This demo showcases the Library of Inspiration, an initiative making STEM learning more accessible, engaging, and inclusive, particularly for underrepresented children. Freely available, take-home technology kits distributed via school libraries, enable young learners to explore coding, robotics, audio, and VR. Co-designed with children, teachers, and librarians, the kits are tailored to be relevant and engaging. Attendees will participate in a live demonstration, aligning with themes of equity, diversity, inclusion, and social justice. Our demo highlights hands-on STEM engagement, child-centered co-design, scalability, and community impact. It contributes to IDC's key themes by emphasizing socially-just technology design, participatory research with children, and scalable educational initiatives. By transforming school libraries into digital inclusion hubs, this initiative ensures children can develop future-ready skills. Attendees can explore, discuss, and reflect on how playful, co-designed, self-directed STEM learning can foster innovation. We hope to inspire educators, researchers, and designers to develop more equitable, learner-driven approaches to technology education

Abstract Foley artistry is an essential part of the audio post-production process for film, television, games, and animation. By extension, it is as crucial in emergent media such as virtual, mixed, and augmented reality. Footsteps are a core activity that a Foley artist must undertake and convey information about the characters and environment presented on-screen. This study sought to identify if characteristics of age, gender, weight, health, and confidence could be conveyed, using sounds created by a professional Foley artist, in three different 3D humanoid models, following a single walk cycle. An experiment was conducted with human participants (n=100) and found that Foley manipulations could convey all the intended characteristics with varying degrees of contextual success. It was shown that the abstract 3D models were capable of communicating characteristics of age, gender, and weight. A discussion of the literature and inspection of related audio features with the Foley clips suggest signal parameters of frequency, envelope, and novelty may be a subset of markers of those perceived characteristics. The findings are relevant to researchers and practitioners in linear and interactive media and demonstrate mechanisms by which Foley can contribute useful information and concepts about on-screen characters.

Adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) face daily challenges dealing with stress, for example, at work, or in public spaces, which can be overwhelming in terms of coping with sensory overload. Technological interventions have been created in order to attempt to counter symptoms of stress, through improving cognition and functioning of target users. Mobile devices, virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) applications have demonstrated the ability to support and improve clinical practices through sensory based technologies. In this paper, we present the initial phase of research concerning an online survey conducted with over 200 autistic participants and caregivers. We report on the identification of currently used technological preferences, triggers associated with stress, issues regarding sensitivity and perception, the needs of caregivers, as well as the perceived potential for new technologies. The study has identified that sensitivity to sound and light remain key stress triggers for those on the autism spectrum. Headphones and mobile devices were considered to be suitable methods of accessing multi-sensory stimuli to help manage stress. Augmented Reality and VR were identified by autistic participants as technologies that might aid in the reduction of unpredictable stress-related events. The insights gained from the research will inform future research regarding the design of technological self-interventions for stress management in autistic adults.

Auditory alerts are an essential part of many multi-modal interaction scenarios, particularly in safety and mission critical settings, such as hospitals and transportation. A variety of strategies can be employed in the design of auditory alerts, often orienting manipulation of volume and pitch parameters. However, manipulations by applying a Doppler effect are under-investigated. A perceptual listening test is conducted (n = 100) using multiple alert sounds that are subjected to a variety of volume, pitch, and Doppler manipulations, with the unaltered sounds serving as a benchmark. Applying a mixed methods approach consisting of inferential statistics and thematic analysis, it is found that decreases in volume and a Doppler simulation of a sound moving away reduce importance and urgency, increase safety, are harder to detect, and are perceived as being more distant in perceptions of auditory alerts. Further, increases in volume and a Doppler simulation of a sound approaching are effective in communicating safety, whilst pitch manipulations were much less effective. Further work is required to provide wider, ecologically valid, verification of these findings, particularly as to how listener detection of Doppler and volume manipulations can be improved.

Abstract With an increasing number of everyday operations and communications becoming both automated and autonomous, ambient intelligent soundscapes are transforming to accommodate additional sonic feedback, and with it, new frameworks of listening. While this type of research and design of audio augmented technology is not new, the impact pre-existing acoustic environments upon listeners’ sense-making activities is rarely considered holistically. Much of the study into the design of effective auditory displays focuses on perceptual acuity and correct source identification, often at the expense of understanding the context of meaning-making. This paper presents a study involving 70 participants who listened to unidentified audio recordings of two archetypal everyday urban sound environments naturally containing artificial signals as well as typical sounds. Using a ThinkAloud protocol we investigated listeners’ approaches to meaning-making in both semantic and temporal dimensions. Through a semantic content analysis, we articulate five aspects of sonic meaning-making: spatial, descriptive, experiential, associational and narrative. We further analyse the use of these perceptual elements on a temporal plane, in order to investigate how listeners construct a narrative of what they hear in real-time, naturally evolving as each subsequent sound event is interpreted. Results suggest that while listeners attend to sound events and spatial characteristics of a sound environment at the beginning of a new listening situation, as the soundscape unfolds they utilize associations and familiarity in order to place individual sounds into increasingly coherent narratives. Finally, we suggest that this approach could provide sound designers and human–computer interaction specialists with a model for investigating the context aspects of a soundscape more holistically, allowing them to evaluate the effect of any new designed sounds prior to introduction into real-world environments.

Music Therapy has been shown to be an effective intervention for clients with Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC), a lifelong neurodevelopmental condition that can affect people in a number of ways. This paper presents a study evaluating the use of a multimodal 3D interactive tool, CymaSense, within a series of music therapy sessions. Eight adults with ASC participated in an 8-week period using a single case experimental design approach. The study used qualitative and quantitative methodological tools for analysis within and beyond the therapy sessions. The results indicate an increase in communicative behaviours for both verbal and non-verbal participants.

This paper explores the use of head-mounted displays (HMDs) as a way to deliver a front row experience to any audience member during a live event. To do so, it presents a two-part user study that compares participants reported sense of presence across three experimental conditions: front row, back row, and back row with HMD (displaying 360° video captured live from the front row). Data was collected using the Temple Presence Inventory (TPI), which measures presence across eight factors. The reported sense of presence in the HMD condition was significantly higher in five of these measures, including spatial presence, social presence, passive social presence, active social presence, and social richness. We argue that the non-significant differences found in the other three factors – engagement, social realism, and perceptual realism – are artefacts of participants’ personal taste for the song being performed, or the effects of using a mixed-reality approach. Finally, the paper describes a basic system for low-latency, 360° video live streaming using off-the-shelf, affordable equipment and software.