Abstract
This study proposes the use of forms of entrainment as an interaction design principle for social computing. Entrainment could be used to design computational artifacts that produce socially beneficial effects, suitable for design projects that promote collaborative action. This study explores acoustic entrainment to gather cyclists into groups to reduce carbon-intensive urban commuting. The system uses visual cues and rhythmic patterns to gather riders with similar routes around mobile GPS signals. Preliminary results from a small empirical study (n=8) show how pattern phasing can encourage riders to accelerate. This method has limitations in communicating negative acceleration and proximity. Adjusting pattern tempo and volume may compensate for this shortcoming. Conclusions are drawn concerning the effects of acoustic entrainment on cyclist's engagement with others and with the environment.
Keywords
acoutic patterns; bicycles; swarms
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2024.637
Citation
Salamanca, J. (2024) Acoustic patterns for urban attractors, in Gray, C., Ciliotta Chehade, E., Hekkert, P., Forlano, L., Ciuccarelli, P., Lloyd, P. (eds.), DRS2024: Boston, 23–28 June, Boston, USA. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2024.637
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Conference Track
Research Paper
Included in
Acoustic patterns for urban attractors
This study proposes the use of forms of entrainment as an interaction design principle for social computing. Entrainment could be used to design computational artifacts that produce socially beneficial effects, suitable for design projects that promote collaborative action. This study explores acoustic entrainment to gather cyclists into groups to reduce carbon-intensive urban commuting. The system uses visual cues and rhythmic patterns to gather riders with similar routes around mobile GPS signals. Preliminary results from a small empirical study (n=8) show how pattern phasing can encourage riders to accelerate. This method has limitations in communicating negative acceleration and proximity. Adjusting pattern tempo and volume may compensate for this shortcoming. Conclusions are drawn concerning the effects of acoustic entrainment on cyclist's engagement with others and with the environment.