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Several researchers have successfully developed realistic models of real world objects/ phenomena and then have simulated them in the virtual world. In this thesis, we propose the opposite: instantiating virtual world events in the real world. The interactive 3D virtual environment provides a useful, realistic 3D world that resembles objects/phenomena of a real world, but it has limited capability to communicate with the physical environment. We argue that new and intuitive 3D user interfaces, such as 3D virtual environment interfaces, may provide an alternative form of media for communicating with the real environment. We propose a 3D virtual world-based add-on architecture that achieves a synchronized virtual-real communication. In this framework, we explored the possibilities of integrating haptic and real world object interactions with Linden Lab's multiuser online 3D virtual world, Second Life. We enhanced the open source Second Life viewer client in order to facilitate communications between the real and virtual world. Moreover, we analyzed the suitability of such an approach in terms of user perception, intuition and other common parameters. Our experiments suggest that the proposed approach not only demonstrates a more intuitive mode of communication system, but also is appealing and useful to the user. Some of the potential applications of the proposed approach include remote child-care, communication between distant lovers, stress recovery, and home automation.

With the advancement in multimedia systems and the increased interest in haptics to be used in interpersonal communication systems, where users can see, show, hear, tell, touch and be touched, mouse and keyboard are no longer dominant input devices. Touch, speech and vision will soon be the main methods of human computer interaction. Moreover, as interpersonal communication usage increases, the need for securing user authentication grows. In this research, we examine a user's identification and verification based on haptic information. We divide our research into three main steps. The first step is to examine a pre-defined task, namely a handwritten signature with haptic information. The user target in this task is to mimic the legitimate signature in order to be verified. As a second step, we consider the user's identification and verification based on user drawings. The user target is predefined, however there are no restrictions imposed on the order or on the level of details required for the drawing. Lastly, we examine the feasibility and possibility of distinguishing users based on their haptic interaction through an interpersonal communication system. In this third step, there are no restrictions on user movements, however a free movement to touch the remote party is expected. In order to achieve our goal, many classification and feature reduction techniques have been discovered and some new ones were proposed. Moreover, in this work we utilize evolutionary computing in user verification and identification. Analysis of haptic features and their significance on distinguishing users is hence examined. The results show a utilization of visual features by Genetic Programming (GP) towards identity verification, with a probability equal to 50% while the remaining haptic features were utilized with a probability of approximately 50%. Moreover, with a handwritten signature application, a verification success rate of 97.93% with False Acceptance Rate (FAR) of 1.28% and @11.54% False Rejection Rate (FRR) is achieved with the utilization of genetic programming enhanced with the random over sampled data set. In addition, with a totally free user movement in a haptic-enabled interpersonal communication system, an identification success rate of 83.3% is achieved when random forest classifier is utilized.

Telecommuting is becoming an increasingly popular trend in the modern workforce. Among the growing number of teleworkers are engineers, a profession where communication is a necessity. This study employs a phenomenological research approach to understand and describe the ways in which information communication technology (ICT) affects teleworking engineers’ interpersonal communication in the workplace and perceptions of isolation in social and organizational contexts. Uses and gratifications theory and media richness theory were used to better understand teleworkers’ selection and use of ICT. The findings revealed six themes: emotional impact, workplace relationships, information communication technology in the workplace, the nature of telework, telework and connectivity, and the organizational role in telework. This study contributes to communication research by adding to the growing body of knowledge about the influence of telework on workplace communication and relationships from the perspective of a niche population, engineers.

Forum Conversations is an organisational theatre method for helping individuals to deal with their difficult conversations in the workplace. It uses professional actors to simulate participants’ ‘difficult others’ and to play out confrontational conversations from participants’ own experience. This study adds to the empirical base of research into organisational theatre. It further conceptualises organisational theatre methods as reflective or refractive. This qualitative, interpretive study examines the perspectives of both participants and actors through a dramatistic lens and also assesses if and how the Forum Conversations method has affected changes in behaviour and approach in the ways individual participants communicate with others in the workplace. In this assessment a novel, methodological approach based on attributions made by participants was used to make comparisons between individuals’ pre- and post- Forum Conversations views about their difficult conversations. Outcomes included improvements in confidence and awareness but also of agency in participants’ dealings with others. The interaction between actors and participants is discussed in terms of a partial dialogism that dwells in the moment of exchange between interactants. From the actors’ side the study highlights the subtly layered reflexivity of the actors in process and also of their tendency to accentuate performance skills. In this context, the interaction is seen to compare with the way professional actors might use rehearsal to prepare for theatre performance. Overall, it is concluded that Forum Conversations is a powerful learning method that enables participants to embody their learning experience and leads to sustained individual change that occasionally includes personal transformation both at work and at home.

The purpose of this study was to examine the processes and patterns of communicative interaction which preschool and elementary school-aged deaf and hearing siblings utilized to initiate, maintain and terminate dialogs during play. Specifically, the focus was to determine if the processes and patterns of communication differed when a deaf sibling interacted with an older hearing sibling who has been exposed primarily to a simultaneous visual-auditory (SimVA) pattern of communication, as compared to when a deaf sibling interacted with a younger hearing sibling who has been exposed to both a SimVA and a sequential visual (Seq V) pattern of communication. Video-taped playbouts were observed between each of two sibling dyads at play within a single family: (a) an older dyad composed of a seven-year-old hearing child and her five-year-old deaf sister, and (b) a younger dyad with the second-born deaf sister and her three-year-old hearing brother. The video-tapes were coded to determine: the kinds of play siblings engaged in; the use and expression of behavioral and communicative elements of attention-getting, exchange of information, and termination processes of dialogs; who initiated and terminated dialogs; the occurrence of turn-taking during message delivery; and the expression of patterns of communication used by siblings during dialogs. Only three of five possible kinds of play were actually noted, of which social play was the most frequently observed kind of play taking place between siblings within both dyads. In the older hearing and deaf sibling dyad, it was found that the older hearing sister predominately used visual processes and patterns of communicative interaction when conversing with her deaf sister, whereas the deaf sibling relied extensively on visual-auditory processes and patterns of communication when conversing with her hearing sister. In the younger dyad, visual-auditory patterns of communication predominated both hearing and deaf siblings' expression of processes and patterns of communication with each other. New terminology reflecting siblings' behavioral and communicative patterns of communication are introduced. This study represents the first known research examining the processes and patterns of deaf and hearing siblings' behavioral and communicative interactions of dialog. The findings are discussed in relation to potential applications to early intervention programs for hearing families with deaf and hearing siblings and to future research directions. Overall, the findings from this study appear to indicate that deaf and hearing siblings communicate in ways largely influenced by developmental maturation and the communicative environments to which each child has been exposed during language acquisition processes. The findings are also consistent with Vygotsky's theory of a sociocultural origin of language development. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

M.A. (Fundamental Communication) / Communication technologies like the mobile phone often present a double-edged sword in romantic relationships. While the mobile phone can enhance communication, it can simultaneously present a source of conflict. But through the use of a rule-based system, romantic partners can minimise conflict. This study investigated mobile phone usage rules that are negotiated by adolescents and young adults in their romantic relationships and also how these rules have been perceived to affect the romantic relationship. Of particular focus were rules that pertained specifically to the management of personal privacy boundaries by partners through the appendage of the mobile phone. The dialectic framework of Communication Privacy Management presented a nuanced lens from which to investigate the surveillance dimension of mobile phone appropriation in romantic relationships. The rise of peer-to-peer monitoring offered a unique point of departure that makes understanding the manifestation of this form surveillance in romantic relationships relevant. Findings conducted from surveys and interviews indicate that the negotiation of rules for appropriate mobile phone rules is indeed crucial to not only minimising conflict in romantic relationships but also enhancing trust and respect in the dyad. So important were trust and harmony that partners are even willing to allow their implicit rules and understandings of privacy to be superseded by a pursuit for these relational qualities. In addition to this, partners preferred not to resolves relational arguments over the phone because of the impetuous and intrusive nature of the mobile phone persona. While some rules remained constant, the quantitative survey showed that rules were evolutionary in nature as the relationships grew. The subsequent qualitative interviews also confirmed this finding.

This study evaluated the Say It Straight™ (SIS) Training Program for its ability to improve straightforward communication, increase self-esteem, increase an individual's overall perception of group and family belonging or cohesiveness within a residential treatment setting and decrease an individual's perceived level of anomie. Effectiveness of SIS training was evaluated with paired sample t-tests (2-tailed) on six objective questionnaires given before and after training. Participation in the study was voluntary. Of the 39 patients in residence, 26 participated in SIS training, (23 attended over 80% of the sessions and 3 attended over 50%). Three were excluded from the study due to developmental or dementia-related diagnoses, 3 chose not to participate, 5 were discharged routinely prior to completion and were not post-tested; and 2 were discharged against medical advice during the training. It is interesting to notice that on the average there are about 5 discharges against medical advice per month at the facility, but during the five weeks of SIS there were only 2. Self-reports of empowering behaviors, quality of family and group life and self-esteem showed highly significant increases following SIS. Self-reports of disempowering behaviors (placating, passive-aggressive, blaming, irrelevant, intellectualizing) showed highly significant decreases following SIS and anomie showed a significant decrease. All p values are results from 2-tailed t-tests for paired observations. Subjective reports regarding training effectiveness were also very positive. Recommendations include: 1) follow-up and compare SIS trained Sante alumni and non-SIS trained Sante alumni for recidivism rate and participation in recovery oriented group activities; 2) develop a tool for measuring anomie specifically related to treatment settings as a construct versus a single variable, and 3) develop a tool for measuring group cohesiveness specifically related to treatment settings as a construct versus a single variable.

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