This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the International Tutorial and Research Workshop on Perception and Interactive Technologies, PIT 2006, held at Kloster Irsee, Germany, June 2006. The book presents 16 revised full papers together with 4 revised poster papers and 6 system demonstration papers, organized in topical sections on head pose and eye gaze tracking, modeling and simulation of perception, integrating information from multiple channels, and more.

"This is a book about what the science of perception can tell us about visualization. There is a gold mine of information about how we see to be found in more than a century of work by vision researchers. The purpose of this book is to extract from that large body of research literature those design principles that apply to displaying information effectively"--

II. Sensation, Perception & Attention: John Serences (Volume Editor) (Topics covered include taste; visual object recognition; touch; depth perception; motor control; perceptual learning; the interface theory of perception; vestibular, proprioceptive, and haptic contributions to spatial orientation; olfaction; audition; time perception; attention; perception and interactive technology; music perception; multisensory integration; motion perception; vision; perceptual rhythms; perceptual organization; color vision; perception for action; visual search; visual cognition/working memory.)

This book presents a survey of past and recent developments on human walking in virtual environments with an emphasis on human self-motion perception, the multisensory nature of experiences of walking, conceptual design approaches, current technologies, and applications. The use of Virtual Reality and movement simulation systems is becoming increasingly popular and more accessible to a wide variety of research fields and applications. While, in the past, simulation technologies have focused on developing realistic, interactive visual environments, it is becoming increasingly obvious that our everyday interactions are highly multisensory. Therefore, investigators are beginning to understand the critical importance of developing and validating locomotor interfaces that can allow for realistic, natural behaviours. The book aims to present an overview of what is currently understood about human perception and performance when moving in virtual environments and to situate it relative to the broader scientific and engineering literature on human locomotion and locomotion interfaces. The contents include scientific background and recent empirical findings related to biomechanics, self-motion perception, and physical interactions. The book also discusses conceptual approaches to multimodal sensing, display systems, and interaction for walking in real and virtual environments. Finally, it will present current and emerging applications in areas such as gait and posture rehabilitation, gaming, sports, and architectural design.

An increasing amount of research is being developed in the area where technology and humans meet. The success or failure of technologies and the question whether technology helps humans to fulfill their goals or whether it hinders them is in most cases not a technical one. User Perception and Influencing Factors of Technology in Everyday Life addresses issues of human and technology interaction. The research in this work is interdisciplinary, ranging from more technical subjects such as computer science, engineering, and information systems, to non-technical descriptions of technology and human interaction from the point of view of sociology or philosophy. This book is perfect for academics, researchers, and professionals alike as it presents a set of theories that allow us to understand the interaction of technology and humans and to put it to practical use.

How digital technology is profoundly renewing our sense of what is real and how we perceive. Digital technologies are not just tools; they are structures of perception. They determine the way in which the world appears to us. For nearly half a century, technology has provided us with perceptions coming from an unknown world. The digital beings that emerge from our screens and our interfaces disrupt the notion of what we experience as real, thereby leading us to relearn how to perceive. In Being and the Screen, Stéphane Vial provides a philosophical analysis of technology in general, and of digital technologies in particular, that relies on the observation of experience (phenomenology) and the history of technology (epistemology). He explains that technology is no longer separate from ourselves—if it ever was. Rather, we are as much a part of the machine as the machine is part of us. Vial argues that the so-called difference between the real and the virtual does not exist and never has. We are living in a hybrid environment—which is both digital and nondigital, online and offline. With this book, Vial endows philosophical meaning to what we experience daily in our digital age. In A Short Treatise on Design, Vial offers a concise introduction to the discipline of design—not a history book, but a book built of philosophical problems, developing a theory of the effect of design. This book is published with the support of the University of Nîmes, France.

Challenging current music making approaches which have traditionally relied on the repetition of fixed forms when played, this book provides a new framework for musicians, composers, and producers wanting to explore working with music that can be represented by data and transformed by interactive technologies. Beginning with an exploration into how current interactive technologies, including VR and AR, are affecting music, the book goes on to create an accessible compositional model which articulates the emerging field of ‘transmutable music.’ It then shows how to compose and produce transmutable music for platforms like video games, apps and interactive works, employing tutorials which use a range of inputs from sensors, data, and compositional approaches. The book also offers technical exercises on how to transform data into usable forms (including machine learning techniques) for mapping musical parameters, and discussion points to support learning. This book is a valuable resource for industry professionals wanting to gain an insight into cutting edge new practice, as well as for assisting musicians, composers, and producers with professional development. It is also suitable for students and researchers in the fields of music/audio composition and music/audio production, computer game design, and interactive media.

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the potential role that digital technologies can play in promoting well-being. Smartphones, wearable devices, virtual/augmented reality, social media, and the internet provide a wealth of useful tools and resources to support psychological interventions that facilitate positive emotions, resilience, personal growth, creativity, and social connectedness. Understanding the full extent of this potential, however, requires an interdisciplinary approach that integrates the scientific principles of well-being into the design of e-experiences that foster positive change. This book provides an overview of recent advances and future challenges in Positive Technology, an emergent field within human-computer interaction that seeks to understand how interactive technologies can be used in evidence-based well-being interventions. Its focus of analysis is two-fold: at the theoretical level, Positive Technology aims to develop conceptual frameworks and models for understanding how computers can be effectively used to help individuals achieve greater well-being. At the methodological and applied level, Positive Technology is concerned with the design, development, and validation of digital experiences that promote positive change through pleasure, flow, meaning, competence, and positive relationships.

Data visualization is an efficient and effective medium for communicating large amounts of information, but the design process can often seem like an unexplainable creative endeavor. This concise book aims to demystify the design process by showing you how to use a linear decision-making process to encode your information visually. Delve into different kinds of visualization, including infographics and visual art, and explore the influences at work in each one. Then learn how to apply these concepts to your design process. Learn data visualization classifications, including explanatory, exploratory, and hybrid Discover how three fundamental influences—the designer, the reader, and the data—shape what you create Learn how to describe the specific goal of your visualization and identify the supporting data Decide the spatial position of your visual entities with axes Encode the various dimensions of your data with appropriate visual properties, such as shape and color See visualization best practices and suggestions for encoding various specific data types

Research on digital reality has been extensive in recent years, covering a wide range of topics and leading to new ways to approach and deal with complex situations. Within the Society 5.0 paradigm, people and machines establish a positive relationship to find solutions for social aspects and problems. This perspective establishes a strong interconnection between physical and virtual space, making the user an active player for better life and society. In these terms, digital systems and virtual and augmented reality technologies enable multi-dimensional scenarios and additional levels of interdisciplinary collaboration to create a highly inclusive communication network and social framework. The Handbook of Research on Implementing Digital Reality and Interactive Technologies to Achieve Society 5.0 provides an overview of methods, processes, and tools adopted to achieve super-smart society needs by exploiting digital reality and interactive technologies. It includes case studies that illustrate applications that place people’s quality of life at the center of the digitalization process, accessing and managing different information and data domains. Covering topics such as cultural heritage, interactive learning, and virtual participation, this major reference work is a comprehensive resource for business executives and managers, IT managers, government officials, community leaders, arts and performance organizers, healthcare administrators and professionals, faculty and administrators of both K-12 and higher education, students of higher education, researchers, and academicians.