Archived projects
From Sharing to Caring: Examining Socio-Technical Aspects of the Collaborative Economy (in short Sharing and Caring) is a COST action funded by the COST Association . COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) is a pan-European intergovernmental framework. Its mission is to enable break-through scientific and technological developments leading to new concepts and products and thereby contribute to strengthening Europe’s research and innovation capacities.
The Sharing and Caring COST action was initiated and is currently chaired by Dr. Gabriela Avram, and the University of Limerick is the action’s Grant Holder institution.
The main objective of this action is to develop a European network of actors (including scholars, practitioners, communities and policy makers) focusing on the development of collaborative economy models and platforms and on social and technological implications of the collaborative economy through a practice-focused approach.
The terms “Sharing Economy” or “Collaborative Economy” have been commonly used in recent years to refer to a proliferation of initiatives, business models and forms of work.
The specific aims of the action are:
- To develop a deeper understanding of the collaborative economy phenomenon in all its aspects, by studying in-depth the sociotechnical systems and human practices involved, comparing and reflecting upon local, regional, national and international initiatives;
- To discuss and critique elements of the current discourse on the collaborative economy, and proposing a richer definition and characterisation of the phenomenon;
- To formulate a European research agenda for the socio-technical aspects of the collaborative economy, including specifically the design of future technological platforms, the technical infrastructure, their legal, ethical and financial implications;
- To articulate a European research perspective on the collaborative economy, based on EU values of social innovation, and in line with the Europe 2020 strategy objective to become a smart, sustainable and inclusive economy by 2020.
The action will produce online resources including publications offering a comprehensive view of the current European collaborative economy and socio-technical and policy recommendations for the future.
You can visit the SharingAndCaring action page on the cost.eu website, download our factsheet and read our Memorandum of Understanding(MoU), and also check the list of participating countries and the list of Management Committee members and substitutes. The action’s official website is at sharingandcaring.eu .
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Duration: 24 March 2017- 23 March 2021
Website: Sharing and Caring
Main contact in IDC:
List of IDC-based members:
- Gabriela Avram
- Nora O’Murchu
- Kim O’Shea
- Vangelis Papadimitropoulos
+CityxChange is a smart city project, that has been granted funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme in the call for the topic ‘Smart cities and communities’. In all seven Lighthouse Cities and Follower Cities which are part of the project, Positive Energy Blocks and Districts will be developed and installed by contributing in this way to the European Clean Energy Transition goals across EU cities. Following this line of thought, the project can contribute to help cities come closer to fulfilling two main EU Directives such as the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive and the Energy Efficiency Directive.
They both serve as key EU legislative instruments to endorse the improvement of the energy performance of buildings in EU countries. Viewing it from a broader context, the development of smart city strategies is closely aligned to the goals and targets of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Cities across the world are already making use of Big Data analytics gathered from smart sensors and connected devices. Using technological solutions to address wider community issues, can help governments to improve a wide range of urban operations and services, by developing intelligent and inclusive urban systems where waste, costs and ecological impacts are minimised.
It goes hand in hand with the UN SDG 11 (sustainable cities and communities), where a big emphasis is being put on ‘’making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable’’. In a more direct or indirect way, digital technologies can help to foster the successful implementation of other SDGs as well. It is important to address not only the direct technical solutions, but also the interaction and integration between buildings, users, cities and the larger energy system in order to stimulate the right environment for sustainable economic development.
UL is involved in WP3, dedicated to community engagement, and in WP4, dedicated to the implementation of the concepts in Limerick. The UL project team includes staff from the Kemmy Business School, School of Architecture and IDC.
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Duration: 1 Nov 2018- 31 Oct 2023
Website: cityxchange.eu
Main contacts in IDC:
meSch, Material EncounterS with digital Cultural Heritage, has the goal of designing, developing and deploying tools for the creation of tangible interactive experiences that connect the physical experience of museums and exhibitions with relevant digital cross-media information in novel ways. A wealth of digital cultural heritage content is currently available in on-line repositories and archives, it is however accessed only in a limited way and utilised through rather static modes of delivery.
meSch bridges the gap between visitors’ cultural heritage experience on-site and online by providing a platform for the creation of tangible smart exhibits, that enables heritage professionals to compose and realize physical artifacts enriched by digital content without the need for specialized technical knowledge: the platform includes an authoring environment for the composition of physical/digital narratives to be mapped to interactive artefacts, and an embedded multi-sensor digital system platform for the construction of ad-hoc physical adaptive smart objects.
The meSch envisioning and realisation approach is grounded on principles of co-design, the broad participation of designers, developers and stakeholders into the process, and on a Do-It-Yourself philosophy to making and experimentation: hands-on design and making workshops are employed throughout the project to inform and shape development.
Three large-scale case studies in different museums provide test beds for the real-world evaluation of meSch technology with the public and cultural heritage stakeholders. The ultimate goal of the project is to support the creation of an open community of cultural heritage institutions driving and sharing a new generation of physical/digital museum interactives.
meSch is a EU FP7 Integrating Project involving 12 partners across Europe.
Duration: 1 February, 2013 -> 31 January, 2017
Webpage: Material Encounters with Digital Cultural Heritage
Main contacts in IDC:
e: gabriela.avram@ul.ie
e: laura.maye@ul.ie
List of IDC-based members:
- Cristiano Storni
- Fiona McDermott
- Gabriela Avram
- Laura Maye
The project examines the development and design of novel Persuasive Technology (PT) in order to support children with type 1 diabetes. Behaviour can have a direct impact of individual health. Health can therefore be improved through successful behavioural modification. Behavioural modification with children can be more difficult because they are in the early stages of their communication and cognitive development. As a result, they do not always understand the nature of their illness or the consequences of their actions. The self-efficacy of children needs to be developed in order to enhance their health and minimise the risk of complications arising from improper diabetes management. One method to achieve this is through PT. PT in healthcare can be designed to help and support users by providing education about their illness as well as motivating them to engage in self-monitoring and self-care practises. More specifically, the project aims to identify if and how:
• Information and Communication technology (ICT) can affect children’s everyday management of diabetes; • the proper use of ICT can lead to more effective design improving chronic-care;
• research in PT, in the context of healthcare, can reveal more effective ways to encourage people to acquire and maintain healthy behaviours and improve their quality of life;
• Participatory Design approaches (which involve actively using stakeholders to help develop solutions) can be adequately used to help carry out this type of research.
In essence, the research will test persuasive technological solutions designed to improve children’s understanding of their condition, awareness of risks factors, ability to self-manage and general acquisition of healthy behaviours. This may in turn lead to the development of cost-effective treatments in health care systems as well an increase in the quality of life for patients, their family and other medical and supervisor assistants.
This project is funded by Irish Research Council (IRC).
Duration: 1 September, 2012 -> 30 September, 2015 Webpage: Persuasive Technologies in Healthcare
Main contacts in IDC:
List of IDC-based members:
Ireland is currently experiencing a housing crisis. The most recent figures from Focus
Ireland show a record total of more than 8,000 people homeless in Ireland. At the same
time, hundreds of thousands of homes are in negative equity and many are in difficulty
paying their mortgages. When examining alternative solutions to the housing crisis, one of
the models that is growing in popularity in Europe and around the world is cohousing.
Cohousing initiatives are intentional communities who co-own, plan and manage their
buildings collaboratively, and share facilities as well as activities. The growing popularity of
cohousing initiatives is part of the emerging collaborative economy, which favours more
sustainable housing solutions, with a lower carbon footprint, often associated with shared
transportation, community food growing, sharing tools and equipment, as well as
knowledge and skills, and also sharing working and leisure spaces.
In recent years, the umbrella term ‘collaborative economy’ (sometimes also called the
sharing economy) has continuously grown in popularity and focuses on sharing,
exchanging and collaborating both within communities and at a wider level. Enabled by
digital platform technologies, the collaborative economy allows households, individuals,
businesses, governments and non-government organisations to engage in collaborative
production, distribution and consumption of goods, services and experiences. The aim of
this research is to gain a deeper understanding of this phenomenon from the angle of
potential benefits and challenges of alternative housing solutions, and to explore the role
that Information and Communication Technologies could play as enabler of such
solutions. Two case studies with interested stakeholders will be undertaken and a digital
platform for facilitating the creation and maintenance of a knowledge base regarding cohousing
in Ireland will be developed.The platform will also offer support for networking and
self-organisation for individuals and families interested in co-housing solutions in Ireland.
Main contacts in IDC:
e: nora.omurchu@ul.ie
e: gabriela.avram@ul.ie
List of IDC-based members:
- Kim O’Shea
- Nora O’Murchu
- Gabriela Avram
The last decades have witnessed the rise of a collaborative economy that disrupts the capitalist mode of production. The collaborative economy introduces the peer-to-peer production, which is based on distributed or common property infrastructures (natural resources, technology, knowledge, capital, culture), self-managed by their user communities in accordance with collectively established rules or norms (Ostrom 1990). Commons-based peer production is particularly facilitated by the architectural design of the Internet and free/open source software/hardware that support the creation of alternative entrepreneurial models operating in terms of decentralization, democratic self-governance and distribution of value (Benkler 2006, Scholz 2016, Kostakis & Bauwens 2014).
The project aims to investigate the emergence of the collaborative economy in Ireland through the illustration of a case study: that of the intentional community who founded the Cloughjordan Ecovillage, where a number of citizens, social entrepreneurs, scientists and activists have come together to create an alternative paradigm of economy based on community living, digital platforms and self-governance.
Duration: 16 January-18 April 2018
Contact: gabriela.avram@ul.ie
Participants:
- Gabriela Avram
- Vangelis Papadimitropoulos
- Nora O’Murchu
Supported by COST action CA16121 Sharing and Caring via a Short Term Scientific Mission.
Women’s Participation in Makerspaces is a research project undertaken by Tara Whelan under the supervision of Dr. Nora O’Murchu.
Makerspaces serve as meeting points where communities of new and experienced makers connect to work on tangible and personally meaningful projects, informed by helpful mentors and peer expertise, using new technologies and traditional tools. This research presents an empirical investigation of these spaces and examines how the models of pedagogical and social practice within makerspaces can support the participation of women and girls.
Research regarding the demographics of European makerspaces is sparse, but surveys of American and Chinese makerspaces indicate that about 81% of makerspace members are men (Karlin Associates, 2012) – a figure that is similar to the gender breakdown at major tech companies. With STEM fields showing consistent shortfall in terms of graduates needed for industry positions, it is imperative that the issues keeping women out of these fields be addressed. Makerspaces promise to be an effective portal into these fields.
The aim of this research is to construct what best practice looks like in regard to structures, activities and pedagogies in makerspaces, when given the aim of activating and supporting the groups most excluded from the “New Industrial Revolution” – i.e. those of a non- technological background, young learners, those from economically or socially disadvantaged groups, and – in particular – women. By understanding and addressing what excludes these groups from these spaces, we can attract them to making; and through making, to technology.
Duration: 2015- 2019
Main contact in IDC:
List of IDC-based members:
- Tara Whelan
- Nora O’Murchu
Our aim is to investigate the relationships between a technologically mediated knowledge economy, mobile/nomadic work practices and home life as part of a new collaborative research project. One of the goals of the project is to pull together concerns and issues pertaining to the societal and identity-related matters of “being mobile”, and to the interaction design and computer-supported cooperative work tradition studies of workplace and technology use. A central aim of this study is to examine the new work/home-life patterns that are emerging, how these can be accounted for and their gendered implications for work and home. Research Questions: How do high-skilled women and men working in creative industries, IT and higher education in the Limerick area experience and represent their work/life practices? To what extent has the expansion of wireless space enabled work to be done ‘on the move’, in different places and between places? How might the use of embedded and mobile technologies blur the boundaries between work life and home life? How are work and home life mediated by technologies? What is the relative significance of: the reorganisation of work in the new technologically mediated knowledge economy; shifts that have taken place in the ‘gender regime’; other factors in how work and home life are currently lived in the Limerick area? Methodology: we aim to combine ethnographic methods and Interaction Design methods in innovative ways to study nomadic work/life practices. Sample: High-skilled workers in creative industries (e.g. advertising, architecture), IT and higher education in the Limerick area. Equal numbers of women and men. The Project (2008-2012) is funded by HEA PRTLI 4, within the Irish Social Sciences Platform Duration: 1 September, 2008 -> 1 September, 2012
Main contact in IDC:
List of IDC-based members:
- A. Fabiano P. de Carvalho
- Liam Bannon
- Luigina Ciolfi
The online world around Limerick is featuring many groups as well as individuals, initiatives and services that effectively create a parallel “map” of the city, offering support, news and facilities to locals and visitors to the city. How does the city link to its digital “cloud”? How can the players on the online dimension get together to offer new ideas and proposals that would enrich the digital dimension of Limerick?
The project was initiated by Gabriela Avram and the Limerick chapter of IxDA (the Interaction Design Association).
Connected Limerick hopes to be a catalyst for making Limerick more visible in the digital world, and support both visitors and citizens with online information in their trajectories while re-discovering the physical city.
Duration: 1 November, 2011 -> 30 November, 2013
Webpage: Connected Limerick
Main contact in IDC:
List of IDC-based members:
- Alan Ryan
- Gabriela Avram
- Laura Festl
- Patrick Shanahan
“SHAPE – Situating Hybrid Assemblies in Public Environments” is an EU funded research project within the European initiative “The Disappearing Computer”. A team of researchers at the University of Limerick’s Interaction Design Centre is collaborating with European partners from the Royal Institute of Technology (Stockholm, Sweden), King’s College London and the University of Nottingham (UK) in the development of the Project. SHAPE is devoted to developing and evaluating assemblies of hybrid, mixed reality artefacts in public places. Hybrid artefacts exhibit physical and digital features and can exist in both physical and digital worlds. They combine interactive visual and sonic material with physically present manipulable devices. Hybrid artefacts can combine to form room-sized assemblies that provide groups of people with a rich sensory experience of a large-scale mixed reality. These assemblies can be deployed in public spaces such as museums and exploratoria as new kinds of engaging and educational social experience. The Consortium of partners combines social and computer science expertise and is concerned to motivate innovation through studies of people’s activity in public places and techniques of participatory design. Researchers at the IDC have a major role in studying human interaction within public environments, analysing the context (in particular, museums and exploratoria), envisioning user-scenarios and educational contents for the media, proposing a framework for the exploration and development of technology, and evaluating it against a set of requirements. ‘Living exhibitions’ , where results are shown direct to the public, were held at selected European museums which have agreed to participate. The Hunt Museum in Limerick hosted the final Project Exhibition, “Re-Tracing the Past” in June 2003.
Duration: 1 January, 2001 -> 1 June, 2004
Webpage: www.shape-dc.org
Main contacts in IDC:
e: liam.bannon@ul.ie
e: mikael.fernstrom@ul.ie
e: luigina.ciolfi@ul.ie
List of IDC-based members:
- Kieran Ferris
- Liam Bannon
- Luigina Ciolfi
- Mikael Fernström
- Paul Gallagher
- Tony Hall
- Marilyn Lennon
This project investigates a novel pixellated vibrotactile device. It is based on the hardware and software infrastructure developed in previous Media Lab Europe-University of Limerick projects but introducing the innovation of being both input and output device for human-computer interaction, simultaneously. The resulting device will be modular and self-configuring. Plugins software will be developed for application authoring in existing commercial and open source packages and a number of use scenarios will be developed and evaluated.
Duration: 1 September, 2002 -> 1 September, 2003
Main contact in IDC:
List of IDC-based members:
- Bruce Richardson
- Enrique Franco
- Mikael Fernström
MetaMusic was a Video-Driven Soundtrack Composition System that Utilized Video Stream Event Detection And Automated Music Generation, this project was funded by an Enterprise Ireland Innovation Partnership Project. Current soundtrack composition practice relies on either the use of a contracted composer or the use of music excerpt libraries. Both approaches incur significant related costs, such as royalties and musicians copyrights issues (IMRO), etc. This project developed a new approach for the generation of genre specific music which was influenced by visual features of the selected video stream. A new direct control approach for the marking of events was developed as part of the interface. A number of approaches for the music generation were investigated and focused on heuristic and statistical techniques. This project has been licensed to Abaltat and is commercialised in their Muse product line.
Duration: 7 August, 2008 -> 1 October, 2006
List of IDC-based members:
- Eoin Brazil
- Ian O’ Keeffe
- Mikael Fernström
- Tony O’ Callaghan
The research project SHARED WORLDS (2003-2007) investigated the development and use of novel interactive technologies within public spaces – such as museum galleries, shopping malls, airport passenger areas, and libraries. We have explored how people can not only use technologies, but how people might begin to live with them in their everyday lives. While we are working with the latest ideas in information and communications technology, such as ubiquitous computing, meaning computing power everywhere, we take our starting point in an understanding of how people live, work and play in the everyday world. This research is based on what is known as a human-centred computing perspective, where technological developments are based on both a theoretical and practical understanding of human activities in the world. The project includes the deployment of these new interactive technologies in two installations in the field that will be open to the public for use.The first installation was based in Shannon Airport in the summer of 2006, the second in the Milk Market in Limerick during January 2007.
Duration: 1 September, 2003 -> 1 September, 2007
Webpage: Shared Worlds homepage
Main contact in IDC:
List of IDC-based members:
- Colm McGettrick
- Liam Bannon
- Luigina Ciolfi
- Mikael Fernström
- Parag Deshpande
- Marilyn Lennon
- Paul Gallagher
The Social, Organisational and Cultural Aspects of Global Software Development project (socGSD) was a project that focused on the rising phenomenon of global software development – viewed as a human activity, conducted by each participant in a local context. The project started on 1 April 2004 and ended on 30 September 2008.
The real-world practice of developing software in globally distributed projects had been viewed from various perspectives, but technical and engineering together with managerial and organizational viewpoints had been dominating the research agenda up to that point. Our standpoint was that successful participation in GSD is ultimately a matter of people in a particular local context understanding what to do in relation to other participants in other locations at a certain point in time and how it can practically be done with the resources available to local actors. The main purpose of our research was to understand the local social practices of the people involved in GSD and how this local activity can contribute to global results.
The work focused on exploring the diversity of ways in which distributed teams shape their work practices in real time and place and come to a joint understanding of their objectives. Our goal is revealing the complex dynamics of work which may be difficult to articulate in formal descriptions of processes or methods, but yet pose significant constraints on how the work can be carried out. This emphasis on the actual conduct of collaborative work is influenced by our background in the CSCW (Computer Supported Cooperative Work) field, and it provides an alternative perspective on the key determinants of successful and unsuccessful global cooperative networks. We emphasize the role of work place studies as a method for informing our understanding of people’s everyday work practice. Our research methods are influenced by ethnography and mainly rely on participant observations and in situ interviews, as well as analysis of documents and of electronic communication.
The socGSD team done extensive fieldwork in several multinational companies, mainly covering a number of sites in Ireland where software development is being conducted involving globally distributed teams. Time has also been devoted to the observation of a global open source project and to the study of a number of outsourcing relationships involving Romanian SMEs.
The project was part of a Lero cluster of projects investigating global software development and was funded by Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) under PI grant 03/IN3/1408C.
Project Blog: ‘Tales from the Field of Software Engineering’
Duration: 1 April, 2004 -> 30 September, 2008
Main contact in IDC:
List of IDC-based members:
- Anders Sigfridsson
- Anne Sheehan
- Conor Higgins
- Daniel Sullivan
- Gabriela Avram
- Gamel Wiredu
- Liam Bannon
- Michael Cooke
- Michael Hales
The Self Organising Sensors (SOS) project is a follow-on project from the Z-Tiles project run by the Interaction Design Centre. Both SOS and Z-Tiles are collaboration projects between the IDC and MIT MediaLab Europe (MLE) in Dublin. The objective of the project is to develop a pressure sensitive floorspace which can be used for dance and other applications. The floorspace itself is to be made up of individual pressure sensing units called Z-Tiles which interlock with each other. These interlocking tiles form a self-organising network to allow the pressure data to be extracted from a single point on the floor instead of from each tile individually. While the focus of the original Z-Tiles project was the development of the pressure sensors themselves, the SOS project has moved on from this to a focus on the network protocols to support an interconnected tiled floorspace. Project personnel include those with backgrounds in electronics, computer science, art and music.
Duration: 1 January, 2002 -> 31 December, 2002
Webpage: www.idc.ul.ie/ztiles/
Main contact in IDC:
List of IDC-based members:
- Bruce Richardson
- Enrique Franco
- Mikael Fernström
The current methods used for training in medical procedural (or technical) skills are inefficient and may jeopardise patient safety as medical trainees are required to practice procedures on patients. The resultant worldwide move towards competence-based training programmes has necessitated the search for valid and reliable competence assessment procedures (CAPs). The challenges in developing such CAPs lie in defining each competence and taking account of the many factors which influence learning and performance of medical procedures. Such determinants include cognitive, motor, communication, and human (e.g. fatigue, anxiety, fear) factors. In other domains, competence based knowledge space theory (CbKST) has been successfully applied to enhance learning, assess competence and facilitate personalised learning. The objective of this project is to transfer this innovative approach to the medical domain in order to develop a valid, reliable and practical CAP for one medical procedural skill, spinal anaesthesia. In order to do so, the partnership will comprehensively describe the competence, generate algorithms necessary to assess individual performance, implement the CAP in a user-friendly, web-based format and test it in simulated and real clinical settings for construct validity and reliability.
Duration: 1 November, 2007 -> 1 November, 2009
Webpage: www.medcap.eu
Main contact in IDC:
List of IDC-based members:
- Annette Aboulafia
- Erik Lövquist
Computer support for such basic human activities as human information seeking and browsing is still in a primitive state. Specifically despite an increased awaremess of the improved performance of people through the use of multimodal cues, little systematic investigation ofbow such cues could, and should, be utilised in interactive systems is available. This project will build on existing research into multimodality in the area of browsing, using a variety of research methods, from exploratory probes, through controlled experimentation, to prototype multimedia development and testing. The work will build on earlier work funded by Enterprise Ireland investigation the use of sound in browsing.
Duration: 1 June, 2002 -> 1 June, 2005
Main contact in IDC:
List of IDC-based members:
- Annette Aboulafia
- Eoin Brazil
- Liam Bannon
- Michael Cooke
- Mikael Fernström
FutureCom will explore future trends in Telecommunications, with a specific focus on the increasing use of Internet technologies. FutureCom will study these trends and envision future communication services. The approach adopted is one where technology is not seen in isolation from its social setting. Rather a more integrative, multi-disciplinary perspective will be brought ot bear on the evolution of communications services, their societal drivers, and the requirements they will place on the heterogeneous communications infrastructure over which they are delivered.
General research questions are:
- How do we realise future communications services and infrastructure that whilst reflecting changing individual and societal preferences can be effectively managed to ensure delivery of critical services?
- How can we capture information relating to social interactions between users and harness this information to guide the development of communications services, exhibiting high levels of usability, that can promote sustainability of communities?
- What models, processes and tools can be specified that will allow users of communications services, as individuals or social groupings, manage aspects of their interaction with each other as facilitated by those services?
In order to answer these questions the focus will be on examining the social shaping of technology in particular instances and the role of users as players in giving form to innovations through active appropriation (e.g. users as “prosumers”). Design scenarios will also be developed along with the creation of prototypes for further evaluation.
UL IDC will engage in 2 levels of actity on this project, one involving conceptual and empirical work on issues of appropriation and user led innovation, and one on a more technical and design level, examining new forms of media selection and choice.
The IDC team will work closely with the NUIM Sociology group on new media and social forms and appropriation issues.
Duration: 1 November, 2007 -> 31 October, 2011
Main contacts in IDC:
e: cristiano.storni@ul.ie
e: miakel.fernstrom@ul.ie
List of IDC-based members:
- Anders Sigfridsson
- Cristiano Storni
- Liam Bannon
- Mikael Fernström
- Nora O’ Murchu
The SOb (Sounding Object) project is part of the Disappearing Computer proactive initiative of the IST Future and Emerging Technologies. The SOb project aims at developing sound models that are responsive to physical interactions and are easily matched to physical objects. The sound models, being specified by pysical descriptions and actions, will be ready to be integrated into artefacts that interact with each other and that accessed by direct manipulation. Control models are developed in order to reproduce parametric variations that are natural according to the dynamics of human gestures and expressive intentions. Sound and control models are developed after the phenomenological and psychophysical characterisation of a restricted class of sound events. The results of research are demonstrated by means of a dynamic sound library and an application that will allow users to interact with objects using only gestures and auditory display.
Duration: 1 January, 2001 -> 1 December, 2002
Webpage: www.soundobject.org
List of IDC-based members:
The Visibreath project is funded under the Research Innovation fund of Enterprise Ireland. The project aims to develop a fully working prototype of an input device allowing users to control digital parameters in multimedia applications with their breath. The flow of breath can also be recorded and further analysed. The project is based on a working early prototype developed over the past number of years in the Interaction Design Centre. The project makes use of an innovative approach to flow sensing, using a Piezo film sensor housed in a hollow tube. This system has a number of advantages over systems currently in use. The system does not suffer from the drawbacks which affect current systems. The Visibreath sensor provides an accurate, sensitive and stable input device, which is unnafected by environmental factors, and which will retain its calibration even after long-term use. It also has the potential of providing the most competitive solution to breath-sensing requirements for low-cost applications.
Duration: 1 September, 2002 -> 1 September, 2004
List of IDC-based members:
- Marilyn Lennon
- Mark Marshall
- Mikael Fernström
IMS ARCS is an industrial and academic cooperative program conducting research in the area of IMS technology with a view to creating a body of intellectual property for the use of the project partners, and serving as a case study on how to develop IMS Applications software. The research group is made up of a number of universities and institutions, each with a specific area of expertise that together will make the IMS ARCS project a success. The lead partner is TSSG from Waterford IT, along with the Hamilton Institute from NUI Maynooth, IDC from University of Limerick, ASRC from Athlone IT and Fraunhofer FOKUS, Berlin. The direction of the project comes from the stakeholder steering committee, which is a subset of the larger stakeholder group. This group meet on a quarterly basis to review progress and decide where the project should focus its efforts going forward. The stakeholders are a mix of large multinationals and SMEs, all who have a interest in IMS technology. The vision of the project is an environment where users can be immersed in a world of diverse IP-based media, voice or data services that can be recieved off any number of network types; IMS will enable this vision!
Duration: 6 August, 2008 -> 30 June, 2009
Webpage: www.ims-arcs.com
List of IDC-based members:
- Eoin Brazil
- Marc McLoughlin
- Mikael Fernström
- Tony O’ Callaghan
This thematic grant funded by Failte Ireland explores possibilities for new forms of technological support to visitors of cultural heritage attractions in the Shannon Region. The project focused particularly on Bunratty Castle and Folk Park. the IDC team, in collaboration with the Centre for Tourism Policy Studies and the Wireless Communications Centre at UL, has conducted observational field work and interviews in Bunratty in order to document current visitor experience of the site and identify possible roles for interactive technologies. The IDC is also developing a number of design scenarios envisioning the use of different tools (from mobile phones to Augmented Reality) within the site.
Duration: 7 August, 2008 -> 7 August, 2008
List of IDC-based members:
- Liam Bannon
- Luigina Ciolfi
- Marc McLoughlin
Design Based Medical Training (DBMT) is a multidisciplinary research collaboration of medical clinicians, medical educators, psychologists, engineers and computer scientists with a shared interest in developing improved systems for learning and training in medical procedural skills. We have selected one set of such psychomotor and cognitive skills, “Peripheral nerve blockade (PNB)”, to serve as a pilot for developing an improved system of learning and assessment. The DBMT-project led to the upstart of a European, LdV-funded project, called Medical Competence Assessment Procedure (MedCAP).
Duration: 1 March, 2006 -> 1 November, 2007
List of IDC-based members:
- Annette Aboulafia
- Erik Lövquist
- Mikael Fernström
- Ulrika Dreifaldt
INDeT (Integration of Non-Destructive Testing) is funded under the EU Growth initiative. The overall objective of the project is to give the aerospace industry the benefit of new powerful and economic tools offered by the ICT sector for the development and improvement of non-destructive inspection methods in production and maintenance. This should result in cost-savings for both manufacturers and airlines, increasing the efficiency and reliability of the diagnoses and guaranteeing higher levels of safety. The IDC collaborating on this project with a range of European partners working in aerospace (Airbus, EADS, Dassault Aviation), IT (Alenia, Tecnatom, Inteltec) and academia (University of Central Lancashire, FHF Furtwangen, ISTI). There are three IDC postgraduate students working on INDeT, Edward Dixon, Terence Hickey and Stephen Hurley – with backgrounds in Computer Science, Electronics Manufacturing and Computer Engineering. There is also a fourth postgraduate, Nicholas Rooney working on INDeT from the Aeronautical Engineering Dept. The project is being supervised by Liam Bannon, Mikael Fernstrom and Trevor Young.
Duration: 1 June, 2001 -> 1 June, 2004
Main contact in IDC:
List of IDC-based members:
- Giuseppe Torre
- Johann Baumer
- Liam Bannon
- Marc McLoughlin
- Mikael Fernström
- Nicola Quinn
- Stephen Hurley