Scholarly Works, Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology (ICAT)

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https://hdl.handle.net/10919/24352

Research articles, presentations, and other scholarship

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Now showing 1 - 20 of 45

Integrative Bicycle Helmet Fit
Makowski, William J.; Martin, Thomas L.; Schaudt, W. Andy (AHFE International, 2025)
Bicycle helmets can reduce head injury in the event of a crash. However, an improperly fitting helmet may move out of its intended position, exposing parts of the rider’s head and increase the risk of head injury. In published research, bicycle helmet fit is defined infrequently and inconsistently. In addition, a research study may explore one or two components of fit, yet describe their study holistically as bicycle helmet fit. In response, a literature review was conducted on bicycle helmet fit and includes other relevant aspects of fit from other industries and applications. This paper operationally defines and describes bicycle helmet fit, integrating the concepts of (1) perception of fit, (2) static fit, and (3) dynamic fit. Finally, an integrated approach to helmet fit should benefit future research, as well as the design and development of future safety countermeasures for cyclists.
Solving bicycle helmet fit: Engineering & Entrepreneurship
Makowski, William J. (2024-10-22)
Creativity in Art, Product Development, and Entrepreneurship - ICAT Playdate
Makowski, William J. (2024-09-06)
Come hear about an inspirational journey and pursuit of creativity in art, product development, and entrepreneurship. Will Makowski has spent over fifteen years pursuing his artistic abilities (earning a BFA), designing apparel for two of the top motorcycle and snowmobile apparel companies in the world, Klim and Polaris, and recently finishing an interdisciplinary PhD connecting entrepreneurship, engineering design, and industrial design. In his presentation, Will strives to find the balance between imagination and practical application, so you too can revaluate your approach to both artistic and entrepreneurial endeavors.
A Research Focused Approach to Customer Discovery
Makowski, William J.; Martin, Thomas L.; Schaudt, W. Andy (IEEE, 2022)
Head injuries in football and bicycling highlight the severe disconnect between impact scenarios, injury biomechanics, standards and solutions for personal protective equipment. They also demonstrate the broader need for better methods in product development. This need is further illustrated in entrepreneurship, as the failure rate for product development is anywhere between 30 to 75%. To improve performance and reduce the failure rates of start-ups, new venture teams and nationally funded programs such as I-Corps adopted product development methods such as Lean Canvas and Customer Discovery. However, there are still challenges with these methodologies. Other than 'listen,' there is limited training for developing questions and conducting interviews. As a result, shortcomings in both the personal protective equipment industry and product development in entrepreneurship demonstrate the need to understand the foundational elements of each, in a way that is grounded in research. The purpose of this case study is to address those shortcomings, identify areas for innovation and improve safety for athletes. The case study is grounded in qualitative research methods and is executed by implementing Customer Discovery. The application of the methodologies is expected to create a product development framework for entrepreneurs, implementing it with individuals that use bicycle helmets and bike industry personnel.
Going Beyond Human Scale Speeds: Sensation-Seeking, Impulsivity, and Risk Compensation as a Foundational Element to the Development of Safety Countermeasures
Makowski, William J. (2025-09-17)
This paper examines five aspects of risk compensation, namely 1.) the history of psychology in relation to risk compensation in section 2, 2.) the history of speed as a fundamental component of risk in section 3, 3.) the personality traits that have the strongest associations with speed and risk, risk propensity and greater participation, injury, and death in section 4, 4.) approaches and frameworks for safety countermeasures and areas for additional study in section 5. The purpose of writing this is to highlight man’s relationship to both speed and risk as a foundational element to developing safety countermeasures (such as helmets) and serve as a continual reference point. Although designing bicycle helmets is an exciting endeavor in and of itself, there is a goal to explore adjacent markets and continually connect design and development activities to the most exciting pursuit, space travel.
"Look at My Planet!": How Handheld Virtual Reality Shapes Informal Learning Experiences
Moon, Hayoun; Bautista Isaza, Carlos Augusto; Gallagher, Matthew; McDaniel, Clara; Vernier, Atlas; Ican, Leah; Springer, Karina; Cohn, Madelyn; Bennett, Sylvia; Nair, Priyanka; Ricard, Alayna; Pochiraju, Nayha; Enriquez, Daniel; Lee, Sang Won; Ogle, J. Todd; Newbill, Phyllis; Jeon, Myounghoon (ACM, 2025-04-26)
Handheld virtual reality offers a promising tool for fostering engagement in informal learning environments, providing safe, shared, and inclusive experiences. This study investigated the potential of a handheld VR-based educational program, Solar System Explorer, in a science museum setting. Fifty-three participants, aged 5 to 13, engaged in six interactive scenes using handheld tablets, involving room-scale exploration of virtual environments in small groups guided by a docent. Findings showed that dynamic, room-scale content encouraged active physical movement, while visually rich, interactive scenes fostered knowledge sharing and elicited positive emotional responses. Social engagement was strongest during creative activities, such as planet building, which facilitated interactions even among unfamiliar peers. These insights inform design guidelines for developing fun, active, and collaborative VR learning environments, contributing to scalable and inclusive handheld VR applications for informal education.
A silent spring, or a new cacophony? Invasive plants as maestros of modern soundscapes
Barney, Jacob N.; O'Malley, Grace; Ripa, Gabrielle N.; Drake, Joseph; Franusich, David; Mims, Meryl C. (Wiley, 2024-04-01)
Sound plays a key role in ecosystem function and is a defining part of how humans experience nature. In the seminal book Silent Spring (Carson 1962), Rachel Carson warned of the ecological and environmental harm of pesticide usage by envisioning a future without birdsong. Soundscapes, or the acoustic patterns of a landscape through space and time, encompass both biological and physical processes (Pijanowski et al. 2011). Yet, they are often an underappreciated element of the natural world and the ways in which it is perceived. Scientists are only beginning to quantify changes to soundscapes, largely in response to anthropogenic sounds, but soundscape alteration is likely linked to many dimensions of global change. For example, invasive non-native species (hereafter, invasive species) are near-ubiquitous members of ecosystems globally and threaten both natural and managed ecosystems at great expense. Their impacts to soundscapes may be an important, yet largely unknown, threat to ecosystems and the human and economic systems they support.
Interactive stories through robot musical theater for preschoolers’ STEAM education
Choi, Koeun; Yu, Shuqi; Kim, Jisun; Dong, Jia; Lee, Yeaji; Haines, Chelsea; Newbill, Phyllis; Upthegrove, Tanner; Wyatt, Ariana; Jeon, Myounghoon (2022)
A child-robot musical theater afterschool program for promoting STEAM education: A case study and guidelines
Dong, Jia; Choi, Koeun; Yu, Shuqi; Lee, Yeaji; Kim, Jisun; Vajir, Devanshu; Haines, Chelsea; Newbill, Phyllis; Wyatt, Ariana; Upthegrove, Tanner; Jeon, Myounghoon (Taylor & Francis, 2023-03-16)
With the advancements of machine learning and AI technologies, robots have been more widely used in our everyday life and they have also been used in education. The present study introduces a 12-week child-robot theater afterschool program designed to promote science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education with art elements (STEAM) for elementary students using social robots. Four modules were designed to introduce robot mechanisms as well as arts: Acting (anthropomorphism), Dance (robot movements), Music and Sounds (music composition), and Drawing (robot art). These modules provided children with basic knowledge about robotics and STEM and guided children to create a live robot theater play. A total of 16 students participated in the program, and 11 of them were involved in completing questionnaires and interviews regarding their perceptions towards robots, STEAM, and the afterschool program. Four afterschool program teachers participated in interviews, reflecting their perceptions of the program and observations of children’s experiences during the program. Our findings suggest that the present program effectively maintained children’s engagement and improved their interest in STEAM by connecting social robots and theater production. We conclude with design guidelines and recommendations for future research and programs.
Inclusion of Clinicians in the Development and Evaluation of Clinical Artificial Intelligence Tools: A Systematic Literature Review
Jesso, Stephanie Tulk; Kelliher, Aisling; Sanghavi, Harsh; Martin, Thomas; Parker, Sarah H. (Frontiers, 2022-04-07)
The application of machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare domains has received much attention in recent years, yet significant questions remain about how these new tools integrate into frontline user workflow, and how their design will impact implementation. Lack of acceptance among clinicians is a major barrier to the translation of healthcare innovations into clinical practice. In this systematic review, we examine when and how clinicians are consulted about their needs and desires for clinical AI tools. Forty-five articles met criteria for inclusion, of which 24 were considered design studies. The design studies used a variety of methods to solicit and gather user feedback, with interviews, surveys, and user evaluations. Our findings show that tool designers consult clinicians at various but inconsistent points during the design process, and most typically at later stages in the design cycle (82%, 19/24 design studies). We also observed a smaller amount of studies adopting a human-centered approach and where clinician input was solicited throughout the design process (22%, 5/24). A third (15/45) of all studies reported on clinician trust in clinical AI algorithms and tools. The surveyed articles did not universally report validation against the “gold standard” of clinical expertise or provide detailed descriptions of the algorithms or computational methods used in their work. To realize the full potential of AI tools within healthcare settings, our review suggests there are opportunities to more thoroughly integrate frontline users’ needs and feedback in the design process.
Tapping into community expertise: stakeholder engagement in the design process
Morshedzadeh, Elham; Dunkenberger, Mary Beth; Nagle, Lara; Ghasemi, Shiva; York, Laura; Horn, Kimberly (Taylor & Francis, 2022-10)
The Connection to Care (C2C) project, a transdisciplinary work-in-progress, employs community-engaged participatory research and design methods at the nexus of policy adaptation and product innovations. C2C aims to advance practices that identify and leverage the critical junctures at which people with substance use disorder (SUD) seek lifesaving services and treatment, utilizing stakeholder input in all stages of design and development. Beginning in the Fall of 2018, members of our research team engaged with those at the forefront of the addiction crisis, including first responders, harm reduction and peer specialists, treatment providers, and individuals in recovery and in active substance use in a community greatly impacted by SUD. Through this engagement, the concept for programs and products representing a connection to care emerged, including the design of a backpack to meet the needs of individuals with SUD and those experiencing homelessness. From 2020 to 2022, more than 1,200 backpacks with lifesaving and self-care supplies have been distributed in local communities, as one component of the overall C2C initiative. The backpack is a recognized symbol of the program and has served as an impetus for further program and policy explorations, including as a lens to better understand the role of ongoing stigma. Though addiction science has evolved significantly in the wake of the opioid epidemic, artifacts of policies and practices that criminalize and stigmatize SUD remain as key challenges. This paper explains the steps that C2C has taken to address these challenges, and to empower a community that cares.
Reimagining medical workspaces through on-site observations and bodystorming
Ishida, Aki; Martin, Thomas; Gracanin, Denis; Franusich, David; Buck, Carl; Parker, Sarah H.; Knapp, R. Benjamin; Haley, Vince; Zagarese, Vivian; Tasooji, Reza (2023-01)
Clinicians in acute care hospitals experience highly stressful situations daily. They work long, variable hours, complete complex technical tasks, and must also be emotionally engaged with patients and families to meet the caring demands of this profession, which can lead to burnout. In response to these challenges, a multi-disciplinary team from Virginia Tech collaborated with Steelcase to study the impact of medical workspaces on the clinician experience and how those workspaces could be improved to reduce some of the sources of burnout. The team sought to identify conditions that could either aid or hinder clinician workflow and affect burnout rate, then based on interviews and in-situ ethnographic studies, generated design concepts for nurse stations, both centralized and mobile. Using digital and physical full-scale prototypes, we enacted clinical care scenarios to seek feedback and reflect on the design.
Aegis Audio Engine: Integrating a Real-Time Analog Signal Processing, Pattern Recognition, and a Procedural Soundtrack in a Live Twelve-Perfomer Spectacle With Crowd Participation
Bukvic, Ivica Ico; Matthews, Michael (Georgia Institute of Technology, 2015-07)
In the following paper we present Aegis: a procedural networked soundtrack engine driven by real-time analog signal analysis and pattern recognition. Aegis was originally conceived as part of Drummer Game, a game-performancespectacle hybrid research project focusing on the depiction of a battle portrayed using terracotta soldiers. In it, each of the twelve cohorts—divided into two armies of six—are led by a drummer-performer who issues commands by accurately drumming precomposed rhythmic patterns on an original Chinese war drum. The ensuing spectacle is envisioned to also accommodate large audience participation whose input determines the morale of the two armies. An analog signal analyzer utilizes efficient pattern recognition to decipher the desired action and feed it both into the game and the soundtrack engine. The soundtrack engine then uses this action, as well as messages from the gaming simulation, to determine the most appropriate soundtrack parameters while ensuring minimal repetition and seamless transitions between various clips that account for tempo, meter, and key changes. The ensuing simulation offers a comprehensive system for pattern-driven input, holistic situation assessment, and a soundtrack engine that aims to generate a seamless musical experience without having to resort to cross-fades and other simplistic transitions that tend to disrupt a soundtrack’s continuity.
L2OrkMote: Reimagining a Low-Cost Wearable Controller for a Live Gesture-Centric Music Performance
Tsoukalas, Kyriakos D.; Kubalak, Joseph R.; Bukvic, Ivica Ico (ACM, 2018-06)
Laptop orchestras create music, although digitally produced, in a collaborative live performance not unlike a traditional orchestra. The recent increase in interest and investment in this style of music creation has paved the way for novel methods for musicians to create and interact with music. To this end, a number of nontraditional instruments have been constructed that enable musicians to control sound production beyond pitch and volume, integrating filtering, musical effects, etc. Wii Remotes (WiiMotes) have seen heavy use in maker communities, including laptop orchestras, for their robust sensor array and low cost. The placement of sensors and the form factor of the device itself are suited for video games, not necessarily live music creation. In this paper, the authors present a new controller design, based on the WiiMote hardware platform, to address usability in gesture-centric music performance. Based on the pilot-study data, the new controller offers unrestricted two-hand gesture production, smaller footprint, and lower muscle strain.
Introducing D⁴: An Interactive 3D Audio Rapid Prototyping and Transportable Rendering Environment Using High Density Loudspeaker Arrays
Bukvic, Ivica Ico (University of Michigan, 2016)
With a growing number of multimedia venues and research spaces equipped with High Density Loudspeaker Arrays, there is a need for an integrative 3D audio spatialization system that offers both a scalable spatialization algorithm and a battery of supporting rapid prototyping tools for time-based editing, rendering, and interactive low-latency manipulation. D⁴ library aims to assist this newfound whitespace by introducing a Layer Based Amplitude Panning algorithm and a collection of rapid prototyping tools for the 3D time-based audio spatialization and data sonification. The ensuing ecosystem is designed to be transportable and scalable. It supports a broad array of configurations, from monophonic to as many as hardware can handle. D⁴’s rapid prototyping tools leverage oculocentric strategies to importing and spatially rendering multidimensional data and offer an array of new approaches to time-based spatial parameter manipulation and representation. The following paper presents unique affordances of D⁴’s rapid prototyping tools.
Introducing a K-12 Mechatronic NIME Kit
Tsoukalas, Kyriakos D.; Bukvic, Ivica Ico (ACM, 2018-06)
The following paper introduces a new mechatronic NIME kit that uses new additions to the Pd-L2Ork visual programing environment and its K-12 learning module. It is designed to facilitate the creation of simple mechatronics systems for physical sound production in K- 12 and production scenarios. The new set of objects builds on the existing support for the Raspberry Pi platform to also include the use of electric actuators via the microcomputer’s GPIO system. Moreover, we discuss implications of the newly introduced kit in the creative and K-12 education scenarios by sharing observations from a series of pilot workshops, with particular focus on using mechatronic NIMEs as a catalyst for the development of programing skills.
NIMEhub: Toward a Repository for Sharing and Archiving Instrument Designs
McPherson, Andrew P.; Berdahl, Edgar; Lyons, Michael J.; Jensensius, Alexander Refsum; Bukvic, Ivica Ico; Knudson, Arve (ACM, 2016-07)
This workshop will explore the potential creation of a community database of digital musical instrument (DMI) designs. In other research communities, reproducible research practices are common, including open-source software, open datasets, established evaluation methods and community standards for research practice. NIME could benefit from similar practices, both to share ideas amongst geographically distant researchers and to maintain instrument designs after their first performances. However, the needs of NIME are different from other communities on account of NIME's reliance on custom hardware designs and the interdependence of technology and arts practice. This half-day workshop will promote a community discussion of the potential benefits and challenges of a DMI repository and plan concrete steps toward its implementation.
Introducing Locus: a NIME for Immersive Exocentric Aural Environments
Sardana, Disha; Joo, Woohun; Bukvic, Ivica Ico; Earle, Gregory D. (ACM, 2019-06)
Locus is a NIME designed specifically for an interactive, immersive high density loudspeaker array environment. The system is based on a pointing mechanism to interact with a sound scene comprising 128 speakers. Users can point anywhere to interact with the system, and the spatial interaction utilizes motion capture, so it does not require a screen. Instead it is completely controlled via hand gestures using a glove that is populated with motion-tracking markers. The main purpose of this system is to offer intuitive physical interaction with the perimeter-based spatial sound sources. Further, its goal is to minimize user-worn technology and thereby enhance freedom of motion by utilizing environmental sensing devices, such as motion capture cameras or infrared sensors. The ensuing creativity enabling technology is applicable to a broad array of possible scenarios, from researching limits of human spatial hearing perception to facilitating learning and artistic performances, including dance. Below we describe our NIME design and implementation, its preliminary assessment, and offer a Unity-based toolkit to facilitate its broader deployment and adoption.
3D Time-Based Aural Data Representation Using D⁴ Library’s Layer Based Amplitude Panning Algorithm
Bukvic, Ivica Ico (Georgia Institute of Technology, 2016-07)
The following paper introduces a new Layer Based Amplitude Panning algorithm and supporting D⁴ library of rapid prototyping tools for the 3D time-based data representation using sound. The algorithm is designed to scale and support a broad array of configurations, with particular focus on High Density Loudspeaker Arrays (HDLAs). The supporting rapid prototyping tools are designed to leverage oculocentric strategies to importing, editing, and rendering data, offering an array of innovative approaches to spatial data editing and representation through the use of sound in HDLA scenarios. The ensuing D⁴ ecosystem aims to address the shortcomings of existing approaches to spatial aural representation of data, offers unique opportunities for furthering research in the spatial data audification and sonification, as well as transportable and scalable spatial media creation and production.
Cinemacraft: Immersive Live Machinima as an Empathetic Musical Storytelling Platform
Narayanan, Siddhart; Bukvic, Ivica Ico (University of Michigan, 2016)
In the following paper we present Cinemacraft, a technology-mediated immersive machinima platform for collaborative performance and musical human-computer interaction. To achieve this, Cinemacraft innovates upon a reverse-engineered version of Minecraft, offering a unique collection of live machinima production tools and a newly introduced Kinect HD module that allows for embodied interaction, including posture, arm movement, facial expressions, and a lip syncing based on captured voice input. The result is a malleable and accessible sensory fusion platform capable of delivering compelling live immersive and empathetic musical storytelling that through the use of low fidelity avatars also successfully sidesteps the uncanny valley.

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