Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Presence'

Includes bibliographical references (p. 73-75).
In this project melancholy and the related experiences of loss and longing as explanatory concepts, are the basis fromwhich visually interpret the body of practical work that emphasises the role of emotion and personal experience in locating meaning.

Bibliography: leaves 165-171.
Presence in Collaborative Virtual Environments (CVEs) can be defined into personal presence and co-presence. Personal presence is having a feeling of "being there" in the CVE yourself. Co-presence is having a feeling that one is in the same place as the other praticipants, and that one is collaborating with real people. The focus of this research was to conduct exploratory studies to investigate and verify some of the factors believed to affect personal presence and co-presence in a CVE. This was achieved by designing and performing experiments in CVEs, and using subjective measures to assess the levels of personal presence and co-presence in the CVE. In addition, we have developed a subjective measure of co-presence in the form of a pencil-and-paper questionnaire. This co-presence questionnaire was used to measure the amount of co-presence experienced by the participants in the CVE. In this dissertation we describe three experiments used to investigate some of the factors which might affect personal presence and co-presence in a CVE.

This investigation has been carried out at the RoyalInstitute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm. The main goal hasbeen to investigate the factors determining the production of asense of presence and reality in video mediated communication.Presenceis in these studies defines as the subjectiveexperience of being together in one place when one isphysically situated in another. Presence is an emergentproperty; it has no physicality, but arises as a mentalsensation. Special attention has been paid to spatial factors,embodiment issues, and narrative elements related to theproduction of presence.

A context map has been used in order to model the semanticsof presence production and to visualize the relationshipsbetween the determining factors. The conclusions may besummarized as follows:

    Knowledge about physical and extended spaces and bodiesand of the shifting of attention between these is importantin presence production.

    Well planned design of physical and virtual spacesenhances the sense of presence.

    Coherent design and production of mediated embodiment canenhance the sense of presence.

    Conscious use of content characteristics, e.g., goodstorytelling, can enhance the sense of presence.

    Different communication modes need the support ofdifferent combinations of presence production factors.

    Even technically poorly mediated communication maysupport a sense of presence and reality if the storytellingis good.

    The human sensory environment should be supported by asense of non-mediation, technological transparency, on theplane of discourse.

    The results indicate that individual differencesinfluence the sense of presence and reality.

The perception of video mediated communication evolves aspeople become daily users. People seem to intuitively begin tointerpret new types of mediated cues, adding what is missing incomparison to a real time physical communicationexperience.

Keywords:Telepresence, presence, social presence,co-presence, concept modeling, virtual reality, person space,task space, narration, video mediated communication, videoconferencing.

By exploiting context awareness, traditional applications can be extended to offer better quality or new functions. Utilizing a context-aware infrastructure, a variety of context information is merged and processed to produce information that is useful to applications. Applications exploiting such context can provide more intelligent and creative services to end users. This thesis examines two ways to make use of a user’s location along with room occupancy information in context aware applications: a Context Agent and a Call Secretary. In the former case, the application subscribes to room occupancy information via a context server, and provides a Meeting Room Booking System with “real-time” information about the utilization of the rooms which the room booking system is to manage. The Call Secretary acquires both location and room occupancy information from a server. When the user is in one of the meeting rooms and multiple people are present, then this is interpreted as the user being in a meeting -- therefore it triggers a CPL module in a SIP proxy to redirect the user’s incoming call to their voice mail box. A description of the implementation of these two applications will be presented along with an evaluation of these applications’ performance. The evaluation of the Context Agent showed that it was straightforward to integrate information from a presence source and to extend the meeting room booking system to use this information. The Call Secretary needs a more reliable source for the user's location. However, given this location the Call Secretary provides the service which the user expects.
Genom att utnyttja sammanhang medvetenhet, traditionella tillämpningar kan utvidgas till att erbjuda bättre kvalitet eller nya funktioner. Använda en kontextmedvetna infrastruktur, en rad olika kontextuppgifter är sammanslagna och bearbetas för att producera information som är användbar för tillämpningar. Tillämpningar som utnyttjar sådana sammanhang kan ge mer intelligenta och kreativa tjänster till slutanvändare. Denna avhandling undersöker två sätt att använda sig av ett användaren befinner sig längs med rummet beläggningen information i samband medveten program: ett sammanhang av ombud och en uppmaning Sekreterare. I det förra fallet skall ansökan under på rumspris information via ett sammanhang server, och ger ett mötesrum bokningssystem med "realtid" information om användningen av de rum som lokalbokning system är att hantera. Ring sekreterare förvärvar både plats och rumspris information från en server. När användaren är i en av konferenslokaler och flera människor är närvarande, så är det tolkas som att användarna är i ett möte - därför det utlöser en CPL-modul i en SIP-proxy för att dirigera om användarens inkommande samtal till deras telefonsvarare fält. En beskrivning av genomförandet av dessa två program kommer att presenteras tillsammans med en utvärdering av dessa ansökningar resultat. Utvärderingen av det sammanhang ombud visade att det var enkelt att integrera information från en närvaro källa och att utvidga mötesrum bokningssystem att använda denna information. Ring sekreterare behöver en mer tillförlitlig källa för användarens plats. Med tanke på denna plats för samtal sekreterare tillhandahåller tjänster som användaren förväntar sig.

Online and Blended learning are becoming widespread along with the changing needs of society and advances in technology. Recently, there is a growing emphasis on building learning communities in order to increase the effectiveness of these learning environments. In recent years there is one promising theory that has generated considerable interest and has been widely adopted and studied by researchers: the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework developed by Garrison, Anderson and Archer (2000). The CoI framework, with its emphasis on critical thinking and collaboration, provides a well-structured model and set of guidelines to create effective learning communities in online and blended learning environments. The purpose of this study was to examine the development of a CoI in online and blended learning contexts in relation to students&
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perceived learning and satisfaction. A graduate course delivered online and blended format was the focus of the study. The data was collected through transcript analysis of online discussion, the CoI Survey, and interviews to examine social, teaching, cognitive presence postings patterns, to explore students&
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perceptions of each presence, learning and satisfaction, and to compare the differences between online and blended learning environments. Overall, all three sources of data indicated that a CoI developed in both courses. However, the study found developmental differences in the CoI presences regarding the course format. In terms of social presence, two categories &
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affective communication and group cohesion &
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were found different. Another difference between the two course formats was on the cognitive presence categories. Overall, the transcript analysis in this study found that integration was the most frequently coded phase in both courses. However, the integration phase was found to be significantly higher in the blended course compared to the online course. Finally, the survey analysis yielded higher perceptions of each presence in both courses. However, the students in the blended course had slightly higher perceptions of each presence. The only significant difference was found on teaching presence. The study also yielded some significant relationships among presences which varied according to the course.

This thesis is an investigation in taking the architectural element â wallâ and celebrating it in the design of a building.

Walls are necessary elements in the urban fabric, and as such, should be celebrated. They enrich the space that they surround and enrich that which surrounds them as part of the urban fabric.

The project involves first creating walls with presence, then enclosing them in a manner that reveres them, that preserves their significance and emphasizes their presence.
Master of Architecture

This text is partial record and narrative of the process and productions of Orphans by Lyle Kessler that opened on March 29th 2007 for a four day run ending on April 1st, The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh that opened October 28th 2007 for a three day run ending on October 30th, and Terra Nova by Ted Tally that opened on February 21st 2008 for a four day run ending on February 24th. The majority of the text follows the three shows from Spring 2007, Fall 2007, to Spring 2008, focusing on the process of direction of each production. Incorporated in the writing are the experiences, lessons, and complications that arose while directing the three shows. The text contains several notes on directing, acting, collaboration, choreography, casting, rehearsal and different perspectives on the creative process of the productions: all combined create an aesthetic inherent in the author's three years of study at the Virginia Commonwealth University Theatre Pedagogy Program with an emphasis in Acting and Directing.

The act of representation is, to an extent, a sine qua non condition within the artistic process and always acquires its meaning in relation to a presence. Presence acts as an internal or external stimulus, and re-presentation is the effect of a presence. From this perspective, I have examined the work of Francis Bacon, Susan Hiller, Giorgio Morandi, Gerhard Richter, Iannis Xenakis, and, among others, the theories of Giorgio Agamben, Benjamin Buchloch, Daniel Chandler, Gilles Deleuze, Jacques Derrida, Hal Foster and Henri Lefebvre. Within the frame of this enquiry, I have created a series of polyptychs exploring different possibilities, correlations and aspects of my topic. The internal or external stimulus for the creation of these series varies: from recorded video stills of London’s urban scenery to a one-wave loop videotaped at a Greek coast, and from a specific architectural site to various landscapes – all painted in situ or from photographs. Although this variety calls for dissimilar creative strategies for each polyptych, all of them are connected with each other, as they share the following properties: • the openness, which practically relativizes the beginning and the end of the artwork, the part and the whole, the real space–time and the imagery space–time, • the rhythm (practically, its simplified form is repetition), as the element that makes the synthesis and unification of different states of presence possible – through the function of consonance, • the pictorial language (i.e., colour, line, shape, etc.), as the intermediate between the individual and the collective evaluation of the artwork. In the context of my semisite-specific practice, I reactivate the notion of topicality to approximate the foundation of a stable and real ground where the artwork forms and develops. By exploring the act of representation, I discuss the poetic metaphor from and to the real, the constitution of the real and its consequences on how we value art. I argue that, both practically and theoretically, rhythm is identified through the principle of presence, and I examine rhythm as the methodological tool whose vibration penetrates practical experimentation and whose contents are susceptible to theoretical exploration. Odysseas Elytis’ poem eloquently describes the experience that artists relish during the creative process – the poetic point of view. By the same token, art practice repulses a well established methodology, thus maintaining an entropy, or an openness. I put forward the hypothesis that rhythm can offer a sustainable methodological tool for art practice-based areas of study. In my research, I explore the structure and limits of visual/pictorial language, that are simultaneously historical and physical. Practically, this exploration is correlated with a quest for the proper (proportion, colour, gesture, etc.) within my compositions – i.e., a search on artistic manipulation and its criteria of evalutation. Finally, I investigate the theoretical context of Presence and Representation, its relation to the real and how different comprehensions correspond with and influence different viewpoints and theses, which, in turn, have personal and social consequences. As Daniel Chandler (1994) indicates, it is unavoidable to ask ‘whose realities are privileged in particular representations’, a recognition which eschews a retreat to mere subjectivism, as it ‘pays due tribute to the unequal distribution of power in the social world.’

Real-time locating systems (RTLS) are systems, which can automatically identify and track the objects. Such a system can be helpful at university in a way that students can find in which auditorium a professor is present at that moment or at hospital for the fast detection of rooms in which nurses are present.In this thesis the prototype of the Real-time locating system based on the Bluetooth Low Energy technology was build and demonstrated. System was developed using Reactive Blocks SDK. The development, using SDK, is turning the ordinary program codding process to the visual process. Raspberry Pi was chosen as hardware solution for the system. Work shows solutions on problems, which can occur during working with Bluetooth. The results of experiments, which were performed to establish the quality of measure of RSSI value, were demonstrated using the developed system. The results include different combinations of independent variables such as: speed of movement of an object, a type of an object, a scanning interval, a type of network connection and a type of environment (with wall or without wall between the advertising signal and the zone scanner). Further, these results were used for a development of an algorithm for a zone detection. The results of the algorithm were demonstrated in additional experiments, which showed the possibility of the zone detection by the developed system.A discussion about the correctness of technic approaches, which were used in the work, was presented in a conclusion. In addition, a future work that includes new ideas and suggestions for increasing and improving a quality of the zone detection was presented.

Adult online learners represent the largest demographic in higher education. Academic leaders increasingly use non-designer instructors (NDIs) to meet demands. NDIs have little control over course design, part of teaching presence valued by learners. This quantitative, predictive correlational study investigated 1) to what frequency online learners’ perceptions of their NDIs’ teaching presence predicted learners’ cognitive presence; and 2) to what frequency did learners’ use of instructional media resources moderate that predictive relationship, while enrolled in online courses in a private, non-profit university in the western United States. Using The Community of Inquiry (COI) survey, this study measured learners’ perceptions of presence as they related to online students’ learning and use of instructional media. Multiple regression analyses tested both hypotheses (n = 128). The first null hypothesis was rejected revealing NDIs’ teaching presence significantly predicted 52% of the variance of learners’ cognitive presence, R² = .524, p < .001, f² = 1.08. These findings expand scientific knowledge to the instructional context of NDIs and confirm prior research that found a similar role for teaching presence on cognitive presence. The study failed to reject the null hypothesis for research question two. Frequencies of instructional media use showed a nonsignificant effect on the predictive role of teaching presence on cognitive presence. Further research could examine the unique contributions of the course design sub-factor of teaching presence in the context of courses taught by NDIs.

Theatre as an art form has often been associated with notions of presence. The live immediacy of the actor, the unmediated unfolding of dramatic action and the energy generated through an actor-audience relationship are among the ideas frequently used to explain theatrical experience and all are underpinned by some understanding of presence. Precisely what is meant by presence in the theatre is part of what this thesis sets out to explain. Presence, I argue, is not so much a single concept, but is a term which encompasses differing accounts of theatres aesthetic or experiential specificity. While I have attempted to show how concepts of presence have developed over time, most of the forthcoming discussion is rooted in twentieth century thought, when theatres aesthetic autonomy became an increasingly important concern in the context of artistic modernism and the rise of rival media such as film and television. However, an equally important part of this thesis has been to question the relevance of concepts of presence within the context of contemporary theory. Since the nineteen-eighties in particular, theatre theorists have been inclined to critique the notion of presence from a poststructuralist perspective. Additionally, the increasing use of technology in performance and a recognition of the pervasive influence of the media in contemporary western society has made traditional appeals to theatrical presence seem increasingly retrograde. In the light of these concerns, questions are raised about how the distinctiveness of theatre might best be articulated without reinstating the current opposition between those who advocate theatrical presence, and those who treat the concepts of presence with suspicion. By drawing together discussions which posit presence as the essence of theatre alongside poststructuralist misgivings about the validity of such claims, I have attempted to re-position the concept of presence within a contemporary theoretical context. Without wishing to idealise the stage as a privileged site which is experienced in terms of presence, I argue that we should instead examine the potential of theatre to put presence into play. Rather than look at theatre as present, I propose instead to explore how theatre manipulates our experience of the present, challenging rather than reinforcing an audiences experience of the live or the immediate. Drawing on ideas in semiotics, phenomenology and performativity, I argue that a framework for thinking about presence, enriched by poststructuralist theory, can inform the analysis of theatrical performance. While by no means a complete survey of presence in the theatre, it is my hope that this thesis will help to suggest new ways of thinking about the tangled set of ideas which surround this concept, and how they might contribute to our understanding of theatres representational possibilities.

L'obiettivo di questa tesi e, prima di tutto, quello di analizzare la poesia della memoria di Hardy, sia nelle sue piu celebri espressioni che nelle manifestazioni piu sotterranee, allo scopo di metter in luce i meccanismi comuni che la rendono un'area piu o meno omogenea. E inoltre necessario distinguere le diverse strategic poetiche messe in atto per occasioni diverse, e la conseguente varieta di registri, toni ed immagini. Infine, l'analisi di un numero significative) di poesie evidenzia la concentrazione di insiemi di immagini riconducibili a specifici campi semantici, quali | luce | ed | ombra |, | distacco | e | perdita |, | nostalgia | e | rimorso |. La tesi e suddivisa in quattro ambiti principali, con un'ulteriore sezione introduttiva. Dopo un breve cenno al percorso che Hardy compie da poeta celato sotto i panni del romanziere a poeta ufficiale, e dopo un riepilogo sulla redazione delle otto raccolte poetiche, l'analisi si concentra sul rapporto tra il poeta e la facolta memoriale. Il Capitolo I analizza la precoce consapevolezza di Hardy dell'influenza del passato sul presente, specialmente alla luce del suo ambiente familiare, del suo attaccamento alla cultura arcaica del Dorset ed al suo approccio critico alla filosofia dell'epoca. L'accento e posto sulla dimensione post-mortem, sulla possibilità di una permanenza immaginativa o memoriale di cio che e morto nella percezione del vivente. Il Capitolo II entra nel vivo della poesia della memoria, partendo da quei testi che rappresentano pietre miliari della costruzione della poetica della memoria. In questi luoghi poetici quest'ultima non e sempre una facolta positiva che funzione da ponte verso il passato; al contrario, essa si rivela spesso un intruso nella coscienza poetica, un ospite che diventa un ostaggio antagonista che porta all' 'io' poetico dolorose epifanie di memoria. La domanda retorica 'dove eri tu' e sostituita dalla ben piu drammatica 'dove ero io', ed il senso di colpa spesso soverchia la gioia di poter ricordare. Questo aspetto drammatico viene amplificato nel Capitolo III, dove un'analisi delle poesie per Emma mette a nudo l'estrema poliedricita della poetica della memoria. É in questa sezione che la memoria svela tutte le sue qualità contraddittorie; ad esempio, quando il ricordo è suscitato da un forte sentimento personale, la facoltà amplifica il suo potere di materializzare fantasinatici doppi dell'entità originaria, ma amplifica anche la facoltà di questi doppi di influire sulla coscienza poetica. A questo punto, la poetica della memoria si sviluppa da un'intrusione nel passato, fatta di sporadici contatti con i suoi abitanti, fino ad attuare una relazione biunivoca tra locutore e destinatario, una relazione che sembra quasi annichilire le barriere spazio-temporali. L'ultimo capitolo restringe il campo ad un aspetto specifico della poetica della memoria: la poesia elegiaca, suddivisa in elegie per i poeti, per gli amici e poesie di guerra. Anche se lo schema elegiaco può essere ritrovato in tutti questi componimenti, in realtà le elegie per i poeti appaiono molto più formali ed asettiche, sia dal punto di vista formale che contenutistico. Le elegie dedicate agli amici, invece, fanno uso delle convenzioni del genere per mettere in risalto la distanza tra il vivente ed il defunto, oppure per rendere più vivido il ritratto dell'oggetto memoriale. Le poesie di guerra rappresentano un momento celebrativo dove l'espressione intima del dolore viene coperta dalla natura ufficiale dell'occasione poetica. La poesia della memoria di Hardy si basa su uno scambio dialogico tra 1' 'io' poetico ed il destinatario memoriale, espresso dalla seconda o dalla terza persona. L'uso marcato di pronomi diversi, di immagini sostitutive o metonimiche come referenti per l'oggetto memoriale, causa una presenza ossessiva di una molteplicità di personae nei testi e lungo le raccolte. Per mezzo di questa anàklisis retorica, il poeta resta aggrappato al ricordo, allo scopo di mantenere un contatto illusorio con esso il più a lungo possibile. Questo meccanismo di autodifesa dà vita ad una miriade di proiezioni immaginative dell'oggetto memoriale, a forme in continua evoluzione ed ad una forte dinamica intertestuale. Tutte queste creature poetiche rappresentano prodotti diversi e persino contraddittori della memoria, una prodigiosa facoltà generativa che ci ricorda quanto la mente umana sia il primo fattore di tutto ciò che è nell'universo, sia in quello presente che in quello a venire, e che, senza di essa, ogni entità finirebbe la sua esistenza nel momento stesso del suo decesso. The aim of this work is, first of all, to analyse Hardy's poetry of memory both in its well-known overt expressions and in its more cryptic occurrences, in order to foreground the common devices which render it a more or less homogenous area. Moreover, it is necessary to distinguish the different poetic strategies adopted according to the different occasions, and the ensuing multiplicity of tones, registers and imagery. At last, a close analysis of a significant number of memorative poems can foreground the concentration of some clusters of images related to specific semantic fields, such as | light | and | darkness |, j detachment | and | loss |, | nostalgia | and | regret |. The work is divided into fou. main sections, with an additional introductory section. After a brief account of Hardy's complex route from a concealed to an official status of poet, and on the chronology of the eight poetic collections, the analysis concentrates on the relationship between the poet and the memorative faculty. Chapter I considers Hardy's early acknowledgement of the silent influence of the past on the present, especially in the light of his familiar background, his attachment to the archaic culture of Dorset and his critical approach to the philosophy of the age. The stress is laid on the aftermath of death, on the possibility of an imaginative or memorative permanence of what is dead in the perceptions of the living. Chapter II sets forth on the journey into the poetry of memory, with a special concentration on those texts which reveal meaningful instances of the construction of a poetics of memory. In these texts memory is not always a positive faculty which works like a bridge onto the past; on the contrary, it is often an intruder into the poetic conscience, a guest which becomes an agonistic host who forces the poetic T into negative epiphanies of memory. The formulaic question 'where were you' is substituted by the more dramatic 'where was F, and the feeling of blame often exceeds the joy of remembering. This negative aspect is carried further and amplified in chapter III, where an analysis of the poems for Emma lays bare the extreme many-sidedness of the poetics of memory. It is in this section that memory shows all its contradictory qualities; for instance, when it is prompted by a deep personal feeling, the work of memory amplifies its power to conjure ghostly wraiths of the primal object, but it also amplifies the wraiths' own faculty to affect the poetic conscience. At this stage, the poetics of memory evolves from an intrusion into the past with sporadic contacts with its inhabitants to a biunique relationship between speaker and addressee, a relationship which almost annihilates the chronotopic boundaries. The last chapter narrows on one specific aspect of the poetics of memory: elegiac poetry, which can be grouped into elegies for poets, elegies for relatives and friends, and war poems. Even though the elegiac pattern can be identified in all these poems, in fact the elegies for the poets appear much more formal and detached, both from a semantic and a rhetoric point of view. The elegies for friends, instead, make use of the conventions in order to represent the distance between the living and the dead, or to make the portray of the memorative object more vivid. The war poems represent a celebratory moment where the genuine expression of mourning is covered by the official nature of the poetic occasion. Hardy's poetry of memory is based on the interplay between the poetic T and a memorative addressee, expressed either in the second or third person. The marked use of different pronouns, metonymic and substitutive images as referents for the memorative object produces the haunting presence of many personae in and throughout the texts. By means of a rhetorical anàklisis, the poet clings to the object of his mourning in order to retain an illusory contact with it as long as possible. This selfprotective device gives rise to multiple imaginative projections of the mourned object, to their developing shapes and their dynamics along the texts. All these poetic creatures represent different and even contradictory offsprings of memory, a prodigious generative faculty which reminds us that the human mind is the primal creator of all that is in the universe, either in the present world or in the one to be, and that, without it, everything would cease to exist in the very moment of its demise.

My thesis has a dual focus. It is an account of both the journey of my inquiry, and the outcome of that inquiry. The Professional Doctorate, for which this work is submitted, emphasises practice development and at all times I have kept a watchful eye on my progress towards becoming a 'scholarly professional'. I am a facilitator - this means taking a variety of roles, including group leader, supervisor, coach, mentor, change agent. I use the term 'facilitator' as shorthand for all of these. My thesis makes a contribution to practical knowledge in relation to the subject matter and the methodology. My main focus is the practice of group facilitation, especially the way that a facilitator can work in a distress free manner, when the presence of the facilitator is apparent and distinct through an individual signature. I take the optimistic stance that facilitator presence can be developed, and have gathered a range of ideas that may support the practitioner in this respect, predominantly drawn from my own experiential and theoretical learning. With regard to autoethnography, the issue of judgement criteria is a particular offering. I see the whole of my thesis as autoethnographic, and have navigated a fine line between doing autoethnography, and finding out what an autoethnography is. In fully committing to this methodology, I take on the responsibility of writing from my own experience, whilst incorporating insights from the work of predecessors and peers.

While radio frequency identification tags (RFIDs) have been widely used for identifying objects (and some people), their primary use has been for access control, inventory, and other similar purposes. In this thesis we will use the detection of an RFID to indicate that a user is present in a given location.  This will be used to extend a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) system with user presence. A typical HF RFID reader is able to read a tag from a range of 8-10 cm. In this application we wish to read tags from a range of 50 to 100 cm (the width of a doorway or narrow hallway). One of the challenges is how to increase the reading range while staying below the maximum RF power limits (for reasons of safety). Providing an RFID based presence indication can be used to automatically adjust the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system of a room, etc. This thesis presents several different antennas which were analyzed and simulated using FEKO to obtain a suitable antenna for this target application. The thesis shows that fractal patterns are the best for the intended application based upon the results of simulations. These antennas were implemented and tested. The prototype establishes that such antennas are a suitable design and can be used with current RFID systems to achieve long ranges. The thesis also suggests some future enhancements to these antennas.
Identifiering av radiofrekvenstaggar (RFID) har använts i stor utsträckning för att identifiera objekt (och vissa människor). De primära användningsområdena har varit åtkomstkontroll, inventering, och andra liknande ändamål. I denna avhandling kommer vi att använda närvaroupptäckten av en RFID-tagg för att ange att en användare befinner sig påen given plats. Detta kommer att användas för att utöka ett Session Initiation Protocol-system med användarnärvaro. En typisk HF RFID-läsare kan läsa en tagg från ett avstånd av 8-10 cm. I denna appliceringen vill vi läsa RFID-taggar från ett avstånd av 50 till 100 cm (bredden påen dörröppning eller en smal korridor). En av utmaningarna är hur man kan öka läsavståndet och samtidigt hålla sig under de maximala RF-effektgränserna (av säkerhetsskäl). En RFIDbaserad närvaroindikering kan användas för att automatiskt justera värme, ventilation och luftkonditionering av ett rum, osv. I denna avhandling kommer vi att presentera olika antenner som analyserades och simulerades med hjälp av FEKO, för att erhålla en lämplig antenn. Avhandlingen visar att de bästa resultaten från simuleringarna för det huvudsakliga målet, är att använda fraktala mönster. Genomförandet och testerna av dessa antenner leder till en prototyp av en gynnsam antennutformning, som en bas för framtida förbättringar. Dessutom beskriver vi skälen till varför fraktalantenner ofta används i nuvarande RFID-system för att uppnålånga läsavstånd.

Through the investigation of indirect light, reflected color, and geometric construction, and by the awareness and understanding of what allows for experiences that engage the human emotion, this thesis offers a project which has the power and presence to move the soul.
Master of Architecture

Esta dissertação é um estudo sobre o cinema de Eugène Green. A sua estrutura se dividirá de acordo com o que se supõe ser - do ponto de vista da recepção do espectador - o aspecto central de seus filmes: de um lado, Green conduzirá o seu espectador a se relacionar com o filme pela via da \"leitura\"; de outro, pela via do \"empirismo\". Essa importante distinção dará início a uma série de desdobramentos que serão tratados ao longo da análise de dez cenas selecionadas dos seus dois primeiros longas metragens: Toutes les nuits (2001) no primeiro capítulo e Le Monde vivant (2003) no segundo. Na conclusão da dissertação, trataremos ainda de uma questão suscitada a partir da colocação, lado a lado, dos dois filmes acima citados.
This dissertation is a study of Eugène Green\'s films. Its structure will be divided according to what we suppose to be - in terms of the spectator\'s reception - the central aspect of his films: on one hand, Green will lead the spectator to establish with the film a connection based on the \"reading\"; on the other hand, a connection based on the \"experience\". This important distinction will be developed throughout the analysis of ten selected scenes from Green\'s first two feature films: Toutes les nuits (2001) in the first chapter, and Le Monde vivant (2003) in the second. At the end of the dissertation, a final question will be brought to light by putting together both films.

This thesis examines the different ways films have explored female presence as a narrative and stylistic concern. The role of female presence in the creation of film meaning has often been reductively minimised or altogether neglected within many theoretical approaches to cinema. Depictions of female characters—especially those found in Hollywood films—have been viewed by feminist critics only in terms of the manifestation of sexist ideological principles, whilst more recently, 'affective' film theorists have reduced the role of presence to a simple question of fluctuating physical intensity. This thesis contests these limiting and monolithic understandings of the function of female presence by demonstrating how films have produced complex and diverse meanings through their portrayals of women characters. Closely analysing films by six directors from various styles of cinema, including examples from Classic Hollywood film and more experimental or avant-garde works, the thesis contends that films can raise the question of the condition of a female character's presence as a vital component of meaning. It illuminates how the subject of female presence is advanced, moment-to-moment, as a crucial element in the achievement of these films' intricately wrought dramas. The thesis therefore shows that female film presence is neither simply a symptom of ideology, nor a vehicle for varying degrees of affective intensity. Rather, it is something which is actively at stake in the drama and the design of films.

Humans rely on all their senses when interacting with others in order to communicate and collaborate efficiently. In mediated interaction the communication channel is more or less constrained, and humans have to cope with the fact that they cannot get all the information that they get in face-to-face interaction. The particular concern in this thesis is how humans are affected by different multimodal interfaces when they are collaborating with another person in a shared virtual environment. One aspect considered is how different modalities affect social presence, i.e. people’s ability to perceive the other person’s intentions and emotions. Another aspect investigated is how different modalities affect people’s notion of being present in a virtual environment that feels realistic and meaningful. Finally, this thesis attempts to understand how human behavior and efficiency in task performance are affected when using different modalities for collaboration. In the experiment presented in articles A and B, a shared virtual environment that provided touch feedback was used, making it possible to feel the shape, weight and softness of objects as well as collisions between objects and forces produced by another person. The effects of touch feedback on people’s task performance, perceived social presence, perceived presence and perceived task performance were investigated in tasks where people manipulated objects together. Voice communication was possible during the collaboration. Touch feedback improved task performance significantly, making it both faster and more precise. People reported significantly higher levels of presence and perceived performance, but no difference was found in the perceived social presence between the visual only condition and the condition with touch feedback. In article C an experiment is presented, where people performed a decision making task in a collaborative virtual environment (CVE) using avatar representations. They communicated either by text-chat, a telephone connection or a video conference system when collaborating in the CVE. Both perceived social presence and perceived presence were significantly lower in the CVE text-chat condition than in the CVE telephone and CVE video conference conditions. The number of words and the tempo in the dialogue as well as the task completion time differed significantly for persons that collaborated using CVE text-chat compared to those that used a telephone or a video conference in the CVE. The tempo in the dialogue was also found to be significantly higher when people communicated using a telephone compared to a video conference system in CVEs. In a follow-up experiment people performed the same task using a website instead, with no avatar but with the same information content as before. Subjects communicated either by telephone or a video conference iv system. Results from the follow-up experiment showed that people that used a telephone completed tasks significantly faster than those that used a video conference system, and that the tempo in the dialogue was significantly higher in the web environments than in the CVEs. Handing over objects is a common event during collaboration in face-to face interaction. In the experiment presented in article D and E, the effects of providing touch feedback was investigated in a shared virtual environment in which subjects passed a series of cubic objects to each other and tapped them at target areas. Subjects could not communicate verbally during the experiment. The framework of Fitts’ law was applied and it was hypothesized that object hand off constituted a collaboratively performed Fitts’ law task, with target distance to target size ratio as a fundamental performance determinant. Results showed that task completion time indeed linearly increased with Fitts’ index of difficulty, both with and without touch feedback. The error rate was significantly lower in the condition with touch feedback than in the condition with only visual feedback. It was also found that touch feedback significantly increased people’s perceived presence, social presence and perceived performance in the virtual environment. The results presented in article A and E analyzed together, suggest that when voice communication is provided the effect of touch feedback on social presence might be overshadowed. However, when verbal communication is not possible, touch proves to be important for social presence.
QC 20100630

This thesis argues that presence in the performing arts can be reconceived, via the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze, as an encounter with difference or ‘differential presence’ which is variously defined as immanence, destratification, affect/becoming, and duration. These definitions are developed through a series of four analyses of exemplary performance practices: 1) The Living Theatre; 2) Antonin Artaud; 3) Allan Kaprow and 4) Goat Island. Chapter One recuperates the Living Theatre from a dominant narrative of ‘failure’, aided by the Deleuzian concepts of ontological participation, immanence, production/creation and ‘the people to come’. Reframing the company as pioneers of methods such as audience participation and collective creation, the chapter argues that their theatrical ambition is irreducible to some simple pursuit of undifferentiated presence (as authenticity or communion). Chapter Two provides an exposition of three key concepts emerging in the encounter between Artaud and Deleuze: the body without organs, the theatre without organs, and the destratified voice. The chapter proposes that To have done with the judgment of god constitutes an instance of a theatre without organs that uses the destratified voice in a pursuit of differential presence – as a nonrepresentative encounter with difference that forces new thoughts upon us. Chapter Three defines differential presence in relation to Deleuze’s concepts of affect and becoming-imperceptible and Kaprow’s concepts of ‘experienced insight’, nonart, ‘becoming “the whole”’, and attention. The chapter argues that Kaprow and Deleuze share a concern to theorize the practice of participating in actuality beyond the subject/object distinction, in a manner that promotes an ethico-political sense of taking part in “the whole”. Finally, Chapter Four focuses on the temporal aspect of differential presence, arguing that through slowness, waiting, repetition and imitation, Goat Island’s performance work acknowledges and responds to ‘the need to open ourselves affectively to the actuality of others’ (Mullarkey 2003: 488).

One of the oft cited reasons for virtual environments is that they provide experiences with places one would never be able to visit and to perform tasks that would otherwise be dangerous, or inaccessible. The ability to become transported to another environment, such that you think you are "there," is known as presence. Existing presence literature focuses largely on the sensory aspects of virtual environment experiences. However, there is more to experience than what is sensed. This dissertation investigates the theoretical components of holistic experiences in virtual environments. In order to explore the relationship between experiential design and presence, a new evaluation tool was needed. This ultimately led to the development of the Virtual Experience Test. To validate the Virtual Experience Test, an experiment was designed that utilized subjective evaluations regarding game-play in the commercial game Mirror’s Edge. Measures of experiential design, flow, and presence were taken and the relationships between the measures analyzed. The results of this research showed that environments utilizing holistic designs result in significantly higher presence. Furthermore, this study produced a validated measure of holistic experience that designers could use to evaluate their virtual environments.
Ph.D.
Department of Industrial Engineering and Management Systems
Engineering and Computer Science
Modeling and Simulation PhD

This thesis considers how the making of artwork can enhance or develop an experience of being present. This is done through researching what it means to be present within the moment and how this can be shared with audience. An exploration and analysis of this way of working is provided, both in terms of the research process and artwork outcomes made as a consequence of it. The entanglement of process with outcome is central, as is the interrelatedness between personal research and artworks presented to audience. Activated presence refers to a way of researching, making and presenting performative artwork; artwork made from a place of attention to the moment. This is the expanded moment of Eastern philosophy, Christian mysticism and the new physics; what Varela describes as the 'deep now' (qtd. in Mulder 18). This notion of activated presence also refers to, and acknowledges, the collaboration between ideas, materials, artist and audience in the creation of artwork. My initial approach is to make personal research explorations, utilising the terrain of Dartmoor1 as a starting point, with walking and documenting as essential tools for this exploration of presence. Initial plans to create outcomes utilising digital technologies are dispensed with in favour of physical exploration of site, utilising audio-visual recording technologies as tools for the documentation of presence. These documentary outcomes form the basis for further investigations, whether through installation or video artwork. A more direct and inclusive relationship to audience is then considered; where the artwork outcomes investigate and acknowledge the notion of activated presence, through audience participation. This practice forms the heart of the thesis, through both critical and reflective writing, and associated audio-visual documentation. Also included are short edits of associated video artwork (DVD and DVD Rom).

Thesis (M.Arch.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2000.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 76).
This thesis proposes that physical memory can be a basis for architecture. The goal of this project is to make legible the seasonal growth and decay of an open-air public market in a way that is resonant with the form of the city and its daily life. If we understand a connection to natural and seasonal cycles and a sense of continuity to be a positive thing, this project seeks to relate the use, form, and architecture of one piece of the city to larger ideas about cycles of transformation. By proposing both a permanent and seasonal market, the comings and goings of the temporary pieces are made apparent, giving a presence to their absence. The site for the project is Haymarket Square, located at the southern tip of the Bulfinch Triangle area of Boston, Massachusetts. It is a part of the city which has undergone a radical series of transformations throughout its history, beginning as part of the Charles River and later developing into the first formally planned area of Boston. Today, another series of changes is about to take place as the Central Artery project promises to re-establish some of the fabric of the Triangle that was lost during the construction of the elevated highway in the 1950's. These transformations and the traces they leave behind were the point of departure for the project. Rather than attempting to build or record the physical history of the city architecturally, this project proposes the use of visual and physical devices to make us aware of the cycles of change that take place around us. The major goals of the project are to: -- Detect and re-establish the urban rules which govern that part of the city by defining the edges of the Bulfinch Triangle, Dock Square, and North End areas. -- Create a building that is a focus and still adheres to those rules. -- Make the architecture communicate the weekly, seasonal, and annual cycles of the market in a way which is meaningful to its public spaces.
James MacDonald Bruneau.
M.Arch.

Detta examensarbete ingår inom ämnet produktutveckling – industriell design. Arbete har utförts för Smart Media Solutions AB i Nacka Stockholm. Examensarbete är på C nivå och omfattar 15 högskolepoäng. Arbetet har utförts på hel fart under april och maj månad 2015 av undertecknad student från Mälardalens högskola. Uppdraget är att vidareutveckla en produkt åt Smart Media Solutions. Produkten heter SMS Presence Mobile och är ett golvstativ för skärmar. Uppdraget innebär att vidareutveckla och sammanställa ett högtalarsystem till produkten.    Produktutvecklingsprocessen inleds med att först förstå problemet genom att analysera hur produkten ser ut idag samt dialog med uppdragsgivaren. Med hjälp av olika produktutvecklingsverktyg togs det fram fyra olika koncept vilket slutade med ett slutkoncept. Slutkonceptet koncept är testad och redo för att sättas i produktion. Konceptet består av en högtalarlåda som är placerad inuti stativet. Stativet har även täckplåtar som är designanpassade för högtalarlådan. Det har även designat monteringskomponenter för lätt montering av hela produkten. Högtalarlådan fungerar och ger ett bra ljud. Högtalarsystemet består av en mini förstärkare och högtalare som är placerade stativet. Det finns även ett grenuttag placerad i stativet för att minska trassel för sladdar. Volymregulator fins placerad på stativ för lätt tillgänglighet till volymreglering.  Slutresultat av detta arbete illusteraras i form ar renderade bilder, tillverkningsritningar samt ett tillverkat slutkoncept.

Life is a series of illusions; everyone creates their own life with their personal mindset. We all have our own story. My thesis is part of my story. It was influenced by my life, my illusions, my fears, and my beliefs. This project is dedicated to my brother, whom I lost five years ago. This hardship made me reflect on my passion and my fear: architecture and death. The perspective I gained from studying different cultures and their beliefs about the after life was critical for my project and enlightening on a personal level. For some, death was the end of everything, for others it was just the beginning. Some would grieve and some would take the time to cherish and celebrate death. The synthesis between the knowledge I gained studying these beliefs and that of those I held personally gave rise to this project. Throughout the process the body of the building changed often, but its main structure and soul remained consistent. The essential details of this project were driven from translating the rituals and beliefs of varying cultures regarding mourning and burial into an architectural language. The building consists of a cemetery, columbarium, crematorium, chapel, as well as different spaces for praying and remembering loved ones.The site is located in Old Town, Alexandria. What makes this building different from the others is its emphasis on dead bodies. The more dead bodies enter the building, the more alive the building will become.
Master of Architecture

On the Presence of Christ is a musical work for septet (three strings, three winds, percussion) exploring Christ’s presence throughout all time as described in Scripture, wherein the individual movements are thematically grounded and arranged from ancient past to coming future. “In the Beginning” is based on Genesis 1:1-2 and John 1:1-5; “At the Throne” is based on Revelation 4:2-11; and “With His Saints Forever” is based in Revelation 21:1-5a and 22-23. I use these chosen Scriptures to guide my musical exploration, allowing my reflections and perspectives on them to give this music its substance and form My hope is that this works points beyond my limited perspective concerning these Scriptures, and even the Scriptures themselves, to their divine source, and the goodness, beauty, and truth therein.

Le cas de brisure spontanee de symetrie est etudie dans un modele scalaire a l'aide des transformations du groupe de renormalisation dans l'espace de fourier. La situation est similaire a celle d'une transition de phase du premier ordre ou le vide n'est pas homogene. La methode consiste a effectuer des transformations de renormalisation infinitesimales ou la coupure l dans l'espace de fourier est abaissee a l-dl, ce qui mene a des equations de renormalisation exactes a la limite ou dl/l tend vers 0. L'approche de l'instabilite spinodale montre, dans l'etude numerique des fonctions beta, une perte d'universalite du modele, mettant ainsi en evidence la necessite de prendre en compte la formation de condensat. La region instable fait alors apparaitre numeriquement des points de selle non nuls dans l'integration fonctionnelle des modes uv. La consequence est une renormalisation a l'arbre et un potentiel quadratique qui permet de retrouver la celebre construction de maxwell pour le potentiel effectif. Les resultats sont etablis a l'approximation de l'arbre, mise a part une nouvelle equation de renormalisation, et sont independants du nombre de composantes internes du champ. Les fonctions de green sont ensuite calculees dans la meme approximation. Pour finir, les problemes lies au choix du style de coupure utilisee sont mis en evidence en poussant plus loin le developpement du gradient.

Ce travail theorique et plastique se fonde sur trois postulats : le tableau est la figure emblematique de l'art ; il a perdu sa viabilite et sa credibilite ; tout dispositif plastique est aussi une forme ideologique. Par consequent : aucune oeuvre d'art ne peut echapper a son contexte, ce qui remet en question le principe de son autonomie ; l'oeuvre d'art participe d'un dispositif plastique et apparait dans l'espace public (lieu commun), elle est donc politique : son dispositif est une structure ideologique. Le cadre d'un tableau est une construction politique derealisante. Il se retrouve dansla theatralisation des oeuvres par le musee, et dans la notion d'art comme categorie autonome. Son principe nie le monde et neutralise ce que l'oeuvre a de subversif en l'enfermant dans la categorie. Une succession de cadres garantit l'entropie de la culture comme un systeme auto-referenciel. Agir dans la materialite du monde implique une transgression et la construction d'un autre dispositif. Il faudrait donc risquer la disparition de l'oeuvre. Une oeuvre fragile, ephemere, ou specifique a un site n'est pertinente que dans un contexte particulier, mais elle s'investit d'une force critique vis a vis de ce contexte. L'autonomie de l'artiste et celle de l'oeuvre sont inversement proportionnelles : si l'oeuvre est autonome, elle est neutralisee. Sinon, l'artiste agit dans l'espace-temps materiel et public. Il est responsable de ses dispositifs, ce qui suppose une ethique. Toute pratique plastique fait face a la tentation d'abandonner la sphere compromise de l'art, et intervient dans la culture, ou se negocient les valeurs de nos societes. Ephemeres et fragiles, des oeuvres critiques peuvent induire une subversion des categories culturelles qui fixent le temps et l'espace. "lieux communs, actes de presence" plaide pour un doute, sur la frange de la disparition
This theoretical and practical work is based on three postulates : the picture is the emblematic figure of art ; it has lost its viability and its credibility ; any plastic assemblage is also an ideological form. Therefore : no work of art can escape to its context, the principle of its autonomy is questionned ; the work of art takes part in a plastic assemblage and appears in public space (common ground), hence it is political : its set-up is an ideological structure. The frame of a picture is a political construction against reality. It is also found in the theatricality of works of art in museums, and in the notion of art as an autonomous category. Its principle negates the world and neutralises any subversion the work may produce, by locking it into the category. A succession of frames guarantees the entropy of culture as an auto-referring system. To act in the materiality of the world implies a transgression and the building of an other assemblage. One would then risk the disappearance of the work of art. A fragile, ephemeral or site-specific work is only relevant in a precise context, but it may then gain a critical power with regard to that context. The autonomy of the artist and that of the work of art are inversely proportional : if the work is autonomous, it is neutralised. Otherwise, the artist acts in the public and material time and space. He is responsible for his assemblages. An ethic becomes necessary. Every plastic activity faces the temptation of abandoning the compromised art world, and intervenes in culture, where our society's values are negociated. Ephemeral and fragile, critical works can bring a subversion into cultural categories fixing time and space. "common grounds, acts of presence" defends a doubt, on the fringe of disappearance

Les metaphores de la presence : ce titre designe deux rapports possibles a la presence. D'une part, le fait que la metaphore se deploie dans un certain rapport a la determination philosophique de la presence, et d'autre par la possibilite qu'elle nous mene a un "autre" rapport a la presence. Pour arriver a cette possibilite metaphorique supplementaire, nous montrons dans les trois premieres parties de la premiere section (l'ecart metaphorique de la presence philosophique) comment la metaphore s'ecarte de la conception philosophique de la presence : il y a une irreductibilite de la metaphore par rapport a la conceptualite philosophique qui se revele dans la dimension du langage (chez hegel et aristote) et dans la question du commencement philosophique. Cette irreductibilite s'accomplit dans la pensee de nietzsche et dans l'approche kantienne du sublime. Dans l'experience du sublime, les ressources de la metaphore s'etendent au plus loin, non seulement pour faire l'epreuve de l'impresentable mais pour s'ouvrir a la question de l'apparaitre de la presence. Ainsi, la derniere partie de la premiere section donne a entendre une nouvelle possibilite metaphorique. La deuxieme section (la metaphore, distraction de la presence) trace les contours de cette "autre" metaphore a partir du travail poetique et philosophique de holderlin. C'est en approfondissant le sublime kantien (premiere partie), en deconstruisant la categorie du propre plus radicalement que ne le pense heidegger (deuxieme partie), et en pensant une metaphoricite vide ou un transport vide de l'oeuvre (troisieme partie) que holderlin ouvre une nouvelle possibilite de la metaphore et nous invite a mettre en oeuvre une parole fidele au temps de la modernite (quatrieme partie)
The metaphors of presence : this title points out two possible connections presence. On one side, the fact that metaphor spreads out within a certain connection to the philosophical determination of presence, and on the other side, the possibility to be lead to "another" connection to presence. To reach this supplementary metaphorical possibility, we show in the first three parts of the first section (the metaphorical difference of the philosophical presence) how metphor gets away from the philosophical conception of presence : metaphor is irreducible to the philosophical conceptuality which expresses itself in the dimension of language (in hegel and aristole) and in the question of the philosophical beginning. This irreducibility is accomplished in the thought of nietzsche and in the kantian approach to sublime. In the experience of the sublime, the resources of metaphor extend to the utmost, not only to experience the unpresentable but also to open up the question of the appearing of presence. Thus, the last part of the first section suggests a new metaphorical possibility. The second section (metaphor, distraction of presence) draws the outlines of the "other" metaphor out of the poetical and philosophical work of holderlin. It is by going deeper into the kantian sublime (first part), by deconstructing the category of the proper, more radically than does heidegger's thinking (second part) and by thinking an empty metaphoricity or a void transport of the work (third part) that holderlin opens up a new possibility of the metaphor and invites us to work up a word that would be faithful to the time of modernity (fourth part)

Thesis (M.A.)--Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, 1999.
Vita. Includes description of journey of group of American Franciscan Third Order sisters to Bavaria, Germany, June, 1998, celebrating the jubilee of their foundation. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [100]-105).

This practice-led research investigates how technologically mediated space facilitates or impedes connection with those remote. The decision to foreground practice as the primary methodology aims to create a nuanced and detailed definition of the experience to emerge through creative practice that is as individual and idiosyncratic as the experience itself. Beginning with an examination of the context surrounding technologically mediated space, the research examines the processes of signification and the strengths and limitations of language to embody the experience of connection. It provides an analysis of collective and personal narratives using phenomenological methods that question the what, how and where of connection in technologically mediated spaces. From this analysis a critical mode has been developed that expands on the definition of connection, suggesting a future scenario in which a mode of absence that presence is engaged with and moved between.

This thesis is a contribution to design-led research and addresses a readership in the fields of architecture as well as in media and communications. In juxtaposing the tools of the designer (e.g. drafting, prototyping, visual/textual/spatial forms of montage) with those of architectural theory, this thesis seeks to extend the disciplinary boundaries of architecture by observing its assimilation of other media practices. Its primary contribution is to architectural design and theory, and its aims are twofold: Firstly, this thesis applies the concepts of virtual and mediated space to architecture, proposing an extended architectural practice that assimilates the concept of remote presence. Through realized design examples as well as through the history and theory of related concepts, the thesis explores what designing mediated spaces and designing for presence entails for the practicing architect. As a fusion of architecture and media technology, video-mediated spaces facilitate collaborative practices across spatial extensions while simultaneously fostering novel and environmentally sustainable modes of communication. The impact of presence design on workplace design is examined. As an extended practice also calls for an extended discourse, a preliminary conceptual toolbox is proposed. Concepts are adapted from related visual practices and tested on design prototypes, which arise from the author’s extensive experience in designing work and learning spaces. Secondly, this thesis outlines presence design as a transdisciplinary aesthetic practice and discusses the potential contribution of architects to a currently heterogeneous research field, which spans media space research, cognitive science, (tele)presence research, interaction design, ubiquitous computing, second-order cybernetics, and computer-supported collaborative work. In spite of such diversity, design and artistic practices are insufficiently represented in the field. This thesis argues that presence research and its discourse is characterised by sharp disciplinary boundaries and thereby identifies a conceptual gap: presence research typically fails to integrate aesthetic concepts that can be drawn from architecture and related visual practices. It is an important purpose of this thesis to synthesize such concepts into a coherent discourse. Finally, the thesis argues that remote presence through the proposed synthesis of architectural and technical design creates a significantly expanded potential for knowledge sharing across time and space, with potential to expand the practice and theory of architecture itself. The author’s design-led research shows that mediated spaces can provide sufficient audiovisual information about the remote space(s) and other person(s), allowing the subtleties of nonverbal communication to inform the interaction. Further, in designing for presence, certain spatial features have an effect on the user’s ability to experience a mediated spatial extension, which in turn, facilitates mediated presence. These spatial features play an important role in the process through which trust is negotiated, and hence has an impact on knowledge sharing. Mediated presence cannot be ensured by design, but by acknowledging the role of spatial design in mediated spaces, the presence designer can monitor and, in effect, seek to reduce the ‘friction’ that otherwise may inhibit the experience of mediated presence. The notion of ‘friction’ is borrowed from a context of knowledge sharing in collaborative work practices. My expanded use of the term ‘design friction’ is used to identify spatial design features which, unaddressed, may be said to impose friction and thus inhibit and impact negatively on the experience of presence. A conceptual tool-box for presence design is proposed, consisting of the following design concepts: mediated gaze, spatial montage, active spectatorship, mutual gaze, shared mediated space, offscreen space, lateral and peripheral awareness, framing and transparency. With their origins in related visual practices these emerge from the evolution of the concept of presence across a range of visual cultures, illuminating the centrality of presence design in design practice, be it in the construction of virtual pictorial space in Renaissance art or the generative design experiments of prototypical presence designers, such as Cedric Price, Gordon Pask and numerous researchers at MIT Media Lab, Stanford Institute and Xerox PARC.
QC 20100909

Tele-presence refers to technologies enabling the remote presence of an observer or operator of robotics machines - through the use of monitoring and display devices. This involves the facilitation of 3D space perception on the basis of 2D pictures, a problem which is of interest to engineers, and psychologists who study space and picture perception. From a functional perspective the issue requires the specification of the necessary characteristics of a tele-presence system for effective task performance by a human observer. Since the central problem in picture perception is the conflict between the 3D re-presentation of the scene and the 2D surface of the picture, one possibility for tele-presence systems to reduce this conflict consists in the use of a camera which is slaved to observer movement. Thus the video picture is yoked to the head movement of the observer: changes in the video picture viewed by the observer emulate the changes that would have occurred in the visual field if the observer was viewing the scene directly. The explanation for reduced cue conflict and improved depth perception in pictures lies in the availability of motion parallax information. The main aim of this research was to see whether tele-presence which provides motion parallax information on a video picture improves depth perception compared to static tele-presence. While theoretical claims concerning the usefulness of motion parallax have a long history, the empirical findings are more equivocal. The basic design compared depth perception of a moving observer with that of a stationary observer. Two initial experiments showed that the movement condition leads to more accurate depth perception than the stationary condition, both under tele-presence and direct viewing conditions. Experiments 4 to 7 showed that active observation leads only to non- significantly better accuracy than passive observation. Interrupting the natural link between action and perception by reversing the picture tends to reduce the difference between the movement and the stationary condition. However, combining the analysis of the active, passive and reverse picture conditions did not lead to significant differences. A further experiment using an adjustment task supported the finding that reverse viewing does not reduce accuracy. In general the differences between the movement and the static condition while significant were not very strong which suggested that other sources of information such as visual angle information may have specified depth to a considerable extent. Simulation of fully remote tele-presence was expected to provide stronger differences. However, the differences were small and explainable in terms of short term learning processes resulting in perceptual fixity, i.e. an inability to take advantage of the information available. It was concluded that motion parallax is probably only a weak cue to depth under practical circumstances, and that learning effects in tele-presence systems require further attention. Future attention should be directed at learning processes and at the complexity of the stimulus displays. The study of learning processes may help to understand the consistent finding of large individual differences in using motion parallax information. And the study of more complex stimulus displays would enable a more adequate assessment of the ecological emphasis on the role of motion parallax.

The subjective experience of presence is considered to be important in the treatment of anxiety disorders using virtual reality. Presence can be defined as a psychological phenomenon through which one's cognitive processes are oriented towards another world. Most of the research on presence has focused on the roles of technological factors influencing presence, while the number of studies focusing on the personality and physiological predictors are far fewer. Thus, the present study examined the relationship between various personality variables and presence, along with physiological correlates of presence when engaged in a virtual environment. The Presence Questionnaire, to determine their experience of presence, and a small battery of personality-related questionnaires were administered to 70 young adults who participated in 3 different virtual reality scenarios. Participants' physiological responses were recorded in the form of heart rate, galvanic skin levels, and galvanic skin responses were assessed as were urges to drink (craving). Data analysis showed that expectations, levels of craving, and drinking history played a significant role in the experience of presence.
B.S.
Bachelors
Sciences
Psychology

Thesis (Sc. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 1996.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 131-136).
by Raymond Paul Stata.
Sc.D.

Kean College of New Jersey, one of eight colleges in the state's higher education system, has often failed to include professional librarians in much of the campus decision making. Lack of participation may be due a lack of aggressiveness on the part of the librarians or to the long held perceptions by administrators that the library is only a storehouse. Library space has been appropriated for other purposes although seating and shelving area needs are in short supply. The library is considered a support service, not an academic department. Professional librarians are not thought of as involved in instruction. The distribution of college information and the allocation of resources are based on Schools, Departments, Teaching Credit Hours and the employee category of faculty. New Jersey State College librarians lost faculty status and academic rank in 1970. Decision makers are unaware of the effect technology has had on information retrieval and the potential value of telecommunications in accessing distant databases for research purposes. The role of a college library in computer conferencing, networks, and electronic mail delivery is as yet undeveloped at Kean. Academics must be educated to seeing the library as the center of major developments in the use of communication technologies. This will become clearer with an online public catalog and Compact Disk workstations in the library. To alleviate the problems of omission of the library in the planning process and to increase recognition of the changing role of academic librarianship, procedures were undertaken to 1. Obtain appointment to college committees where decisions are made, and 2. To demonstrate online information retrieval to interested colleagues. The opportunity to participate on the various advisory bodies involved in implementation of a Governor's Challenge Grant made the library representative a visible, active partner. Classroom faculty are unfamiliar with the new modes of thinking and learning that are involved in establishing search strategies for information retrieval. The increasing instructional responsibility of academic librarians with the growth of machine-stored data must be demonstrated. The results of this study helped achieve closer communication with college leaders and broadened their understanding of the changing role of academic librarians. Library presence made it possible to extend certain rights and privileges for librarians through the revision or expansion of policy documents. Movement from the periphery of the college through service on campus committees and an awakened awareness of the new role for librarians were the goals of the project. The rewards are believed to be increased recognition and respect as librarians are seen and treated as colleagues by classroom faculty through their joint participation in common endeavors. The significance of bibliographic instruction was demonstrated and also the value to classroom faculty of Online information retrieval. There was librarian participation in the implementation of the goals of the Governor's Challenge Grant particularly in plans for computers in the curriculum and further development of the new General Education program. Involvement in plans for a local area network and the Primix system were explored. The political action of participation, cooperation with administration and classroom faculty, must be initiated by the librarians themselves or they will continue to be overlooked. This is advocated throughout the literature of librarianship. Political action was the method taken to awaken colleagues to an appreciation of their academic library in an information age.