clive fencott spiderstudio school of computing university of teesside
DESCRIPTION
A Methodology of Design For Virtual Environments. Clive Fencott SpIDERStudio School of Computing University of Teesside. Introduction. Methodology Particularly content modelling Integration Problems and further research SpIDERStudio Strange Agency Limited. Me. Idle waster - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Clive FencottSpIDERStudio
School of ComputingUniversity of Teesside
A Methodology of Design For Virtual Environments
Clive Fencott, A Methodology of Design for VEs
Introduction
• Methodology– Particularly content modelling– Integration
• Problems and further research
• SpIDERStudio
• Strange Agency Limited
Clive Fencott, A Methodology of Design for VEs
Me
• Idle waster
• Poet and performance artist
• Formal Methods
• Methods Integration research
• Virtual Environment Theory
• Entrepreneur
Clive Fencott, A Methodology of Design for VEs
What is the problem?
• Designing VEs is difficult and time consuming
• Have to reconcile engineering and aesthetics
• Need methods and tools
• That’s why we’re here …
Clive Fencott, A Methodology of Design for VEs
What is a Method?
• An underlying model
• A language
• A process model
• Heuristics(Kronlof, 1993)
Clive Fencott, A Methodology of Design for VEs
What Underlying Model?
• Turing Machines, Lambda Calculus not expressive enough
• Interaction Machines
• Semiotics
Clive Fencott, A Methodology of Design for VEs
Semiotics
• The study of how people find meaning in the world around them
• Signs made up of:– Signifier– Signified
• Huge body of theory built up from this basic insight
Clive Fencott, A Methodology of Design for VEs
What Language do we use?
• UML on the engineering side
• Can Semiotics help us on the aesthetic side?
• Yes, but it needs to be adapted for interaction
• Do they work together?
Clive Fencott, A Methodology of Design for VEs
Interactive Content
• but it might also be:– Something to stand on– Something to fight with– Something to buy and sell– A symbol of status, a throne for instance
• The meaning paradox:– A chair doesn’t function as a chair– It does function as interactive content
Clive Fencott, A Methodology of Design for VEs
Content Modelling
• Theories of:– The meanings people make of interactive
content– The types of responses they make as a
result
• Has to be:– Multi-levelled– Multi-faceted
Clive Fencott, A Methodology of Design for VEs
VE Aesthetics
• Agency– Intention– Perceivable Consequence
• Narrative Potential
• Co-presence
• Transformation
• Presence
Clive Fencott, A Methodology of Design for VEs
Now and Future
• Object Aesthetics– POs as OO attributes of content code
• Agency at the heart of all VR– Tools don’t support the design of agency– Most tools make implementing agency very
difficult at best
Clive Fencott, A Methodology of Design for VEs
SpIDERS
• Semiosphere: Interactive Digital Environment Research Studio
• Semiosphere:– An ecology of meaning in which differing
languages and media interact
• Yuri Lotman, a Russian semiotician• Semiotics:
– The study of how humans make meaning out of the world around them
Clive Fencott, A Methodology of Design for VEs
What is SpIDERS?
• An interdisciplinary team of computer scientists, experimental psychologists and artists and designers
• Conduct research into theories of interactive content
• Experimental verification of theories• Practical research into the nature of
interactive media applications• Particularly computer games
Clive Fencott, A Methodology of Design for VEs
Ethos
• There are many ways of investigating the world:– Empirical science– Qualitative methods– Art practice and other humanities based
approaches– And so on
• They are all of use
Clive Fencott, A Methodology of Design for VEs
Experiments
• Predictive content modelling– Genre theory, aesthetics, perceptual
opportunities, the semiotics of interaction
• Unrealisms• Specialised experimental methods:
– Mood and presence– patterns of choice
• VR as object of study
Clive Fencott, A Methodology of Design for VEs
Methodology
• Specialist technology, e.g.. Eye-tracker:– To correlate focus of attention with
observed behaviour
Clive Fencott, A Methodology of Design for VEs
Applications Research
• VR as subject of study
• People with Dementia (PWD):– The use of Virtual Reality to help PWDs
learn new environments
• Computer Games for exercise:– Games that respond to exercise bikes etc.
• Computer Games and Older Adults
Clive Fencott, A Methodology of Design for VEs
• University Spin-out company
• Proof of Content:– The analysis of computer games before
they are playable
Clive Fencott, A Methodology of Design for VEs
Conclusions
• Interactive content a major field for research and commercialisation
• Content modelling way behind the technology of interactive content
• We are still only at the beginning:– Even computer games are in their infancy