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From artificial intelligence, predictive analytics and biometric sensors, to advanced robotics, virtual reality and mobile applications, rapid advances in technology are transforming the design, delivery and experience of mental healthcare. This paper explores the promise and pitfalls of three technologies (apps, avatars and robots) posed to transform mental health education, practice and research. By highlighting potential practical and ethical implications, this paper argues mental health professionals must actively engage in the co-design and development of new technologies, and reflexively reflect on whether the future will be a techno-utopia or dystopia.

This report is the final report of the Detecting Opportunities and Challenges for Australian Rural Industries Project. The project was conducted as part of Agrifutures Australia’s initiative to anticipate technologies that present potential opportunities and challenges to Australian rural industries. Developing this capability is critical for managing risk and informing future directions. Over the course of the project, a methodology was developed in line with this initiative. It incorporated a mix of foresight methodologies, including data mining, literature review, Delphi questionnaires and visualisation. Each of these methods were used in an interactive approach that focused on detecting emerging technologies from a range of different industries, and then through systematic assessment, reposition and imagine those selected technologies in an Australian rural context. The effectiveness of this methodology is evident in each of the Horizon Scans completed to date. These have led to a watchlist of emerging technologies that offer potential opportunities and challenges to Australian rural industries. The purpose of this final report is to summarise the watchlists and communicate the potential impact that these technologies have for Australian rural industries.

Horizon Scan 4 is the final horizon scan report for the Agrifutures Australia and QUT project, Detecting Opportunities and Challenges for Australian Rural Industries. Therefore, the technologies presented in this report finalise a watchlist of emerging technologies that have potential impact for Australian rural industries. As with previous horizon scan reports, the identified technologies represent innovation in a broad range of domains and highlight the diverse areas within the Australian rural industries that can be enhanced by technology change.

This interactive data visualization tool was installed at the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) in Brisbane as a feature display during the Marvel Cinematic Universe exhibition that attracted record crowds from May 26 to September 3 2017. The installation included a massive wall poster (over 15 meters wide) displaying all of the Marvel film and character icons from the interface, three 55 inch multitouch displays and five large computer monitors with mouse controls. This work is an innovation in the display of data that is at once visual, intellectual and explorative. To produce such a dynamic project, the team engaged in a process of research into best practice, experiments in both interface and logic design and rigorous cycles of production and testing. At regular intervals, the work would be presented for feedback to our collaborators at both GOMA and Marvel Studios. This unique and dynamic interface allows visitors to explore the attributes of their favourite characters and to discover the complex connections between them based on their shared powers, skills, artefacts, origins and film appearances. The design team complied the database from several unofficial sources and had official verification by experts at Marvel Studios and Marvel Entertainment. Visitors can select characters from the 17 Marvel films (released from 2008 and 2017. Making this a much-valued resource by both fans and the Marvel executives, as no such official database had existed before. Especially not one with a dynamic interface for playful and detailed exploration. This project was developed using a 3D gaming engine to take advantage of the potential ways to export the work on multiple platforms including touchscreens, mobiles, desktops and VR. Most significantly, we were able to apply physics properties to improve the ways in which the interface naturally animated and operated. To do this we developed a specific set of Force-Directed Algorithms based on three

The Virtual Mannequin is a new work that presents and demonstrates future interactions and experiences with emerging technologies in public spaces so that we can contemplate the potential impacts as a community. - Idle State - Displays the mannequins as animated figures wearing dynamic garments. The system randomly scrolls through a set of pose animations that resemble the nearby physical mannequins on display in the centre, except that the clothing that they are wearing also animates randomly through various visual effects that are designed to look like garments made of bio-luminescent materials. - Mimic State - The visitors activate the Virtual Mannequins simply by standing face on for more than 2 seconds. The visitors position and movement is captured and tracked using infrared sensors that send information back to the system to control the Virtual Mannequin models. The garments continue to change and animate as the visitors control the movements and poses of the mannequins. This project was developed using a speculative design approach developed by Deb Polson called the "DesFi" method. This is an intentional play on the term "SciFi". Science Fiction being a genre of literature, film and TV that presents narratives about the future based on scientific experiments. The Design Fiction Method, instead imagines a future based on both scientific and technological advances and builds prototypes to present and test scenarios that are likely to occur in the near future. The iterative design process begins with researching current social practices, cultural concerns and emerging technologies that informs a series of technical and conceptual experiments to eventuate in refined project experiences that are robustly tested in authentic settings. The Virtual Mannequin project draws on concepts and technologies related to: - Retail experiences of the future - Bioluminescent materials - Fashion design for robot

The Virtual Fashion Studio is a novel interactive experience with virtual mirrors and digital fashion design. The research and design objectives were to demonstrate and create: - future interactions with retail products and environments - emerging technologies be adopted by retailers to sustain physical visitation - new opportunities for emerging fashion designers Project Context: There are a number of Virtual Mirrors being promoted on the web and only a few retailers using them in an effective way. This is mostly due to the current technical limitations with effective scanning technology and the public setting. For example, the only real scenario that a body scanner and 3D garment visualisation could currently work is when the shopper is in a private fitting room and able to view the virtual garment overlaid on their own mirrored body shape unencumbered. Otherwise the body scanner will include the clothing worn as part of the body shape and size of the shopper and the digital garments will then be applied terribly distorted. No fashion designer wants to see their designs look broken and out of shape. Similarly, no shopper wants to see themselves clothed with oversized and unflattering outfits. Project Scope: Researched, designed and developed over only 3 months by a small, efficient team of a lead designer, programmer, 3D artist, and graphic designer. With the support of technical assistants for procuring and installing equipment. We experimented in perfecting a more natural real-time experience with the digitised and 3D garments… especially working on complex solutions for cloth physics and rendering. The research team collaborated with emerging fashion designers who demonstrated an openess to the experimental nature of the project. We worked with them to digitise existing patterns for the 3D Artist and programmer to later model and integrate into the system and UI. A team of 4 fashion design students from QUT, soon began to desig

Project Background and Impact This project was designed with the support of Marvel Studios, Los Angeles and installed at the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA), Brisbane between May 22 and September 3, 2017. The exhibition called, ‘Marvel: Creating the Cinematic Universe’, became the most successful event in GOMAs’ history with over 15,000 visitors recorded in a single day. The exhibition included displays of some of the most iconic artefacts from popular Marvel films as well as props that came directly from film sets still in production and had not yet been seen in cinemas. In October 2016, Deb Polson was approached to pitch new interactive works to be installed at the exhibition that both displayed the Marvel brand and provided a unique visitor experience with the museum context. After pitching and refining six very different concepts, the MCU mobile project became one of three projects selected and funded for development and installation. Main deliverable considerations for this project were that it • Be aesthetically and mechanically polished • Be rigorous enough to withstand thousands of interactions a day • Is able to withstand the scrutiny of hardcore fans and Marvel experts • inspires interest in the Marvel Universe from non-fans • represents both the Marvel brand and GOMA community • be a colourful and playful experience for the younger visitors On the busiest days between May 23 and September 3 in 2017 there were over 15,000 visitors to the exhibition. Each day there were individuals and groups engaging with the MCU Mobile project. Most people who began the experience did not complete all nodes. The gallery staff observed that many of the visitors normally got distracted by the many other artefacts and installations throughout the In the month of August there was only 2917 completed run-throughs of the project and 15689 results leading to a possible compromise to Universe stability and 7647 towards creating a renewed stability to the Universe (s

This data simulator was developed using a design-based research methodology by a small team (simulation designer, programmer and 3D artist) collaborating with cognitive scientist, agronomist and a decision scientist to develop an interactive tool to assist cotton farmers in making decisions about weed management. This project specifically refers to the design and development of the creative work portion of a broader research collaboration funded by the Institute for Future Environments (QUT) Catapult Initiative. Awarded $43,000 (Devitt, K., Polson, D. & Perez, T. 2016) The simulator presents a responsive graphical scenario (virtual farm) and a user interface (set of controls and animated feedback assets) that gives the user dynamic access to a complex system of related farm, climate and weeding data as well as a unique profile dashboard that filters results based on adjustable user priorities. This project is an example of how data simulations and interactive modeling systems can be designed for people to experiment with the consequences of events and decisions within certain systems and ecologies. This modelling system is presented as both a playful interface and a smart system driven by complex algorithms to present data, situations, choices, people, places and things in a way that is interactive and attractive but also challenging and transformative. Components and Process of the Design and Development Team 1. Simulation Design. Overall model for representation, agency, interaction and action 2. Data Preparation. Context analysis, data selection, 3. Visualisation. Context and empathy, situated and visual feedback 4. Systems Logic: Data processing, programming, 5. UI Design. Architecture, controls, feedback, Key attributes of a scenario-based data simulation: - Presents a limited scenario (weeding strategies) within a defined context (cotton farming) to allow for deep exploration while promoting an appreciation of broader contextual implications - Identifies t

Weed management is becoming more complex due to the rise of herbicide resistant weeds. Integrated weed management strategies are recommended to minimize herbicide resistance. However, weed management can be daunting and uncertain leading to biased, avoidant or suboptimal decisions. Existing weed management tools can be insensitive to user needs and changing contexts over time. This paper discusses a proof of concept cognitive tool for integrated weed management decisions. Our team has taken initial steps into the design of an interactive tool for cotton growers that allows them to explore the impact of individual priorities and strategy preferences (optimistic, pessimistic and risk related) on weed management decisions given uncertainty in temperature and rainfall. Our research tackles the challenge of engaging stakeholders in complex decision making in three ways: 1) recognizing individual cognitive priorities 2) visualising scientific weed management in an appealing mobile interface and 3) representing decision uncertainties and risk weighted against cognitive priorities. Specifically, our tool communicates personalised barnyard grass weeding management strategies for pre-crop and in-crop cotton weeding decisions. We ranked a set of actions including applications of herbicides: glyphosate, paraquat (shielded and unshielded), group A, trifluralin, diuron, pendimethalin, s-metolachlor, fluometuron, glufosinate; and non-chemical methods such as soil disturbance at various times prior to planting, at planting and in crop. Each action was evaluated against personal priorities including: saving time/effort, health/safety, saving money, sustainability and effectiveness. The adoption of decision support in AgTech is improved when users can represent the objective benefits of recommended actions proportionately to their own needs and measures of success. Our interactive decision tool provides individualised decision support and quantifies uncertainty about attributes relev

Scuttlebot Mayhem! is an immersive game experience for people to play together in a large space. The virtual world can be projected on one large wall or on a floor and it uses industrial laser scanners (SICKs) to track the movements of participants so they can control the robots on the virtual ship. Participants need to cooperate to save the ship from sinking: Save the Ship Before the Kraken Awakes! The ship is lost at sea and fires and leaks are breaking out all over the deck. From the Virtual Control Zone you can control the movements of your ScuttleBots to repair the damage and insure the safe delivery of crates full of essential supplies. This project is an experiment in multi-user interaction in public spaces. This game requires physical interaction and exertion and is a lot of fun. Our main objectives were to: - activate un-used spaces and transform them into memorable zones of activity - be multi-user capable so that both groups of friends and strangers could enjoy the co-operative experience - resolve how novel interaction could occur in real-time in large spaces - demonstrate how multiple technologies that do not normally get used together can be integrated through a game engine - encourage interaction through spectacle, co-operation and competition in public spaces In 2017, this work has been installed in two public sites: - Wintergarden Shopping Complex (Queen Street Mall, Brisbane) - Our initial partners on this project funded the team to make the first interaction that was installed in a busy retail complex in the CBD of Brisbane. The managers of the Wintergarden complex were interested in how such an experience could bring people into low traffic retail areas to increase activity and engagement. - Robotronica Festival - 22,000 people came along to the Robotronica Festival in 2017. This provided a perfect opportunity for the research and creative team to test the projects' capacity for extremely high pa

This report builds on the outcomes of Horizon Scan 2. Among the objectives set out for this reporting period, two priorities were to expand the information sources used to discover emerging technologies, and to strengthen evaluation and analysis of findings. The result of this has been the identification and communication of emerging technologies spanning domains as diverse as genomics, nanotechnology, robotics, artificial intelligence, and material science. Analysis of the technologies has assisted with identifying innovation trends, as well as the extrapolation of findings to communicate the potential impact of these technologies for Australian rural industries.

Technology advancement and technology driven disruption is expected to experience exponential growth in the coming decades. Although Australian agriculture has a strong track record of technology integration, the speed of technology innovation makes the scanning and identification of high impact emerging technology a priority for Australian rural industries. This report responds to this priority, and presents the outcomes of a methodology to scan, synthesise and communicate technology trends and innovations that may impact Australian rural industries. In this first iteration, a broad range of category and discrete technology types have been identified. Led by data mining and synthesis, and assisted by QUT experts and innovative individuals identified by RIRDC, a sub-set of these technologies has been refined. Presented in this report are the most highly rated technologies, positioned at the confluence and fringes of technology megatrends including the Internet of Things, big data, artificial intelligence and advanced sensors.

AgriFutures Australia supports Australian agriculture by anticipating novel developments and tracking long term trends that may impact rural industries. While no forecast can be guaranteed to be perfect, there is an increasing need to connect and analyse many different sources of information. The Queensland University of Technology (QUT) horizon scanning method used in this report is a powerful combination of interdisciplinary expertise, data mining and visualisation. Expert elicitation and synthesis are used to identify high probability signals, which are explored through data mining. Once emerging trends are refined, visualisation is used to understand and evaluate their progress and enable stakeholders to explore the results. With time, this process will give us the capacity not only to identify strong signals, but also to identify weak signals that have the potential to become strong. This method also enables the analysis of sentiment attached to particular trends.

The Future Fruit Project is result of an intense trans-disciplinary design research and development process resulting in an innovative food customisation simulator and 3D printing system. From the Future Fruit BioLab you can access tools to create futuristic fruit based on actual plant development processes before sending it to a 3D Printer. The design team at HUB Studio QUT, led by Dr Deb Polson worked together with experts in plant biology at the Institute of Future Environments (IFE) QUT scientists led by Professor Roger Helens to synthesise scientific knowledge and game design principles to create a dynamic interface for people to imagine, create and print fruit. The Future Fruit Simulator will be able to 3D print edible food with the addition of flavours and vital nutrients to improve people’s health in a way that is both playful and sustainable. RESEARCH BACKGROUND AND METHODOLOGY Adopting a Design-based Research methodology, the project was split into two main phases each with a series of design iterations, development sprints and discipline contributions. In Phase One of the project, the Future Fruit design and research team led by Dr Deb Polson collaborated with a team of plant development scientists led by Professor Roger Helens to create a novel interface for users to experiment with the design of virtual fruit and for researchers to garner insights into consumer preferences for fruit shape, colour, textures and taste. A machine learning system was also developed to analyse the likeness of the virtual fruit to existing fruits in order to understand what kinds of genetic modifications may be required to produce actual fruit based on the virtual models. RESEARCH CONTRIBUTION Phase One of the project resulted in the development of an initial prototype, the Future Fruit Simulator, which is essentially a Virtual BioLab for users to interact with fruit models and customization controls on a range of digital platforms in

The Museum of Colliding Dimensions is a unique large-scale installation combining new virtual reality technologies with multi-projection mapping, industrial motion tracking, multitouch displays, responsive theatre lights and dynamic sound. Set up as a mock museum display, the project presents an immersive experience with a mysterious Alternate Reality, called the "Rift World" made up of morphing platonic shapes, crystal formations and alien sounds all controlled and composed by the visitors’ position, movements and interactions. The Rift World can be experienced across multiple platforms of increasing immersion, allowing visitors to move from physical to augmented to virtual realities as they go from being a spectator, to actor and ultimately transition to a digital avatar. RESEARCH BACKGROUND AND METHODOLOGY By adopting a Design-based Research methodology, the project was split into two main phases each with a series of design iterations, development sprints and discipline contributions. The resulting mixed-reality installation was created over an intense period with both game development tools and theatrical technologies. The early phase was strengthened by a Design Fiction (DesFi) approach which involves visualising future scenarios to design and build testable prototypes inspired by emerging scientific ideas and technological advancements. RESEARCH CONTRIBUTION The work not only demonstrates a unique mashup of technologies, it also invites visitors to imagine how we perceive and interact with competing realities as our lives become further enmeshed in combinations of the digital and physical dimensions. It is also an exercise in activating mundane spaces into playful, contemplative and informative environments through careful collaboration between the arts and science disciplines. The project was produced over an intense and rapid production cycle of only four months with a small team of lead artist, programmer, 3D technical artist and sound design

The design academics led the Creche & Kindergarten (C&K) Early Education & Care Conference through a series of thought experiments to re-imagine the future of the sector in 20 years time. Three-hundred early childhood educators and 14 facilitators collaborated to create 40 robot concepts in response to the key sector disruptors of automation, climate change and an ageing population. Participants visualised a number of potential impacts, including what it will mean to live in cities and regional and remote areas in 2036; what the reality of self-driving cars and robots mean to day-to-day operations; and for the workforce in the sector in 20 years’ time.

Hybrid Story Worlds. The First Australian Festival of Virtual Reality RESEARCH CONTRIBUTION and SIGNIFICANCE In 2015 Deb Polson was commissioned by the Head Programmer at the Brisbane Asia Pacific Film Festival (BAPFF) to research and design an event to present and promote new work emerging from the developments and intersections between gaming and cinema, science and technology, documentary and entertainment, immersion and interaction, creation and distribution. At this time access to Virtual and Augmented Reality stories was only just starting to gain momentum in the public sphere due to a recent advance in technologies available to developers from emerging and established providers such as Oculus, HTC Vive, Microsoft, Google and Valve. Subsequently, there was a great deal of experiments and demonstrations being created, promoted and discussed within specialized communities and online forums but only limited polished works that would pass the scrutiny of an International Film Festival for inclusion in a public program. Deb Polson worked with a number of new communities and interest groups across the region to locate emerging works. Both the communities and individuals were invited to participate in the Hybrid Story Worlds program by showing work, presenting a panel discussion, running a workshop and other related activities. As a result of this project both a new program was established, but more significantly it facilitated a great deal of activity and community collaboration that has since grown into a hub of activity making Brisbane a leading site for innovation in the burgeoning field of Virtual Reality production. The resulting program called, ‘Hybrid Story World. Imagining Our Future’, brought together emerging talent and established creatives from across the Asia Pacific region to present and learn all about new techniques, tools, and practices associated with and made possible by the latest in technological production a

This paper reports on the current field of narrative-based game design through case study analysis with a particular focus on balancing high narrative agency with low production resources.

STAC is a mobile application (app) designed to promote the benefits of climate-aware urban development in Subtropical environments. Although, STAC is primarily tool for understanding climate efficient buildings in Brisbane, Australia, it also demonstrates how other exemplary buildings operate in other subtropical cities of the world. The STAC research and development team applied research undertaken by the Centre for Subtropical Design (Brisbane) to profile buildings past and present that have contributed to the creation of a vibrant society, a viable economy, a healthy environment, and an authentic sense of place. In collaboration with researchers from the field of Interaction Design, this knowledge and data was collated, processed and curated for presentation via a custom mobile application designed to distribute this important research for review and consideration on-location in local settings and for comparison across all other global subtropical regions and projects identified by this research. This collaboration adopted a Design-based Research (DBR) Methodology guided by the main tenets of research and design iteration and cross-discipline collaboration in real-world settings, resulting in the formulation of contextually-sensitive design principles, theories, and tools for design intervention. Combined with significant context review of available technology and data and subsequent case study analysis of exemplar design applications.

The ability to identify and assess user engagement with transmedia productions is vital to the success of individual projects and the sustainability of this mode of media production as a whole. It is essential that industry players have access to tools and methodologies that offer the most complete and accurate picture of how audiences/users engage with their productions and which assets generate the most valuable returns of investment. Drawing upon research conducted with Hoodlum Entertainment, a Brisbane-based transmedia producer, this chapter outlines an initial assessment of the way engagement tends to be understood, why standard web analytics tools are ill-suited to measuring it, how a customised tool could offer solutions, and why this question of measuring engagement is so vital to the future of transmedia as a sustainable industry.

This volume introduces a collective approach that positions transmedia as a dynamic phenomenon which undergoes constant innovation as it absorbs current trends and advances in its constituent disciplines. The first section, 'Sustaining Future Practices', explores emerging models for defining stakeholder needs, understanding resource requirements and measuring the value and success of transmedia productions. The focus then shifts to 'Intersecting Contexts of Transmedia Practices', which uses the juxtaposition of a diverse collection of case studies to transcend not only the debates about how to define transmedia, but also the professional and disciplinary boundaries that impose artificial constraints upon the way transmedia projects are approached and understood. This inter-disciplinary dialogue aims to promote an ongoing conversation on the challenges and opportunities associated with sustaining this vital creative industry.

“The Cube” is a unique facility that combines 48 large multi-touch screens and very large-scale projection surfaces to form one of the world’s largest interactive learning and engagement spaces. The Cube facility is part of the Queensland University of Technology’s (QUT) newly established Science and Engineering Centre, designed to showcase QUT’s teaching and research capabilities in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) disciplines. In this application paper we describe, the Cube, its technical capabilities, design rationale and practical day-to-day operations, supporting up to 70,000 visitors per week. Essential to the Cube’s operation are five interactive applications designed and developed in tandem with the Cube’s technical infrastructure. Each of the Cube’s launch applications was designed and delivered by an independent team, while the overall vision of the Cube was shepherded by a small executive team. The diversity of design, implementation and integration approaches pursued by these five teams provides some insight into the challenges, and opportunities, presented when working with large distributed interaction technologies. We describe each of these applications in order to discuss the different challenges and user needs they address, which types of interactions they support and how they utilise the capabilities of the Cube facility.

The ability to identify and assess user engagement with transmedia productions is vital to the success of individual projects and the sustainability of this mode of media production as a whole. It is essential that industry players have access to tools and methodologies that offer the most complete and accurate picture of how audiences/users engage with their productions and which assets generate the most valuable returns of investment. Drawing upon research conducted with Hoodlum Entertainment, a Brisbane-based transmedia producer, this project involved an initial assessment of the way engagement tends to be understood, why standard web analytics tools are ill-suited to measuring it, how a customised tool could offer solutions, and why this question of measuring engagement is so vital to the future of transmedia as a sustainable industry. Working with data provided by Hoodlum Entertainment and Foxtel Marketing, the outcome of the study was a prototype for a custom data visualisation tool that allowed access, manipulation and presentation of user engagement data, both historic and predictive. The prototyped interfaces demonstrate how the visualization tool would collect and organise data specific to multiplatform projects by aggregating data across a number of platform reporting tools. Such a tool is designed to encompass not only platforms developed by the transmedia producer but also sites developed by fans. This visualisation tool accounted for multiplatform experience projects whose top level is comprised of people, platforms and content. People include characters, actors, audience, distributors and creators. Platforms include television, Facebook and other relevant social networks, literature, cinema and other media that might be included in the multiplatform experience. Content refers to discreet media texts employed within the platform, such as tweet, a You Tube video, a Facebook post, an email, a television episode, etc. Core content is produced by the creat

The principal focus of this thesis is the representation of a significant creative practice in relation to the design and installation of the Location-Based Game, SCOOT. This project demonstrates new understandings relating to the contingencies and potentials for transferring positive aspects of digital gameplay to everyday physical environments in an effort to reveal hidden histories and revitalise peoples’ interactions with their local urban spaces.

Street Reads Masterclass and Mobile Walking Events An Interactive Walking and Reading Experience Inspired by Brisbane Suburbs In 2012 Deb Polson was commissioned by the Brisbane City Council and Queensland Writers Centre to design an interactive walking and reading experience inspired by Brisbane suburbs. To do so, a number of local writers applied for a grant to attend workshops designed and delivered by Deb Polson that supported each writer in the development and distribution of local stories using mobile technologies. At this time, mobile devices were becoming the main interface for people to access information about anything from their current GPS location to the latest book reviews. What was less accessible were tools and techniques for writers to leverage this new technology to construct and distribute located stories. This project began with a series of master classes for local Brisbane writers to demonstrate processes and techniques for imagining, constructing and distributing stories. Drawing on methodologies derived from location-based game design this project equipped writers with how to identify and adopt various mobile services and applications to research, produce and deliver packaged multi-modal content for readers to access and experience stories in the very locations from which they were inspired. Four stories by four writers were selected to be developed and published as location-based events in four different neighbourhoods across Brisbane. These writers were mentored throughout the writing process and a model was developed for them to simply upload several multi-modal chapters for access on location by readers using QR codes. Empowering writers traditionally trained, to adapt to and adopt mobile technologies and game-design techniques to create digital stories to be delivered on mobiles in historic locations. These activities culminated in a major 25 day event presented by Brisbane City Council and supported by Brisbane Writers Festival an

The ECOS Project is a playful simulation that uses real-time weather data to simulate how a local green energy building may or may not operate efficiently in various global climates. Visitors can experiment with both the energy generation and consumption settings to view, compare and consider the impact such decisions and control variations can effect human comfort and energy efficiency levels. ECOS has been developed for presentation on a large screen multi-touch installation, The Cube, in the new Science and Engineering Centre (SEC) at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT). The SEC features a tri-generational system and contains a complex sensor network to track energy usage. In collaboration with the SEC building managers, ECOS uses the energy consumption and generation data of the actual buildings in which it is presented. This data has been incorporated into an interactive simulation, which is both engaging to users and highly informative. The ECOS project draws on the practice of Eco-Visualisation, a term used to encapsulate the important merging of environmental data visualization with the philosophy of sustainability. Holmes (2007) uses the term Eco-Visualisation (EV) to refer to data visualisations that ‘display the real time consumption statistics of key environmental resources for the goal of promoting ecological literacy’. EVs are commonly artifacts of interaction design, information design, interface design and industrial design, but are informed by various intellectual disciplines that have shared interests in sustainability. As a result of surveying a number of projects, Pierce, Odom and Blevis (2008) outline strategies for designing and evaluating effective EVs, including ‘connecting behavior to material impacts of consumption, encouraging playful engagement and exploration with energy, raising public awareness and facilitating discussion, and stimulating critical reflection.’ Consequently, Froehlich (2010) and his colleagues al

Buildings are key mediators between human activity and the environment around them, but details of energy usage and activity in buildings is often poorly communicated and understood. ECOS is an Eco-Visualization project that aims to contextualize the energy generation and consumption of a green building in a variety of different climates. The ECOS project is being developed for a large public interactive space installed in the new Science and Engineering Centre of the Queensland University of Technology that is dedicated to delivering interactive science education content to the public. This paper focuses on how design can develop ICT solutions from large data sets to create meaningful engagement with environmental data.

In 2011 and again in 2012, deb Polson was commissioned to design and deliver a unique experiment in large scale, live, game design and public performance, bringing together participants from across the creative arts to design, deliver and document a project that was both a cooperative learning experience and an experimental public performance. The four month project, funded by the Edge Digital Centre, culminated into a 24 hour Mixed reality event involving over 100 participants in December 2011 and again in December 2012. Using the premise of a viral outbreak, young enthusiasts auditioned for the roles of Survivor, Zombie, Medic and Military. The main objective was for the Survivors to complete a series of challenges over 24 hours, while the other characters fulfilled their opposing objectives of interference and sabotage supported by both scripted and free-form scenarios staged in constructed scenes throughout the venues. The event was set in the State Library of Queensland and the Edge Digital Centre who granted the project full access, night and day to all areas including public, office and underground areas. These venues were transformed into cinematic settings full of interactive props and various audio-visual effects. The ZomPoc Project was an innovative experiment in writing and directing a large scale, live, public performance, bringing together participants from across the creative industries. In order to design such an event a number of innovative resources were developed exploiting techniques of game design, theatre, film, television and tangible media production. A series of workshops invited local artists, scientists, technicians and engineers to find new ways of collaborating to create networked artifacts, experimental digital works, robotic props, modular set designs, sound effects and unique costuming guided by an innovative multi-platform script developed by Deb Polson. The result of this collaboration was the creation of innovative game and set pro

This paper presents a retrospective view of a game design practice that recently switched from the development of complex learning games to the development of simple authoring tools for students to design their own learning games for each other. We introduce how our ‘10% Rule’, a premise that only 10% of what is learnt during a game design process is ultimately appreciated by the player, became a major contributor to the evolving practice. We use this rule primarily as an analytical and illustrative tool to discuss the learning involved in designing and playing learning games rather than as a scientifically and empirically proven rule. The 10% rule was promoted by our experience as designers and allows us to explore the often overlooked and valuable learning processes involved in designing learning games and mobile games in particular. This discussion highlights that in designing mobile learning games, students are not only reflecting on their own learning processes through setting up structures for others to enquire and investigate, they are also engaging in high-levels of independent inquiry and critical analysis in authentic learning settings. We conclude the paper with a discussion of the importance of these types of learning processes and skills of enquiry in 21st Century learning.

This paper explores how mobile games can transform everyday places into dynamic learning spaces filled with information and inspiration. It discusses the motivation inherent in playing games and creating games for others, and how this stimulates an iterative process of creation and reflection and evokes a natural desire to engage in learning. The use of MiLK at the Adelaide Botanic Gardens is offered as a case in point. MiLK is an authoring tool that allows students and teachers to create and share SMS games for mobile phones. A group of South Australian high school students used MiLK to play a game, create their own games and play each other’s games during a day at the gardens. This paper details the learning processes involved in these activities and how the students reflected on their learning, conducted peer assessment, and engaged in a two-way discussion with their teacher about new technologies and their implications for learning. The paper concludes with a discussion of the needs and requirements of 21st Century learners and how MiLK can support constructivist and connectivist teaching methods that engage learners and may produce an appropriately skilled future workforce.

This paper explores how we may design located information and communication technologies (ICTs) to foster community sentiment. It focuses explicitly on possibilities for ICTs to create new modalities of place through exploring key factors such as shared experiences, shared knowledge and shared authorship. To contextualise this discussion in a real world setting, this paper presents FIGMENTUM, a situated generative art application that was developed for and installed in a new urban development. FIGMENTUM is a non-authoritative, non-service based application that aims to trigger emotional and representational place-based communities. Out of this practice-led research comes a theory and a process for designing creative place-based ICT’s to animate our urban communities.

An Alternate Reality Game (ARG) is a unique experience that blurs the edges between our everyday lives and imagined game worlds. Players are invited to interact with each other and fictional characters using familiar tools such as emails, websites, telephones, and sometimes newspapers, radio and television. ARGs come in all shapes and sizes, tell a variety of different stories and inspire all kinds of interactions between people, their networks and the very streets in which they live. Some ARGs simply immerse you in fictional scenarios and indulge you in quirky challenges. While others reveal hidden histories of a city and teach us about important political causes. But the most exciting thing about ARGs is that they have the potential to inspire participants to imagine their everyday tools and places as resources for their own creative endeavors. Deb Polson will be presenting some of the most inspiring ARGs of recent years and revealing some of the design techniques that were used to create them. Most significantly Deb will discuss ways in which educators can imagine using ARGs as rich teaching tools that inspire collaborative learning and motivate students to engage in all kinds of subject matter.

Farm It Right is an innovative creative work that simulates sustainable farming techniques using ecological models prepared by academics at Bradford University (School of Life Sciences). This interactive work simulates the farming conditions and options of our ancestors and demonstrates the direct impact their actions had on their environment and on the ’future of their cultures’ (Schmidt 2008). Specifically, the simulation allows users to explore and experiment with the complex relationships between environmental factors and human decision making within the harsh conditions of an early (9th century) Nordic farm. The simulation interface displays both statistical and graphical feedback in response to the users selections regarding animal reproduction rates, shelter provisions, food supplies etc. as well as demonstrating resulting impacts to soil erosion, water supply, animal population sizes etc.---------- 'Farm It Right' is now used at Bradford University (School of Life Sciences) as a dynamic e-Learning resource for incorporating environmental archaeology with sustainable development education, improving the engagement with complex data and the appreciation of human impacts on the environment and the future of their cultures. 'Farm It Right' is also demonstrated as an exemplar case study for interaction design students at Queensland University of Technology.

The Mobile Learning Kit is a new digital learning application that allows students and teachers to compose, publish, discuss and evaluate their own mobile learning games and events. The research field was interaction design in the context of mobile learning. The research methodology was primarily design-based supported by collaboration between participating disciplines of game design, education and information technology. As such, the resulting MiLK application is a synthesis of current pedagogical models and experimental interaction design techniques and technologies. MiLK is a dynamic learning resource for incorporating both formal and informal teaching and learning practices while exploiting mobile phones and contemporary digital social tools in innovative ways. MiLK explicitly addresses other predominant themes in educational scholarship that relate to current education innovation and reform such as personalised learning, life-long learning and new learning spaces. The success of this project is indicated through rigorous trials and actual uptake of MiLK by international participants in Australia, UK, US and South Africa. MiLK was awarded for excellence in the use of emerging technologies for improved learning and teaching as a finalist (top 3) in the Handheld Learning and Innovation Awards in the UK in 2008. MiLK was awarded funding from the Australasian CRC for Interaction Design in 2008 to prepare the MiLK application for development. MiLK has been awarded over $230,000 from ACID since 2006. The resulting application and research materials are now being commercialised by a new company, ‘ACID Services’.

This paper explores how game authoring tools can teach processes that transform everyday places into engaging learning spaces. It discusses the motivation inherent in playing games and creating games for others, and how this stimulates an iterative process of creation and reflection and evokes a natural desire to engage in learning. The use of MiLK at the Adelaide Botanic Gardens is offered as a case in point. MiLK is an authoring tool that allows students and teachers to create and share SMS games for mobile phones. A group of South Australian high school students used MiLK to play a game, create their own games and play each other’s games during a day at the gardens. This paper details the learning processes involved in these activities and how the students, without prompting, reflected on their learning, conducted peer assessment, and engaged in a two-way discussion with their teacher about new technologies and their implications for learning. The paper concludes with a discussion of the needs and requirements of 21st century learners and how MiLK can support constructivist and connectivist teaching methods that engage learners and will produce an appropriately skilled future workforce.

MiLK is a mobile learning kit that allows students and teachers to author their own place-based learning events using simple web and mobile technologies. We will demonstrate how MiLK has been used by a number of teachers in various contexts to connect students, curriculum and everyday environments. This workshop will introduce participants to the various MiLK tools and processes; including mapping, designing, playing and reviewing events, group journals, discussion forums, student profiles, and class profiles. We will focus on the role of place as a potential resource for curriculum design and delivery. The MiLK Team are looking for enthusiastic mobile technology champions to join us. No previous experience or training in this area is needed. This workshop is designed to be relevant to all KLAs. During this session teachers will have an opportunity to experiment with simple tools to create dynamic resources for their own classrooms.

Location based games (LBGs) provide an opportunity to look at how new technologies can support a reciprocal relationship between formal classroom learning and learning that can potentially occur in other everyday environments. Fundamentally many games are intensely engaging due to the resulting social interactions and technical challenges they provide to individual and group players. By introducing the use of mobile devices we can transport these characteristics of games into everyday spaces. LBGs are understood as a broad genre incorporating ideas and tools that provide many unique opportunities for us to to reveal, create and even subvert various social, cultural, technical, and scientific interpretations of place, in particular places where learning is sometimes problematic.--------- A team of Queensland game developers have learnt a great deal through designing a range of LBGs such as SCOOT for various user groups and places. While these LBGs were primarily designed as social events, we found that the players recognised and valued the game as an opportunity to learn about their environment, it's history, cultural significance, inhabitants, services etc. Since identifying the strong pedagogical outcomes of LBGs, the team has created a set of authoring tools for people to design and host their own LBGs. A particular version of this is known as MiLK the mobile learning kit for schools.---------- This presentation will include examples of how LBGs have been used to improve the teaching and learning outcomes in various contexts. Participants will be introduced to MiLK and invited to trial it in their own classrooms with students.

A group of Australian researchers and designers have been working on ways to imagine, demonstrate and accelerate the use of ICT that extend learning relationships and environments to include the classroom, home and local community. These learning projects aim to transform how students identify and interact with learning, subject areas, teachers, other students, family, organisations and more broadly how learning tools can create connections that permeate students' life worlds now and in the future.---------- It is our intention that such demonstrators must - Be simple, flexible, scalable and adaptive - Result in increased confidence in the use of ICT for both students and teachers - Offer opportunities for personalized learning - Promote new and effective learning partnerships between students, teachers and families. - Extend the learning experience to include other environments both local and virtual. - Inspire further innovation - Provide solutions to current limitations---------- Presenting Innovation in Practice - Innovative ICT projects currently being used by students in schools, at home and in the community - Stories of use from teacher, student, and other stakeholder perspectives - Lessons learnt so far: a design perspective - Surprising and inspiring opportunities

Cipher Cities was a practice-led research project developed in 3 stages between 2005 and 2007 resulting in the creation of a unique online community, ‘Cipher Cities’, that provides simple authoring tools and processes for individuals and groups to create their own mobile events and event journals, build community profile and participate in other online community activities. Cipher Cities was created to revitalise peoples relationship to everyday places by giving them the opportunity and motivation to create and share complex digital stories in simple and engaging ways. To do so we developed new design processes and methods for both the research team and the end user to appropriate web and mobile technologies. To do so we collaborated with ethnographers, designers and ICT researchers and developers. In teams we ran a series of workshops in a wide variety of cities in Australia to refine an engagement process and to test a series of iteratively developed prototypes to refine the systems that supported community motivation and collaboration. The result of the research is 2 fold: 1. a sophisticated prototype for researchers and designers to further experiment with community engagement methodologies using existing and emerging communications technologies. 2. A ‘human dimensions matrix’. This matrix assists in the identification and modification of place based interventions in the social, technical, spatial, cultural, pedagogical conditions of any given community. This matrix has now become an essential part of a number of subsequent projects and assists design collaborators to successfully conceptualise, generate and evaluate interactive experiences. the research team employed practice-led action research methodologies that involved a collaborative effort across the fields of interaction design and social science, in particular ethnography, in order to: 1. seek, contest, refine a design methodology that would maximise the successful application of a dynamic system to cre

This paper represents a new theorization of the role of location-based games (LBGs) as potentially playing specific roles in peoples’ access to the culture of cities [22]. A LBG is a game that employs mobile technologies as tools for game play in real world environments. We argue that as a new genre in the field of mobile entertainment, research in this area tends to be preoccupied with the newness of the technology and its commercial possibilities. However, this overlooks its potential to contribute to cultural production. We argue that the potential to contribute to cultural production lies in the capacity of these experiences to enhance relationships between specific groups and new urban spaces. Given that developers can design LBGs to be played with everyday devices in everyday environments, what new creative opportunities are available to everyday people?

This paper suggests ways for educators and designers to understand and merge priorities in order to inform the development of mobile learning (m-learning) applications that maximise user experiences and hence learning opportunities. It outlines a User Experience Design (UXD) theory and development process that requires designers to conduct a thorough initial contextual inquiry into a particular domain in order to set project priorities and development guidelines. A matrix that identifies the key contextual considerations namely the social, cultural, spatial, technical and temporal constructs of any domain is presented as a vital tool for achieving successful UXD. The frame of reference provided by this matrix ensures that decisions made throughout the design process are attributable to a desired user experience. To illustrate how the proposed UXD theory and development process supports the creation of effective m-learning applications, this paper documents the development process of MILK (Mobile Informal Learning Kit). MILK is a support tool that allows teachers and students to develop event paths that consist of a series SMS question and answer messages that lead players through a series of checkpoints between point A and point B. These event paths can be designed to suit desired learning scenarios and can be used to explore a particular place or subject. They can also be designed to facilitate formal or informal learning experiences.

In this paper we explore what is required of a User Interface (UI) design in order to encourage participation around playing and creating Location-Based Games (LBGs). To base our research in practice, we present Cipher Cities, a web based system. Through the design of this system, we investigate how UI design can provide tools for complex content creation to compliment and encourage the use of mobile phones for designing, distributing, and playing LBGs. Furthermore we discuss how UI design can promote and support socialisation around LBGs through the design of functional interface components and services such as groups, user profiles, and player status listings.

This paper explores how we may transform peoples’ perceived access to cultural participation by exploiting the possible relationships between place, play and mobile devices. It presents SCOOT; a location-based game in order to investigate how aspects of game-play can be employed to evoke at once playful and culturally meaningful experiences of place. In particular this paper is concerned with how the portable, communicative and social affordances of mobile phones are integral to making a “now everything looks like a game” experience.

SCOOT is a hybrid event combining the web, mobile devices, public displays and cultural artifacts across multiple public parks and museums in an effort to increase the perceived and actual access to cultural participation by everyday people. The research field is locative game design and the context was the re-invigoration of public sites as a means for exposing the underlying histories of sites and events. The key question was how to use game play technologies and processes within everyday places in ways that best promote playful and culturally meaningful experiences whilst shifting the loci of control away from commercial and governmental powers. The research methodology was primarily practice led underpinned by ethnographic and action research methods. In 2004 SCOOT established itself as a national leader in the field by demonstrating innovative methods for stimulating rich interactions across diverse urban places using technically-augmented game play. Despite creating a sophisticated range of software and communication tools SCOOT most dramatically highlighted the role of the ubiquitous mobile phone in facilitating socially beneficial experiences. Through working closely with the SCOOT team, collaborating organisations developed important new knowledge around the potential of new technologies and processes for motivating, sustaining and reinvigorating public engagement. Since 2004, SCOOT has been awarded $600,00 in competitive and community funding as well as countless in kind support from partner organisations such as Arts Victoria, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne Museum, Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Federation Square, Art Centre of Victoria, The State Library of Victoria, Brisbane River Festival, State Library of Queensland, Brisbane Maritime Museum, Queensland University of Technology, and Victoria University.