Games, technical limits and users' acceptation

Next week, there will be the NetGame conference/4th workshop on Network System Support for Games at the TJ Watson Research Center in Hawthorne, NY. It's going to be more technical than user-centered. However, one of the track stroke me as interesting because it can have relevant impacts on how users play: 'Network Effects on Games':

• Influence of Network Latency and Packet Loss on Consistency in Networked Racing Games by Takahiro Yasui, Yutaka Ishibashi, Tomohito Ikedo (Nagoya Institute of Technology, Japan)
• The Effect of Latency and Network Limitations on MMORPGs - (A Field Study of Everquest2) by Tobias Fritsch, Hartmut Ritter, Jochen Schiller (Freie Universität Berlin, Germany) [some thoughts about technical limits in mobile games too]
• Analysis of Factors Affecting Players' Performance and Perception in Multiplayer Games by Matthias Dick, Oliver Wellnitz, Lars Wolf (TU Braunschweig, Germany)

The last one is maybe the most interesting since it takes into account both users' subjective points and technical limits:

In this paper we analyse different factors affecting players’ perception and performance in multiplayer games. We introduce a mean opinion score metric borrowed from the subjective analysis of audio and video content to classify the player’s perceived game quality. With a survey we investigated the player’s view on network latency for a variety of games. Furthermore, we examine four different games under different network conditions and collect data on game score and sub jective perception from every player. During the evaluation, we investigate the effect of latency and jitter on multiplayer games. We use regression analysis methods to identify coherences between delay, jitter, skill, game score, and the sub jective impression of the player. Finally, we compare the results from the survey and the experiments.

Why do I blog this? with Fabien we're working on a paper about how mobile game players deal with uncertainties/technical limits while collaborating to achieve the game goal. We want to explore the findings of Chalmers' team + Benford's team.

Computer Supported Collaborative Work course at EPFL (2005-2006)

I am currently working on the web platform for the course we gave (with Pierre) about Computer Supported Collaborative Work. The syllabus as well as the project step are described here. There is a guest account to visit the website, you just have to click on the guest access.

The goal of this course is that students become able to analyze the impact of a computer-supported collaborative environment. This requires constructing an experiment and analyzing team interactions with both qualitative and quantitative data analysis techniques. This will be done through the design of an interactive table meant to support collaboration among small groups of users.

Each Tuesday, the course will be divided in a lecture phase and a project phase. Students will work in teams to apply the concepts and method related to the interactive table project. The presentation and discussion about projects' deliverable will also occupy a small part of the class period.

This year too, we choose a project based on interactive furnitures: student will have to design a simple prototypes and then to analyse how people collaborate while using it.

Another rabbit-like technology: Lapinou

Via akihabaranews, a new interesting rabbit-like technology made by Hitachi (presented at the CEATEC event in Tokyo):

"Lapinou, the robot rabbit! Hitachi presentes this small robot rabbit that can be connected a variety of PC products and home A/V equipment, and that can interact with human beings. It recognises the human speech and face, and it starts whatever you tell it to switch on, e.g. "Lapinou, record the football game on channel 4 at 5pm"... and there you go! (no, it's the white thing I'm talking about, and not the black being on the right)"

After Nabaztag this is a good step towards a trend in rabbit-like technology!

A context-awareness framework

Today at the lab seminar, we had a presentation from Andreas Zimmermann (Fraunhofer Institute of Sankt Augustin, Germany). Andreas presented the architecture of his 'context management' framework:

Context Management Framework De-contextualization is death for any information. Context-awareness is the key asset in future information services for Ubiquitous and Pervasive Computing. In ubiquitous computing, the user will be interrupted in performing a task only if the information is relevant to the task or highly important in the situation to justify the interrupt. The information selection and presentation therefore should be adapted to the user and his current context of use. Nowadays, uncounted Content-Management Systems provide access to a large amount of information, but without context, information is just data. Indeed, contextualization currently lacks a few properties making it transparent and applicable for everyone. Context-Management as a novel and unified framework will hide complex technical details from developers and end users while developing context-aware systems. This framework provides software packages to support developers in integrating context-awareness in ubiquitous computing environments and tools for the management of content combined with context information.

Then he exemplified it with 3 applications: an intelligent advertisement board, a museum guide and a treasure-hunt game.

A good summary of this can be found in this paper: Applications of a Context-Management System by Andreas Zimmermann, Andreas Lorenz and Marcus Specht (proceedings of Context'05).

Laptops in wooden logs

The Owl Project (Simon Blackmore, Antony Hall)is a band from Manchester who plays laptops in wooden logs at Emergence, a french arty event:

They developed the log1k, a wooded laptop described as: "' The all-new Log1k® is here. And it's unlike anything you've seen or experienced. With a brilliant flat-panel display and phenomenal performance, Log1k® is the first computer built from the ground up to be the ultimate hub for the owl project lifestyle. Its time to log on...' The Log1k® was designed and constructed by the Owl Project. They have been using the Log1k® to perform their own brand of electronica, which combines electro-magnetic fields and signals to produce complex beats and ambient sound. ' Down-to-earth ease of use. Out-of-this-world performance and looks. Log1k® is great in the home or the forest. '"

Usable in trains too, and of course there is the more portable version: the iLog (on the right)

Urban transportation systems hacking

I am crazy about this project by HeHe (Helen Evans and Heiko Hansen): Train : urban structure for aesthetic urban transportation, a very intriguing and relevant project about transportation:

Using existing, past and future railway transportation systems and Reverse Cultural Engineer them. Technological process feathers at its periphery. Similar to a fractal image an innovation is followed by other innovations, based on the original one. In a recursive environment like this we would like to go back to the origin, the innovation of railway and propose a different solution, here an individual perpetuated vehicle. In this way artistic process starts by going backwards to propose utilitarian design scenarios.

The Train project is a speculation into the language and aesthetics of transportation, particularly those that have become so ubiquitous and unquestionable for us. By proposing different real installations which would work within active or abandoned public transport structures and a series of conceptual designs a dialogue should be raised that engages in questions about the reality and "real fiction" of traffic.

The project has been inspired by the demise of ARAMIS (french research project about an high tech automated subway that was developped in France during the eighties), which is well summarized in Bruno Latour's book Aramis or the Love of Technology (hey A. I know it's one of your favorite book).

Why do I blog this? I find the project interesting, a kind of hack of current transportation system (they don't steal or hack a vehicle, just the 'physical network' which is smart (conversely I like people building temporary architecture on walls or mountains while climbing). Plus, I also like the way they define themselves: "reverse cultural engineer the technological systems, that surround us". The "ersonal Rapid Transport system, Cabin Taxi, Germany" they show is also amazing:

Folksomologies and spatial technologies

Just stumbled across a new concept: folksomologies which is obviously a portmanteau word that I found in Technology and geography: some work in progress by Barry Brown and Louise Barkhuus (a paper from an workshop at ECSCW).

a number of the same designs or concepts are being replicated time and time again, with little in the way of innovation. For example, the ‘tagging’ of locations with information has become a frequent feature of geographical sys- tems, yet there is still little in-depth enquiry as to whether this tagging supports activities of genuine interest to users. (...) In our current work we are exploring much more the choices that individuals have in their location and mobility. We are also interested so called ‘folksomologies’, ad hoc structures that can be built and span across different locations.

People's representation of Ubiquitous Computing

Now that Ubiquitous Computing is somehow becoming a reality (somehow because applications are still at the prototype level), it's interesting to find a paper about how people's preconception about it: How do users think about ubiquitous computing? by K. Truong, E. Huang, M.M. Stevens and G.D. Abowd (all from the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta) taken from the CHI2004 proceedings:

As ubiquitous computing technology migrates into the home environment, there has been a concurrent effort to allow users to build and customize such technologies to suit their own specific needs. Many tools have been built to enable users with little or no programming knowledge to build such applications. Despite the de-emphasis on programming, however, these tools are often device-centric, rather than user-centric. In this paper, we investigate how people describe and conceptualize ubiquitous computing applications and technology. We examine how people naturally express ideas for novel applications to build conceptual models upon which to base future interfaces for creating ubiquitous computing applications. (...) In this paper, we present a study that examines how users express their ideas about ubicomp applications, specifically for the purposes of capturing events and information in the home for future access. Our study results include a breadth of ideas for ubiquitous capture and access applications suggested by potential users of ubicomp application design interfaces. Based on the content and expressions of these ideas, we derive a set of conceptual models to inform the future design of interfaces that enable end-user ubicomp application design and creation.

Why do I blog this? I like this conclusion:

we believe that most people tend to conceptualize ubicomp in terms of human needs, situations, and tasks rather than devices and interactions between devices.

Besides, we're thinking about writing something about this issue with Fabien, like how CatchBob! users dealt with the uncertainty due to some problems with the game (location accuracy, drawing issues...). It's an issue also addresses by teams like Benford's or Chalmers'.

Beta version of platial

Finally, there is now a beta version of the platial platform I mentioned few weeks ago.

Platial enables anyone to find, create and use meaningful maps of Places that matter to them. We hope it can connect people, neighborhoods, cities and countries through a citizen-driven common context that goes beyond geopolitical boundaries.

What is interesting is they way the designer came up with this idea of collaborative atlas:

The specific concept for building an online, shared mapping tool came after Di-Ann and I had moved to Amsterdam in 2004. We encouraged a lot of people to come visit. (...) We made them maps, like everyone does, of the basic neighborhood amenities. (...) We ended up with a kitchen drawer stuffed full of these notes. It was our collection of Places, plus menus for take out, magazine articles listing kid friendly museums, schedules of parades, and a few brochures and tour books for attractions that seemed interesting enough. A few maps got lost, loaned out or recombined, others got photocopied or emailed or taped to front doors as invitations. Then we moved back to the United States, and that drawer of Places lost its context, it became useless in Portland. We wanted a way to preserve all that knowledge in a powerful, useful, contextual way. We started asking my friend Jake about the technology side of building something to address this, and discovered he'd been working on, and thinking through some of the same issues

Why do I blog this? I like this idea and their tagline is quite straightforward: "Find the Places you always hoped existed - Your Collaborative Atlas - Create the maps you always wanted to share". It's actually a new step in the 'annotation of space' kinds of applications which will grow up thanks to the users' contributions.

Toy Symphony by Tod Machover

Tod Machover is a researcher at MIT medialab. He has a cool project called Toy Symphony:

With Toy Symphony, Tod Machover and his team at the MIT Media Lab strive to bridge the gap between professional musicians and children, as well as between audience and performers. This three year project, combining children, virtuosic performers like violinist Joshua Bell and conductor Kent Nagano, composers and symphony orchestras around the world, is intended to radically alter how children are introduced to music, serving to redefine the relationship between professional musicians and young people.

Through the use of innovative technologies to create musical instruments and compositional tools designed for an individual of any skill level, as well as weeklong workshops culminating in an integrated performance with children and professional musicians, Toy Symphony is designed as an utterly inclusive experience, one that will infuse the orchestra with youthful and enthusiastic collaborators, and the instruments, sounds, and ideas of the 21st century.

Why do I blog this? What is interesting is all the artifacts they designed like the hand-held percussive instruments called Beatbug on the left and this impressive Music Shapers, a soft squeezable instruments (on the right, wow I am a fan of squeezable interfaces):

Technorati Tags: medialab, mit, tangible interaction, toy

Yubi-Wa: Wearable handset featuring a bone conduction transceiver

(via yahoo news), this amazing device:

A model demonstrates NTT DoCoMo's wearable handset device 'Yubi-Wa' at the CEATEC JAPAN 2005, a technology trade exhibition, in Makuhari, east of Tokyo October 4, 2005. The prototype handset which the company believes is the world's first wearable handset, features a bone conduction transceiver, and is used by inserting a finger with the device into the earhole, the company officials said. The exhibition runs from Tuesday until Saturday and feature around 700 companies in this year. REUTERS/Issei Kato

Why do I blog this? it's a good example of a product (and not a prototype) using a bone conduction transceiver!

Design and analysis of social-interaction research

Mirweis recently pointed me on this paper: THE DESIGN AND ANALYSIS OF SOCIAL-INTERACTION RESEARCH by David A. Kenny taken from the Annual Review of Psychology, Vol. 47: 59-86 (Volume publication date February 1996) .

Static models of interacting persons measured at the interval level are reviewed. A discussion of the fundamental sources of variance and key design decisions in social-interaction research is presented. Outlined are the basic designs for social-interaction research and their proper analysis. Multilevel modeling is likely to become the most common data analysis method. Critical issues unique to social-interaction research are examined, particularly the effect of the partner on the interaction actor. Finally, illustrations of analyses from four extended examples are presented.

Why do I blog this? I believe that social psychology methodologies like the one described in this paper cn be fruitfully applied to research about interaction analysis in HCI. This paper is also interesting in the sense that it deal with triad analysis which is the case of CatchBob!

When the group has three or more members, there are several important complications to consider beyond the scope of dyadic research. These complications are only sketched here. The first concerns whether the measurement is triadic. When persons i, j, and k are in a group, does person i separately interact with or rate both j and k, and is i's behavior measured for all of those interactions?

A second issue in triadic research is the meaning of the group effect. In dyadic research, the group effect is defined as the effect over and above individual-level effects of actor and partner. In triadic research, a group effect can be defined as an effect beyond both individual and dyadic effects. In triadic research, there are then three levels of effects: the person, the dyad, and the triad.

A third issue concerns design. Does person i interact with person j only when k is a member of the group, or does person i interact with j, k, m, and so on? The issue is whether all possible triads or just a subset is formed.

A physical representation of my blog

(seen in geneva, the guy might be a lost reader)

Journal paper about Can You See Me Now?

A paper to be published in Transactions of CHI:Can You See Me Now? by Steve Benford, Andy Crabtree, Martin Flintham, Adam Drozd, Rob Anastasi and Mark Paxton + Nick Tandavanitj, Matt Adams and Ju Row-Farr.

This article is a very good milestone, it's a journal paper that accounts the experience they had with the game Can You See Me Now?.

We present a study of a mobile mixed reality game called Can You See Me Now? in which online players are chased through a virtual model of a city by ‘runners’ (i.e., professional performers equipped with GPS and WiFi technologies) who have to run through the actual city streets in order to catch the players. We present an ethnographic study of the game as it toured through two different cities that draws upon video recordings of online players, runners, technical support crew, and also on system logs of text communication. Our study reveals the diverse ways in which online players experienced the uncertainties inherent in GPS and WiFi, including being mostly unaware of them, but sometimes seeing them as problems, or treating the as a designed feature of the game, and even occasionally exploiting them within gameplay. In contrast, the runners and technical crew were fully aware of these uncertainties and continually battled against them through an ongoing and distributed process of orchestration. As a result, we encourage designers to deal with such uncertainties as a fundamental characteristic of location-based experiences rather than treating them as exceptions or bugs that might be ironed out in the future. We argue that designers should explicitly consider four potential states of being of a mobile participant – connected and tracked, connected but not tracked, tracked but not connected, and neither connected nor tracked. We then introduce five strategies that might be used to deal with uncertainty in these different states for different kinds of participant: remove it, hide it, manage it, reveal it and exploit it. Finally, we present proposals for new orchestration interfaces that reveal the ‘seams’ in the underlying technical infrastructure by visualizing the recent performance of GPS and WiFi and predicting the likely future performance of GPS.

Why do I blog this? It think that this paper should be considered as a seminal article about ethnographical analysis of a location-based game. Besides, after research projects like Pirates!, AR Quake and BotFighters, it's one of the most important early example in the field. It also describes interesting aspects about uncertainty arising from the use of GPS and WiFi, which is a topic we are working on with Fabien. They somehow use some quantitative indexes like packet loss intervals + periods loss; we're considering to move further by using other measures and correlate them with task performance or communication frequency/quality in CatchBob!

Best estimation of a node position taking into consideration the economic viability of a wireless sensor

(via), An interesting idea for building effective LBS/positioning services is developed by Jagoba Arias Pérezfrom University of the Basque Country in Bilabo. As described on his webpage:

each node has to have very low costs, both in its design and in its production. The most important advantage of this type of network is that of duplication: with so many sensors participating in the operation of the network, if one fails, another will fulfil the function until the failed item can be replaced.(...) a new algorithm for finding the position of the nodes is put forward and developed. To this end, the distances separating the nodes are utilised. However, given that each sensor has to be very economic, the quality of measurement of these distances is not expected to be high and, consequently, location errors appear. Thus, the algorithm proposed here attempts to calculate the best estimate of the node position, in the knowledge that the distances involved have errors.

This will hence enable each node to automatically compute its own location and then aid in fixing a position.

Publications

Publications, installations, presentations & workshop papers Books and thesis

Bleecker, J & Nova, N. (2009). A synchronicity: design fictions for asynchronous urban computing. Situated Technologies: NY.

Nova, N.. (2009) Les Médias géolocalisés: comprendre les nouveaux paysages numériques. FYP Editions.

Nova, N. (2007). The influences of location awareness on computer-supported collaboration', I&C Faculty Ph.D dissertation, under the supervision of Pierre Dillenbourg.

Journal papers

Nova, N. (2010). Relying on Failures in Design Research, ACM interactions, September+October issue.

Nova, N., Girardin, F., Dillenbourg, P. (2010). The Effects of Mutual Location-Awareness on Group Coordination. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies.

Girardin, F., Nova, N., and Dillenbourg, P. (2009). Detecting air travel to survey passengers on a worldwide scale. Journal of Location-Based Services, 3(3).

Girardin, F. and Nova, N. (2006). Getting Real with Ubiquitous Computing: the Impact of Discrepancies on Collaboration, eMinds, 1

Nova, N. (2005). A Review of How Space Affords Socio-Cognitive Processes during Collaboration. Psychnology, Vol. 3, No 2, pp. 118-148.

Nova N., Wehrle, T., Goslin, J., Bourquin, Y. & Dillenbourg, P. (2007): Collaboration in a Video Game : Impacts of Location Awareness. Journal of Multimedia, Tools and Applications, 32:161-183.

Conference full and short papers

Nova, N. & Jobert, T. (2011). User-Centered Design in Video Games: Investigating Gestural Interfaces Appropriation, Proceedings of ACM DPPI 2011 (June 22-25), Milano, Italy.

Nova, N. (2010). ARcetate: Augmented Reality with Acetate Paper. Papercomp workshop at 12th ACM International Conference on Ubiquitous Computing, Sep 26, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Dabic, S., Lund, K, & Nova N. (2010). Effects of Expertise, Mapping and Tutorial Format on User Experience when Gesturing with the Nintendo Wii. Conférence IHM 2010, Luxembourg.

Nova, N. & Jobert, T. (2009). Intuitivité et incorporation des interactions gestuelles chez les utilisateurs de jeux vidéo. IHM 2009, Grenoble: France.

Nova. N., Sangin, M. & Dillenbourg, P. (2008). Reconsidering Clark’s Theory in CSCW, Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on the Design of Cooperative Systems (COOP'08), Carry-le-Rouet, May 20-23, 2008.

Sangin, M., Nova, N., Molinari, G. & Dillenbourg, P. (2007). Partner Modeling is Mutual, Proceedings of the 8th iternational conference on Computer supported collaborative learning, Rutgers, State University of New Jersey, pp. 625-632

Nova, N., Girardin, F., Dillenbourg, P. (2006) "Investigating How Automatic Disclosure of Partners' Location Influences Mobile Coordination", Poster at Ubicomp 2006, Orange County, CA.

Girardin, F., Nova, N., Blat, J. (2006) "Towards Design Strategies to Deal with Spatial Uncertainty in Location-Aware Systems" , Poster at Ubicomp 2006, Orange County, CA.

Nova, N., Girardin, F., Molinari, G. & Dillenbourg, P. (2006): The Underwhelming Effects of Automatic Location-Awareness on Collaboration in a Pervasive Game, International Conference on the Design of Cooperative Systems (May 9-12, 2006, Carry-le-Rouet, Provence, France).

Nova, N., Girardin, F. & Dillenbourg, P. (2005): â"Location is not enough!": an Empirical Study of Location-Awareness in Mobile Collaboration. Proceedings of the third IEEE International Workshop on Wireless and Mobile Technologies in Education, November 28-30, 2005, Tokushima, Japan, pp. 21-28, IEEE Press: Los Alamitos, California (Acceptance rate: 11.6%)

Nova, N., Girardin, F. & Dillenbourg, P. (2005) Etude empirique de l'utilisation de la géolocalisation en collaboration mobile, Short Paper for IHM 2005, Toulouse, France.

Nova, N., Girardin, F. & Dillenbourg, P. (2005) A Mobile Game to Explore the Use of Location Awareness on Collaboration. HCI International 2005, Las Vegas, USA.

Nova, N. & Ortelli, R. (2004). Web-Based Syndication Enhanced with Social Navigation, 1st Workshop on Friend of a Friend, Social Networking and the Semantic Web, Galway, Ireland. [Had to cancel the presentation but the paper is there]

Nova N., Wehrle, T., Goslin, J., Bourquin, Y. & Dillenbourg, P. (2003). The Impacts of Awareness Tools on Mutual Modelling in a Collaborative Video-Game. In J. Favela and D. Decouchant (Eds.). Proceedings of the 9th International Workshop on Groupware, Autrans France, September 2003., pp. 99-108.

Nova N., Wehrle, T., Goslin, J., Bourquin, Y. & Dillenbourg, P. (2003). Awareness Tools and Mutual Modelling in a Collaborative Game. In Proceedings of International Conference on New Education Environments, pp. 83-88. Edited by C. Jutz, F. Fluckiger & Karin Wafler, Lucerne, May 26-28.

Nova N. (2002). Awareness Tools : Lessons from Quake-Like. In Proceedings of "Playing with the Future Conference" Manchester, UK.

Guin-Duclosson Nathalie & Nova Nicolas : Utiliser des connaissances abstraites ou contextualisees pour proposer differents types d'aide Technologies de l'Information et de la Communication dans les Enseignements d'ingénieurs et dans l'industrie, TICE2002, INSA de Lyon, 13-15 novembre 2002.

Guin-Duclosson N. & Nova N. (2001). Adapter l'aide à l'apprenant : utilisation de connaissances abstraites ou contextualiséees. In Sciences et techniques Educatives Vol. 1-2 (avril 2001). Hermàs : Paris.

Chapters in books

Nova, N. (2012). Question your game controllers!?, Playtime — Videogame mythologies, Maison d’Ailleurs, Yverdon, Switzerland.

Nova, N. (2010). Snapshots from a fictional asynchronous city. Catalogue for the HABITAR: Bending the Urban Frame exhibit, Laboral, Centro de Arte y Creacion Industrial, Gijon, Spain.

Nova, N. and Girardin, F. (2009). Framing the Issues for the Design of Location-Based Games, In Digital Cityscapes: Merging digital and urban playspaces. Peter Lang Publishers.

Huang, J., Cherubini, M.. Nova, N. & Dillenbourg, P. (2008). Why Would Furniture Be Relevant For Collaborative Learning? In Dillenbourg, P., Huang, J. & Cherubini, M. (Eds.) Collaborative Artefacts and Interactive Furniture Supporting Collaborative Work/ Learning. Kluwer Academic Publishers.

Nova, N. and Labrune, J.B. (in press, 2007). Des jeux vidéo au LifeGames: Perspectives tangibles et sociales des nouvelles formes d'interactions ludiques. In Franck Beau (Ed): "Le futur des MMORPG"

Nova, N. and Girardin, F. (in press, 2007). CatchBob! A Collaborative Treasure Hunt: Experimenting on Debord's Dérive with Pervasive Computing. In on Borries, Friedrich, Walz, Steffen P., Brinkmann, Ulrich, and Matthias Bottger (eds.), Space Time Play. Games, Architecture, and Urbanism. Birkhauser: Basel / Berlin / Boston.

Nova, N. (2006). La R&D en Game Design. In Genvo, S. (Ed.) Le game design de jeux vidéo : Approches de l'expression vidéoludique.

Workshop papers

Girardin, F., Nova, N. and Blackstock, M. (2007). Issues from Deploying and Maintaining a Pervasive Game on Multiple Sites. Workshop Common Models and Patterns for Pervasive Computing (Pervasive 2007).

Nova, N., Molinari, G. and Dillenbourg, P. (2007). Evaluating Mutual Modeling in CSCW environments. Workshop "Mutual Model in collaborative task", CSCL Alpine Rendezvous, Villars.

Dillenbourg, P. & Nova, N. (2006): The RoadForum: Sharing informal knowledge in a distributed team through a mobile audio environment. Workshop about Knowledge Sharing in Organizations, at the International Conference on the Design of Cooperative Systems., (May 9-12, 2006, Carry-le-Rouet, Provence, France).

Nova, N. and Dillenbourg, P. (2004). Impacts of Location-Awareness on Group Collaboration. Position paper for the workshop "Spatial Awareness in Collaboration and Group Interaction", 7th October EPFL.

Nova, N. and Girardin, F. (2004). Analysis of a Location-Based Multi-Player Game, Position paper for "Games and Social Networks: A Workshop on Multiplayer Games", 6th September University of Leeds, UK, British HCI conference.

Other writings

Nova, N., Girardin, F. & Dillenbourg, P. (2008). A Descriptive Framework to Design for Mutual Location- Awareness in Ubiquitous Computing. EPFL Technical Report LDM-REPORT-2008-001.

Nova, N., Traum, D., Montandon, L., Ott, D. and Dillenbourg, P. (2005), Do Partners Care about their Mutual Locations? Spatial awareness in virtual environments, EPFL Technical Report IC/2005/038

Nova, N. (2004). Socio-cognitive functions of space in collaborative settings : a literature review about Space, Cognition and Collaboration, EPFL Technical Report IC/2004/81.

Nova N. & Guin-Duclosson N. (2000). Liens entre l'apprentissage à partir d'exemples et le Raisonnement à Partir de Cas - Apports pour les Environnements Informatiques pour l'Apprentissage Humain. Rapport Interne du LISI RR2000-2

Press

De Super Mario à eBay, les mécaniques ludiques sortent du jeu vidéo, Amusement #5

Conway's Game of Life LED tank top

An interesting tank top for people who are both into AI and flashy dressers like Mauro: LED tank top by Leah Buechley:

84 LEDs, a microcontroller and battery were sewn onto a tank top with conductive thread to create a wearable LED matrix display. In the movie the shirt is initialized with a glider on the back of the shirt and a blinker on the front. Periodically, a new glider is added to the back of the shirt. The tank top "board" for the Game of Life is a torus; the cells on the top row of the tank top are neighbors to the cells on the bottom row and vice versa.

A digital parrot

Good stuff by Crispin Jones: digiparrot, a cool project for the Japanese company Elekit.

The digiParrot responds to whistled tunes - it listens to the tune (it's eye flashes when it recognises a note) and replays the whistle in it's own particular way. You can view it in action in the movies below, if you are particularly interested you can see the development movies by clicking here.

Why do I blog this? I like this of toy/device since I stringly believe in the merge of video game and toy to create new entertainment platforms. This is of course really simple, but like the WiFi rabbit, I find discrete little toys like this nice. My favorite video there is the "Two digiParrot listens and replays 'You'll never wealk alone'. One digiParrot listens to the other whistle and replays that parrots whistle."

Re-usable bird diapers

It seems that birds have diapers!

FlightSuits!™ Cleverly disguised, Soft, Stretchy, Reusable pet bird diapers! Allows feathered friends out of cages both in & out of the house - Worry-free from embarrassing accidents (poop) or dangerous fly-aways. Easy on & off! Great for travel! Breathable, easy clean fabric! Use over and over for years! Patented "poop-pouch" safely keeps droppings away from birds (and you). Does not inhibit preening, movement, or flight! Droppings land in "poop-pouch" leaving vent clear. Unique, Velcro adaptor (LifeRing) with reinforced grommet accommodates convenient detachable leash option! (sold separately) Makes for more tame birds!

The motto is awesome: "Make your bird a star! Send us your favorite picture of your feathered friend wearing his or her FlightSuit!™ " What a nice device!

XXIst century institutions

Browsing improbable websites, I found this interesting quote (there):

« My ideal XXIst century institution would appear less like an “institution” as such, than as a constantly evolving and flexible organism, or a network connecting people on a “global” mode, people who have ideas and people who act. It should be able to respond to the most varied forms of thought and media, and more precisely, to face the challenge represented by the new complexity arising from the merging of new forms of social emergency and new technologies. And while it develops it should also take in account the emergence of this other fact : the collapse of the centre of the world. » Hou Hanru : curator indépendant in "Qu’attendez vous d’une institution artistique du XXI° siècle ?" (What do you expect from a XXIst century art institution ?). Ed palais de Tokyo

I agree with this and I think this is also an ideal structure, however it seems that this kind of definition is more applied recently to private companies in our supercapitalist days; it's interesting to see that the rhetoric shift in organisational sciences (oldschool organisation --- new structures more felxible) now refers to every structures be it arty/for profit/squat-related... Will private companies be organized like art groups? interactive labs? Or is it the other way around? I am lost. Well we don't know but the main word here are 'flexible and 'evolving'.