Digital Commons Network^™

Augmented Reality Emergency System, Chun-Hsiang Yang

Theses

Fire hazards in a building can be deadly. Knowing what to do is extremely important when a fire occurs in order to survive. However, even with the emergency exit sign, it can still be dangerous to escape recklessly. The goal of this thesis is to find solutions to increase victims' chance of survival during a building fire hazard. This thesis project aims to design an interactive augmented reality system that provides real-time information in fire hazard situations as well as guided escape routes. Specific instructions help to remove the decision-making process from panicked victims who may not be able to …

Motivate Homeowners To Change Their Energy-Consuming Habits Through Visualization Of Environmental Impact, Christy Chan

Theses

People can’t physically see the damage that is being done to our environment and are unaware of how much water and electricity they consume. With growing technology, accessibility to personal data on water and electrical usage is becoming more available, however, options of how to view this information in personal spaces are scarce. My goal is to help users become more aware of their usage within their households and show how their utility usage impacts the environment through an elegant display of real-time data that summarizes breakdowns of water and electricity consumption throughout their homes. This will be done through …

Journo: Organize And Share The Memory Of Travel Experience, Ziyi Tao

Theses

With the improvement of living standards and the construction of public transportation, many people travel more frequently. They want to record those experiences and get more enlightenment when they look back upon the memory. Additionally, many people have eagerly requested to share their travel experiences due to the development of social media and the information explosion era. Less than a decade ago, people would travel without a smart device. They tended to take photos along the way with a film camera, and stick them on a physical photo album to share with friends and family. The other traditional method of …

Lilaclock, Yinting Fan

Theses

Lilaclock is an online VR teamwork game that promotes shared memories and communication with family and friends. In modern lifestyles and relationships, social media are the primary method for photo sharing. However, they always draw users' attention to many different posts, and neglect communication with friends and family. This project provides players a unique place to share their photos, video, and audio memories. In the game's background story, pirates in the memory world steal the players' memories and hide them in a place called Lilaclock. Players follow the lilac trace and enter the memory world. The objective is to find …

Camera-Based Deep Learning Ai Assistant System For Basketball Training, Guangkun Zeng

Theses

The YOLO, a Computer Vision Algorithms, is brought out to analyze the basketball player’s status as a dataset. It can record the players’ behavior on the court including dribbling, shooting, and running. In this way, the app could collect the field goal you made and missed. First, you should use this app to record a video of your shoot training. After that, the AI would analyze and brings out a 3d virtual diagram to interpret your performance. This diagram will show the hot zone and cold zone for your field goal. Also, the track of your ball will be displayed …

Survey And Analysis Of Deepfake Media As It Applies To The New Era Of Disinformation, Jade L. Wise

Theses

The world has become a place where technology and the internet is so integrated into every-day life that people rely on the media and internet access to stay informed and connected. But, that has exposed us to a whole new world of positives and negatives, and the negatives could be catastrophic for our society. It will very soon be very difficult for the average person to distinguish between figment and reality; primarily with video, which has always been seen as a credible form of evidence. Deepfake videos are a prime example of this growing phenomenon. They are videos in which, …

Stay In Touch: An Interaction Design Project For Managing And Facilitating Healthy Long-Distance Relationships, Zhichao Zhou

Theses

The global pandemic has deepened an epidemic of loneliness in America. Quarantine during COVID-19 restricts in-person social activities that make managing long-distance relationships challenging. People feel uncomfortable and less confident to maintain healthy relationships in a virtual world. My thesis explores interaction methods to encourage people to stay in touch in long-distance relationships through establishing and maintaining communication contracts. To solve the problem, I designed Stay In Touch - a mobile APP and a watch to provide users a quick and interesting way to monitor and manage long-distance relationships. The APP helps people manage connections and take quick reach-out actions. …

Hand-Tracking Object Interaction System, Zihao Li

Theses

At this point, VR, AR and MR technologies are thriving in different industries and business. They are increasing substantial productivity for large enterprises like Boeing and Ford at this point. Therefore, it’s well recognised that in future, VR, AR and MR will dive deeper into people's life, especially in to-business area. With VR, AR and MR being applied deeperly, more use cases and scenarios will show up. However, from interaction design and user experience perspective, current interactions for VR, AR and MR is still very primitive and not user-centered enough along with several major problems. Problems include limited accessibility, being …

Central Nervous System: Development, Function, And Applications Of The Glymphatic System (With Additional Neuroscience Topics), Austin Fisher

Theses

The presence of accumulated toxic protein aggregations such as amyloid-β, tau, and α- synuclein are implicated in the development of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s (Soto 2003). Thus, the clearance or removal of these harmful byproducts in healthy brain aging previously represented an unknown system whose functionality is likely to be clinically significant. The finding that directional flow of CSF and interstitial fluid through the brain ensures brain clearance sparked numerous research projects which sought to elaborate on what is now known as the glymphatic system. After initial research revealed the fundamentals of the glymphatic system, scientist J. Iliff defined …

South To South: Connections In The Ordinary, Fostering Empathy By Encouraging Travel Through Design, Bethany Wetzel

Theses

South 2 South: Connections in the Ordinary, explores similarities between South Korea and Alabama through a designed sensory experience that allows users to engage in cross-cultural information in an inviting and familiar way with the use of recognizable motifs in order to reduce fear, foster empathy, and encourage travel. The creation of South 2 South was informed by research on travel fears, empathy, and transnational relations between the two regions. South 2 South helps facilitate the beginnings of these interactions by presenting new cultural information directly to the more insular communities of northeast Alabama. My hope is that South …

Where Are The Women? A Feminist Field Guide To The Museum, Taylor Weaver

Theses

Linda Nochlin’s seminal 1971 essay, “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?” was at the fore of the great battle cries of many feminist scholars that drew attention to the limitation’s that female artist’s face in the art world. Women have systematically been left out of the art historical narrative while their male counterparts remain at the forefront.

There are many women that are very prominently represented in museums. They are largely nude and have been represented by male artists. While I do not argue that nudity in paintings should not exist, I do insist that museum goers become …

Game-Based Learning: Building Competence In Visual Literacy Through Simulation, Carol Record

Theses

Game-based learning is an ideal experiential learning framework for introducing the critique process to reduce student anxiety and create competence in visual literacy and self-assessment. Critique, the assessment, and analysis of one’s work is an essential step in any creative process. It is an integral part of art school. However, it can also be a source of high anxiety for new students. This paper discusses the importance of critique, the challenges associated with teaching critique, and the benefits of utilizing game-based learning. Examples of game-based learning solutions are explored, including the development of, and response to, Lumen, a card game …

The Public Poster: An Exploration Of Storytelling In Poster Design, Elizabeth Hiler

Theses

Research suggests that it is incredibly difficult for a person to change their mind. Confirmation bias and echo chambers are just a few of the reasons people do not give themselves the opportunity to explore new stories, ideas, beliefs. It is now our challenge to connect with people in unconventional ways and explore storytelling in new spaces to give difficult topics more accessibility to public discourse. The Public Protest Poster can be found at the start of most movements for social and political change by creating a simplified statement with a strong graphic for instant impact. Yet, protest posters rely …

The Improvement Of The Healthcare Industry In Dubai By Using Robotic Nurses During Covid-19, Ahlam Hasan Alhaili

Theses

The project aims to highlight the necessity to improve the Dubai healthcare industry that witnesses limited smart responses during the global pandemic of Covid-19. Mainly by suggesting a solution to overcome problems like nursing staff shortage in Dubai hospitals during Covid-19, which negatively affects the healthcare system's resiliency to a health crisis. The project suggests the smart approach of using robotic nurses to overcome this problem and other issues related to nursing staff, like minimizing direct contact with patients, focusing more on the more complex tasks, leaving more straightforward tasks for robots, and provide the technology that can increase their …

Understanding Psychological Behaviors Of Binge Eating Behavior, Siyu Zhu

Theses

The number of patients who suffer from Binge Eating Disorder has been increased for the last 2 years. By understanding the causes and effects of Binge Eating Behavior, it is more accurate to find solutions since BED is a complexed clinic illness affecting both mental and physical. Majority of the patients are not seeking help. I want to design an application utilizing Augmented Reality and Artificial Intelligence to help them gaining back control of their actions and emotions; also, to rebuild their normal healthy eating habits.

Flip: An Interaction Design Project For Helping People To Break Echo Chamber, Rong Zhao

Theses

Social media constantly instills you with the things you like and the things you are willing to believe in, even disinformation, creating an echo chamber in which users will never have other opinions. People are controlled by algorithms so that social media platforms ensure we only get a single side of every story. The personalization of social media minimizes people's view of the world and causes the division of society. My thesis explores the interaction methods to encourage people to be exposed to multiple perspectives about things by reading the same story from different sources. To solve the problem, I …

Strange Weather We're Having: Save Your Town Together, Today, Ben Mclauchlin

Theses

We don’t talk about climate change with our friends and family and that’s a problem. The systemic harm of climate change will continue to impact us if we continue to avoid addressing what we can do to help. Strange Weather We’re Having is a semi-cooperative board game designed to cultivate conversation, inspire joy, and spread awareness about what you can do to help against climate change. This game accomplishes this through the use of collectively-supportive game mechanics, vibrant visuals, and dialogue designed to spark hope and delight. Players become residents who are susceptible to different stressors caused by climate change. …

Ressentir: A Multi-Layered Visual Filter For Enhancing Cinematic Experience, Anirudh Srinivasan

Theses

Watching any digital content without audio is going to be monotonous, as one vital component of cinema is lost entirely. Removing audio will significantly affect cinematic experience and make movie-watching extremely boring for someone who cannot hear. Audio, in a movie, is comprised of dialogs, music and background sounds. One must realize that removing audio would take away, not just sound but also emotions attached to scenes. At times there might be only background score, which does not necessarily mean that these scenes are unimportant. There are obviously instances where music alone would get across the message. This thesis explores …

Concretization Of Depression, Jing Zhou

Theses

Depression is a common mental disorder, but many people cannot understand the pain experienced by depression patients. Even after having a certain understanding of depression, it is difficult for us as normal people to empathize with the true inner feelings of depression patients. However, some people not only fail to understand the depressed patients, but they also speak slanderously and scold these depressive patients for their overly emotional actions. For these reasons, I want to show the true feelings of depression patients or the pain experienced as a depression patient through motion graphics. Motion graphic is an effective way to …

Athena: A Digital Educational Experience For Visual Learners, Adrianna Petrus

Theses

Athena is a design system for an online learning experience that uses motion graphics and information design along with succinct narratives and engaging web page browsing to help visual learners comprehend complex information. This system will leverage several theories, such as Pictorial Superiority Effect, which suggests vision is the most powerful pathway to the brain,(1) as well as Dual Coding Theory, explaining that two senses stimulated at once will increase comprehension.(2) Conveying content like “Marketing Ethics” in an effective way can be difficult. Visual education can bridge the pathway to these topics in an interactive way that incorporates animation, audio, …

Allstory: An Assistive Application For History, Shiyan Sun

Theses

When learning history, students have difficulty remembering large amounts of history and don’t know explanations of some proper nouns, which makes them not have an in-depth understanding of history and easy to fail in the test. As an important subject, an auxiliary app is needed to help students digest the knowledge they have learned. It will use different function to break the barrier, allowing students easier to learn and love history.

Carppet – An Ar Tour Guide System In Autonomous Car, Ming Hui Lin

Theses

Over the last decade, modern transportation systems have evolved to a considerably larger scope and higher complexity, brought by a wave of innovation in technologies and a revolutionary shift in how mobility is perceived and realized – giving rise to a strong orientation towards services. This thesis imagines a time when cars can drive fully autonomous. Drivers no longer need to drive. So, what else can we offer passengers during the time when they are sitting in the car? The purpose of this project is to introduce a concept of mainly using Augmented Reality and AI recognition to create a …

Helps Tourists To Customize Travel Plans Easily With Local Experience: Dotrips App, Shenyu Zhang

Theses

Traveling with group tours can no longer meet the needs of tourists. In-depth tourism has become a new choice for Chinese tourists, especially middle- and high-income groups. Outbound travel, tourists need to find far away from the hustle and bustle of the city and to deeply understand the cultural heritage and folklore origins. Pursue a personal experience of natural beauty and artistic style or a bold exploration of the way of life and the essence of life. The rapid development of the tourism industry and the proliferation of user-shared content have made the problem of information overload in the field …

An Interactive Memorial For Healthcare Workers Who Lost Their Lives During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Tianjin Zhang

Theses

COVID -19 started spreading in the U.S. at the beginning of 2020. During 18 months of trauma, more than 3,600 U.S. health care workers perished on the frontline in the first year of the pandemic. We are losing our guardians who fight against the disasters and save human beings' lives. With deeply in pain the lost, survived people desire to remember and perpetuate the history. However, there is less data support to track health worker deaths in the nation, limited places to gather for the vigil, extend heartfelt condolences and remember the deceased. We want to know what health care …

Honeycomb: A Digital Family Calendar Designed For Families With Young Kids, Jiahua Li

Theses

Calendar is important to families with young kids because it helps young kids build confidence and independence and establishes healthy habits. However, the traditional calendar is not designed for young kids and it is not easy to understand for them. To solve the problem, I designed an interactive digital calendar— Honeycomb family calendar, to helps families with young kids on creating a calendar and reading a calendar. This project is presented in an interactive mockup showing how it works. The goal is to makes the daily events on the calendar easy to comprehend by young kids and provides a fun …

Visual Communication – A Designer’S Guide To Reaching Target Audiences, Timothy Lerch

Theses

Visual communication is the cornerstone of graphic design. All graphic design projects communicate a visual message. As with all forms of communication, visual communication is a two-way street. For a message to be effective, a designer must understand how to reach their audience. Scholarly design programs focus primarily on visual cues, while marketing programs focus on in-depth audience analysis and consumer behavior. This creates a problem for designers as they complete their degree program and enter the job market, particularly if they intend to seek freelance work. This guide is innovative because it presents components of visual communication from perspectives …

The Scene- Interactive Video Scene Controller, Haena Lee

Theses

In modern society, people spend much time watching videos to meet their emotional and social needs. Movies and TV shows increasingly contain violence and sexuality to catch the eye. In addition to this trend, the current age-based rating becomes more and more lenient than the one in the past. As a result, the content rating system does not provide a clear standard about the level of graphic intensity anymore. This situation prevents a particular group of viewers from fully enjoying the video contents: parents and highly sensitive people. Whenever these two groups watch movies or live TV, they need to …

A Mobile App That Helps Asthmatic Patients Monitor Air Quality In Real Time, Jiani Su

Theses

Asthma is a chronic disease that cannot be cured. Every attack of asthma is a physical and mental destruction to patients, bringing pain and economic burden to patients, and seriously affecting the quality of life and happiness index of patients. But the vast majority of asthma cases can be completely controlled with appropriate treatment and intervention. Investigations at home and abroad have found that the self-health management level of asthma patients is still at a relatively low level, and more than half of asthma patients are in a state of out-of-control.

Currently, there is no online software that can effectively …

The Racked System: A Historically Based Interactive Roleplaying Experience, Will Truran

Theses

“History repeats itself” is a saying we are all too familiar with, but why is that true? As we look at our modern society we can see that pain persists and hate crimes are on the rise, particularly those of antisemitism and those holding anti-Asian ideologies. The Racked System aims to address this by introducing a new method of learning about our past so that we can apply its lessons to our future. Classroom settings require students to memorize dates and data that often capture hard to comprehend facts, like that six million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust. It …

Chek And Hava, Komal Ashfaq

Theses

Chek and Hava is an absurdist romantic comedy about using your boyfriend to rebel against your parents. While remaining light and easy to watch, it is additionally meant to have three intentionally designed layers:

1. The surface level story revolves around Hava bringing home her boyfriend Chek- an unemployed artist, that she knows her wealthy demigod parents will disapprove of. Her parents ultimately force Chek out of his carefree life and into a corporate career, accepting him and deflating Hava’s rebellion. She finally breaks free by exiting the system of their beliefs and trying to form her persona independently rather …