Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Comparative Media Studies, 2009. / "February 2009." / Includes bibliographical references (p. 94-101). / This thesis probes into current American makeover culture, thorough three detailed case studies that represent an increasing confluence of commerce, entertainment, and, at times, spirituality. Each of the chapters is devoted to a niche media property, or genre, dedicated to the domestic sphere. The first chapter focuses on the genre of home decorating TV shows and practices of their consumption. The second centers on a single television program - TLC's What Not to Wear, and the interpretative activities it provokes among viewers. The third chapter examines the FlyLady - a transmedia property with a strong internet base, described by its founder as a "behavior modification system" that coaches its subscribers in getting their houses in order. This study was driven, among other things, by the following questions: as the 'commodity frontier' gets increasingly intermingled with our daily lives, with the help of increasingly pervasive media, how do certain communities respond, and with what methods of meaning-making? What draws audiences to engage with media properties so intermingled with commerce in the first place? And, what constitutes these properties' entertainment value as well as the other values audiences find in them? The answers vary with each case study, yet, there are many commonalities pertaining to meanings associated with consumer goods in late capitalism. The media properties described here capitalize on the movement of meaning from culture through consumer goods to individuals. At the same time these three chapters exemplify many cases of redirecting, filtering, and damming up the flow of meaning on the part of viewers and subscribers. / by Orit Kuritsky. / S.M.

Thesis: S.M., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2016. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 105-107). / Planning a city is a complex task that requires collaboration between multiple stakeholders who have different and often conflicting goals and objectives. Researchers have studied the role of technology in group collaboration for many years. It has been noted that when the task between collaborators increases in complexity, such as in a decision-making process, the use of computer technology could enhance, or disturb, the collaboration process. This thesis evaluates whether a Tangible User Interface (TUI) is more effective for multi-objective group decision-making than a Graphical User Interface (GUI). To examine this question, I designed and developed the CityGame framework, a web-based negotiation and decision-support game with a multi-modal interface for an urban planning scenario. The interfaces were evaluated in a within-subjects study with 31 participants of varying background, who were assigned a planning task in a gameplay session. Results show that tangible interfaces have some observable advantages over digital interfaces in this scenario. / by Mohammad K. Hadhrawi. / S.M.

Thesis: S.M., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2018. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 9-11). / Scientific managers need to understand the impact of the research they support since they are required to evaluate researchers and their work for funding and promotional purposes. Yet, most of the online tools available to explore publication data, such as Google Scholar (GS), Microsoft Academic Search (MAS), and Scopus, present tabular views of publication data that fail to put scholars in a social, institutional, and geographic context. Moreover, these tools fail to provide aggregate views of the data for countries, organizations, and journals. Here, we introduce Opus, an interactive online platform that integrates, aggregates, and visualizes publication data from GS to present users with publication data at four different scales (e.g., scholars, countries, organizations, and journals). At each scale, Opus provides benchmarked visualizations that facilitate understanding the work of scholars in a social, generational, geographic, and institutional context. We conducted two user studies with a small group of potential users that show supporting evidence for the benefits of our approach. This design study contributes to the relatively unexplored but promising area of using information visualization to explore publication data. / by Almaha Adnan Almalki. / S.M.

Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2018. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 111-117). / During the gait cycle, the human ankle complex serves as a primary power generator while simultaneously stabilizing the entire limb. These actions are controlled by an intricate interplay of several lower leg muscles that cannot be fully uncovered using experimental methods alone. A combination of experiments and mathematical modeling may be used to estimate aspects of neuromusculoskeletal functions that control human gait. In this research, a three-dimensional neuromuscular model of the human ankle-foot complex based on biplanar fluoroscopy gait analysis is presented. Biplanar fluoroscopy (BiFlo) enables three-dimensional bone kinematics analysis using x-ray videos and bone geometry from segmented CT. Hindered by a small capture volume relative to traditional optical motion capture (MOCAP), BiFlo applications to human movement are generally limited to single-joint motions with constrained range. Here, a hybrid procedure is developed for multi-joint gait analysis using BiFlo and MOCAP in tandem. MOCAP effectively extends BiFlo's field-of-view. Subjects walked at a self-selected pace along a level walkway while BiFlo, MOCAP, and ground reaction forces were collected. A novel methodology was developed to register separate BiFlo measurements of the knee and ankle-foot complex. Kinematic analysis of bones surrounding the knee, ankle, and foot was performed. Kinematics obtained using this technique were compared to those calculated using only MOCAP during stance phase. Results show that this hybrid protocol effectively measures knee and ankle kinematics in all three body planes. Additionally, sagittal plane kinematics for select foot bone segments (proximal phalanges, metatarsals, and midfoot) was realized. The proposed procedure offers a novel approach to human gait analysis that eliminates errors originated by soft tissue artifacts, and is especially useful for ankle joint analysis, whose complexities are often simplified in MOCAP studies. Outcomes of the BiFlo walking experiments helped guide the development of a three-dimensional neuromuscular model of the human ankle-foot complex. Driven by kinematics, kinetics, and electromyography (EMG), the model seeks to solve the redundancy problem, individual muscle-tendon contributions to net joint torque, in ankle and subtalar joint actuation during overground gait. Kinematics and kinetics from BiFlo walking trials enable estimations of muscle-tendon lengths, moment arms, and joint torques. EMG yields estimates of muscle activation. Using each of these as inputs, an optimization approach was employed to calculate sets of morphological parameters that simultaneously maximize the neuromuscular model's metabolic efficiency and fit to experimental joint torques. This approach is based on the hypothesis that the muscle-tendon morphology of the human leg has evolved to maximize metabolic efficiency of walking at self-selected speed. Optimal morphological parameter sets produce estimates of force contributions and states for individual muscles. This research lends insight into the possible roles of individual muscle-tendons in the leg that lead to efficient gait. / by David Allen Hill. / Ph. D.

Thesis: S.M., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2016. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 83-88). / A line is a form that is primitive yet versatile. With its transformation capability, the line can transform into curves, surfaces and solid shapes. As a familiar form factor we encounter in everyday life in the shape of strings, tapes or wires, the form of line provides various tangible interactions, including knotting, wrapping, tying, and connecting. Lines are also used to represent abstract information, from the original drawings using line from thousands of years ago, to now when they are used to compose digital geometrical models through wireframe or Bézier data. The customization capability is another characteristic of line; strings or tape can be cut and rearranged to create various shapes and configurations. In this thesis, we will introduce "LineFORM, a novel concept for shape changing interfaces which uses physical lines to bridge the dynamic digital environment and the tangible physical world. Utilizing the versatile characteristics of lines mentioned above, we explore and define the design space for interactions with actuated curve interfaces. We implement two major versions of prototypes based on serpentine robotics technology to demonstrate a wide range of applications. For the applications, both digital and physical environment-based applications are being proposed. The system design and the implementation of LineFORM are evaluated through preliminary technical evaluation, and the limitations and future works are discussed. Through this initial design and technical exploration of actuated curve interfaces for interaction design, we envision the future where the adaptability and dynamism of digital environment will be seamlessly woven into our daily life. / by Ken Nakagaki. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Comparative Media Studies, 2009. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 85-88). / The music industry, along with the world of media as a whole, is in a state of transition. What is being sold is not so clear anymore, nor is it obvious what parts of the traditional business will survive. Audiences play a crucial role in these shifts; they've become empowered and increased their participation within media industries. Working towards the premise that audiences can add value to media businesses beyond the act of consumption, this thesis argues that for media industries to benefit from their contributions it is first necessary to locate these audiences as active participants and producers of value. This thesis studies the dynamics of participatory audiences through the case of Brazil's Tecnobrega scene (literally 'cheesy techno'), expanding on a 10-day ethnographic field trip to the capital of Tecnobrega, Belem. This music industry has circumvented mainstream conventions by forgoing copyright and collaborating with 'pirates'. Tecnobrega's audiences not only assist in the circulation of content, but through their socializing and fan production, they create and trade symbolic capital that directly affects the popularity, and consequently the perception of value, of various parts of the industry. The competencies acquired through these types of participation have the potential to overflow into other domains; they can help shift the conceptualization of the public sphere and can, likewise, become paths for the exploration of cultural citizenship and agency within globalization processes. / by Ana Elena Domb Krauskopf. / S.M.

Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2016. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 165-182). / This thesis carries out a series of studies and develops a methodology and tools to measure and analyze ambulatory physiological, behavioral and social data from wearable sensors and mobile phones with trait data such as personality, for learning about behaviors and traits that impact human health and wellbeing. This thesis also validates the methodology and tools on a selected subset of the questions that can be answered by the data collected. First, I conducted a study to characterize wrist electrodermal activity (EDA) patterns with concurrent polysomnography and conventional palm EDA measurement. I developed a tool to analyze the EDA data quantitatively and found that wrist EDA peaks occur during Non REM2 and 3 sleep. Then, with multi-modal wearable sensor data, I conducted several studies showing how multi-modal wearable sensors can improve characterization of sleep/wake states over motion-sensing alone, and predict sleep-related memory consolidation. We found that wrist-EDA helps discriminate when there is improved sleep-related memory consolidation. Next, with colleagues at MIT and Brigham and Women's hospital, I designed and carried out the first four semesters of the "SNAPSHOT study", which measured over 100,000 hours of multi-sensor and smartphone use data from 168 college students, recruited together with their social groups. Each student contributed intensive multi-modal ambulatory data (physiological, behavioral, environmental, and social) for 30 days. Each student also filled out standardized questionnaires on mental health, personality, stress, social interactions, sleep and GPA, and provided a measure of dim light melatonin, enabling circadian phase to be measured. To investigate the value of the data, I examined a subset of the large set of questions that these new data enable us to answer: I examined the associations between sleep regularity and sleep duration on academic performance, physical/mental health, perceived stress and wellbeing-related measures using coarsened exact matching to control covariates. Our data showed that sleep irregularity was statistically significantly more associated with bad health, reported in the morning, and with worse mental health than sleep duration. I also identified features useful for recognition of monthly reported perceived stress (high vs low): daily activities, personality, sleep, physiology, social interactions, phone usage, and mobility. / by Akane Sano. / Ph. D.

Thesis: S.M., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2017. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 93-97). / Years of heavy regulation and a long-standing focus on compliance have co-opted the ability of the healthcare industry to implement novel data sharing approaches. We now face a critical need for such innovation, as personalization and data science prompt patients to engage in the details of their healthcare and restore agency over their medical data. This thesis proposes MedRec: a novel, decentralized record management system to handle EHRs (Electronic Health Records), using blockchain technology. The system design gives patients a comprehensive, immutable log and access to their medical information across providers and treatment sites. Leveraging unique blockchain properties, MedRec manages authentication, data retrieval, update tracking for existing records, data entry (both for patients and providers) and data sharing. MedRec accomplishes record management without creating any centralized data repositories; a modular system design integrates with providers' existing, local data storage solutions, facilitating interoperable data exchange between data sources and the patients. We incentivize healthcare industry stakeholders (government-funded researchers, public health authorities, etc.) to participate in the network as blockchain "miners". This provides them with access to aggregate, anonymized data as mining rewards, in return for sustaining and securing the MedRec network via Proof of Work. We emphasize the flexibility and extensibility of our system components to other dimensions of the healthcare industry and to applications beyond healthcare as well. This thesis describes the MedRec technical design and early-stage prototype, our pilot with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), and an analysis of MedRec's contribution in the context of national healthcare priorities. This work is supported by the MIT Media Lab Consortium. / by Ariel C. Ekblaw. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Comparative Media Studies, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 105-107). / This thesis explores the intersection of the television image with the presentation of self-identity. I examine two TV series in the spy genre -- Alias (2001 - 2006) and The Prisoner (1967 - 1968) -- discussing how each employs strategies of visual representation to present its protagonist as decentered or unfixed; in so doing, these programs complicate and problematize within their narratives the terms by which "subject" and "agency" have been traditionally understood and represented to popular TV audiences. This problematizing in turn opens up possibilities for detecting new modes of subject formation. This paper argues that television, communication tool and historical and cultural artifact, must be regarded equally as a visual medium. In fact, the TV image brings the enacted identity theorized by Judith Butler into direct contact with Henri Bergson's formulations of memory and image, creating characters and spaces within TV stories that vividly illustrate the limitations to and potentials for creativity within the domains of action and identity. In addition to Butler and Bergson, this paper turns additionally to Gilles Deleuze for an understanding of cinematic image and time, and to the concept of masquerade developed within feminist theory. In The Prisoner, a modern hero must make sense of a landscape of discontinuities and repetitions that challenge his ability to act, react, move, and escape. In Alias, a postmodern heroine must master the art of changing selves in order to move across spaces that, like her own identity, are conditional and are never what they initially appear. / (cont.) In both series, the television image, freed from an obligation to represent only one thing while ruling out others and made multiple by the TV episode format, assumes a resonance over its duration that creates the conditions for the depiction of fluid and changeable spaces and characters. In both cases, the TV image repeated enables a paradigm shift where the depiction of a decentered protagonist, once exceptional, now becomes a normative subject on television. KEYWORDS: Alias -- Bergson -- Butler -- decentered subject -- Deleuze -- feminism identity -- image -- Jennifer Garner -- Patrick McGoohan -- The Prisoner -- spy shows -- television -- visual theory / by Lisa Marie Bidlingmeyer. / S.M.

Thesis: S.M., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2017. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 44-47). / Nutritional assessment is an important problem for every American. Studies suggest that as many as 90% of Americans fall short of Vitamins D and E as a result of their regular dietary habits, and up to 50% of Americans do not get enough Vitamin A and Calcium. On the other hand, 68.8% of American adults over 20 were considered overweight or obese (had BMI of over 25), with excessive consumption of added sugars, fats, and carbohydrates being a key factor. There are two potential challenges that, if solved, may help many ordinary Americans manage their diets healthily. The first is recording dietary intake so that we have sufficient information regarding an individual's dietary pattern, and the second is interpreting nutritional profiles from the foods people are eating. It's after these two steps that nutritional intake can be inferred and insights into dietary balance can be gained. This thesis focuses on the first challenge, enabling more convenient tracking of dietary patterns supported by automatic image recognition. Our goal was to provide an improved alternative to current mainstream methods of keeping dietary records such as written records for clinical studies, or text input based digital trackers such as MyFitnessPal. Both current methods are quite tiresome, and we saw opportunities in utilizing computer vision methods to automate the recognition of what a user is eating, therefore hoping to reduce the need for manual input and making the process easier. In practice, we implemented an image classifier based on the Inception architecture of GoogLeNet, and trained it on the Food- 101 dataset. The performance of the classifier on the validation set achieved around 87% for top 5 accuracy. We then deployed our image recognition apparatus in the form of a mobile application, to examine the actual performance of this apparatus in an in-field setting with actual consumer eating patterns. The overall in-field recognition performance was around 28% (top 5), however, since only 30% of our meals observed were actually of foods belonging to the 101 classes we had trained the classifier to recognize, the in-field recognition accuracies for when foods to record were of foods we had trained on was around 92%. Furthermore, in subjective user surveys, 67% of users preferred our computer vision based apparatus to existing text input based digital trackers like MyFitnessPal, with 22% being neutral. Therefore, we believe that this approach to diet tracking is a promising one to explore in the future, as the main cause of low in-field recognition performance seems to be mainly caused by lack of coverage of the training data, and if we can curate a training set that captures the visual food domain appropriately, this approach can yield high in-field results and provide a tangibly more convenient tool for users to log and track their diets. / by Guolong Wang. / S.M.