Processing Social Signals in Human-Computer Interaction
by João Ferreira, Manuel João Ferreira, Marta Sousa, Nelson Zagalo, Nuno Branco, Nuno Otero and Pedro Branco
Areas: Affective Computing
Starting / Predicted duration: 2010 / 28 months
Social signals, which can be displayed through a variety of non-verbal behavioral language including posture, gestures, vocal outbursts and facial expressions, are easily read by humans. Computers, however, have no such skill and miss what may be valuable information in understanding users’ state, attitude and perception of a system. Such knowledge could be instrumental in supporting and enhancing an effective and enjoyable human-computer-interaction.
This project aims at understanding the relevance of social signals in HCI contexts, identifying, in an integrated fashion, the set of social signals most relevant to user experience, ability to execute tasks, and interaction incidents, with the focus on computationally easy to detect social signals.
Based on observational studies, a model will be developed leading to the implementation of a measurement device capable of monitoring those social signals and classifying user confidence/level of experience, quality of interaction and existence of critical incidents.
The project Game of Checkers, a recreation based on Interactive Storytelling is aninteractive installation that emerged in the context of Technology and Digital Art. This installation provides a space designed for reflection on issues that deal with the violation of human rights, in particular the violation of women's rights. In order to develop this project it was necessary to choose a suitable reality to work with, so we designed an illustration of the structure of feminism in the context of the Portuguese late
nineteenth and twentieth century.
A Paper Based Interface for Storytelling
Cristina Sylla, Pedro Branco, Clara Coutinho
Areas: Tangible Interfaces, Storytelling
Paper Based Interface for Storytelling, is a project, that pretends to engage children in creating their own stories, encouraging their imagination, helping them to learn building logical sequences as well as develop new vocabulary. The interface consists of a large format book and a set of picture cards that children can use to create their own stories. The children can pick the cards, choosing the elements they like/need to create a story and place them on the book page, each card over a mark. When a card is placed on the mark it gives written and audio feedback according to the element drawn on it. Children can rearrange the story by changing the sequence of the cards, by adding new ones or by removing some of the ones they have used.When they are happy with their created story, they can upload the video and share it with friends or family.
Nuve
by Né Barros and João Martinho Moura
Areas: Digital art, Dance
Links: Dance and Digital Art (only in Portuguese for now)
Monsterous Sounds
by Tara Pattenden
Areas: Digital art, wearable technologies
Links: videos / project's blog
This
project is to create a series of audible costumes by using a mix of
electronics and soft circuitry. The costume forms are based on
monsters, a sense of ritual and the unimaginable. They will be used in
audio visual performance and installations - worn by both performer and
audience.
What does the Internet feel or how do the words online look like
by Carolina Oliveira, Pedro Branco and Nelson Zagalo
Areas: Digital Art and Visualization
As never before so many words are being written at every second around the world; huge amounts of data that should mean something more than what they are individually. This project aims through visualization to cast some light on the words people are writing while opening their minds across the blogosphere.
Developing and evaluation lowcost pedagogical digital manipulatives for kindergarten
by Cristina Sylla and Pedro Branco
This project aims at creating, evaluating and deploying tangible interfaces (also called digital manipulatives) for kindergarten education (4-6 years old) integrating electronic components and smart materials capable of sensing and render digital information through physical manipulation. As part of this development we are interested in using children drawings to assess their experience.
VirtualActor - Development of a software framework for animating 3D virtual characters, employing partially autonomous virtual actors
by Ido Iurgel, Pedro Branco, Nelson Zagalo
Areas: Interactive Storytelling
The goal
of the project is the creation of an authoring framework that employs
interactively adaptable, situation aware, partly autonomous virtual
actors for the creation of linear computer animation with 3D-virtual
characters. The project will study the creation of 3D-movies employing
high-level directions, situation descriptions and explanations. We will
focus our research on emotional expression and personality of the
virtual actors, in the context of communication and dialogues.
Starting/Duration: January 2008/30 months.
Funding Source: Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (2006) (Ref: PTDC/EIA/69236/2006)
Past Projects
From Gesture to Poetry
by Vitor Lago Silva and Pedro Branco
Areas: Digital Art
Links: video / project's blog
The project aims to build an instrument composed of a suit and a glove embedded with sensors that generate poetry from the gestures of a performer. It aims to explore new ways of creating poetry researching into the relation of the body and the language.
Virtually Painting
by Heduíno Rodrigues, Nuno Nogueira, Jorge Sousa
Areas: Digital Art
Links: video
Playing with the concepts of the tangible versus virtual, this project proposes a fun approach to create digital collages on a wall with a paint roller. It is being explored in a spin-off brand (inter4view.com) as an interactive marketing application.
Development of a sketch-based instructional laboratory for Digital Arts and Computer Graphics
Areas: Education technology
Starting/Duration: September 2007/ 36 months.
Funding Source: HP Technology for Teaching Grant Initiative (ID: 11446121)
Pellisaquae-VIS: Visualização Gráfica na Monitorização de Dados em Hidrocinesiterapia
Areas: Information Visualization
The project aims at devise visualization mechanisms and implement an application to monitor and analyse hydrokinetic therapy sessions. A special suit provided with electronic sensors is being developed to maximize hydrokinetic therapy sessions performance and allow an accurate monitoring and evaluation of patient’s treatment response. It is clear the need of a well tailored computer application that process and records properly all data sent by sensors in real time.
PostCaVET: Post-graduate Systems Development in Cape Verde and East-Timor
This project
aims to build postgraduate management, support information and
communication (ICT) systems, develop academic skills through staff
training and implement key Master’s courses. This will be achieved
through extensive institutional cooperation between the National
University of Timor Leste and the Univeristy of Cape Verde, supported
by the expertise of the University of Minho in Portugal.
Starting/Duration: August 2008/36 months
Funding Source: Edulink Program - ACP-EU Co-operation Programme in Higher Education (Contract: 9 ACP RPR 12#20)
INSCAPE - Interactive Storytelling for Creative People
Areas: Interactive storytelling
INSCAPE aims at enabling ordinary people to use and master the latest Information Society Technologies for interactively conceiving, authoring, publishing and experiencing interactive stories whatever their form, be it theatre, movie, cartoon, puppet show, video-games, interactive manuals, training simulators, etc. INSCAPE will generate and develop the knowledge in the emerging domain of Interactive Storytelling by researching, implementing, demonstrating and disseminating a complete suite of innovative concepts, tools and working methods tightly integrated in a homogeneous web-based framework and offering a full chain to people with no particular computer skills, from content acquisition and creation, organising, processing, sharing, and using all the way to publishing, from creators to "viewers".
Starting/Duration: January 2004/ 48 months
Funding Source: European Commision (FP6 - IST - IP - 0041500)
SIDNUET - Staff and Institutional Development for the national University of East Timor
Areas: Education technology
The SIDNUET project aims to strengthen the administrative, management and training capacity of the Universidade Nacional de Timor Lorosa'e through the development of a university-wide information and communication (IC) system and the training of key university staff. The target groups are initially academic, administrative and library staff and eventually all the university staff and its student body.
Starting/Duration: July 2005/30 months
Funding Source: Asia Link (União Europeia) (Contract ID/Asia-Link/005/103-618)
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