The research presented examines how pervasive technology can support intra-family communication, supporting existing practices and complimenting them by addressing communication needs currently unmet by current communication media like mobile phones, social networking systems, and so forth. Specifically the investigation focused on busy families, understood here to be families with two working parents and at least one child sharing the same roof. The class of technologies the authors consider are awareness systems, defined as communication systems that support individuals to maintain, with low effort, a peripheral awareness of each other's activities and whereabouts. This research combined a variety of research methods including interviews, web surveys, experience sampling, and field testing of functional prototypes of mobile awareness systems. It also involved the development of several applications, which were either seen as research tools in support of the methods applied or as prototypes of awareness systems that embody some of the envisioned characteristics of this emerging class of technologies. The contribution of this research is along two main dimensions. First in identifying intra-family communication needs that drive the adoption of awareness systems and second in providing directions for the design of such systems.
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Does pervasive technology have a role to play in supporting the communication of busy couples? Especially when they are already living together and already have a high degree of awareness of each other's rhythms of daily life, their whereabouts and needs? A two week long field study of an awareness system allowed eight working couples to automatically exchange place, activity and calendar information as well as messages and photos. Data analysis provides both qualitative and quantitative evidence which suggest strongly that such a system can provide support for availability, coordination, reassurance and affection for this group. Findings which inform the design of such systems are: the need for transitions in places instead of location information to support coordination, the two tracks of daily communication of busy parents (reassurance and emergency) and usability barriers in current mobile applications which prevent this group from engaging in photo sharing. The contexts and unexpected uses that participants found in the system are described in detail.
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Educators in professional higher education experience difficulties addressing students’ self-awareness in their courses. The topic is often dismissed by students as ‘vague’ or ‘irrelevant’. This is detrimental for learning since knowing who you are and who you want to be is crucial: it guides behaviour and helps to feel balanced and in control. Support is needed to trigger students’ self-awareness and to make this process less demanding. In this paper we present guidelines for interactive triggers supporting students in developing their self-awareness. We asked students to discuss self-made photos in small groups and offered them three paper prototypes of triggers to work with. Questionnaire results and analysis of students’ discussions resulted in insights on how these triggers provoke distinct interaction and support self-awareness. Insights in advantages and disadvantages of the triggers can be used to design and implement innovative interactive systems that engage students in the process of developing self-awareness.
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Deploying robots from indoor to outdoor environments (vise versa) with stable and accurate localization is very important for companies to secure the utilization in industrial applications such as delivering harvested fruits from plantations, deploying/docking, navigating under solar panels, passing through tunnels/underpasses and parking in garages. This is because of the sudden changes in operational conditions such as receiving high/low-quality satellite signals, changing field of view, dealing with lighting conditions and addressing different velocities. We observed these limitations especially in indoor-outdoor transitions after conducting different projects with companies and obtaining inaccurate localization using individual Robotics Operating Systems (ROS2) modules. As there are rare commercial solutions for IO-transitions, AlFusIOn is a ROS2-based framework aims to fuse different sensing and data-interpretation techniques (LiDAR, Camera, IMU, GNSS-RTK, Wheel Odometry, Visual Odometry) to guarantee the redundancy and accuracy of the localization system. Moreover, maps will be integrated to robustify the performance and ensure safety by providing geometrical information about the transitioning structures. Furthermore, deep learning will be utilized to understand the operational conditions by labeling indoor and outdoor areas. This information will be encoded in maps to provide robots with expected operational conditions in advance and beyond the current sensing state. Accordingly, this self-awareness capability will be incorporated into the fusion process to control and switch between the localization techniques to achieve accurate and smooth IO-transitions, e.g., GNSS-RTK will be deactivated during the transition. As an urgent and unique demand to have an accurate and continuous IO-transition towards fully autonomous navigation/transportation, Saxion University and the proposal’s partners are determined to design a commercial and modular industrial-based localization system with robust performance, self-awareness about the localization capabilities and less human interference. Furthermore, AlFusIOn will intensively collaborate with MAPS (a RAAKPRO proposed by HAN University) to achieve accurate localization in outdoor environments.
In the last decade, the automotive industry has seen significant advancements in technology (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and autonomous vehicles) that presents the opportunity to improve traffic safety, efficiency, and comfort. However, the lack of drivers’ knowledge (such as risks, benefits, capabilities, limitations, and components) and confusion (i.e., multiple systems that have similar but not identical functions with different names) concerning the vehicle technology still prevails and thus, limiting the safety potential. The usual sources (such as the owner’s manual, instructions from a sales representative, online forums, and post-purchase training) do not provide adequate and sustainable knowledge to drivers concerning ADAS. Additionally, existing driving training and examinations focus mainly on unassisted driving and are practically unchanged for 30 years. Therefore, where and how drivers should obtain the necessary skills and knowledge for safely and effectively using ADAS? The proposed KIEM project AMIGO aims to create a training framework for learner drivers by combining classroom, online/virtual, and on-the-road training modules for imparting adequate knowledge and skills (such as risk assessment, handling in safety-critical and take-over transitions, and self-evaluation). AMIGO will also develop an assessment procedure to evaluate the impact of ADAS training on drivers’ skills and knowledge by defining key performance indicators (KPIs) using in-vehicle data, eye-tracking data, and subjective measures. For practical reasons, AMIGO will focus on either lane-keeping assistance (LKA) or adaptive cruise control (ACC) for framework development and testing, depending on the system availability. The insights obtained from this project will serve as a foundation for a subsequent research project, which will expand the AMIGO framework to other ADAS systems (e.g., mandatory ADAS systems in new cars from 2020 onwards) and specific driver target groups, such as the elderly and novice.
The Dutch main water systems face pressing environmental, economic and societal challenges due to climatic changes and increased human pressure. There is a growing awareness that nature-based solutions (NBS) provide cost-effective solutions that simultaneously provide environmental, social and economic benefits and help building resilience. In spite of being carefully designed and tested, many projects tend to fail along the way or never get implemented in the first place, wasting resources and undermining trust and confidence of practitioners in NBS. Why do so many projects lose momentum even after a proof of concept is delivered? Usually, failure can be attributed to a combination of eroding political will, societal opposition and economic uncertainties. While ecological and geological processes are often well understood, there is almost no understanding around societal and economic processes related to NBS. Therefore, there is an urgent need to carefully evaluate the societal, economic, and ecological impacts and to identify design principles fostering societal support and economic viability of NBS. We address these critical knowledge gaps in this research proposal, using the largest river restoration project of the Netherlands, the Border Meuse (Grensmaas), as a Living Lab. With a transdisciplinary consortium, stakeholders have a key role a recipient and provider of information, where the broader public is involved through citizen science. Our research is scientifically innovative by using mixed methods, combining novel qualitative methods (e.g. continuous participatory narrative inquiry) and quantitative methods (e.g. economic choice experiments to elicit tradeoffs and risk preferences, agent-based modeling). The ultimate aim is to create an integral learning environment (workbench) as a decision support tool for NBS. The workbench gathers data, prepares and verifies data sets, to help stakeholders (companies, government agencies, NGOs) to quantify impacts and visualize tradeoffs of decisions regarding NBS.
