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John Waterworth PhD, Professor of Informatics
Department of Informatics at Umeå University in Sweden.

My research focuses on how personal experience is affected by our relationship with information and communication technology (ICT), which is evolving fast. Sometimes technology becomes a part of ourselves, sometimes it remains other. But without it, we would not be human. We make sense of it, and of ourselves, as we go along.

I've been doing research on people interacting with ICT since 1980. Some areas of focus over the years: speech interaction, hypermedia, multi-and cross-sensory interaction, information exploration, experiential and embodied interaction, virtual and augmented realities, ICT and ageing. See my list of publications

I am research leader of the Q-Life research group. We explore ways in which information and communication technology can be used to enhance quality of life and health, for example through the use of "mood devices", memory and social supports, usually by designing and developing working prototypes and exploring them in use. Q-life was started as a studio of the Interactive Institute.

I am currently Director of Studies for Research Education. I also coordinate the D-level (Master's) essay programme and the informatics seminar series.

I have a PhD in Experimental Psychology (1984), and I'm a Chartered Psychologist of the BPS, with a current practising certificate. My professional experience includes organising courses for industry on psychology and HCI design, and consulting for many commercial and governmental organisations.

I've been part of this department since 1994. Between 2001-2006 I also worked for the Interactive Institute in Umeå. From 1988-1994 I worked in Singapore at the Institute for Systems Science, and from 1980 to 1988 in England, at British Telecom Research Labs in Martlesham, Suffolk.

Yet more links: A live camera image of the campus, the weather here today, a British look at Sweden, and a short film about Umeå.

All materials on this web site © J A Waterworth 2000-2008, unless otherwise.
Last modified August 2008, photo Sept 07.
jwworth@informatik.umu.se, mobile: +46 (0)73 8111-440
Department of Informatics, Umeå University, 90187 Umeå, Sweden.

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Some Research Interests

ICT and Older People
Older people are too often excluded from the use of new information and communication technology (ICT), a fact which contributes to their tendency to become socially isolated and under-stimulated.Yet a growing body of evidence emphasises the potential of new interactive technologies to maintain health and independent living, and even improve some cognitive functions in the elderly. Our approach is to design and test potentially beneficial technologies for older people.

On the Sense of Presence
We view the feeling of being more or less present in a mediated environment as reflecting the functioning of a universal animal faculty to distinguish self from other. In people this has evolved to enable us to separate the internal or conceptual (the self) from the external or perceptual (the other), even though both are produced by the brain, and both may engender emotional or intellectual engagement. See our paper on the three layers of presence.

Embodied Interaction and Reactive Environments
Linking the body directly to interactive media (by sensing movements or physiological changes) has a powerful impact - on the physical body (and brain), on the emotions, and on the sense of presence in or with the medium. One manifestation of this approach, Seclusive IT, responds to people's often submerged needs for non-interruption, for peace and quiet, and involves the study of Human-Computer Inaction, within the framework of Inactivity Theory.

Mediated and Transformed Sensory Experiences
Our experiences are increasingly mediated through technological devices. This opens up a potential universe of altered sensations and perceptions of the world around us. And of course we can choose how we experience stored or transmitted information, through what I have called synaesthetic media (an old example is pianoFORTE).

The Reality Helmet provides a novel technologically-mediated way of being in the world. Video and sounds are sampled from the surrounding environment, but through computer signal processing external sounds are presented to the wearer as visual patterns and sights are turned into a stereo soundscape. The result is a radical transformation of sensory experience.



 

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My News: Future and Recent Activities
see also Q-life research group news

Paper Accepted
Presence 2008: 11th International Workshop on Presence. Padova, Italy, October 2008

New Book Chapter
Designing ICT for the over 80s. Eva Lindh Waterworth & J A Waterworth. In Press.

Paper Presented by Kei Hoshi (first author)
PETRA: 1st International Conference on Pervasive Technologies Related to Assistive Environments, Athens, July 2008

First Prize Winner!
 Presence Grand Challenge Competition
PEACH Presence Research in Action

Paper Presented
Toward a Science of Consciousness 2008 Conference, Tucson, Arizona, April 2008

Invited Participant
Presence research in action: PEACH WinG
Consultation meeting, Oxford, UK, April 2008

Invited Participant
UK Foresight Project on Mental Capital and Wellbeing Workshop, London, UK, March 2008

Keynote Speaker
1st PEACH Summer School - Presence: towards human machine confluence. Santorini, Greece, July 2007

Paper accepted
2nd International Conference on Technology and Aging (ICTA), Toronto, June 2007

Helped organise
Symposium on Affective Smart Environments AISB convention, Newcastle, UK, April 2007

Poster paper presented
British Psychological Society Annual Conference, York, UK, March 2007

Paper presented by C Peter (1st author)
International Workshop on Pervasive Technologies for the support of Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders, Thessaloniki, Greece, Feb 2007

(details of all publications here)