Maiken Hillerup Fogtmann’s research while affiliated with Aarhus School of Architecture and other places

The paper introduces a novel pervasive computing based training concept aimed at elite sports. The concept goes beyond interactive sports equipments that are either individual or multiuser with a common display requiring participant's focus. These types of equipments are unable to support the kinesthetic empathic elements inherently present within open sports. To put focus on collective training, we draw inspiration from Kinesthetic Empathy Interaction in designing the collective training equipment, TacTowers. The TacTowers prototype is aimed at supporting athletes, particularly team handball players, in honing their psychomotor skills, in particular anticipation and decision making skills, in the one-on-one confrontation. TacTowers is a sensor-actuator based system, with LED lights and no screen-based display. It is placed between the players in order to reintroduce the kinesthetic empathic element in the interaction, specific to the sport. We present and discuss results of tests with two elite handball teams. We see prospects for applying the concept for entertaining movement-stimulating games at schools or leisure sports environments.

In the field of practice-based research we articulate the dilemma that emerges as the creative designer embraces the role of being an interaction design researcher. We exemplify the dilemma in a specific design case originating from a PhD project. In this case, we use sketching to illustrate how the design researcher embodies the creative designer at all times. We show how the dilemma becomes tangible in the conversation with the material when having to manage a set of design constraints, concerns and sensibilities. We acknowledge that when taking on both roles at the same time there are two different clients with different agendas to serve. Where one is concerned with making the best possible product the other pertains to the contribution of knowledge. Finally, we state the importance of having a strong research question when balancing a research program while at the same time creating a new, desired reality.

This paper presents a novel approach for designing bodily engaging games based on fundamental skills and gaming characteristics specific to interactive sports. The concept of kinesthetic empathy interaction is used to articulate the space of interaction where the motivation for action is developed in collaboration between the participants. General open skills of interactive sports are distilled into design parameters, and three gaming characteristics are derived. Together, these contribute to the theoretical foundation for the design of new games that encourage the use of both cognitive and physical abilities. The approach is based on two experimental design cases, and illustrates how the developed design parameters are a determining factor in the physical design or digital qualities embedded in the product.

The paper presents an architectural approach to designing computational artifacts and interfaces. It does so by identifying overlapping ideals and characteristics in the interaction design concepts of Collective Interaction and Kinesthetic Empathy Interaction with schools of thought in architecture. The implications and qualities of the approach are elaborated upon through concrete examples of design following the lines of the approach. On the basis of this the overlooked potential of designing computational artifacts as architecture is described. The approach both serves as a generative approach to designing spatial interfaces and forms the ground for articulating a critique of spatial interfaces in general as it is the claim of the paper that spatiality as understood in architecture not has been served and taken advantage of in its totality by spatial interaction design so far.

The interactive training equipment, TacTower, is aimed at supporting multiple elite athletes, such as handball players in training their micro-tactical skills in close-contact situations. It focuses on psychomotor abilities and trains the skills involved in reading the opponents' actions and anticipating the outcome while reacting accordingly. The Tac-Tower prototype will be demonstrated live, and here we summarize the main design issues, to give the reader a sense of how the elite sports context stands out from other interaction design domains. There is much potential for interaction design for the elite athletic community, as this domain holds interesting challenges while also inspiring relevant, new forms of interaction design for other domains.

Within the Human-Computer Interaction community there is a growing interest in designing for the whole body in interaction design. The attempts aimed at addressing the body have very different outcomes spanning from theoretical arguments for understanding the body in the design process, to more practical examples of designing for bodily potential. This paper presents Kinesthetic Interaction as a unifying concept for describing the body in motion as a foundation for designing interactive systems. Based on the theoretical foundation for Kinesthetic Interaction, a conceptual framework is introduced to reveal bodily potential in relation to three design themes --- kinesthetic development, kinesthetic means and kinesthetic disorder; and seven design parameters --- engagement, sociality, movability, explicit motivation, implicit motivation, expressive meaning and kinesthetic empathy. The framework is a tool to be utilized when analyzing existing designs, as well as developing designs exploring new ways of designing kinesthetic interactions.

The iSport project is exploring the design and interaction potential of movement and physical interaction in social contexts. The project deals with three distinct areas of application all within the world of sports: elite athletes training, spectator experiences at sport events and physical education in schools. The goal of the project is to create interactive prototypes that will enhance and support the activities already at play in the three contexts and in that effort explore new ways of interacting with ubiquitous computing technology.