Sociophysical interactions
Understanding the role of social and tangible technologies in maintaining good habits into old age
Investigators
Frank Vetere, Toni Robertson, Margaret Brereton, Steve Howard, Yvonne Rogers, Bjorn Nansen.
About
This project investigates the gap between tangible interactions offered by mobile and embedded technologies and opportunities for social engagement offered by social technologies.
We plan to extend existing understandings of embodied interaction into the Web 2.0 era, theoretically, practically and methodologically, through the coupling of design investigation and theory building. More immediately, the project seeks to exploit these opportunities by contributing important technological innovations to a specific domain of national significance, supporting the capacities of an ageing population to maintain healthy habits into old age.
The project aims to:
- Establish a theoretical grounding in sociophysical interaction, defined as an ability to conceptualise the entanglement of tangible and social interaction in the era of Web 2.0
- Develop exemplar prototypes that combine tangible and social interaction design in an authentic problem domain of national significance that can (a) be used to investigate how these technologies can enhance the experience and well-being of older people; and (b) be used to generate further development of similar technologies
- Create methodological insights into how to build these combined systems and to suggest design processes and tools that might support a robust and human-centred design approach; and
- Contribute technological resources for the ongoing health and wellbeing of those moving into old age
Funding
Australia Research Council, Discovery Project
Period
2011-2013