Walter A. Aprile

Interactive pong: exploring ways of user inputs through prototyping with sensors

This study aimed to explore ways of user inputs through designing interactive game controllers with different type of sensor. From building four experiential prototypes on Pong, we learned to drive design by focusing on interaction qualities, which determine the use of sensors. We found that the interaction qualities together as a set offer a way to design aesthetics of behavior in interaction.

Creative approach to the design and prototyping of experimental smart spaces, case studies from the interactive environments minor

This paper attempts to challenge the established practice of design and engineering of smart environments in two ways. Its first premise is that smart spaces should be formed by systems that comprise not only home or office appliances, but also embedded building component agents. The second premise of this paper is a consequent call for an interdisciplinary approach to creation of smart spaces. Experimental undergraduate course is used to provide a set of case studies to illustrate benefits and threats of such approach, as well as the relevance of the integration of iterative prototyping already in the earliest phases of design processes.

A dynamically reconfigurable stereoscopic/panoramic vision mobile robot head controlled from a virtual environment

We have built a mobile robotic platform that features an Active Robotic Head (ARH) with two high-resolution cameras that can be switched during robot operation between two configurations that produce respectively panoramic and stereoscopic images. Image disparity is used for improving the quality of the texture. The robot head switches dynamically, based on robot operation between the stereoscopic configuration and the panoramic configuration.

Designing Persuasive Interactive Environments

Ambient Intelligent environments are interactive environments that can sense human behaviour and can respond intelligently. This workshop explores how interactive environments can be designed with persuasive quality, hereby influencing human experience and behaviour. The workshop follows a research-through-design approach in which practise-relevant insights are gained while designing. The focus will be on intuitive and rational decision-making, the role of aesthetics in persuasion, social and spatial influences as well as technological influences on persuasion, evaluation methods for persuasion, and the ethics of designing for persuasion.