Personal comfort is important in the design of objects and environments. However, as comfort is a subjective experience, it is a very difficult aspect to design for. This paper presents an interrogation into the design for human thermal comfort, in particular the design of personal devices for use in shared work environments. The findings of two user studies are presented, in which wearable and portable, off-the-shelf personal heating and cooling devices were deployed in the field to explore the interaction with and use of these devices in everyday settings with the aim to uncover key aspects and requirements for the design of such devices. We found that functionality and affordances, i.e. the design for versatility, appropriation and mobility, as well as control, availability, effectiveness and efficiency of use were most important. Furthermore, individual preferences, foremost the preference for on-body versus off-body heating and cooling, and aspects related to wearable design of the devices, such as aesthetics, materiality, comfort of wear, mobility and unobtrusiveness, also need to be taken into account.
Camera networks that reconfigure while performing multiple tasks have unique requirements, such as concurrent task allocation with limited resources, the sharing of data among fields of view across the network, and coordination among heterogeneous devices.
This paper presents a formal framework within which autonomous agents can dynamically select and apply different mechanisms to coordinate their interactions with one another. Agents use the task attributes and environmental conditions to evaluate which mechanism maximises their expected utility. Different agent types can be characterised by their willingness to cooperate and the relative value they place on short-vs long-term rewards. Our results demonstrate the viability of empowering agents in this way and show the quantitative benefits that agents accrue from being given the flexibility to control how they coordinate.
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