The project Language of the Book Volume I-III explores the conceptual and the bodily experience of reading and making books. The essay presents the development of Volume I: Narracube consisting of three storytelling prototypes. With Narracube a format was developed that can invite stories to be told beyond single voices, linear time and fixed points of views. Narracube highlights the active role of a medium in transmission of a message. A book is never a neutral container for ink but an active space of communication in its mere contruction despite its content. / Projektet Bokens språk Volume I-III utforskar den konceptuella och kroppsliga upplevelsen av att läsa och göra böcker. Uppsatsen presenterar utvecklingen av Volume I: Narrakub som består av tre prototyper för berättande. Narrakub är ett format som utvecklats för att undersöka hur konstruktionen av boken kan bjuda in berättelser bortom enstaka röster, linjär tid och låsta perspektiv. Narrakub belyser den aktiva rollen som ett medium har då det sänder ett meddelande. En bok är aldrig en neutral behållare för bläck utan bär på ett aktivt kommunikationsutrymme i sin konstruktion oavsett innehåll.

Network-on-chip (NoC) based multi-processor systems-on-chip (MPSoCs) are promising candidates for future multi-processor embedded platforms, which are expected to be composed of hundreds of heterogeneous processing elements (PEs) to potentially provide high performances. However, together with the performances, the systems complexity will increase, and new high level design techniques will be needed to efficiently model, simulate, debug and synthesize them. System-level design (SLD) is considered to be the next frontier in electronic design automation (EDA). It enables the description of embedded systems in terms of abstract functions and interconnected blocks. A promising complementary approach to SLD is the use of models of computation (MoCs) to formally describe the execution semantics of functions and blocks through a set of rules. However, also when this formalization is used, there is no clear way to synthesize system-level models into software (SW) and hardware (HW) towards a NoC-based MPSoC implementation, i.e., there is a lack of system design automation (SDA) techniques to rapidly synthesize and prototype system-level models onto heterogeneous NoC-based MPSoCs. In addition, many of the proposed solutions require large overhead in terms of SW components and memory requirements, resulting in complex and customized multi-processor platforms. In order to tackle the problem, a novel model-based SDA flow has been developed as part of the thesis. It starts from a system-level specification, where functions execute according to the synchronous MoC, and then it can rapidly prototype the system onto an FPGA configured as an heterogeneous NoC-based MPSoC. In the first part of the thesis the HeartBeat model is proposed as a model-based technique which fills the abstraction gap between the abstract system-level representation and its implementation on the multiprocessor prototype. Then details are provided to describe how this technique is automated to rapidly prototype the modeled system on a flexible platform, permitting to adjust the system specification until the designer is satisfied with the results. Finally, the proposed SDA technique is improved defining a methodology to automatically explore possible design alternatives for the modeled system to be implemented on a heterogeneous NoC-based MPSoC. The goal of the exploration is to find an implementation satisfying the designer's requirements, which can be integrated in the proposed SDA flow. Through the proposed SDA flow, the designer is relieved from implementation details and the design time of systems targeting heterogeneous NoC-based MPSoCs on FPGA is significantly reduced. In addition, it reduces possible design errors proposing a completely automated technique for fast prototyping. Compared to other SDA flows, the proposed technique targets a bare-metal solution, avoiding the use of an operating system (OS). This reduces the memory requirements on the FPGA platform comparing to related work targeting MPSoC on FPGA. At the same time, the performance (throughput) of the modeled applications can be increased when the number of processors of the target platform is increased. This is shown through a wide set of case studies implemented on FPGA. / <p>QC 20140609</p>

Hospital environments are ranked as one of the most stressful contemporary work environments for their employees, and this especially concerns nurses (Nejati et al. 2016). One of the core problems comprises the notion that the current technology adopted in hospitals does not support the mobile nature of medical work and the complex work environment, in which people and information are distributed (Bardram 2003). The employment of inadequate technology and the strenuous access to information results in a decrease in efficiency regarding the fulfilment of medical tasks, and puts a strain on the attention of the medical personnel. This thesis proposes a solution to the aforementioned problems through the design of ambient displays, that inform the medical personnel with the health statuses of patients whilst requiring minimal allocation of attention. The ambient displays concede a hierarchy of information, where the most essential information encompasses an overview of patients’ vital signs. Data regarding the vital signs are measured by biometric sensors and are embodied by shape-changing interfaces, of which the ambient displays consist. User-authentication permits the medical personnel to access a deeper layer within the hierarchy of information, entailing clinical data such as patient EMRs, after gesture-based interaction with the ambient display. The additional clinical information is retrieved on the user’s PDA, and can subsequently be viewed in more detail, or modified at any place within the hospital.In this thesis, prototypes of shape-changing interfaces were designed and evaluated in a hospital environment. The evaluation was focused on the interaction design and user-experience of the shape-changing interface, the capabilities of the ambient displays to inform users through peripheral awareness, as well as the remote communication between patient and healthcare professional through biometric data. The evaluations indicated that the required attention allocated for the acquisition of information from the shape-changing interface was minimal. The interaction with the ambient display, as well as with the PDA when accessing additional clinical data, was deemed intuitive, yet comprised a short learning curve. Furthermore, the evaluations in situ pointed out that for optimised communication through the ambient displays, an overview of the health statuses of approximately eight patients should be displayed, and placed in the corridors of the hospital ward.

This thesis paper addresses a problem of motivation that interaction designers experience when managing multiple design processes while keeping track of many design considerations. Once this issue is described at length, the paper focuses towards a possible solution in the form of a hybrid between creativity and productivity support tools: an accomplishment support tool. This tool is meant to support interaction designers in their experience with managing multiple processes.This paper does not suggest that interaction design is the only profession that suffers from the motivation issue that is described, nor does it deny that other professions could benefit from the use of such a tool. The paper merely attempts to narrow the issue down to one profession so that it may be addressed within the limits of the thesis project.The paper explores the need for such a tool by inspecting and analyzing current methods and digital applications used by interaction designers and mentions how this need is addressed with solutions based on relevant theories from diverse areas of interest. As defining qualities emerge from a combination of theoretical and practical research, case studies are described from a preparation perspective and then as experienced by workshop participants and interviewees.The case studies (which include workshops and prototype modules) are then reflected upon and discussed in terms of their impact on the overall goals of the thesis project. A final prototype in the form of a web application, IxD Companion, is then described through scenarios of use and assessed in the conclusion. Suggestion to future work on accomplishment support tools such as IxD Companion, as well as others, is provided at the end.

El concentrador solar Fixed Mirror Solar Concentrator (FMSC) apareció en los años 70 con la finalidad de reducir costes en la producción de energía termoeléctrica. Este diseño consiste en un concentrador de reflector estacionario y foco móvil, presenta buena integrabilidad en cubiertas, y es capaz de alcanzar temperaturas entre 100 y 200ºC manteniendo una eficiencia aceptable. En esta tesis se expone una metodología para determinar el comportamiento del FMSC. Se ha desarrollado una herramienta de cálculo basada en el método de ray-tracing, que simula el trazado de los rayos solares en el sistema óptico. Con esta herramienta se ha analizado el comportamiento óptico y térmico del FMSC, y de la versión con espejos curvos Curved Slats Fixed Mirror Solar Concentrator (CSFMSC). Se ha realizado un análisis paramétrico para conocer la influencia de los distintos parámetros en el modificador de ángulo (IAM), y para obtener los diseños óptimos a una temperatura de 200ºC para tres climas en diferentes latitudes. Se han comparado los valores teóricos obtenidos mediante ray-tracing con dos prototipos ensayados, obteniendo un buen ajuste en ambos casos. Los ensayos han sido utilizados para determinar la curva de rendimiento de uno de los prototipos. Se ha hecho uso del método propuesto en la norma EN-12975-2:2006, combinado con valores de IAM obtenidos mediante ray-tracing. Se prueba que esta combinación puede ser útil para obtener la curva de rendimiento de colectores complejos con un modelo biaxial para el IAM. / The Fixed Mirror Solar Concentrator (FMSC) appeared during the 70s with the aim of reducing costs in the production of electricity in solar thermal power plants. This design consists of a concentrator with fixed reflector and moving receiver, has a very good integrability into building roofs and can reach temperatures between 100 and 200ºC with an acceptable efficiency. In this Thesis a methodology is presented for the determination of the behaviour of the FMSC. A simulation tool based on the forward ray-tracing method has been developed. The optical and thermal behaviour of the FMSC and its curved mirror variation called the Curved Slats Fixed Mirror Solar Concentrator (CSFMSC), have been analyzed with this tool. A parametric analysis has been carried out in order to determine the influence of the different parameters on the Incidence Angle Modifier (IAM) and to determine the optimal designs at a temperature of 200ºC for three different climates at different latitudes. The theoretical values obtained from the ray-tracing code have been compared with two experimental prototypes. The experimental and numerical results obtained show a good fit. The efficiency curve of one of the prototypes has been determined from the experimental tests. The methodology proposed in the norm EN-12975-2:2006 has been used in combination with IAM values obtained by ray-tracing. It has been shown that this combination can be effectively used to obtain the efficiency curve of complex collectors with a bi-axial IAM model.