Projects: Human-Computer Interaction, School of Computing and Information Systems, The University of Melbourne

Adaptive learning technologies

Exploring how AI and machine learning can make inferences about students’ progress and adapt interfaces to tailor the learning experience to each student.

Ageing and avatars

This project aims to identify how NUI technologies can be designed and used to facilitate active social participation for older people constrained by limited mobility.

AI-enabled assistance for strategic planning in games

Developing a coherent understanding of the role of Autonomous Analyst instances for human-agent teaming for playing complex games.

Wearable technology for arm monitoring in health

This project investigates the potential of wearables to support stroke patients and their clinicians in arm monitoring. The team are designing a wearable technology and studying how data can support therapists in assessing and rehabilitating patients.

Augmented fitness

The project explores how technologies can support and motivate gym users. The team are developing a system that integrates wearable and remote sensors to analyse users’ performances to support trainer-trainee communication and gamification strategies for collaborative and competitive exercising.

Augmented learning environment for physiotherapy education

This project is developing an augmented training environment using mixed reality technologies to support the development of student skills in analysing patient issues and clinical reasoning in physiotherapy education.

Biometric Mirror

This project investigates the public attitudes towards the display of artificial intelligence data in public space.

Changing views

Looking at how people experience information and technology when changing their viewpoint on issues of importance to them.

Citizen Heritage

We are investigating how digital technologies enable citizens of local areas to document and share memories and records of their collective past. Our main focus is on the development and study of PastPort, a mobile webapp for residents and visitors of Port Melbourne in inner Melbourne, an area of rich and disparate urban history.

Cognition-aware systems

Computing systems that sense, model, and adapt to their users’ cognitive states.

Cognitive interaction

We are developing new technologies for augmenting human cognitive abilities. We employ novel sensing technologies such as eye tracking and thermal imaging to infer users’ intention and cognitive states to design interactions that adapt and respond to these states accordingly.

Completed projects

Connecting learners for collaboration across diverse communities

We are exploring how we can use technologies that help students to explore students in other locations and find suitable partners with whom to carry out collaborative work.

2010

Cross-community information systems

This project addressed unsolved issues of usability of e-health information systems across diverse stakeholder communities that need to coordinate to deliver the expected revolution in patient-centred health care.

2008–2010

Crowdsourcing

In this project we develop technologies, methods, techniques to improve the quality of generated crowd knowledge. Wisdom of the Crowd refers to a deceptively simple idea: large groups of people are smarter than an elite few, no matter how brilliant – better at solving problems, fostering innovation, coming to wise decisions, even predicting the future.

Death and the Internet

This project examines the role of Internet and other communication technologies in the experience of death, grieving and memorialisation.

2010–2012

Deceptive AI

Can computers deceive people? It is clear that computers be used as tools for people to deceive each other (fake news, phishing, etc), but is it possible for a specially designed AI agent to engage in strategic deception?

Designing for scale

We are exploring the nature and value of technology at different scales, individual, community and movement. We aim to produce insights that assist with design across multiple scales. Our case study is smart garden watering. Photo credit 3.

2013–2015

Designing technologies for indigenous knowledge

The project seeks to understand the interrelationship of people, place, and practise to nurture indigenous knowledge, and explore how video-mediated technologies can be designed to foster indigenous knowledge among national or international diaspora.

Digital commemoration

Our team is exploring the increasing use of digital technology and networked media in the commemoration of the dead. The project will contribute to a broader understanding of changing commemorative practices, their digital mediation, and the interactions between them.

Digital domesticity

Tracing the origins of domestic digital developments with two decades of empirical fieldwork and ethnographic investigation.

Digital emotion regulation

This project investigates how (and where, when and why) people use digital technologies to shape their emotional states. We plan to develop an evidence-based framework for understanding “digital emotion regulation” in everyday settings.

Emerging technologies for enrichment in old age

This project investigates older adults’ experiences with emerging technologies, such as virtual reality, social robots, and online games, aiming to identify strategies for good practice in the design and deployment of these technologies for enrichment in old age.

Encounters

Encounters brought art, technology and people together in a weekly outdoor interactive digital art space in the Victorian College of the Arts Courtyard throughout the 2015 SummerSalt Festival.

Ethics in multiplayer games and moderation

This project aims to define, understand, and tackle the ethical concerns that develop around digital gameplay. Using an interdisciplinary approach, we aim to clarify what it means to play and design ethical games in ways that benefit both players and the industry.

Evaluation of natural user interfaces in query auto-completion

This project examines multiple design and effectiveness aspects of current and future web search systems, with an emphasis on experiences that support mobility via smartphones, tablets or augmented reality systems.

Hybrid technologies for tabletop games

This project aims to understand how digital technology is being used to enhance, support and extend commercial boardgames through creation of ‘hybrid’ digital-physical boardgames.

Exploring complex data sets using highly engaging environments

Exploring natural user interfaces during meal times

This project investigates how families use technology at mealtimes and how space in homes are configured around technology. The team are developing a NUI gesture and voice based mobile application to augment family conversations during mealtimes.

FaceSpace

This research project aims to use social networking sites to deliver health promotion messages about sexual health and safer sex to young people and men who have sex with men (MSM).

2010–2012

Getting well and being present

Hospitalised children can experience significant disruption to school and family life. We are designing technologies to help young patients connect with their friends, family and classroom. We have trialled an ambient ‘orb’ and are currently designing an Android tablet-based application.

2012

Growing old and staying connected

Social isolation affects many older people. This project investigates novel technologies to prevent and to ameliorate social isolation experienced by older adults.

2012–2014

HandLog: tangible interactions for game input and rehabilitation

Using the ArmLog prototype which senses and communicates bodily information, including grip strength and arm movement, as an input to interactive technology.

iFISH

The web is abundant with search engines but often they don’t work well for us because we really want to ‘explore’ an unknown (data) space rather then narrow down to a particular ‘search’. This research uses a novel approach to supporting exploration and its application in various contexts.

2011

Improving Vitamin D status and related health in young women

With increasing awareness of the harmful effects of sun exposure, Australia has growing levels of vitamin D deficiency. Here we will compare the effectiveness of oral medication and smart apps in achieving healthy levels of vitamin D. Photo credit 4

2013–2015

Insertable technology for human interactions

This project investigates insertables: devices that go under the skin for non-medical purposes. A small but growing group are choosing to augment their senses by voluntarily inserting devices inside their bodies. This research will help us to understand why people are doing this and the implications for human-technology interactions.

Interactive displays

A number of interactive Microsoft Kinect based public displays were installed around the University of Melbourne Parkville campus to explore how space can contribute to the day-to-day learning and living experiences of its inhabitants.

Interactive spaces and media architecture

Exploring opportunities for interactive media to enliven building facades and cultural spaces in the University of Melbourne’s new Innovation Precinct.

Kinecting with orang-utans

In collaboration with Zoos Victoria, this project designed and studied an interactive digital system to enrich and empower the lives of orang-utans at Melbourne Zoo.

Mediating intimacy

We used cultural probes and contextual interviews and other ethnographically informed techniques to investigate how interactive technologies are used within intimate relationships. Photo credit 2.

Mobile fieldwork and learning

Through design investigations we are studying the opportunities and pitfalls of using mobile technology to create and deliver new fieldwork exercises to university students. We are carrying out studies with students of architecture and the built environment, but aim for more general theories and evidence.

2011–2013

Multimodal human–agent collaboration

Improving human-agent interactions through gaze input and other collaborative modalities.

Music streaming and algorithmic recommendation

Investigating how music streaming platforms change the way we find, discover and interact with music.

Near-infrared spectroscopy

Our research aims to improve the accessibility of Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) devices for non-expert end-users and to explore novel application domains for the technology.

Onebody

The project explored NUI technology for the knowledge transfer of motor skills and remote learning. The team developed an innovative technology ‘Onebody’ that exploits immersive virtual reality and body tracking technology to provide a virtual training and learning environment.

Orygen Virtual World Project

A virtual world platform bringing to life a new age of digitally enhanced youth mental health care services.

Promoting student peer review in Australian tertiary education

This project aims to make an easy-to-use and feature-rich online student peer review tool available to educators and students across the higher education sector in Australia. This will be achieved by building on ‘PRAZE’: a highly successful, award-winning prototype developed at The University of Melbourne.

2012–2013

Personal sensing for mental health and wellbeing

We are researching the use of ubiquitous computing and personal device sensing to monitor mental health and to inform mental health care and digital interventions.

Pholiota Unlocked

Bringing virtual reality to Melbourne Festival’s Cultural Collisions exhibition. A narrative that alternates between real and virtual experiences helps keep the focus of an exhibit on the cultural heritage content while also enhancing the experience with virtual technologies.

Reading on ubiquitous devices

Reading in a digital world: building new reading experiences and measuring reading behaviour in-the-wild.

Smart Garden Watering

This project’s aim was to provide gardeners in the Melbourne/Geelong areas with a resource to help them make the optimal use of water in their gardens.

2010–2013

Smartphones for science

We are developing software to enable scientists to use smartphones as a reliable scientific instrument. Our project has a wide range of activities, including how to make it easier to collect data from smartphones, as well as how to analyse sensor data on smartphones and other mobile or wearable gadgets.

Social gaming events: Warhammer 40K

This study aims to understand the work people do in order to play competitive and non-competitive war-games.

2012

Social networking sites for ambivalent socialisers

This project worked with the Victorian Cancer Council to design and trial smartphone-based interventions to help people quit smoking. Staff: Wally Smith, Sarah Webber, Greg Wadley. Funding source: ARC.

2011–2014

Social play in immersive gaming environments

This project investigates how voice, gaze and gesture affects a gamer’s experience such as immersion, embodiment, identity and control.

Social robots and virtual assistants for older people

This project investigates how voice, gaze and gesture affects a gamer’s experience such as immersion, embodiment, identity and control.

Sociophysical interactions

This project investigates the gap between tangible interactions offered by mobile and embedded technologies and opportunities for social engagement offered by social technologies.

2011–2013

Social Orientated Requirements Engineering

This project led to the design and development of better software/information and communications technologies to encourage flexible social interactions, and have been designed with the user in mind.

2008–2010

Spectating eSports and Let’s Play

Exploring the experience not of playing games but of watching them, where gameplay becomes a new form of viewing entertainment.*

SpinalLog

A deformable interface for manual skills training in physiotherapy.

Supporting social interactions for video calls in the home

This project analyses how Skype is used in video mediated communication (VMC). The research findings will identify how NUIs can improve the ability of VMC to connect and facilitate social experiences at a distance.

Teleconsultation: enhancing interactions between clinicians and patients

This project investigates how a teleconsultation between a patient and their clinician can be improved beyond video. The team are designing and evaluating a new technology that will help patients communicate bodily information like movement and pain to clinicians during a physiotherapy teleconsultation.

Virtual co-presence

‘Teleporting’ collaborators into each other’s spatial environments to enable an immersive sense of being in each other’s physical presence.

Virtual Reality and climate change communication

Using a purpose-built VR app which places the user in a dystopian future where rising sea-levels are impacting familiar urban scenes in Melbourne we investigate how immersive VR experiences can provoke discussion and engagement around climate change in the public domain.

VR therapy for youth mental health

We are investigating how virtual reality technologies like HTC Vive and Samsung Gear VR can be used to improve young people’s mental health and wellbeing. Our project involves a range of activities such as designing therapeutic VR experiences, testing their effectiveness and acceptability, and exploring how VR can be incorporated into clinical practice.

Communities over the airwaves

This project based in Arts at the University of Melbourne is studying the role of community radio in supporting the culture and wellbeing of emerging migrant communities in Australia. Staff: Greg Wadley. Funding source: Creativity and Wellbeing Hallmark Research Initiative

Covid-19 mobility analysis

Our group has analysed the mobility data released by Facebook during the Covid-19 crisis. The analysis shows global trends, and national trends for multiple countries.

Death and technology

A long-running program of research exploring how digital technologies are increasingly used to commemorate, memorialise and dispose of the dead.

Driving to Health: A mental health app for taxi drivers

This project based in General Practice at the University of Melbourne studied the mental health of Melbourne taxi drivers, then designed and trialled a smartphone app-based intervention to help these vulnerable workers stay healthy. Staff: Greg Wadley. Funding source: Shepherd Foundation, Melbourne Networked Society Institute

IVY: Investigating an online community of support for emotional health in pregnancy

This project based at Latrobe University worked with Perinatal Anxiety & Depression Australia (PANDA) to design and trial a smartphone-based intervention for perinatal mental health. Staff: Greg Wadley. Funding source: Beischer Foundation. Photo credit 1

Living Archive of Aboriginal Art

This project based in Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne is designing a technology-based accessible archive of work in conjunction with prominent Aboriginal artist Maree Clarke. Staff: Greg Wadley. Funding source: Melbourne Social Equity Institute

Moderated online social therapy for youth mental health

This long-running project based at Orygen Youth Health is building and testing online mental health interventions. Our flagship platform is currently being rolled out Victoria-wide to help young people during the Covid pandemic. Staff: Simon D’Alfonso, Reeva Lederman, Greg Wadley. Funding source: Victorian Government, NHMRC

MRFF Million Minds

Bringing family, community, culture and country to indigenous youth mental health care. A multi-university project based in Victoria and Western Australia that is addressing the crisis in Aboriginal youth mental health. We aim to improve young people’s engagement with mental health services.

Remote but Connected

A co-created digital platform to enable caregivers to support independent living for people with disability in the face of Covid-19.

Smart Hospital Living Lab

An umbrella program involving multiple technology projects at the University of Melbourne in partnership with hospitals and industry. The main purpose of the lab is to improve how hospitals run.

#thismymob

Establishing digital land rights and reconnecting indigenous communities through emerging technologies. This project based at University of Technology Sydney designed and trialled smartphone apps with urban, regional and remote Australian Indigenous communities. The project is implementing telehealth in regional communities in response to the Covid pandemic. Staff: Greg Wadley. Funding source: ARC

Western e-HEaLth patient information portal for Pregnancy (WeHELP)

This project, based at the Melbourne Medical School, designed and trialled a smartphone-based pregnancy support intervention for women and families from culturally and linguistically diverse communities in Melbourne’s western suburbs. Staff: Wally Smith, Greg Wadley

Virtual reality for nature-based mindfulness

This study aimed to explore how VR can support mindfulness practice and to understand user experience issues that may affect the acceptability and efficacy of VR mindfulness for users in the general population.

Digital encounters with zoo animals

In collaboration with Zoos Victoria, this project is designing and developing an interactive digital system to enrich and empower the lives of orang-utans at Melbourne Zoo.

Robot Assisted Learning and Rehabilitation

This project investigates how robots could be designed to assist learners and patients to acquire or reacquire new skills.

XR for Human-Robot Interaction

This project investigates how mixed reality technology could be used to facilitate the human-robot communication looking in particular at data visualisation and robot augmented embodiment.

Social and Domestic Drones

Our team is exploring the potential of small drones in indoor scenarios. We are particularly interested in designing social cues for safe drone navigation in domestic environments.

Human Centred Robot Learning

The project explores how technologies can support novice users to train and teach an agent or robot. The team is developing novel interfaces and integrates theories from instructional sciences and gamification to allow humans to be better robot teachers.

Child of Now

Child of Now combines original storytelling, animation, immersive sound design, built environments, and virtual reality from an extraordinary team of leading Australian artists and IT professionals.

#thismymob

Establishing digital land rights and reconnecting indigenous communities through emerging technologies. This project designed and trialled smartphone apps with urban, regional and remote Australian Indigenous communities, and implemented telehealth in regional communities in response to the Covid pandemic.

Digital Technologies for Urban Nature Sites

This PhD project is investigating the design and use of digital technologies for urban nature experiences, at sites such as parks, community gardens, environmental education centres, and botanical gardens.

Digital Storytelling with Older Adults (TALES)

This project aims to investigate the opportunities and challenges of co-designing and using new technologies (e.g., hybrid digital boardgames; mixed reality; artificial intellengence) for interactive life storytelling with older adults.