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Developing Novel Extensions to Support Prototyping for Interactive Social Robots

Martijn ten Bhömer, Christoph Bartneck, Jun Hu, Rene Ahn, Tuyls, Karl, Frank Delbressine, and Loe Feijs

Abstract – Lego Mindstorms NXT is a platform highly suitable for prototyping in the field of interactive social robotics. During a technology masterclass at Eindhoven University of Technology students from the department of Industrial Design have developed five novel extensions (sensors and actuators) for the Lego Mindstorms NXT which extend the ability of Lego to prototype for robotics even further. Applications include a water-pump, GPS sensor, wireless sensor bridge, optical mouse sensor and a magnetic grabber. In this paper we will present these extensions and showcase applications in which these extend possibilities of Lego Mindstorms NXT to a new level.

Keywords: robot, Lego, Mindstorms, NXT, social, prototyping

M. t. Bhomer, C. Bartneck, J. Hu, R. Ahn, K. Tuyls, F. Delbressine, and L. Feijs, “Developing Novel Extensions to Support Prototyping for Interactive Social Robots,” in 21st Benelux Conference on Artificial Intelligence (BNAIC 2009), Eindhoven, The Netherlands, 2009, pp. 11-17.
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Designing for Experience: Arousing Boredom to Evoke Predefined User Behaviour

Joran van Aart, Ben Salem, Christoph Bartneck, Jun Hu, Matthias Rauterberg

Abstract – In the light of Cultural Computing, this study influences user affect and behaviour by touching upon core values of Western culture. We created an augmented reality environment in which users experience a predefined sequence of emotional states and events. This study concerns two typically Western drives: boredom and curiosity. We specifically address the arousal of boredom, a mental state characterized by a heightened drive for exploration, making it easier to guide people in their decision making. Based on psychology literature, we introduce general design guidelines for arousing boredom. We report on the design of the augmented reality environment, the experiment effectively arousing boredom and on the redesign of the environment based on the experimental results.

Keywords: User Affect, Emotions, Cultural Computing, Boredom, Diversive Exploration, Alice in Wonderland, User Behaviour, Modelling Experience, Design, Affective Computing

J. van Aart, B. Salem, C. Bartneck, J. Hu, and M. Rauterberg, “Designing for Experience: Arousing Boredom to Evoke Predefined User Behaviour,” in 6th Design and emotion conference, Hong Kong, 2008.
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Designing Social Navigation for a Virtual Community of Practice

Wen Xu, Jun Hu and Karel Kreijns

Abstract. Social navigation in a community of practice is an approach of locating information with increased social awareness. Social navigation alone is not a system, whereas the community of practice is. User requirement definition on social navigation is difficult. On the one hand, without the context of the community of practice, it is hard to collect the user requirements on navigation, especially when the concept of virtual community is new to the target user group. On the other hand, to set up such a virtual community, preliminary studies on social navigation is however necessary. This paper presents the experiences how we dealt with such a chicken and egg problem. Different approaches were used, from theoretical study online questionnaire, observation on an existing virtual society, analysis on similar systems, to prototyping and expert walk-through.

W. Xu, K. Kreijns, and J. Hu, “Designing Social Navigation for a Virtual Community of Practice,” Technologies for E-Learning and Digital Entertainment, Series, 3942/2006, pp. 27-38: Springer Berlin / Heidelberg, 2006.
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DOI: 10.1007/11736639_7
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VSMM’06: Xi’an, China

We have got a paper “IPML: Extending smil for distributed multimedia presentations” accepted for presentation at VSMM’06 , Xi’an China.

This paper addresses issues of distributing multimedia presentations in an ambient intelligent environment, exams the existing technologies and proposes IPML, a markup language that extends SMIL for distributed settings. It uses a powerful metaphor of play, with which the timing and mapping issues in distributed presentations are easily covered in a natural way.

J. Hu, and L. Feijs, “IPML: Extending SMIL for Distributed Multimedia Presentations,” Interactive Technologies and Sociotechnical Systems, Lecture Notes in Computer Science Series, 4270/2006, pp. 60-70, Xi’an, China: Springer, 2006.
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DOI: 10.1007/11890881_8
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Wiki your web

I was invited to give a talk about internet collaborative
environments at VCWI 2005 IT Seminar (IT around you, today and
tomorrow), which took place at TU Eindhoven, on Saturday, September 17,
2005. I introduced some basics about Wiki: Writable webs empower people
to share knowledge effectively and to be more productive.

  • Wiki, a Blog (Weblog) for groups: Communities can organize and share content in an organic and free manner
  • Extended
    with the right set of functionality, a Wiki can be applied to
    distributed teams to schedule, manage, document, and support their
    daily activities
  • The web as a whiteboard for everybody.

Continue reading Wiki your web

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User Experience Evaluation of a Distributed Interactive Movie

Jun Hu, Maddy Janse, Hyun-joo Kong

The effect of presenting a distributed interactive movie at different levels of control and distribution on the end user’s fun and presence experience was studied. The results suggest that an increased level of end-user control on the flow in the video increases the level of the user’s experience and impacts the feeling of presence significantly. The effects of distribution are less clear and are very much depending on the presentation devices and the content modality. These results are discussed in terms of the measurement instruments and the experimental design, and suggestions are made for further research.

J. Hu, M. Janse, and H.-j. Kong, “User Experience Evaluation of a Distributed Interactive Movie,” in HCI International 2005, Las Vegas, 2005.
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