Un/Folding Form: A Unified Strategy for Making and Visualising in 3D

<p>This thesis project “Un/Folding Form” is a design investigation that explores the transition between the virtual representation and physical fabrication of folded forms. Un/Folding Form refers to a unified strategy for making and visualising in 3D. Un/folding was a method used to explore the notions of form, space and structure and to develop an adaptable approach to mediate between the virtual and physical world. Designers who make and visualise in 3D need methods that allow for the prototyping of virtual designs in order to experience them physically. The development of a unified strategy that assists in closing the gaps between virtual representation and digital fabrication improves the designer’s understanding of the process of making, leading to more creative and resolved outcomes. This research suggests that there are methods that can transition seamlessly between the virtual representation and physical reality of folded forms. The final composition presented in this thesis is a demonstration of this notion of working towards a seamless digital process of making. The 3D Portal can be used to assess the ‘seams’ between the virtual and the physical and validate a methodology for making and visualising in 3D. In order to arrive at a unified strategy, the folding and unfolding of surface geometries was first explored through a series of physical experiments. These geometries were then 3D modelled and the surfaces manipulated digitally in order to create patterns for digital fabrication and physical reconstruction. The virtual representation of these folded designs was then investigated within a 3D stereoscopic projected environment. This involved the use of software to explore design interfaces to create immersive visual representations of physical forms. These series of experiments involved a process of moving back and forth between the virtual environment and physical form with the aim of moving closer towards a seamless transition between the two. This methodology was tested with the making of a final composition 3D Portal: a gateway to the virtual world and a play on the inter-relationship of 3D visualisation and its corresponding physical form. Thus, the focus of this thesis is twofold: to create an understanding of the process and evolution of design using folding as a technique; and to develop a methodology for designing a work using the folding technique.</p>

Un/Folding Form: A Unified Strategy for Making and Visualising in 3D

<p>This thesis project “Un/Folding Form” is a design investigation that explores the transition between the virtual representation and physical fabrication of folded forms. Un/Folding Form refers to a unified strategy for making and visualising in 3D. Un/folding was a method used to explore the notions of form, space and structure and to develop an adaptable approach to mediate between the virtual and physical world. Designers who make and visualise in 3D need methods that allow for the prototyping of virtual designs in order to experience them physically. The development of a unified strategy that assists in closing the gaps between virtual representation and digital fabrication improves the designer’s understanding of the process of making, leading to more creative and resolved outcomes. This research suggests that there are methods that can transition seamlessly between the virtual representation and physical reality of folded forms. The final composition presented in this thesis is a demonstration of this notion of working towards a seamless digital process of making. The 3D Portal can be used to assess the ‘seams’ between the virtual and the physical and validate a methodology for making and visualising in 3D. In order to arrive at a unified strategy, the folding and unfolding of surface geometries was first explored through a series of physical experiments. These geometries were then 3D modelled and the surfaces manipulated digitally in order to create patterns for digital fabrication and physical reconstruction. The virtual representation of these folded designs was then investigated within a 3D stereoscopic projected environment. This involved the use of software to explore design interfaces to create immersive visual representations of physical forms. These series of experiments involved a process of moving back and forth between the virtual environment and physical form with the aim of moving closer towards a seamless transition between the two. This methodology was tested with the making of a final composition 3D Portal: a gateway to the virtual world and a play on the inter-relationship of 3D visualisation and its corresponding physical form. Thus, the focus of this thesis is twofold: to create an understanding of the process and evolution of design using folding as a technique; and to develop a methodology for designing a work using the folding technique.</p>

Spatial metaphors and the design of everyday things

People use space to think about a variety of non-spatial concepts like time, number, and emotional valence. These spatial metaphors can be used to inform the design of user interfaces, digital and otherwise, in which many of these same concepts are visualized in space. Traditionally, researchers have relied on patterns in language to discover habits of metaphorical thinking. Here we argue that researchers and designers must look beyond language for evidence of spatial metaphors, many of which remain unspoken despite their pervasive effects on people’s preferences, memories, and actions. We propose a simple principle for predicting spatial metaphors from the structure of people’s experiences, whether those experiences are linguistic, cultural, or bodily. By leveraging the latent metaphorical structure of people’s minds, we can design interfaces that help people think.

Re-Mediation : Architecture and the Interface of Place

In the digital age, a cultural shift has arisen that privileges individual agency, leading to architectural repercussions in place-making. By contrast, a dissociation develops toward physical places that present as prescriptive, homogeneous, or superficial to its users. The architecture of place should progress from images of consumerism and containers of behaviour to become active producers of individual agency, mediated through the architectural interface. This thesis examines the design interfaces of institutional places, studying the relationships between agency and spatial structure. It introduces a contemporary reconstruction of place-making methods that involves the layering of ambient cues, shifting narratives, network connectivity, and dispositional identity in the architectural interface. Applying this method, the design project focuses on mediating the user’s journey and opportunistic settlement in realtime and real-place. The result is an architectural interface that communicates a greater sense of agency, contributing to the heuristic formation of individual landscapes of place.

Re-Mediation : Architecture and the Interface of Place

In the digital age, a cultural shift has arisen that privileges individual agency, leading to architectural repercussions in place-making. By contrast, a dissociation develops toward physical places that present as prescriptive, homogeneous, or superficial to its users. The architecture of place should progress from images of consumerism and containers of behaviour to become active producers of individual agency, mediated through the architectural interface. This thesis examines the design interfaces of institutional places, studying the relationships between agency and spatial structure. It introduces a contemporary reconstruction of place-making methods that involves the layering of ambient cues, shifting narratives, network connectivity, and dispositional identity in the architectural interface. Applying this method, the design project focuses on mediating the user’s journey and opportunistic settlement in realtime and real-place. The result is an architectural interface that communicates a greater sense of agency, contributing to the heuristic formation of individual landscapes of place.

Contemplating or Acting? Which Immersive Modes Should Be Favored in Virtual Reality During Physiotherapy for Breast Cancer Rehabilitation

BackgroundEven though virtual reality (VR) is more and more considered for its power of distraction in different medical contexts, the optimal conditions for its use still have to be determined in order to design interfaces adapted to therapeutic support in oncology.ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to examine the benefits of VR using two immersion methods (i.e., one participatory, one contemplative) and comparing them with each other in a population of women with breast cancer who have undergone breast surgery, during scar massage sessions.MethodsIn a physiotherapy center, each patient participated in four experimental conditions in a random order: two sessions used virtual immersion (i.e., one participatory and one contemplative), one session proposed musical listening and the fourth one was a standard session care. The impact of the level of patient involvement in the virtual world was apprehended through the evaluation of the feeling of presence; the estimation of elapsed time of the physiotherapy sessions and particular attention was paid to the evaluation of patient emotional state.ResultsOur study showed an increase in positive emotions (i.e., joy and happiness) and a decrease in anxiety regardless which support methods were offered. Participatory VR created a feeling of more intense spatial presence.ConclusionOur results highlight the importance of the context in which VR should be offered. The presence of the practitioner and his interactions with the patient can provide a context just as favorable in reducing anxiety as the emotional regulation tools used (VR, music). The use of technological tools should be favored when the practitioner is unavailable during the treatment phase or, even, in order to reduce the monotonous nature of repetitive therapeutic sessions.

An Image-Based Approach to Variational Path Synthesis of Linkages

This paper brings together computer vision, mechanism synthesis, and machine learning to create an image-based variational path synthesis approach for linkage mechanisms. An image-based approach is particularly amenable to mechanism synthesis when the input from mechanism designers is deliberately imprecise or inherently uncertain due to the nature of the problem. In addition, it also lends itself naturally to the creation of a unified approach to mechanism synthesis for different types of mechanisms, since for example, images are formed from a collection of pixels, which themselves could be generated from a four-bar or six-bar. Path synthesis problems have generally been solved for a set of precision points on the intended path such that the designed mechanism passes through those points. This approach usually leads to a small set of over-fitted solutions to particular precision points. However, most kinematic synthesis problems are concept generation problems, where a designer cares more about generating a large number of plausible solutions, which could reach given precision points only approximately. This paper models the input curve as a probability distribution of image pixels and employs a probabilistic generative model to capture the inherent uncertainty in the input. In addition, it gives feedback on the input quality and provides corrections for a more conducive input. The image representation allows for capturing local spatial correlations, which plays an important role in finding a variety of solutions with similar semantics as the input curve. This approach is also conducive to implementation for pressure-sensitive touch-based design interfaces, where the input is not a zero-thickness curve, but the sweep of a small patch on the finger.

Expressando Emoções e Sentimentos no Facebook

Computer systems are increasingly adapting to user needs. Human-machine interaction or human-computer interaction (HCI), as it is known, has discussed sociological approaches in order to design interfaces taking into account user's differences. This article presents an analysis of the Facebook social network based on the evolution of traditional HCI and some of its concepts for feminist HCI, thus exploring its functionality and evaluating it in this context. Surveys based on the concepts of feminist HCI were applied to evaluate this methodology and the impacts on gender diversity in these systems. The results indicate that most users seek more freedom to express themselves at the system and its content.

New Digital Realities – Blending our Reality with Virtuality

New digital reality as a spectrum of technologies and experiences that digitally simulate and extend reality in one way or another across different human senses has received considerable attention in recent years. In particular, we have witnessed great advances in mixed reality (MR) technologies, such as Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) technology, which provide enormous potential for application domains like training, simulation, education, entertainment, health, and sports. However, also other forms of digitally enhanced reality (XR) supports novel forms of immersion and experiences while generating, visualizing and interacting with digital content either displayed in fully-immersive virtual environments or superimposed into our view of the real world, and will significantly change the way we work, travel, play, and communicate. Consequently, we face dramatic changes in interactive media creation, access, and perception. In this special issue, we solicit work that addresses novel interaction design, interfaces, and implementation of new digital reality in which our reality is blended with the virtuality with a focus on users’ needs, joy, and visions.