social media IxD patterns

The program uses web cameras and the Wii balance board to customize rehabilitation exercises and monitor progress more closely than previously possible. The system works with the WeHab software, where the data is logged and analyzed. At home, the patient is able to perform balance therapy with real- time feedback from the physical therapist via video chat, helping keep patients engaged with their rehab.

Lars Backstrom, Eytan Bakshy, Jon Kleinberg, Thomas M. Lento, Itamar Rosenn. ICWSM 2011

Abstract:

An individual’s personal network — their set of social contacts — is a basic object of study in sociology. Studies of personal networks have focused on their size (the number of contacts) and their composition (in terms of categories such as kin and co-workers). Here we propose a new measure for the analysis of personal networks, based on the way in which an individual divides his or her attention across contacts. This allows us to contrast people who focus a large fraction of their interactions on a small set of close friends with people who disperse their attention more widely.

Using data from Facebook, we find that this balance of attention is a relatively stable property of an individual over time, and that it displays interesting variation across both different groups of people and different modes of interaction. In particular, activities based on communication involve a much higher focus of attention than activities based simply on observation, and these two types of modalities also exhibit different forms of variation in interaction patterns both within and across groups. Finally, we contrast the amount of attention paid by individuals to their most frequent contacts with the rate of change in the identities of these contacts, providing a measure of churn for this set.

via Michigan Interactive & Social Computing

The social media network will be part of the ‘mbrace 2 telematics system,’ running on a high-resolution screen on the 2013 SL-Class Mercedes–among other models–for next year.

Citation: Miesler, L., Leder, H., & Herrmann, A. (2011). Isn’t it cute: An evolutionary perspective of baby-schema effects in visual product designs. International Journal of Design, 5(3), 17-30.

Abstract: Through applying an evolutionary approach, we examined affective consumer responses to facial features in product designs. Previous studies have suggested that consumers might perceive the fronts of cars similarly to how they perceive human faces, but how consumers respond on an affective level to evolutionarily significant features when they are part of artifacts such as product designs has not been thoroughly studied. Therefore, we studied affective responses to features of an important stimulus that is known to elicit affect and approach behavior: the baby schema. We tested whether the affective responses to this stimulus were generalized to product designs, and how stable these generalized responses were over repeated exposures. We manipulated car fronts - and faces as controls - in accordance with the baby schema (e.g., by enlarging the headlights/eyes). Combining facial electromyography with cuteness ratings to assess innate affective responses, we found that our participants (n = 57) showed more positive affective responses to the babyfaced car fronts than to the original stimuli, and that the effect of the baby-schema features on positive affect was stable over two repeated exposures, thus did not show effects of fast habituation. These results confirm that consumers’ affective responses to visual product designs are affected by evolutionarily-implemented features.

hmm.. I wonder if the effects change for women through out their monthly hormonal cycle..

The finding marks the first time that endorphin release in the nucleus accumbens and orbitofrontal cortex in response to alcohol consumption has been directly observed in humans.

“The economic trends are super clear. The technical roles are in demand. Even in what is currently a very difficult situation for our country in unemployment. There’s a huge shortage of engineers who can build products like Facebook. And women need to have their fair share of those seats,” Facebook’s chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg said.

via CBSNews