This presentation describes MobJeX (Mobile Java Objects), an adaptive Java based application framework currently being developed within the School of Computer Science and Information Technology at RMIT. MobJeX forms a central part of Project 1.2 - Frameworks for the Development of Next Generation Internet Applications, within the Australian Telecommunications Collaborative Research Centre (ATcrc). MobJeX uses a combination of pre-processing and runtime support to provide application adaptation in response to changing environmental conditions, especially via transparent object mobility between heterogeneous clients such as workstations, PDAs and smartphones. Potential applications exist in mission critical areas such as emergency services response as well as online entertainment and virtual community applications. « Short abstract

In most P2P business models, in which users purchase the media, it is necessary to securely identify the user in order to facilitate payment. This paper presents a technique for allowing the widespread sharing of certain media formats including music using a method that keeps track of media possession and other marketing information, but in a way that does not require user identification. For the user, the main attraction of this scheme is that their identity is not a requirement, usage of reduced-quality media within this system is free and that extended media search is facilitated as an attraction to remain within the system. The content creators and distributors are compensated by this system by them having access to potentially large-scale actual usage and music trading statistics. The preliminary system design presented here, can cleanly coexist with a full-quality music purchase business model, also described briefly. « Short abstract

While mapping or spatial information was formally paper based, it is now often stored digitally and much of it can be purchased over the web. In digital format, it is no longer restricted to a particular scale or date of publication and there is a tendency for consumers to assume the data is always true and correct. So, how can a data consumer tell whether a spatial dataset is really fit for their use? This research looks to find ways to communicate data quality to the consumer via the web using User-Centred Design as the research tool. In this seminar, I will present the context of this research and the planned research design. This is a research project in the Department of Geomatics funded by the CRC for Spatial Information. « Short abstract

Emerging information and communication technologies are about to change and affect how we interact and coordinate with each other. These technologies will probably affect children in various situations even tough children are already emerging as a rather frequent and experienced user population. In this seminar, I will present the context and content of my stay at the Department of Information Systems. By conducting an empirical study, we have investigated the social interaction phenomena that unfold between children and their parents. We used the concept of cultural probes and contextual interviews to investigate the intimate acts between children and parents in three families. Our findings show that the intimate act between children and parents share a number of similarities with other types of intimate relations such as strong-tie intimacy. However, we also identified several issues of intimacy unique to the special relation between children and their parents. These unique acts of intimacy propose extra challenges when designing technologies for mediated intimacy in families. My stay at University of Melbourne will focus on a continuation of the Intergenerational Games Project. Here I will work on finishing the development of at distributed "Hide and Seek" game that can be played by children and their grandparents. The intension is to evaluate the interaction aspects and phenomena that the system support or (potentially) fail to support. This part of my work is still very open-ended, thus I hope the seminar will have characteristics of an open-ended discussion rather than a one-way speech. « Short abstract

In this presentation of his PhD thesis, Stephan Wensveen integrates the cognitive, perceptual-motor and affective aspects of product interaction. The thesis advocates a tangibility approach to affective interaction to answer the research question. "How can we design for human product interaction, so that the product gets information about ... what we 'know' and how we 'feel' from the way we 'do' this interaction, in order to adapt to this information?" The thesis follows a Research through Design approach which generates new knowledge through the act of designing. The design process is used as a form of research where the results contribute to the design for emotionally intelligent products. The context of the design case for this thesis is a typical every day experience, yet filled with a diversity of emotions, i.e., the experience of waking up. The current accompanying product, the alarm clock, is a perfect example of a product that is completely unaware of, and inappropriate for the many different emotional experiences of the user. Through the use of cultural probes, design explorations and a working prototype in a series of experiments he tries to answer the following three design questions: (a) What are relevant emotional aspects for a context for experience? (b) How can a product recognize and express these aspects? (c) How can the product adapt to the person on the basis of this information? « Short abstract

Voice is a powerful mode of expressing emotions, moods and feelings. The goal of this research is to investigate how expression conveyed via voice can be used to generate artistic visual outputs. The research was inspired by the need to assist people with upper limb disabilities to create visual art in a digital medium. Current technologies available for such endeavours provide greater independence and control, but interviews and observations show that they are mechanical and lack freedom of expression. This research aims to investigate "expressive voice" enhance the user's participation and experience in creating visual art in a digital medium. Research questions to be answered are: Are people able to control expressive voice to create visual outputs of their desire? What features in expressive voice best manipulate elements of form in visual art? Does expressive voice enhance participation and experience of creating visual art?  « Short abstract

This seminar presentation will pursue some of the discussions began during the question period of last week seminar (given by Dharani Perera and entitled: Investigating mapping strategies of expressive voice to create artistic visual outputs). More concretely, and for those who were not there last week, it will be a shorten and informal version of a conference usually given by the author in the artistic field (previously given at the Laboratory for new technologies of image, sound and space (LANTISS) at Laval University in Quebec (Canada), at the VOORUIT art centre in Gent (Belgium), and at the 1st Dance and New Technology Symposium in Paris (France)). It is a presentation of a few softwares developed by the author and colleagues in the domain of audio art complemented by some thoughts about the relationship between contemporary creation and modern technoscience. « Short abstract

Museum is a knowledge-learning environment. A system which is able to adapt tailored contents to various situations may greatly enrich a visitor's experience. Some prototypes basing on NLG platform were developed, but few of them have consulted from task models, and task analysis has rarely been adopted outside of the traditional scope of HCI to model people's experience in daily life. In this research, task analysis is used in museum environment to model visitors' learning experience. Evaluations on this application are discussed, focusing on whether the model can address what content is delivered, how it is delivered and in which social context it is delivered. The success and limitation of this application may shed some light for future research of applying task analysis on people's daily activities. « Short abstract

User centred design methods ensure products for particular users work properly and are enjoyable to use. Yet, finding participants that belong to a particular target group for studies can be time consuming and challenging. One quick way to point out usability problems are 'Dog Food' studies, which involve running usability experiments with designers and engineers involved with a product. However, they can fall short in pointing out the real needs and wants of the end user. In this talk, I present my past and current workarounds for quickly finding users. From designing an in-situ re-tasking interface for NASA, to building headphones that allow joggers to motivate each other from a distance, I have used a 'Fast Food' approach for getting quick user feedback. In my current work on tactile communication for couples, I continue to explore ways that speed along the design process while assuring that the end result is a desirable product. « Short abstract

There is an increasing interest in the introduction and utilisation of information technology (including computers) in nursing settings. However there is a paucity of research which undertakes empirical studies of the ways in which nurses, either successfully or otherwise, integrate and manage computing technology in their everyday work. The social study of time and space in work settings suggests one approach for addressing this deficiency. This seminar is based on the author's PhD work. It opens with an experiential account which highlights some of the joys and difficulties of engaging in ethnographic work in hospitals, where researchers may have to manage encounters of serious illness and sudden death. The seminar goes on to explore the ways in which nurses' and hospital receptionists' talk about and manage computing artefacts in their everyday work in a public hospital setting in the UK. Incorporating a range of data-collection techniques including observation, interviews and video-taped recordings of nurse-computer interaction; intricate detail of nurse-computer interaction is uncovered in a general orthopaedics ward and in an acute coronary care ward. For comparative purposes receptionist-computer interaction is examined in an accident and emergency department. These ethnographic accounts demonstrate that computing artefacts have an ambiguous status in nursing work. The significance of the temporal and spatial application of computing artefacts suggests a particular discourse, one concerned with time, efficiency and finance. This seminar will illustrate how nurse, patient and artefacts all play an important role in constructing this discourse. Major characteristics of nursing work with technology are uncovered, ultimately emphasising the hidden, experiential, tacit, emotional and sophisticated nature of nursing work with technology. Dr Hilary Davis is a research fellow at the University of Melbourne. This seminar is based on her PhD work which was undertaken in the UK and completed in 2001. « Short abstract