Lesser-known worlds : bridging the telematic flows with located human experience through game design

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?

Analyzing the prevalence of sports-related terms among the web sites of global corporations

This research investigates the prevalence of sports-related terms among the Web sites of the world’s leading companies, the Fortune Global 500. An automated process copied about four gigabytes of textual data, around 70 million words, from their sites. The subsequent analysis revealed regional and industry differences in the distribution of sports-related terms, the popularity of tennis stars and few references to sports stars, especially in Asia.

Sleeper [for laptop computer and live performer]

Sleeper is an 18'00" musical work for live performer and laptop computer which exists as both a live performance work and a recorded work for audio CD. The work has been presented at a range of international performance events and survey exhibitions. These include the 2003 International Computer Music Conference (Singapore) where it was selected for CD publication, Variable Resistance (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, USA), and i.audio, a survey of experimental sound at the Performance Space, Sydney. The source sound materials are drawn from field recordings made in acoustically resonant spaces in the Australian urban environment, amplified and acoustic instruments, radio signals, and sound synthesis procedures. The processing techniques blur the boundaries between, and exploit, the perceptual ambiguities of de-contextualised and processed sound. The work thus challenges the arbitrary distinctions between sound, noise and music and attempts to reveal the inherent musicality in so-called non-musical materials via digitally re-processed location audio. Thematically the work investigates Paul Virilio’s theory that technology ‘collapses space’ via the relationship of technology to speed. Technically this is explored through the design of a music composition process that draws upon spatially and temporally dispersed sound materials treated using digital audio processing technologies. One of the contributions to knowledge in this work is a demonstration of how disparate materials may be employed within a compositional process to produce music through the establishment of musically meaningful morphological, spectral and pitch relationships. This is achieved through the design of novel digital audio processing networks and a software performance interface. The work explores, tests and extends the music perception theories of ‘reduced listening’ (Schaeffer, 1967) and ‘surrogacy’ (Smalley, 1997), by demonstrating how, through specific audio processing techniques, sounds may shifted away from ‘causal’ listening contexts towards abstract aesthetic listening contexts. In doing so, it demonstrates how various time and frequency domain processing techniques may be used to achieve this shift.

Management and organisational barriers in the acquisition of computer usage skills by mature age workers

Aim: To investigate workplace cultures in the acquisition of computer usage skills by mature age workers. Methods: Data were gathered through focus groups conducted at job network centres in the Greater Brisbane metropolitan region. Participants who took part were a mixture of workers and job-seekers. Results: The results suggest that mature age workers can be exposed to inappropriate computer training practices and age-insensitive attitudes towards those with low base computer skills. Conclusions: There is a need for managers to be observant of ageist attitudes in the work place and to develop age-sensitive strategies to help mature age workers learn computer usage skills. Mature age workers also need to develop skills in ways which are practical and meaningful to their work.

Multidisciplinary design in virtual worlds

Large design projects, such as those in the AEC domain, involve collaboration among a number of design disciplines, often in separate locations. With the increase in CAD usage in design offices, there has been an increase in the interest in collaboration using the electronic medium, both synchronously and asynchronously. The use of a single shared database representing a single model of a building has been widely put forward but this paper argues that this does not take into account the different representations required by each discipline. This paper puts forward an environment which provides real-time multi-user collaboration in a 3D virtual world for designers in different locations. Agent technology is used to manage the different views, creation and modifications of objects in the 3D virtual world and the necessary relationships with the database(s) belonging to each discipline.

Computer simulation in spine biomechanics : An application in adolescent idiopathic scoliosis

Scoliosis is a spinal deformity, involving a side-to-side curvature of the spine in the coronal plane as well as a rotation of the spinal column in the transverse plane. The coronal curvature is measured using a Cobb angle. If the deformity is severe, treatment for scoliosis may require surgical intervention whereby a rod is attached to the spinal column to correct the abnormal curvature. In order to provide surgeons with an improved ability to predict the likely outcomes following surgery, techniques to create patient-specific finite element models (FEM) of scoliosis patients treated at the Mater Children’s Hospital (MCH) in Brisbane are being developed and validated. This paper presents a comparison of the simulated and clinical data for a scoliosis patient treated at MCH.

Twisted Edwards curves revisited

This paper introduces fast algorithms for performing group operations on twisted Edwards curves, pushing the recent speed limits of Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) forward in a wide range of applications. Notably, the new addition algorithm uses for suitably selected curve constants. In comparison, the fastest point addition algorithms for (twisted) Edwards curves stated in the literature use . It is also shown that the new addition algorithm can be implemented with four processors dropping the effective cost to . This implies an effective speed increase by the full factor of 4 over the sequential case. Our results allow faster implementation of elliptic curve scalar multiplication. In addition, the new point addition algorithm can be used to provide a natural protection from side channel attacks based on simple power analysis (SPA).

Hybrid system simulation of computer control applications over communication networks

Discrete event-driven simulations of digital communication networks have been used widely. However, it is difficult to use a network simulator to simulate a hybrid system in which some objects are not discrete event-driven but are continuous time-driven. A networked control system (NCS) is such an application, in which physical process dynamics are continuous by nature. We have designed and implemented a hybrid simulation environment which effectively integrates models of continuous-time plant processes and discrete-event communication networks by extending the open source network simulator NS-2. To do this a synchronisation mechanism was developed to connect a continuous plant simulation with a discrete network simulation. Furthermore, for evaluating co-design approaches in an NCS environment, a piggybacking method was adopted to allow the control period to be adjusted during simulations. The effectiveness of the technique is demonstrated through case studies which simulate a networked control scenario in which the communication and control system properties are defined explicitly.

Brand placements in computer and video games : an overview and research questions

Despite the size and growth of the computer and video gaming industry – as well as the increasing use of the medium for the placement of advertising and product placement – researchers have neglected this area. By drawing on existing literature and research in similar and related areas of film product placement, sponsorship and interactivity, the authors present a conceptual overview and identify areas for research.