from students.