This study explores the part that child-orientated exhibitions play in the child and family museum experience. Such exhibitions are characterised by their distinctive approaches to learning, interpretation, and design, being especially devised for children. The research was carried out in children's galleries from three types of museum (a maritime museum, a science museum, and a children's museum) in order to compare and contrast similarities and differences between them. Since most of the research in this area has been carried out in science centres or science museums, there is a need to explore the situation in child-orientated exhibitions and compare it to studies carried out in other informal learning settings. Understanding the qualities of their experience in a child-orientated exhibition which children and families value and why and how design and interpretation decisions may affect family behaviour, perceptions, and learning, will enable educators, museum designers and other museum professionals to plan more responsive and meaningful child-centred exhibitions. Children from seven to eleven years old and their accompanying adults were considered in this study. The research involves both qualitative and quantitative approaches and the use of different methods of investigation, such as face-to-face interviews with children and an adult relative; unobtrusive observation of family group interactions at three exhibits in each gallery; and collection of children's drawings about their favourite exhibit in the galleries. The sample sizes for each investigation varied: 150 families, totaling 300 individuals, were interviewed (150 adults and 150 children); 450 different family groups were observed at the galleries (150 in each gallery); and 120 children's drawings were collected. The guiding principle was to adopt an holistic approach to the situation under investigation, taking into consideration Falk & Dierking's interactive museum experience model (Falk & Dierking, 1992), which considers the personal, social, and physical contexts of a museum visit. Findings from the observations indicated gender effects in adult splitting behaviour from the family group at exhibits according to family members joint-activity compositions, and that differences in exhibit design/tasks affected adult manipulation of hands-on exhibits and the level of proximity between family members. Nine attributes from attractive child-orientated exhibits were drawn from the observed exhibits: element of fun, challenging situation, element of surprise, child-sized exhibit design, imaginative design, opportunity for experiencing things, opportunity for role play, interactive machine/game, and teamwork. The analysis of the children's drawings revealed that drawings can be a valuable source of information about children's interactions with hands-on exhibits and can be used to assess children's understanding of exhibits through the depiction of the exhibit outcomes. The interview data was analysed qualitatively (inductive content analysis) and statistically (chi-squared tests). The analysis of the open-ended interview questions indicated that adult relatives were enthusiastic about the opportunity for the children to interact with exhibits and perceived the hands-on gallery approach as motivating to the child with regard to learning. Children perceived the exhibitions as exciting places and reported positive feelings. A few children mentioned negative feelings, which were related to problematic exhibit design. The majority of children said that they prefer to visit museums in a family context rather than in a school context. The statistical analysis of the closed questions indicated twenty-two significant associations between the adults' and children's interview variables, related to adults' and/or children's age, gender, education, perceptions, behaviour, preferences, visiting habits, and type of museum, supporting the notion that personal, social, and museum aspects affect the child's and adult's museum experience, perceptions and learning. Children's perceptions of their learning in the galleries were found to be affected by the time spent in the gallery, the type of museum, the accompanying relative, and the child's preference for the social context of the museum visit. This investigation provided new insights into the study of galleries designed for children, and has demonstrated that child-orientated exhibitions have features which positively affect the child and family museum experience, that children do perceive that they are learning in this environment, and that it is a effective catalyst for family social activity. Therefore, child-orientated exhibitions are a valuable museum provision for the child and family audiences.

With ever cheaper and more powerful technology. the proliferation of computer systems, and higher expectations of their users, the user interface is now seen as a crucial part of any interactive system. As the designers and users of interactive software have found, though, it can be both difficult and costly to create good interactive software. It is therefore appropriate to look at ways of "engineering" the interface as well as the application. which we choose to do by using the software engineering techniques of specification and prototyping. Formally specifying the user interface allows the designer to reason about its properties in the light of the many guidelines on the subject. Early availability of prototypes of the user interface allows the designer to experiment with alternative options and to elicit feedback from potential users. This thesis presents tools and techniques (collectively called SPI) for specifying and prototyping the dialogues between an interactive system and its users. They are based on a formal specification and rapid prototyping method and notation called me too. and were originally designed as an extension to me too. They have also been implemented under UNIX*. thus enabling a transition from the formal specification to its implementation. *UNIX is a trademark of AT&T Bell Laboratories.

Through creative art making practice, research seeks to contribute a body of knowledge to an under researched area by examining how key concepts germane to computer based, interactive, three-dimensional, virtual environment artworks might be explicated, potential compositional issues characterised, and possible production strategies identified and/or proposed. Initial research summarises a range of classifications pertaining to the function of interactivity within virtual space, leading to an identification and analysis of a predominant model for composing virtual environment media, characterised as the "world as model": a methodological approach to devising interactive and spatial contexts employing visual and behavioural modes based on the physical world. Following this alternative forms of environmental organisation are examined through the development of a series of artworks beginning with Bodies and Bethlem, and culminating with Reconnoitre: a networked environment, spatially manifest through performative user input. Theoretical corollaries to the project are identified placing it within a wider critical context concerned with distinguishing between the virtual as a condition of simulation: a representation of something pre-existing, and the virtual as potential structure: a phenomena in itself requiring creative actualisation and orientated toward change. This distinction is further developed through an analysis of some existing typologies of interactive computer based art, and used to generalise two base conditions between which various possibilities for practice might be situated: the "fluid" and "formatted" virtual.

L’actual diversitat de dispositius de consum amb accés a Internet fa possible una gran varietat de plataformes multimèdia per accedir a contingut audiovisual, serveis interactius, jocs i tot tipus d’aplicacions d’usuari. El concepte de televisió digital està evolucionant des de ser considerada una tecnologia unidireccional i relativament aïllada a formar part de l’ecosistema de serveis que l’usuari te disponible des de qualsevol entorn multimèdia, com la pròpia llar. En aquest context, la convergència entre televisió, Internet i aplicacions és una realitat gràcies a extensa família de dispositius intel·ligents que hi ha al mercat. Las Smart TVs, smartphones, tablets i consoles permeten als usuaris accedir a continguts de televisió i aplicacions interactives a través múltiples xarxes. El nombre I varietat de format d'aplicacions i entorns d'execució que actualment permeten accedir a algun tipus de televisió interactiva (iTV) dificulten la portabilitat de les aplicacions desenvolupades entre diferents entorns. La manca d'un estàndard unificat i acceptat a nivell mundial per al desplegament de continguts interactius en plataformes de televisió requereix de tècniques especials per adaptar els continguts d'una plataforma a una altra. Així, els productors de contingut interactiu poden estalviar temps i recursos en el desenvolupament dels mateixos continguts per a diferents plataformes. El principal objectiu d’aquesta dissertació és la proposta i validació de una metodologia apropiada per la generació i manteniment eficients d’aplicacions per a TV interactiva. Això permet una millor separació entre el proses de disseny d’una aplicació i les múltiples implementacions que es poden fer per plataformes diferents. Aquesta tesi analitza l’estat actual de la televisió interactiva i proposa una metodologia concreta per generar “write once, adapt to anywhere” (“escriu una vegada i adapta-ho a qualsevol plataforma”) basada en un format estàndard per a contingut portable anomenat DVB-PCF. La metodologia proposta és validada a través de l’aplicació de diferent casos d’ús que han servit per testejar les eines desenvolupades en el transcurs d’aquesta recerca. Això inclou els mòduls necessàries per traduir les descripcions multiplataforma (escrites en DVB-PCF) en aplicacions iTV per a plataformes especifiques (com MHP, HTML5, …) i un entorn de desenvolupament integrat que incorpora un editor visual d’interfícies d’usuari basat en el format seleccionat per descriure contingut portable. L’estudi de la sincronització del contingut multimèdia en plataformes web ha generat una aportació secundària relativa al desenvolupament de sistemes de subtitulació basats en HTML5. Aquesta proposta treu profit de SVG i SMIL per sincronitzar subtítols que son personalitzables per l’usuari i mostrar-los en qualsevol plataforma que s’hi connecti. Això també redueix considerablement el codi necessari per mantenir una línia de temps global. Els resultats de l’avaluació de l’experiència d’usuari per al sistema proposat de subtitulació mostren que les característiques de temps proporcionades per SMIL permeten una gestió eficient dels subtítols a través de múltiples plataformes HTML5 sense perdre la sincronització entre els components de la presentació. / The current diversity of internet-connected consumer devices enables an increasing variety of multimedia platforms for accessing audiovisual content, interactive services, games and all kind of user applications. The concept of digital TV is evolving from being an isolated unidirectional technology to become part of the ecosystem of services users consume in their multimedia home or nomadic environment. In this context, the convergence between interactive TV, Internet, and applications is a reality thanks to the family of smart devices that are available on the market. Smart TVs, smartphones, tablets, and game consoles allow users to access TV contents and interactive applications through multiple networks. The number of different application formats and runtime environments that currently enable interactive TV services hinders the portability of applications developed for those environments. The lack of a globally unified and accepted standard for the deployment of interactive contents on TV platforms requires the use of special techniques to adapt those contents from one platform to another. Interactive content producers can save both time and resources when developing the same content for different platforms. The main objective of this dissertation is the proposal and validation of a suitable methodology for the efficient generation and maintenance of cross-platform iTV applications, which allows the separation between the design process and its multiple implementations for different platforms. This thesis analyzes the current context of interactive TV and proposes a solution for generating “write once, adapt to anywhere” applications based on a portable content format for TV environments. The proposed methodology is validated through different application use cases that have been tested using the software framework developed in the course of this research. This includes the required modules for translating cross-platform descriptions into platform-specific iTV applications and an integrated development environment containing a visual editor for graphic user interfaces that stores the interface description in the portable content format. The study of multimedia content synchronization in web-based platforms generated a secondary contribution for the development of subtitling systems based on HTML5. This proposal takes advantage of SVG and SMIL for synchronizing customizable video subtitles across web platforms. It also enables to reduce considerably the code required by an application for managing time issues. The results of the user experience evaluation for the proposed subtitling system show that SMIL time features allow an efficient management of subtitles across different HTML5 platforms without losing the synchronization between the presentation components.

The increasing popularity and rapid development of the Internet and specifically the World-Wide Web in recent years has led to an exponential growth of users around the world in many different application areas. Following this growing trend, many eager educators have also embraced this new technology and have begun to use it as a tool in delivering education. A plethora of applications has already been developed in an attempt to implement educational content in this way. A general concern for many researchers is that most of these applications are not efficient in delivering educational outcomes and fail to achieve their educational goal. In the present project we propose that the present failure to deliver educational outcomes in an efficient way has its origins in the lack of concern and focus of developers on modern learning theory. Therefore, in this work we establish the foundations in terms of an interdisciplinary contribution from areas such as, educational learning theory, human-computer interaction and web design guidelines for the design and implementation of web pages aimed at facilitating the teaching and tutoring of basic statistics concepts. As a result of this work, a specific set of learning theories were researched and analyzed, the basic ideas of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) were explored and a set of appropriate principles from HCI were chosen. Furthermore, a selected group of Web design guidelines were researched, studied and selected to ensure that the final product contributes to the efficient delivery of subject content and effective achievement of learning outcomes. In addition, a number of parallels were formulated and discussed between the different areas of research. The establishment of a series of combined principles will not only contribute to the aims of the present project but also to further projects initiated by the Department of Econometrics at The University Sydney.

No description available.

The work in progress, Pick Up Styx, investigates re-sensing and extra-sensing of the world. It is an exploration of communications with reference to quantum theory which challenges current sense perceptions, while engaging and exploring the notion of communications as signals. The methodology is a winding, coiling motion between research and creative practice based on the way my grandmother used to wind wool from a skein into a ball. The project investigates the game as a tool to examine the ciphers of perfumes that have been designed for love and happiness since 2001. The project aims to develop aesthetic pleasure in game play beyond the industry focus on games technology. Picking up the sticks and experiencing the perfumes in them is procedural to encountering the War on Terror, and the perfumes that have accompanied its progression over the last 8 years. In a materialist culture where technologies are enabling psycho kinesis, via the transmission of information signals, and where thought can influence matter in a variety of ways, we are training ourselves out of separatist thinking and fixation on the Western scientific paradigm. This project has grown from my curiosity regarding anomalous forms of cognition and paranormal perception, motivated by the need to address current issues of human relationship and environmental concerns.

While emerging technologies such as interactive multimedia are increasingly being employed in computerised music instruction, understanding of participant music listening behaviours in interactive multimedia music instruction is currently very limited. With the aim of elucidating music listening behaviour, the central concern of this work is to identify and explain participant interactions with the audio components of interactive multimedia music instruction. The investigation employs a novel documentation procedure, which extends the application of digital audio recording technology, to provide a finely calibrated analysis of the audio activity of a sample of 20 undergraduate music education majors during individual sessions with two commercially-available interactive multimedia music instruction programs. Graphically-based Sound Activity Profiles, which the researcher developed specifically for the current investigation, characterise and summarise participant interactions with audio components, while an analysis of questionnaire responses and follow-up interview transcripts provides supplementary information that further explains participants' music listening behaviours. The results of the investigation show that music listening behaviours during the study sessions were highly variable. While extensive participant interaction with music examples occasionally reflected attentive music listening behaviours, many study sessions were characterised by brief, fragmentary music excerpts and lengthy periods of silence. Participants spent as little as five percent of their session time listening to music and as much as 88 percent of the session time in silence. A substantial number of the study cohort frequently interrupted the music examples they had activated. Participants' perceptions of the extent of their interaction with music examples were frequently inaccurate, as subjects often substantially overestimated the amount of session time they had spent listening to music. The study findings suggest that many interactive multimedia music instruction participants would benefit from interventions that elicit more extensive and prolonged interaction with music examples. Accordingly, recommendations include a call for research to develop and test software designs that incorporate automated monitoring of session audio activity so that dynamic on-screen information about music listening behaviour can be provided to interactive multimedia music instruction participants. Such information may encourage participants to modify inappropriate music listening behaviours.

No description available.

Thesis (M.F.A.)--Rochester Institute of Technology, 2007. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves