A paper entitled "Scheduling and Development Support in the Scavenger Cyber Foraging System" has been accepted for inclusion in the Journal of Pervasive and Mobile Computing (PMC).

Mads Darø Kristensen was invited to write an extended version of his PerCom 2010 paper to the Journal of Pervasive and Mobile Computing [link]. This new, extended version was written together with Niels Olof Bouvin and has recently been accepted for inclusion in the Journal. The "article in press" version of the paper can be found here [link] (be aware that this link will cease working when the paper is assigned to an issue of the journal).

During the Roskilde festival, you could see and experience SwingScape – the music installation which gives you the possibility to remix your own songs using your body. The 15m x 15m, and 4 m high, installation soon became a popular event on the festival; both as a playful interactive installation bringing people together with music and as a visual meeting point for some of the 75.000 visitors.

The installation was made for the ”Ånd- og Videnfestival” in February. It was then more of a cityscape-installation inviting people in the cold Scandinavian winter to join in a gathering event.

A version 2 was made for the Roskilde festival. This time, the context was quite different. Being a music festival our design focus was in a higher degree on the music and the variations within this.

New tracks were created in addition to the existing ones, and through this the character of the installation was shifting during the day – from calm to more intense.

SwingScape from Interactive Spaces on Vimeo.

UFOscope is a prototype developed within the Playing Families project. The aim of the project is to obtain knowledge about families and play and to test models and concepts for families with children, especially within play and play culture in relation to libraries. During week 26 visitors can test UFOscope at the main library in Aarhus. Afterwards the prototype will be placed in Aalborg during the weeks 30-31 and at Randers library during the weeks 32-33.

The aspects of the projects are:

• To address the families and support joint activities across generations rather than to address individuals or individual age groups.
• Output: new, research-based knowledge about families with children, their needs and use of play activities.
• Research-based strategies and methods with research about play and user-centered design process with families as participants.
• Interdisciplinarity in the project partnership with a university, a GTS company, a children’s culture network and three public libraries.

Hence play across families is tested by developing instillation in the library context. Will the library become a meeting place for the family?

The prototype: An alien lands in the main library in its UFOscope and is now curious to learn more about this place. The so-called UFOscope gives the visitor the opportunity to see digital information in the library and with this tool he can inform the alien about Denmark. When the UFOscope runs over red graphic markings which are located all around the building, it is possible through sound, film, text and images to find secret information.

UFOscope is a development of an experience technology platform which has been previously used in the IXP project. It is developed using the principle to be exploring and thereby also stimulating in an exhibition environment.

This technology makes it possible to simulate a world beneath the floor and thus gives the visitor the illusion that he can find treasures beneath the floor. A RFID reader is placed under the UFOscope, which makes it possible to read RFID tags (and thereby start the different parts of the fictional world) which are placed under the graphic markings all around the library.

The paper Hansen, F. A. & Grønbæk, K.: 'UrbanWeb: a Platform for Mobile Context-aware Social Computing' has been accepted for the 2010 Hypertext conference in Toronto, Canada http://www.ht2010.org/.

The competition was strong when the handball players from Bjerringbro-Silkeborg tested the preliminary prototype of the training tool TacTowers on March 23 2010.

The new elected winners of the group play in the men's league provided important input when they tested the iSports training tool TacTowers.The project is part of the Interactive Spaces research center and is based on the handball sport. The focus is to train split vision, speed as well as the ability to think tactically in stressful situations, and in the test of TacTowers, the elite players were indeed challenged in several ways.

The wise winner
The test included two games which in their own way worked with overview, strategy and speed. And it quickly became clear that one could not win on speed alone. The winning players soon gave their own intelligence the credit for the victory.

TacTowers consists of four pillars with a series of pressure sensitive balls that the players must hit to get points. The columns are in contact with a computer where the training games are loaded. During the test in "Bjerringbro hallen" the pillars were placed in a row with one player on each side. They fought against each other by seeing who could first turn on the lights in the pressure-sensitive balls.

- I think the training tool has potential, and it is a more fun way to train than some of the things we are doing now, says Simon Kristiansen, who is selected for the national team.

There is potential
The work with TacTowers stems from an idea to involve IT in sports in the best way and find completely new equipment instead of improving the present. Team Denmark has therefore also shown interest in the project and sport physiologist Thue Kvorning is well aware of the potential in this prototype.

- In general, I believe in having equipment train and measure the players' tactical abilities and speed under competition-like conditions. However, the reason why we have not yet seen training equipment that works in this way in practice is that it is very difficult to develop, explains Thue Kvorning who has served as the liaison between the researchers from Interactive Spaces and players and coaches from BSV.

The handball players proposed changes to the prototype. Their main complaint was that the balls did not always show that they were hit. Thus, the pressure sensitive areas of the balls must be larger.

- But TacTowers has potential. It can provide an extra element of competition, especially if it resembles situations we know from a handball match, says Bjerringbro-Silkeborg's Swedish goalkeeper Anders Persson.

The development continues
The work continues at Interactive Spaces. Interaction designer, Martin Ludvigsen, was responsible for the test in "Bjerringbro hallen" and he now has a wide range of invaluable input for further development:

- The players' inputs are very useful and can help to simplify the model to fit even better at handball training. It is difficult to develop games that challenge the players and also works well as a game - i.e. that they are motivating and balanced.

His plan is to play test TacTowers once again in the nearest future to test the next step in the development process. Team Denmark watches this process with great interest, as sport physiologist Thue Kvorning is looking for tools that make testing and training more broadly oriented:

- Our current tests are very narrow and focused on physics. So I hope that new technology may create tools which train tactics and overview, he says.

TacTowers is an offshoot of the iSport project. But researchers from Interactive Spaces, Aarhus School of Architecture, Computer Science and ACTIVEInstitute can use the project's findings in their future work. And the very concrete inputs from elite athletes to improvements can be taken further in the prototype work of the next version.

The Alexandra Institute, The Katapult Theatre and Arla Foods have developed a new and interactive game, which works via mobile tags. The game will set new standards for the dissemination of ecology to children and adults - on the farms.

A new, interactive mobile game will now give children and adults a new and different insight into the ecology world. The game "Økofonen" is made as a series of stories, which are activated by the users' own mobile phones and mobile tags placed around the organic Arla-farms that are open on "Økodagen" on April 18.

The Alexandra Institute has developed the technology and the Katapult Theatre is responsible for the audio drama (Audio Move), while Arla Foods wants to use the concept as a new way to inform about ecology.

"Økofonen" is a software application for mobile phones, which creates the illusion that it is the cows themselves, who talk. This combination of entertainment and communication can best be described as edutainment.

"Økofonen" is made in a way that it "translates" the cows' thoughts into human language, and we have chosen to let the nagging cows speak as a way to capture the attention of the children. It is ecological information in a strange, humorous and factual way, "says Torben Dahl, theater director at The Katapult Theatre.

The paper Hansen, A. B, Krogh, P. G, Petersen, M. G, and Winther, I. W. 'Tactics for Homing in Mobile Life - A Fieldwalk Study of Extremely Mobile People' has been developed by the Mobile Home Center project and has been accepted for Mobile HCI 2010 http://mobilehci2010.di.fc.ul.pt/

"Ånd og Vidensfestivalen" at Roskilde is a completely new winter festival. A two-day cavalcade of activities and experiences taking place in February 2010 which will light up the streets, buildings and residents of Roskilde. It will focus on scientific knowledge and spiritual breathing space, to create a festival with an ambitious complex program of activities and experiences for all residents. Interactive Spaces has developed the installation "SwingScape" - an interactive installation that comes into play at the visitor's physical activities. The installation invites people into an activity which most of us know from our childhood; to swing.

The installation seeks to challenge physical activity in urban spaces where human interaction is the key.
Anyone who can swing can use the installation and be a co-creator of the collective experience provided by "SwingScape" through light, sound and physical activity.

SwingScape consists of 2 zones, which are illuminated by different colors when it swings. At the same time each zone activates a part of a larger sound universe. In the blue zone varying beats are activated and in the green zone ringtones are activated. If visitors in several zones begin to swing into line, it creates a sonic harmony which can be seen from all seats of the installation.

The installation is located on the "Hestetorvet", where the train station, the pedestrian street and a busy road meet, and thus makes space for a dynamic point in the city, which supports the nature of the installation.

Read more (PDF): SwingScape_Description

Read more (in Danish): http://www.aand-viden.dk/gyngen

Interactive Spaces transforms Roskilde library into an experience space that immerse the user in the information flow between the library and the surrounding city. Pulse, atmosphere, sound and movements from the city are transformed to live interactive installations. "Echoes of the city" can be experienced on 10th - 24 February during library opening hours.

The common theme of the installation "Echoes of the city" is the library's sensitivity illuminated from the outside world around the themes "everyone in the library", "the city in the library" and "the world in the library."

The three works illustrate how the library continuously relates actively to the surrounding world, which is based in the Middle, the Local and the Global. A key aspect of this is to involve the viewer in a dialogue with these installations and thereby make the library more present.

The three installations in the "Echoes of the city" are all located at Roskilde Library.

The installations operate with the interface between indoor and outdoor spaces - the world outside the library and the library itself. This gives a dual experience of the same surface which varies in shape depending on the citizen's meeting with the library, depending on whether this is accessed from inside or outside. Figuratively speaking the walls and windows of the library work as a membrane which actively filter the knowledge in the world and enter what seems appropriate - and let knowledge which seems appropriate out from the library

Read more (in Danish) : http://www.lyslyd.com/da/byrumsprojekter0/februar2010/ekkoafbyen

Thus the installation will contribute on several levels to the dialogue on the library as part of the public sphere, and its present role with the city and surroundings.

The paper: Kjærgaard, M.B., Blunck, H., Godsk, T., Toftkjær, T., Christensen, D.L., Grønbæk, K. 2010, "Indoor Positioning Using GPS Revisited", has been accepted for the Eight International Conference on Pervasive Computing.

A full paper entitled "Scavenger — Transparent Development of Efficient Cyber Foraging Applications" by Mads Darø Kristensen will be presented at IEEE PerCom 2010(acceptance rate 12%) in Mannheim, Germany.

I weekenden bidrog Alexandra i samarbejde med CISS, CSI og en lang række private firmaer med en stor udstilling på Bright Green Expo i Forum i København i anledning af COP15, se www.swkorridor.dk/en/the_energy_aware_house.

Vores udstilling gik rigtig godt, der har været indslag i både TV2 nyhederne og i Harddisken.

Videnskabsminister Helge Sander besøgte lørdag udstillingen Bright green og fik der en rundvisning af Ole Lehrmann og Claus Møller Christensen (som sammen med Liselott Stenfeldt har stået for hele det udtryksmæssige element af udstillingen).

Se lidt flere billeder her.

Undervejs blev ministeren så begejstret for vores udstilling at han spurgte om vi kunne sætte den op på VTU mandag. Dels var han begejstret for udstillingens udtryk og indhold, dels var det et rigtig godt eksempel på at private firmaer og videninstitutioner kan arbejde sammen, og dels viste det ene af vores udstillingsrør præcis den ide, som netop havde vundet en intern konkurrence i ministeriet vedrørende at spare energi.

Som ønsket, så gjort, så i løbet af søndag aften og hele dagen i går fik vi flyttet hele udstillingen til VTU, hvor den nu skal stå den næste måned. Nogle hurtige indtryk:

Mere her.

Endnu mere på vej på http://picasaweb.google.com/swkorridor.

November 10, the research activities from the Galileo Platform project were featured in the DR2 Viden Om broadcast about the "GPS Revolution". The Viden Om broadcast can be found on dr.dk/videnom. The main focus of the clip was on our research into indoor positioning and in particular the FireSafe system being developed in collaboration with Systematic. The Galileo Platform project is supported by the Danish National Advanced Technology Foundation and it is managed by the Alexandra Institute.

Partners

Alexandra Instituttet

Dansk Landbrugsrådgivning

Datalogisk Institut, Aarhus Universitet

Handelshøjskolen, Aarhus Universitet

DGC, Aalborg Universitet

Systematic A/S

Terma A/S

Supported by

RETHINK - Contemporary Art & Climate Change is an art exhibition that thematises climate changes through 26 art works created by Nordic and international contemporary artists working in the intersection of arts, climate changes and culture. The Alexandra Institute Ltd. has been the initiator of the exhibition which opened October 29th at Moesgård Museum in Århus, and on October 30th in Copenhagen at the National Gallery of Denmark, Den Frie Centre of Contemporary Art and Nikolaj Copenhagen Contemporary Art Center.

InfoGalleries can be found at all four locations providing art communication and giving the users the opportunity watch interviews with the artists, write comments on the exhibition and see what other visitors have written at the different locations.

RETHINK has been appointed "Nordic Exhibition of the Year 2009-2010" by the Nordic Culture Fund. In addition, the exhibition is a part of the official culture programme for the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP15 that will take place in Copenhagen from December 7th to 18th.

For more information, visit the website.

"HIKUINs Vendetta" premiered on August 31 2009. HIKUINs vendetta is a Mobile Urban Drama developed as part of the mobile, urban activities in the center for Interactive Spaces and the Alexandra Institute. The Mobile Urban Drama is developed to run on the users' own mobile phones and utilizes a QR-code based infrastructure to provide the digital-physical links between the drama and the real-time city.

"HIKUINs Vendetta" premiered on August 31 2009. HIKUINs vendetta is a Mobile Urban Drama developed as part of the mobile, urban activities in the center for Interactive Spaces and the Alexandra Institute. The Mobile Urban Drama is developed to run on the users' own mobile phones and utilizes a QR-code based infrastructure to provide the digital-physical links between the drama and the real-time city.

HIKUINs vendetta is developed by the center for Interactive Spaces and the Alexandra Institute in cooperation with local and regional partners:

VisitAarhus, Moesgård Museum, Teater Katapult, Alexandra Instituttet, Midtjysk Turisme, Århus Kommune.

See more press:

YouTube

Jyllands-Posten, Lokalavisen, DR TV-Avisen, VisitDanmark, Kristeligt Dagblad and the Moesgaard Blog.