Visceral hedonic rhetoric : exploring the design of interactive products

Blurb: This empirical study analysed consumer emotional responses towards interactive products, specifically looking at properties that persuasively induce the pursuit of pleasure at an instinctual level of cognition, now known as ‘visceral hedonic rhetoric'. By analysing three different types of interactive products results found hierarchical and inter-relatable attributes with the potential to provide a positive consumer-product relationship that is more meaningful, less disposable and more sustainable in the future.

Media as creative industries : conglomeration and globalization as accumulation strategies in an age of digital media

This chapter will begin by considering some of the distinctive features of media as creative industries, including their assessment of risk and return on investment, team-based production, the management of creativity, the value chain of production, distribution and circulation, and the significance of intellectual property in their revenue strategies. It will then critically appraise three strategies to capture new markets and revenue streams in the context of the rise of the Internet, digital media and globally networked distribution. The three strategies to be considered are conglomeration, networking and globalization, and the focus will be on the media giants such as News Corporation, Disney and Time-Warner. It will be argued that all three present considerable challenges in their application, and digital media technologies are weakening rather than strengthening their capacity to control the global media environment. The chapter will conclude with consideration of some implications of this analysis for questions of media power.

Teachers’ and parents’ perspectives of digital technology in the lives of young children

The pervasiveness of technology in the 21st Century has meant that adults and children live in a society where digital devices are integral to their everyday lives and participation in society. How we communicate, learn, work, entertain ourselves, and even shop is influenced by technology. Therefore, before children begin school they are potentially exposed to a range of learning opportunities mediated by digital devices. These devices include microwaves, mobile phones, computers, and console games such as Playstations® and iPods®. In Queensland preparatory classrooms and in the homes of these children, teachers and parents support and scaffold young children’s experiences, providing them with access to a range of tools that promote learning and provide entertainment. This paper examines teachers’ and parents’ perspectives and considers whether they are techno-optimists who advocate for and promote the inclusion of digital technology, or whether they are they techno-pessimists, who prefer to exclude digital devices from young children’s everyday experiences. An exploratory, single case study design was utilised to gather data from three teachers and ten parents of children in the preparatory year. Teacher data was collected through interviews and email correspondence. Parent data was collected from questionnaires and focus groups. All parents who responded to the research invitation were mothers. The results of data analysis identified a misalignment among adults’ perspectives. Teachers were identified as techno-optimists and parents were identified as techno-pessimists with further emergent themes particular to each category being established. This is concerning because both teachers and mothers influence young children’s experiences and numeracy knowledge, thus, a shared understanding and a common commitment to supporting young children’s use of technology would be beneficial. Further research must investigate fathers’ perspectives of digital devices and the beneficial and detrimental roles that a range of digital devices, tools, and entertainment gadgets play in 21st Century children’s lives.

Neo-planning: Location-based social media to engage Australia’s new digital locals

Community engagement with time poor and seemingly apathetic citizens continues to challenge local governments. Capturing the attention of a digitally literate community who are technology and socially savvy adds a new quality to this challenge. Community engagement is resource and time intensive, yet local governments have to manage on continually tightened budgets. The benefits of assisting citizens in taking ownership in making their community and city a better place to live in collaboration with planners and local governments are well established. This study investigates a new collaborative form of civic participation and engagement for urban planning that employs in-place digital augmentation. It enhances people’s experience of physical spaces with digital technologies that are directly accessible within that space, in particular through interaction with mobile phones and public displays. The study developed and deployed a system called Discussions in Space (DIS) in conjunction with a major urban planning project in Brisbane. Planners used the system to ask local residents planning-related questions via a public screen, and passers-by sent responses via SMS or Twitter onto the screen for others to read and reflect, hence encouraging in-situ, real-time, civic discourse. The low barrier of entry proved to be successful in engaging a wide range of residents who are generally not heard due to their lack of time or interest. The system also reflected positively on the local government for reaching out in this way. Challenges and implications of the short-texted and ephemeral nature of this medium were evaluated in two focus groups with urban planners. The paper concludes with an analysis of the planners’ feedback evaluating the merits of the data generated by the system to better engage with Australia’s new digital locals.

Functional fixation : experimental evidence on the presentation of financial information through different digital formats

This study examines whether, in the presentation of financial information, digital formats address the concern over users’ functional fixation. The accounting literature indicates that the presentation of financial information either within the financial statements or in the notes to the financial statements often creates functional fixation where users of financial statements fail to adjust for differences in accounting policy. This leads users to judge what would otherwise be identical financial situations as being different due to the different accounting policies and methods adopted. It has been suggested that the use of digital formats in presenting financial reports may overcome functional fixation. Using an experimental design involving accountants in public practice, the results indicate that the use of digital formats to present financial reports does not fully overcome the issue of functional fixation in the processing of financial information. Although the participants were able to identify and extract relevant information, irrespective of whether or not the information was presented within the financial statements or in the notes to the accounts, the evidence indicates that functional fixation remained when the participants made final decisions based on available information. This suggests that functional fixation may not be caused by access to or extraction of information but by the level of perceived significance based on where the information is reported in the financial statements. In general, the results indicate that current technology may not be able to fully reduce functional fixation in the evaluation of financial information prepared in accordance with different accounting policies and methods.

Interactive peer-based learning in a comparative case study : what do students gain?

As English increasingly becomes one of the most commonly spoken languages in the world today for a variety of economic, social and cultural reasons, education is impacted by globalisation, the internationalisation of universities and the diversity of learners in classrooms. The challenge for educators is to find more effective ways of teaching English language so that students are better able to create meaning and communicate in the target language as well as to transform knowledge and understanding into relevant skills for a rapidly changing world. This research focuses broadly on English language education underpinned by social constructivist principles informing communicative language teaching and in particular, interactive peer learning approaches. An intervention of interactive peer-based learning in two case study contexts of English as Foreign Language (EFL) undergraduates in a Turkish university and English as Second Language (ESL) undergraduates in an Australian university investigates what students gain from the intervention. Methodology utilising qualitative data gathered from student reflective logs, focus group interviews and researcher field notes emphasises student voice. The cross case comparative study indicates that interactive peer-based learning enhances a range of learning outcomes for both cohorts including engagement, communicative competence, diagnostic feedback as well as assisting development of inclusive social relationships, civic skills, confidence and self efficacy. The learning outcomes facilitate better adaptation to a new learning environment and culture. An iterative instructional matrix tool is a useful product of the research for first year university experiences, teacher training, raising awareness of diversity, building learning communities, and differentiating the curriculum. The study demonstrates that English language learners can experience positive impact through peer-based learning and thus holds an influential key for Australian universities and higher education.

“Prosuming” across cultures : youth creating digital media across borders

The Scratch Online Community is a space that enables young people to share their creative digital projects internationally with a level of ease that was impossible only a few years ago. Like all creative communities, Scratch is not just a space for sharing products, work, techniques and tips and tricks, but also a space for social interaction. Media literacy educators have unprecedented challenges and opportunities in digital environments like Scratch to harness the vast amount of knowledge in the community to enhance students’ learning. They also have challenges and opportunities in terms of implementing a form of digital media literacy education that is responsive to social and cultural representation. One role of digital media literacy is to help young people to challenge unfair and derogatory portrayals of people and to break down processes of social and cultural ‘othering’ so that all community members feel included and safe to express themselves. This article considers how online community spaces might draw on social interaction to enhance cross-cultural understandings and learning through dialogue and creative practice. The article uses statistics to indicate the amount of international interaction in the Scratch community. It then uses qualitative analysis of forum discussions and creative digital work to analyse the types of cross cultural interaction that occurs.

Scaling digital radiographs for templating in total hip arthroplasty using conventional acetate templates independent of calibration markers

We describe a scaling method for templating digital radiographs using conventional acetate templates independent of template magnification without the need for a calibration marker. The mean magnification factor for the radiology department was determined (119.8%, range117%-123.4%). This fixed magnification factor was used to scale the radiographs by the method described. 32 femoral heads on postoperative THR radiographs were then measured and compared to the actual size. The mean absolute accuracy was within 0.5% of actual head size (range 0 to 3%) with a mean absolute difference of 0.16mm (range 0-1mm, SD 0.26mm). Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) showed excellent reliability for both inter and intraobserver measurements with ICC scores of 0.993 (95% CI 0.988-0.996) for interobserver measurements and intraobserver measurements ranging between 0.990-0.993 (95% CI 0.980-0.997).

The HarmonyGrid : music, space and performance in grid music systems

This research explores music in space, as experienced through performing and music-making with interactive systems. It explores how musical parameters may be presented spatially and displayed visually with a view to their exploration by a musician during performance. Spatial arrangements of musical components, especially pitches and harmonies, have been widely studied in the literature, but the current capabilities of interactive systems allow the improvisational exploration of these musical spaces as part of a performance practice. This research focuses on quantised spatial organisation of musical parameters that can be categorised as grid music systems (GMSs), and interactive music systems based on them. The research explores and surveys existing and historical uses of GMSs, and develops and demonstrates the use of a novel grid music system designed for whole body interaction. Grid music systems provide plotting of spatialised input to construct patterned music on a two-dimensional grid layout. GMSs are navigated to construct a sequence of parametric steps, for example a series of pitches, rhythmic values, a chord sequence, or terraced dynamic steps. While they are conceptually simple when only controlling one musical dimension, grid systems may be layered to enable complex and satisfying musical results. These systems have proved a viable, effective, accessible and engaging means of music-making for the general user as well as the musician. GMSs have been widely used in electronic and digital music technologies, where they have generally been applied to small portable devices and software systems such as step sequencers and drum machines. This research shows that by scaling up a grid music system, music-making and musical improvisation are enhanced, gaining several advantages: (1) Full body location becomes the spatial input to the grid. The system becomes a partially immersive one in four related ways: spatially, graphically, sonically and musically. (2) Detection of body location by tracking enables hands-free operation, thereby allowing the playing of a musical instrument in addition to “playing” the grid system. (3) Visual information regarding musical parameters may be enhanced so that the performer may fully engage with existing spatial knowledge of musical materials. The result is that existing spatial knowledge is overlaid on, and combined with, music-space. Music-space is a new concept produced by the research, and is similar to notions of other musical spaces including soundscape, acoustic space, Smalley's “circumspace” and “immersive space” (2007, 48-52), and Lotis's “ambiophony” (2003), but is rather more textural and “alive”—and therefore very conducive to interaction. Music-space is that space occupied by music, set within normal space, which may be perceived by a person located within, or moving around in that space. Music-space has a perceivable “texture” made of tensions and relaxations, and contains spatial patterns of these formed by musical elements such as notes, harmonies, and sounds, changing over time. The music may be performed by live musicians, created electronically, or be prerecorded. Large-scale GMSs have the capability not only to interactively display musical information as music representative space, but to allow music-space to co-exist with it. Moving around the grid, the performer may interact in real time with musical materials in music-space, as they form over squares or move in paths. Additionally he/she may sense the textural matrix of the music-space while being immersed in surround sound covering the grid. The HarmonyGrid is a new computer-based interactive performance system developed during this research that provides a generative music-making system intended to accompany, or play along with, an improvising musician. This large-scale GMS employs full-body motion tracking over a projected grid. Playing with the system creates an enhanced performance employing live interactive music, along with graphical and spatial activity. Although one other experimental system provides certain aspects of immersive music-making, currently only the HarmonyGrid provides an environment to explore and experience music-space in a GMS.

Reflection of My Digital Mind

This artwork visualised my digital mind which is built on my technology experience. The contemporary technologies make available many small pieces of factual information that have affected the formation of my identity. This results that multiple identities can exist in a rhizomatic form through a vertical gene transfer. This does not refer to schizophrenia, but an ongoing transformation of digital mind.

Competition and innovation : independent production in the Chinese TV industry

Independent television production is recognised for its capacity to generate new kinds of program content, as well as deliver innovation in formats. Globally, the television industry is entering into the post-broadcasting era where audiences are fragmented and content is distributed across multiple platforms. The effects of this convergence are now being felt in China, as it both challenges old statist models and presents new opportunities for content innovation. This thesis discusses the status of independent production in China, making relevant comparisons with independent production in other countries. Independent television production has become an important element in the reform of broadcasting in China in the past decade. The first independent TV production company was registered officially in 1994. While there are now over 4000 independent companies, the term „independent. does not necessarily constitute autonomy. The question the thesis addresses is: what is the status and nature of independence in China? Is it an appropriate term to use to describe the changing environment, or is it a misnomer? The thesis argues that Chinese independents operate alongside the mainstream state-owned system; they are „dependent. on the mainstream. Therefore independent television in China is a relative term. By looking at several companies in Beijing, mainly in entertainment, TV drama and animation, the thesis shows how the sector is injecting fresh ideas into the marketplace and how it plays an important role in improving innovation in many aspects of the television industry. The thesis shows how independent television companies in China are looking to protect their property rights. It demonstrates that far from being at the cutting edge, independents are reliant on a system that has many inbuilt structural problems. The thesis outlines many of the challenges facing 'independents'.

Developing a digital image watermarking model

This paper presents a key based generic model for digital image watermarking. The model aims at addressing an identified gap in the literature by providing a basis for assessing different watermarking requirements in various digital image applications. We start with a formulation of a basic watermarking system, and define system inputs and outputs. We then proceed to incorporate the use of keys in the design of various system components. Using the model, we also define a few fundamental design and evaluation parameters. To demonstrate the significance of the proposed model, we provide an example of how it can be applied to formally define common attacks.