Weaving Fire Into Form

This book investigates multiple facets of the emerging discipline of Tangible, Embodied, and Embedded Interaction (TEI). This is a story of atoms and bits. We explore the interweaving of the physical and digital, toward understanding some of their wildly varying hybrid forms and behaviors. Spanning conceptual, philosophical, cognitive, design, and technical aspects of interaction, this book charts both history and aspirations for the future of TEI. We examine and celebrate diverse trailblazing works, and provide wide-ranging conceptual and pragmatic tools toward weaving the animating fires of computation and technology into evocative tangible forms. We also chart a path forward for TEI engagement with broader societal and sustainability challenges that will profoundly (re)shape our children’s and grandchildren’s futures. We invite you all to join this quest.

Outstanding among textile artists -- Theo Moorman is a British weaver who has taught extensively in the United States. Illustrated with beautiful colour and black-and-white examples of her work are her thoughts on the design and aesthetic expression embodied in a woven fabric. The technique of weaving that bears her name is explained with numerous ways the Moorman technique may be varied and used with further exploration. Her experiences with commissioned works are utilised in a special chapter relating the problems and opportunities these present.

The Handbook on Socially Interactive Agents provides a comprehensive overview of the research fields of Embodied Conversational Agents;Intelligent Virtual Agents;and Social Robotics. Socially Interactive Agents (SIAs);whether virtually or physically embodied;are autonomous agents that are able to perceive an environment including people or other agents;reason;decide how to interact;and express attitudes such as emotions;engagement;or empathy. They are capable of interacting with people and one another in a socially intelligent manner using multimodal communicative behaviors;with the goal to support humans in various domains. Written by international experts in their respective fields;the book summarizes research in the many important research communities pertinent for SIAs;while discussing current challenges and future directions. The handbook provides easy access to modeling and studying SIAs for researchers and students;and aims at further bridging the gap between the research communities involved. In two volumes;the book clearly structures the vast body of research. The first volume starts by introducing what is involved in SIAs research;in particular research methodologies and ethical implications of developing SIAs. It further examines research on appearance and behavior;focusing on multimodality. Finally;social cognition for SIAs is investigated using different theoretical models and phenomena such as theory of mind or pro-sociality. The second volume starts with perspectives on interaction;examined from different angles such as interaction in social space;group interaction;or long-term interaction. It also includes an extensive overview summarizing research and systems of human–agent platforms and of some of the major application areas of SIAs such as education;aging support;autism;and games.

When electronic digital computers first appeared after World War II, they appeared as a revolutionary force. Business management, the world of work, administrative life, the nation state, and soon enough everyday life were expected to change dramatically with these machines’ use. Ever since, diverse prophecies of computing have continually emerged, through to the present day. As computing spread beyond the US and UK, such prophecies emerged from strikingly different economic, political, and cultural conditions. This volume explores how these expectations differed, assesses unexpected commonalities, and suggests ways to understand the divergences and convergences. This book examines thirteen countries, based on source material in ten different languages—the effort of an international team of scholars. In addition to analyses of debates, political changes, and popular speculations, we also show a wide range of pictorial representations of "the future with computers."

This book presents fundamental new techniques for understanding and processing geospatial data. These “spatial gems” articulate and highlight insightful ideas that often remain unstated in graduate textbooks, and which are not the focus of research papers. They teach us how to do something useful with spatial data, in the form of algorithms, code, or equations. Unlike a research paper, Spatial Gems, Volume 1 does not focus on “Look what we have done!” but rather shows “Look what YOU can do!” With contributions from researchers at the forefront of the field, this volume occupies a unique position in the literature by serving graduate students, professional researchers, professors, and computer developers in the field alike.

Professor Stephen A. Cook is a pioneer of the theory of computational complexity. His work on NP-completeness and the P vs. NP problem remains a central focus of this field. Cook won the 1982 Turing Award for “his advancement of our understanding of the complexity of computation in a significant and profound way.” This volume includes a selection of seminal papers embodying the work that led to this award, exemplifying Cook’s synthesis of ideas and techniques from logic and the theory of computation including NP-completeness, proof complexity, bounded arithmetic, and parallel and space-bounded computation. These papers are accompanied by contributed articles by leading researchers in these areas, which convey to a general reader the importance of Cook’s ideas and their enduring impact on the research community. The book also contains biographical material, Cook’s Turing Award lecture, and an interview. Together these provide a portrait of Cook as a recognized leader and innovator in mathematics and computer science, as well as a gentle mentor and colleague.

Weaving with high-twist yarns and contrasting materials creates lively textures that are transformed by washing. Ann Richards explains the processes and potential of this approach, and provides a broad introduction to designing with high-twist yarns.