Search

There is a growing interest in whether social robots, which are embodied and exhibit human-like behaviour, can be used for teaching and learning. Still, very few studies focus on the teacher's role. This study focuses on how a teacher acted in a learning-by-teaching activity with 20 children. In this small-scale field experiment, the teacher's interactions and teaching actions were observed when the teacher scaffolded a learning activity where children played a collaborative digital mathematics game to strengthen their mathematical reasoning and conceptual understanding of arithmetic. When playing, the children were acting as tutors for a tutee, according to the learning-by-teaching principle. In one scenario, the tutee was a younger child; in the other, the tutee was a social robot. Twenty 30-minute game-playing sessions are observed, video-recorded, and transcribed. The study explores the teacher's interactions and teaching actions in the two scenarios and discusses the results from the perspective of the teacher's role, social norms, and teacher digital competence. The interaction and thematic analyses show similarities and characteristic differences in the teacher's interaction patterns in the two scenarios. The teaching actions are similar on a structural level and differ regarding the types and distribution of teaching actions. In the child-child scenario, the teacher directs most teaching actions to both players, and the actions are didactic (mathematical) scaffolding. In contrast, in the child-robot scenario, the teacher only addresses the tutor, and the scaffolding is socially oriented. Implications for a teaching practice involving social robots as learning companions are discussed regarding teachers' presence and participation, types of social robot knowledge that go beyond digital competence, and new challenges introduced by using social robots as learning companions in the classroom. The study contributes new insights into the teacher's role and actions when teaching with a social robot in a collaborative learning situation, which is relevant for educational research and teaching practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This study was motivated by the need to enhance Mandarin learning through embodied interactions and physical engagement methods. While most studies confirm the positive effects of touchscreen devices on learning, mixed findings suggest a need for more engaging methods. This research addresses these gaps by exploring the benefits of embodied interaction through the Shaking‐On game app, an embodied question‐response platform, in comparison to Kahoot. Objectives: To compare the learning effectiveness of the Shaking‐On app, which incorporates physical shaking interactions, with the conventional quiz platform Kahoot in promoting Mandarin learning and positive emotional experiences. Methods: A total of 158 junior high school students participated in the study, engaging in 15‐minute sessions once a week for 3 weeks in a formal classroom setting. Participants were divided into two groups: one using the Shaking‐On app and the other using Kahoot. The study employed a comparative analysis framework based on achievement emotion theory to evaluate learning outcomes and emotional responses. Furthermore, the classroom response system (CRS) analysis was used to assess the cognitive and affective parameters of the learning tasks in the Shaking‐On app and Kahoot, providing detailed insight into how different interactive tasks contributed to learning. Results and Conclusions: The results indicated that the Shaking‐On app significantly enhanced Mandarin learning and engagement compared with Kahoot. Participants using Shaking‐On experienced higher levels of interactive situational interest and flow, while test anxiety remained consistent across both groups. These findings suggest that incorporating embodied interactions into digital learning tools can substantially benefit student engagement and learning outcomes. The study indicated that such apps could be effectively integrated into classroom settings to enhance student learning. Educators and game developers are encouraged to integrate such interactive elements to improve the efficacy and appeal of educational applications. Lay Description: What Is currently known about this topic?: Digital game‐based learning enhances motivation, critical thinking and retention.Embodied cognition links bodily experiences to improved learning outcomes.Physical activities in learning can boost motivation, interest and performance.Engagement through physical interaction may help reduce test anxiety. What does this paper add?: Shaking‐On is more effective in Mandarin learning than Kahoot as classroom response system.Bodily engagement in Shaking‐On enhances situational interest and flow.No significant difference in test anxiety between Shaking‐On and Kahoot users.Embodied interactions provide substantial benefits in digital learning tools. Implications for practice: Educators should integrate embodied interactions to enhance student engagement.Game developers can design more effective learning apps with embodied elements.Future research should explore Shaking‐On's impact on other subjects.Policies should support the development of interactive digital learning tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the current generation of displays, as found primarily in smartphones, laptops and tablet computers, from an interaction design perspective. Today's displays are multifunctional, versatile devices with a standardized, rectangular shape and a standardized interaction. We distinguish two pitfalls. First, they facilitate an interaction that is isolated and detached from the physical environment in which they are used. Second, their multi-touch interface provides users with few tangible clues and handles. From our background in embodied interaction, we establish an alternate, hypothetical vision of displays: the content-specific display. The content-specific display is defined as a display designed for one specific function and one type of on-screen content. We explore this concept in three student projects from the First Year Master's program at Product Development, University of Antwerp, and present two key themes that emerge from it: causality and transformation. Both themes reside in the field of coupling, a concept well-known within the field of embodied interaction, and aim at a more seamless integration of on-screen content within the physical world. Finally, we discuss how the content-specific display influences the design process of digital products, and how it fosters collaboration between product designers and designers of graphical user interfaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the Digital Thimble, an index-finger-wearable device designed for free-hand interactions in virtual reality (VR) by varying the touch contact force on a surface. It contains an optical mouse sensor for tracking and a pressure sensor for detecting contact force. A Fitts' law study compared the Digital Thimble with a commercial finger mouse and a VR controller using both on-press and on-release selection methods. The results showed that the finger mouse provided higher throughput (3.11 bps) and faster speed (1258 ms) compared to the VR controller (2.89 bps; 1327 ms) and the Digital Thimble (2.61 bps; 1487 ms). Further evaluation in sorting and teleportation tasks demonstrated that the Digital Thimble delivered better accuracy and precision. Participants favored the Digital Thimble for its comfort and convenience, highlighting its potential as a user-friendly VR input device. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Computational wearables are redefining our presence in the world and transforming our lifestyles by engendering a seamless connection between the wearer and the worn. Despite numerous original studies on the development as well as the current advances of wearables, a systematic review from the standpoint of fashion seems to be lacking. Thus, this systematic review aimed to explore the current state of research on computational fashion in wearables' literature in terms of the key domains, theoretical models, materials, interaction modalities, and existing gaps. To this aim, the authors built a search string based on the keywords in related topics and conducted the research using Scopus databases. As a result, a total of 4777 papers between January 1990 to August 2021 were screened and 82 research study papers finally passed the inclusion-exclusion criteria for the purpose of the review. The results display: first, computational wearables' studies are becoming more inclined towards the aesthetic aspects of fashion wearables; second, although the functional aspects of the design processes received more attention, embodiment was the most discussed theory in the included studies; third, the extensive application of fabric implied the need for new fabrics with both smart quality and flexibility to afford aesthetic aspects; fourth, ambient data as input modalities received extensive attention in fashion wearables; fifth, kinetic output modalities as novel modes of fashion expression are becoming as prevalent as visual modalities. Finally, our findings provide a detailed overview of distinct facets of studies on computational fashion and a future research agenda for researchers and designers working on fashion and wearables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article proposes a re-interpretation of the shoreless seascape through a concept the author terms 'aimlessness'. This concept can function as a hybrid metaphor suitable for investigating the failures of human transcendence. Essentially, every multidisciplinary practice in contemporary artistic, technological and scientific culture is a series of failed geopolitical setbacks. Related actions may well be reversed, interrupted or even recalled at any time with new acquisitions, discoveries or experiments. The understanding of the sea as a theatrical stage can offer spatial observatory mechanisms for decentred perspectives in order to decipher and invent contemporary notions and symbols that are floating into this hydro forest. The article develops a critical reflection based on a series of sea-oriented artworks. Drawing on the ubiquity of the water, these artworks – through representational and performative actions of drifting and floating – examine the concept of aimless floatation. Through an analysis of artistic methodologies interacting with water, the text offers a series of reflections on how such actions become performative, playful and open to unexpected circumstances that lie on the surface or the depths of the water world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractMost research about augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) has focused on improving use of and access to speech generating devices (SGDs). However, many adults with significant physical and developmental disabilities express a preference for unaided, embodied forms of communication. This study used conversation analysis (CA) techniques to analyze the forms and functions of embodied communication that occurred during interactions between a young man who used unaided, embodied communication and an SGD to communicate with a familiar communication partner. Close analysis revealed that embodied resources were required for both unaided and aided forms of communication. Furthermore, both participants used their bodies to establish interactional spaces with different focal points during interaction, which placed different demands on the aided speaker. Unfortunately, when the SGD was the focal point, problematic demands were placed on the aided speaker, which in turn resulted in increased embodied effort on his part. The forms and functions of the body, differences in the participants’ interactions when communication did and did not involve the SGD, and implications for research and practice are all reported and discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While previous research studies have focused on either caregivers' or residents' perception and use of social robots, this article offers an empirical and theoretical examination of joint activities in triadic human–robot interaction. The symptomatology of dementia creates an asymmetrical relation wherein the impetus to employ a robot often originates from the caregiver. Drawing on field work and video recorded interactions in dementia care homes, the article investigates how caregivers draw on embodied resources to involve residents and robot animals in interaction. The analysis demonstrates how caregivers promote commitment and encounter resistance with residents. We draw on the theory of sociomaterial interactionism to study situated interaction between bodies in a meaning‐generating process. By re‐conceptualising the theoretical notions of manipulation and recruitment, the article offers an approach for studying orientations that distinguish between reciprocity of agential objects. We show that caregivers usually distinguish between interactions with people and machines by anticipating a specific response from the robots (manipulation), while they invite participation in a broader sense from residents (recruitment). Social friction arises, however, if caregivers act upon the residents as embodied objects in manipulative ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In-lab elicitation studies inform the design of gestures by having the participants suggest actions to activate the system functions. Conversely, crowd-sourced identification studies follow the opposite path, asking the users to associate the control actions with functions. Identification studies have been used to validate the gestures produced by elicitation studies, but not to design interactive systems. In this paper, we show that identification studies can be combined with in situ observations to design the gestures for data exploration with public displays. To illustrate this method, we developed two versions of a gesture-controlled system for data exploration with 368 users: one designed through an elicitation study, and one designed through in situ observations followed by an identification study. Our results show that the users discovered the majority of the gestures with similar accuracy across the two prototypes. Additionally, the in situ approach enabled the direct recruitment of target users, and the crowd-sourced approach typical of identification studies expedited the design process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Repetition has often been argued to be a semiotic device that iconically signifies 'more content', such as intensity and plurality. However, through multimodal interaction analysis of materials in English, Estonian, and Swedish, this paper demonstrates how self-repetition is used to coordinate actions across participants and temporally organize the ongoing activity. The data are taken from infant mealtimes, pilates classes, dance training, boardgames, rock climbing, and opera rehearsals. Repetition of both lexical and non-lexical tokens can prolong, postpone, and generally organize segments of action as well as co-create rhythms and moves in a moment-by-moment reflexive relationship with other (non-vocalizing) participants. A crucial feature of repetitions is that they can be flexibly extended to fit the other's public performance, its launching, continuation, and projectable completion. We argue that the iconicity of repetition emerges through its indexical relationship to other bodies, as a real-time jointly achieved phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers are increasingly calling for more computational thinking (CT) teaching tools and activities designed for young children. Considering young children's need to draw on their bodily experiences to learn abstract concepts, this study applied the embodied cognition perspective to design an unplugged (non-computer-based) toolkit with activities that foster CT. This study aimed to explore young children's experiences in unplugged activities. Specifically, children's perceptions about the activities were investigated, and their embodied interactions during the activities were analyzed to reveal how CT emerges as an embodied phenomenon. Results indicate that children had positive perceptions about the activities. In addition, young children's algorithmic thinking and debugging emerged most frequently. Furthermore, this study found that CT extended to both the unplugged toolkit and children's bodies and emerged in perception-action loops. This research provides insight into the instructional design of young children's CT and helps researchers understand how young children develop CT from an embodied cognition perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Teacher Education Research is the property of Teacher Education Research Editorial Office and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article presents the Digital Thimble, an index-finger-wearable device designed for free-hand interactions in virtual reality (VR) by varying the touch contact force on a surface. It contains an optical mouse sensor for tracking and a pressure sensor for detecting contact force. A Fitts’ law study compared the Digital Thimble with a commercial finger mouse and a VR controller using both on-press and on-release selection methods. The results showed that the finger mouse provided higher throughput (3.11 bps) and faster speed (1258 ms) compared to the VR controller (2.89 bps; 1327 ms) and the Digital Thimble (2.61 bps; 1487 ms). Further evaluation in sorting and teleportation tasks demonstrated that the Digital Thimble delivered better accuracy and precision. Participants favored the Digital Thimble for its comfort and convenience, highlighting its potential as a user-friendly VR input device.

This paper examines the current generation of displays, as found primarily in smartphones, laptops and tablet computers, from an interaction design perspective. Today’s displays are multifunctional, versatile devices with a standardized, rectangular shape and a standardized interaction. We distinguish two pitfalls. First, they facilitate an interaction that is isolated and detached from the physical environment in which they are used. Second, their multi-touch interface provides users with few tangible clues and handles. From our background in embodied interaction, we establish an alternate, hypothetical vision of displays: the content-specific display. The content-specific display is defined as a display designed for one specific function and one type of on-screen content. We explore this concept in three student projects from the First Year Master’s program at Product Development, University of Antwerp, and present two key themes that emerge from it: causality and transformation. Both themes reside in the field of coupling, a concept well-known within the field of embodied interaction, and aim at a more seamless integration of on-screen content within the physical world. Finally, we discuss how the content-specific display influences the design process of digital products, and how it fosters collaboration between product designers and designers of graphical user interfaces.

This special issue explores interaction and language use in situations involving human and non-human participants. Bringing together methodologies and theoretical approaches in linguistics and interactional studies, namely Conversation Analysis, the volume focuses on the social actions accomplished in interspecies interaction and the linguistic construction of non-human perception and meaning-making. The studies of the volume deal with cat's bodily and vocal cues used for coordinating human participant's attention to a shared object, animal actions as conditionally relevant to human utterances within sequence organization, dogs' embodied responses to playing partners' verbal turns within a ball game, and expressions of non-human sensory perception through reported animal thoughts. The special issue introduces Interspecies Pragmatics as an approach used for studying human-animal interactions and relationships, with a particular focus on building multimodal understanding in these specific environments. Interspecies Pragmatics aligns with various interdisciplinary approaches in the Humanities and Social Sciences (Human-Animal Studies, Posthumanism, Ecocriticism, Ecolinguistics, Biosemiotics). By undoing conceptual hierarchies and boundaries between humans and other living beings, we can gain insights into shared interests and meanings across species boundaries. • Animals' first and second actions are conditionally relevant to human utterances. • Cats use bodily cues to direct humans' attention to a shared object. • Dogs distinguish addressed recipient from the unaddressed recipient. • By reporting animal thoughts humans share awareness of non-human perceptual worlds. • Interspecies Pragmatics explores the Human-Animal bond in language and interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Ordnance Equipment Engineering is the property of Chongqing University of Technology and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In this article we report on the work being carried out in the archival and presentation in mixed reality (MR) of materials pertaining to interactive artworks, in the context of a state-funded partnership project. We describe our approach in scanning and organizing materials as a contribution to an existing online archive of digital art (ADA); and in the design and implementation of an MR application for interacting with archive contents. Digital archives offer expanded possibilities for experiencing the content, which can be tailored to different use-cases and types of content. As frameworks for MR become more common and accessible to a wider audience, an archive can more readily combine characteristics of both the physical and digital worlds to empower the activities of visitors and scholars alike. For this, it is necessary to experiment with newer forms of presentation and interaction, as well as types of content, such as three-dimensional (3D) models. We offer details and insights about the processes used and decisions taken in both the archival and experimental aspects of our contribution and conclude with directions for further work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emerging field of human-building interaction (HBI) has its roots in the historical trends of the development of architecture and human-computer interaction (HCI). Advancements in building information modelling (BIM), sensing, and actuation technologies as well as the commodification and miniaturisation of microprocessors over the past two decades are transforming what once were quixotic visions of a cybernetic architecture into reality. This new reality which integrates computation with architecture opens up different kinds of engagements in the ways we design, use, and inhabit our built environments. A question that follows this new reality is: how can we conceptualise human experience in such environments? Thus far, the lived human experience of such interactions has been an overlooked aspect in HBI-related research. In this article, we provide an initial experience framework for HBI underpinned by existing literature from the HCI and architecture domains on the subjective, lived-in experience of architecture and findings derived from a case study of a field-deployed HBI interface. The research objective of our framework is to outline aspects of HBI lived experiences that can be used as guiding lenses for HBI designers and practitioners who wish to design for and assess such experiences.

By analysing the movements through space of a famous conversation analyst delivering a well-known lecture, this paper reveals the creative construction of space within the social and physical constraints of the lecture hall, and in so doing contributes to the embodied analysis of humans in material environments. While founded in a multimodal or embodied conversation analysis, it uses terminology and insights from dance to help ‘see’ and analyse the movements as ‘footwork’ and ‘figures’.

This paper discusses the critical role of art therapy in solving various psychological problems, and introduces an innovative immersive and interactive art therapy mechanism based on artificial intelligence (AI), which combines machine learning and AI algorithms to realize embodied interactions between the learner, the machine, and the environment.The study analyzes the changes of students’ status before and after receiving art therapy in terms of various dimensions, including students’ social avoidance, general well-being, and self-emotions. Using regression modeling, the study validated the positive effects of art therapy on students’ mental health, cognitive abilities, and depression levels. It showed that art therapy had a statistically significant impact on improving students’ mental health, cognition, and reducing depressive symptoms at the 1% level of significance. Students who participated in art therapy had a 0.329 unit increase in mental health scores compared to non-participants, and this study provides a valuable reference and idea for the application of expressive art therapy in mental health education.

The present paper contributes to the emerging field of embodied interaction. It reports on research into deictic interactions between a human and a non-human, specifically a cat, interlocutor, applying a pragmatic framework developed for human–human communicative interactions. We analyse video recordings of interactions where a cat is a deictic agent pointing the human interlocutor either to the door or the food bowl. We show that these interactions show triadic pointing, hence, focusing joint attention on a common object as a proxy for the event i.e., providing food in the bowl and opening the door. We show that the cat also checks whether the human understands her intentions and that she confirms the human's interpretation. We do not restrict ourselves to vocal communication - as is often done in human language studies -, but we examine how in cat-human communication the cat and human bodies are used to express deixis. Thus, we conceptualize deixis as an embodied interpersonal i.e., interspecies phenomenon. We show that the cat interlocutor uses her body, e.g. eyes/body/tail/ears, as well as her voice, meowing/purring, within this complex deictic interaction. • The present paper investigates the contribution of the non-human feline interlocutor as a deictic agent in interspecies human/non-human interaction. • Our analysis successfully applies a pragmatic framework developed for human–human communicative interactions, to intraspecies instances of human-non-human interaction. • We show that the body emerges as the crucial locus of deixis, which in turn entails that one (and perhaps the only) prerequisite to. • The specific expression of deixis depends on the kind of body possessed by the deictic agent: There are aspects of "human deixis" that cats cannot express, and vice versa. • Deictic communication of cats includes eye gaze, and possibly positioning of the ears and the instrumental use of the paw. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This ongoing PhD study aims to explore the potential of shape-changing fashion and textiles for aesthetic haptic interaction and affective soma experiences using Research through Design methodology. The research has progressed through multiple workshops and design projects, with each one building upon the previous findings and contributing to the ongoing work. Design strategies and toolkits are developed to accommodate various interaction modalities, soma experiences, haptic patterns, and use contexts. Preliminary results show the potential of translating affective haptic experiences into fashion and textile design languages. It also contributes to the development of textile-craft-based shape-changing methods for hand-held tactile textile installation and body-worn haptic wearables design to generate engaging experiences. In the future study, I will verify the effectiveness of the developed design toolkits through workshops by engaging design students, thus preparing the study's outcomes for broader dissemination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Visual and text-based art plays a role in constituting and sustaining international harm reduction social movements based on drug user rights. The digital arts of harm reduction examined in this article counter sociological discomfort with pleasure by performing the artisanal pleasures of craft, context, and practice. Through close examination of the Instagram hashtag #celestialheartbreak, the article centers work by artist Jamie Harary, whose queer feminist harm reduction art places women and gender-nonconforming people at the center of harm reduction in life-affirming ways. The work expands the visual repertoire for speculative narcofeminist imaginaries, moving beyond rights-based formations to consider the play of emotional intensity. This article meditates upon the movement of affective neuroscience as supplement to feminist and queer drug research, as well as harm reduction practice, in offering socially situated accounts for getting at the lived dimensions of affective lives and claims to making sense of social worlds by living well with drugs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Physical manipulatives, such as rods or tiles, are widely used for mathematics learning, as they support embodied cognition, enable the execution of epistemic actions, and foster conceptual metaphors. Counting them, children explore, rearrange, and reinterpret the environment through the haptic channel. Vision generally complements physical actions, which makes using traditional manipulatives limited for children with visual impairments (VIs). Digitally augmenting manipulatives with feedback through alternative modalities might improve them. We specifically discuss conveying number representations to children with VIs using haptic and auditory channels within an environment encouraging exploration and supporting active touch counting strategies while promoting reflection. This paper presents LETSMath, a tangible system for training basic mathematical skills of children with VIs, developed through Design-Based Research with three iterations in which we involved 19 children with VIs and their educators. We discuss how the system may support training skills in the composition of numbers and the impact that the different system features have on slowing down the interaction pace to trigger reflection, on understanding, and on incorporation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coupling is a key concept in the field of embodied interaction with digital products and systems, describing how digital phenomena relate to the physical world. In this paper, we present a Research through Design process in which the concept of coupling is explored and deepened. The use case that we employed to conduct our research is an industrial workplace proposed by Audi Brussels and Kuka. Our aim was to enrich this workplace with projection, or Spatial Augmented Reality, while focusing on operator interaction. We went through three successive design iterations, each of which resulted in a demonstrator. We present each of the three demonstrators, focusing on how they propelled our understanding of coupling. We establish a framework in which coupling between different events, be they physical or digital, emerges on four different aspects: time, location, direction, and expression. We bring the first three aspects together under one heading—coupling of meaning—and relate it to ease of use and pragmatic usability. We uncover the characteristics of the fourth aspect—coupling of expression—and link it to the psychological wellbeing of the operator in the workplace. We conclude this paper by highlighting its contribution to the embodied interaction research agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Embodied interaction (EI) is a body-based interactive paradigm that has the potential to enhance the flow experience in virtual reality (VR). To examine this hypothesis, this paper distinguishes three common types of EI in VR, namely body-based, tangible, and avatar-based EI. In empirical studies 1–3, three comparative experiments were carried out to examine the respective effects of these EI modes on flow experience. Subjective and physiological data (e.g., electrodermal activity, etc.) from studies 1–2 show that the use of body-based and tangible EI leads to the enhancement of physiological arousal (an important indicator of concentration) and flow experience. Study 3 reveals the effect of avatar-based EI on flow experience. Using a high-ownership avatar is found to enhance the sense of presence and involvement, which then improves flow. This effect is only for experienced users, showing a moderating effect. The mechanism of these positive effects requires further clarification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]