Posted on

CALL FOR APPLICATION: Erasmus Mundus Joint/Double Doctoral Program in Interactive and Cogitive Environments(ICE)

ICE EMJD
ICE EMJD

The deadline of the EMJD ICE Call for Application is approaching: 15 January 2012 at 12 AM CET.

The Erasmus Mundus Joint Doctoral Programme in Interactive and Cognitive Environments offers PhD candidates a education programme in the field of research related to computer science, electronic and telecommunication engineering. Candidates must hold a Master of Science (M.Sc.) degree or equivalent title and in-depth knowledge and understanding of the principles of ICT engineering.

TU/e is involved in the research area of “Design for Social Interaction”.

More about EMJD/ICE, see www.icephd.org.

A new round of  EMJD call for application is open. Download ICE_call_III_cohort (PDF) for details.

Posted on

Surround sound tuning based on location

Final USI Report by Angeliki Angeletou. [PDF, 1.9M]

Location-based Sound
Location-based Sound

Surround Sound Systems are designed to faithfully reproduce a movie soundtrack and provide an immersive sound experience to the user, when the loudspeaker placement and the listening position comply with certain standards. Deviation from these standards can cause a distorted or unnatural sound image. In order to address the impact of the loudspeaker setup on the listening experience, two Philips Surround Sound Systems were integrated with Ultra Wideband (UWB) localization technology for the design of two demonstrators. Each demonstrator is composed of two parts; a localization module, providing user’s and speakers’ coordinates and audio tuning algorithms which use this information for the calculations of the signals that are sent to the speakers. In the present study, the performance evaluation of each component as well as the implementation of the demonstrators are described and discussed.

A. Angeletou, Surround sound tuning based on location, USI Final Report, Department of Industrial Design, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, 2011.
FULLTEXT: PDF
Posted on

OpenLight Presents “Light Through Culture” in Beijing

Original article from OpenLight.nl, by Rombout Frieling, creative director OPENLIGHT and project initiator, Light Through Culture.

LIGHT THROUGH CULTURE

The Final Day to Finalize
The Final Day to Finalize

During the past two weeks, 14 young designers from the Netherlands and China worked together intensively in a masterclass led by the OPENLIGHT creative light laboratory.

For two days, the team lived with Beijing’s cleaners, bus drivers, parents and school kids.

They turned their insights from Beijing Culture into three lighting concepts, which we show here in three cylinders. The purpose is a dialogue about how smart lighting can contribute to a healthy city.

The presented installations are realised by technologies such as intelligent systems and LEDs, which reveal new design opportunities.

At OPENLIGHT, the creative lab of the Intelligent Lighting Institute (ILI, Eindhoven, the Netherlands), we explore for instance how light can help us focus, reflect, regulate our biorhythms, improve safety or escape from hectic everyday life.

OPENLIGHT initiated ‘Light through Culture’ to respond to cultural challenges in various cities, such as here in Beijing with Tsinghua University. We present the results for you in three cylinders:

Continue reading OpenLight Presents “Light Through Culture” in Beijing

Posted on

Semantic Resources: A Study on a Tangible Interaction Approach to Managing Wireless Connections in a Smart Home Environment

By Jeroen Peters [M12 Report, PDF, 200K]

Semantic Resources
Semantic Resources

Technological advances in computational, networking and sensing abilities are leading towards a future in which our daily lives are immersed with interactive devices that are networked and interoperable.

It is imperative that users are able to understand such complex intelligent and interactive environments. Design has an important role in facilitating users in making sense of the many connections between devices in a networked environment.

Two design solutions based on tangible interaction have been developed that allow users to manage wireless connections between devices in a smart living room context.

Continue reading Semantic Resources: A Study on a Tangible Interaction Approach to Managing Wireless Connections in a Smart Home Environment

Posted on

Enriching the reading experience with dramatic soundtracks

by Kacper Holenderski. [PDF, 2.5M]

Enriching Reading Experience

The goal of this research was to analyze to what extent applying dramatic soundtracks to a short story enrich the reading experience on an E-reader. This is an opportunity to give reading a new face allowed by the capabilities of the digital nature of eBooks and E-readers. The set up tested for imagery, transportation and attention through a questionnaire. Additionally arousal was measured with the help of GSR sensors. The results did not show a clear enrichment of the experience. The soundtracks were distracting at some points and complementing at others. The opportunity of dramatic soundtracks in eBooks is still a valid proposition which rests on the proper implementation.

K. Holenderski, Enriching the reading experience with dramatic soundtracks, M11 Report, Department of Industrial Design, Eindhoven University of Technology, 2011.
FULLTEXT: PDF
Posted on

Semantic Resources: A practice oriented approach: Sustainable services for television

M11 Master Project by Nick Sturkenboom. [PDF, 1.5M]

https://www.drhu.eu/reports/2011-NickSturkenboom-SemanticResources.pdf
Semantic Resources

In the EU, policy makers have been debating over carbon reduction for many years. One of the methods that pursue to reduce our carbon footprints is to raise energy awareness and stimulate energy efficiency through behavioral and attitude change. However, these same policy makers currently overlook the reasons why people consume resources, how these ‘needs’ and ‘wants’ establish themselves and evolve over time in our everyday lives, also known as ‘practices. (E.g.) (Shove E. , 2003) (Hargreaves, 2011) (Chetty, 2008) (Stern, 2000) (Hertwich, 2005)

Continue reading Semantic Resources: A practice oriented approach: Sustainable services for television

Posted on

Blurring the boundaries

By Matthijs Jansen [B32 Graduation Project, PDF, 3.5M]

2011-MatthijsJansen-BlurringTheBoundaries
Photo Mirror

This report covers the work of the final bachelor project of Industrial Design student Matthijs Jansen. It shows the design process of an adaptive photo mirror. With this mirror, a host can show his hospitality and care for his visitor through common photos of him and his guest inside the mirror, creating a fun and surprising experience when receiving guests in the hallway.

M. Jansen, Blurring the boundaries, B32 Report, Department of Industrial Design, Eindhoven University of Technology, 2011.
FULLTEXT: PDF

 

Posted on

Internship at Promea Industrial Design, by Remco Nagtzaam

Foreword of the report [PDF, 500K]. “This report will describe my internship at Promea Industrial Design, both my activities, reflections and growth will be described. The department of Industrial Design from the University of Technology Eindhoven offers students to do an internship in the final year of their bachelor education. This opportunity is a welcome change in working environment from my point of view, it allows me to place my education in a better context with regards to the professional work environment.”

Posted on

ROILA: RObot Interaction LAnguage

ROILA
ROILA

Omar Mubin, one of our PhD candidates, printed his book “ROILA: RObot Interaction LAnguage” last week. “… The mismatch between humans’ expectations and the abilities of interactive robots often results in frustration for the user. Palm Inc. faced a similar problem with handwriting recognition for their handheld computers. They invented Graffiti, an artificial alphabet, that was easy to learn and easy for the computer to recognize. Our Robot Interaction Language (ROILA) takes a similar approach by offering a speech recognition friendly artificial language that is easy to learn for humans and easy to understand for robots with an ultimate goal of outperforming natural language in terms of speech recognition accuracy…”.

To read more about his work, download the book [PDF, 3M].