FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0001] The present invention relates to playful urban interfaces as tactical strategies for addressing urban challenges through playful interventions and in particular to advancements in information and communication technologies and applications for increasing public engagement with urban spaces.

BACKGROUND

[0002] Any discussion of the background art throughout the specification should in no way be considered as an admission that such background art is prior art nor that such background art is widely known or forms part of the common general knowledge in the field in Australia or worldwide.

[0003] In 2014, the United Nations reported that 54 per cent of the world's population was living in cities (United Nations, 2014). This number is predicted to rise to 66 per cent by 2050. This rapid population growth and mass urbanization raises unprecedented challenges for cities and life in cities. On the one hand, city authorities are under pressure to provide more efficient infrastructure and services to cope with the increased demand, for example on public transport (Gardner et al., 2010) .

[0004] On the other hand, the city needs to evolve to provide quality environments for people to live, work, and socialize (de Waal, 2014). The quality of life in cities is at risk as it is closely linked to the availability and quality of public infrastructures. In a response to those challenges, many cities are looking at smart city systems as a potential remedy the many problems they are facing. However, the smart city vision is currently mostly propagated by large information and communication technology (ICT) companies, who have been criticized for their top-down approach (e.g. Townsend, 2013; Greenfield, 2013). This criticism is fuelled by the fact that smart city solutions are targeting city councils as clients and do not necessarily take into account the complexity of cities and the needs of their citizens. Smart city solutions further threaten to lock entire cities into a proprietary operating system and its provider (Kitchin, 2013). [0005] The promise of the real-time city enabled through smart city solutions is coined by its concentration on making city systems more effective and more efficient (Kitchin, 2013; Tomitsch, 2014). These are important measures to ensure more people will be able to share space and to move people efficiently from their home to the work place and vice versa. However, they ignore the importance of the hedonic qualities of space and their role for people' s connections with a place and with each other. The quality of life and human wellbeing in the 21 st century city is no longer limited to sanitation (Jackson, 2003) or economic factors, such as job opportunities and efficient transport systems (Pacione, 2003). Instead, scholars are emphasising the importance of consideration of social or 'human' concerns.

[0006] Playful interactions are found to be a contributing factor to urban liveability (McRae, 2008). The term 'playfuV is used herein to refer to activities that are intrinsically motivated, situated outside of everyday life and with no direct benefit or goal (Huizinga, 1955). Playful interactions are have been suggested as 'catalysts' to engage with public screens as well as social interaction between participants (Egglestone et al., 201 1 ; Ojala et al., 2012). Playful behaviour has even been observed to occur in serious application contexts, when the interface is situated in a social, public space (Tomitsch et al., 2014).

[0007] More recently, significant research has been carried out in the field of human- computer interaction into the exploration of potential methodologies to embed game elements and game thinking - referred to as gamification - into public urban space (Deterding et al., 201 1). For example, people can play a version of the classic arcade game 'Pong' during the red phase at a traffic light on 'Street Pong' (Engel & Kiinzler, 2012), or the augmentation of stairs with piano keys encourages people to take the stairs instead of the escalator (Volkswagen Group, 2009). However, the majority of research at the intersection of gamification and urban space has focused on using mobile-based platforms to create a virtual world that is superimposed over real world experiences. This approach immerses people in an augmented reality where their actions in the real world have an impact on the virtual world (e.g., using a real-time urban street setup as the gaming environment in mobile games) (Bang, Svahn & Gustafsson, 2009). Research on the use of gamification to promote playful interactions in urban environments has comparably seen little attention.

SUMMARY

[0008] It is an object of the present invention to overcome or ameliorate at least one or more of the disadvantages of the prior art, or to provide a useful alternative. [0009] According to a first aspect of the invention, there is provided a playful urban system. The playful urban system may comprise an interactive display surface adapted to provide real-time feedback of an action to a user. The playful urban system may further comprise an interaction means to enable the user to interact with the system. The playful urban system may further comprise a control unit comprising: a processor and a control input for receiving a control signal indicative of an interaction by the user with the interaction means. The playful urban system may further comprise at least one sensor located proximal to the interaction means, the sensor adapted to detect the interaction by the user with the interaction means, wherein the at least one sensor is adapted to identify the location of where the user interacts with the system and to transmit a control signal to the control input. The at least one sensor may detect the user interaction with the interaction means and provides a control signal to the control input of the control unit. The processor may determine a predetermined action responsive to the user interaction and updates the interactive display with the predetermined action to provide interactive feedback to the user responsive to the user interaction with the interaction means.

[0010] According to a particular arrangement of the first aspect is provided a playful urban system comprising: an interactive display surface adapted to provide real-time feedback of an action to a user; an interaction means to enable the user to interact with the system; a control unit comprising: a processor and a control input for receiving a control signal indicative of an interaction by the user with the interaction means; at least one sensor located proximal to the interaction means, the sensor adapted to detect the interaction by the user with the interaction means, wherein the at least one sensor is adapted to identify the location of where the user interacts with the system and to transmit a control signal to the control input; wherein the at least one sensor detects the user interaction with the interaction means and provides a control signal to the control input of the control unit; whereupon the processor determines a predetermined action responsive to the user interaction and updates the interactive display with the predetermined action to provide interactive feedback to the user responsive to the user interaction with the interaction means.

[0011] According to a second aspect of the invention there is provided an interactive waste disposal system adapted for interaction with users to encourage acceptable behavioural practices. The interactive waste disposal system may comprise an interactive display surface adapted to provide real-time feedback of an action to the user. The interactive waste disposal system may further comprise at least one waste receptacles comprising an entry aperture, the receptacle adapted to receive a waste item from the user depositing through the entry aperture. The interactive waste disposal system may further comprise a control unit comprising: a processor and a control input for receiving a control signal indicative of a waste item from the user being deposited through the entry aperture. The interactive waste disposal system may further comprise at least one sensor located proximal to the entry aperture, the sensor adapted to detect a user interaction and to transmit a control signal to the control input. On receipt of the control signal, the processor may provide a response signal representative of the predetermined action to the interactive display such that the interactive display provides interactive feedback to the user responsive to the user interaction. [0012] According to a particular arrangement of the second aspect there is provided an interactive waste disposal system adapted for interaction with users to encourage acceptable behavioural practices, the waste disposal system comprising: an interactive display surface adapted to provide real-time feedback of an action to the user at least one waste receptacles comprising an entry aperture, the receptacle adapted to receive a waste item from the user depositing through the entry aperture; a control unit comprising: a processor and a control input for receiving a control signal indicative of a waste item from the user being deposited through the entry aperture; at least one sensor located proximal to the entry aperture, the sensor adapted to detect a user interaction and to transmit a control signal to the control input; wherein, on receipt of the control signal, the processor provides a response signal representative of the predetermined action to the interactive display such that the interactive display provides interactive feedback to the user responsive to the user interaction with the interaction means.

[0013] The user interaction may comprise a waste item being deposited into the receptacle by the user. The at least one sensor may be adapted to identify the location where the waste item enters the receptacle.

[0014] The at least one sensor may be adapted to detect the size of the disposed waste item. The at least one sensor may be adapted to transmit a size control signal to the control unit. The size control signal may trigger a proportional action to occur on the display surface.

[0015] The system may further comprises a plurality of solar cell modules connected to an internal battery storage module for providing power to the system. The plurality of solar cell modules are incorporated into said interactive display surface. [0016] The interactive display surface may further comprise a plurality of touch sensitive interaction sensors to facilitate user interaction with the system via touch. The plurality of touch sensitive interaction sensors may comprise a plurality of capacitive touch sensors. [0017] The system may further comprises a waste identification sensor adapted to identify the type, size and/or material of a waste item deposited into the receptacle. The system may further comprises waste separation means within the waste receptacle for separating waste items of different size and/or material.

[0018] The processor may be adapted to display an interactive game interface on the interactive display surface.

[0019] According to a third aspect of the invention, there is provided a method for providing a playful urban system. The method may comprise the step of providing an interactive display surface adapted to provide real-time feedback of an action to the user. The method may comprise the further step of providing an interaction means to enable the user to interact with the system. The method may comprise the further step of providing a control unit comprising: a processor and a control input for receiving a control signal indicative of an interaction by the user with the interaction means. The method may comprise the further step of providing at least one sensor located proximal to the interaction means, the sensor adapted to detect the interaction by the user with the interaction means, wherein the at least one sensor is adapted to identify the location of where the user interacts with the system and to transmit a control signal to the control input. The method may comprise the further step of detecting with the at least one sensor the user interaction with the interaction means. The method may comprise the further step of providing a control signal to the control input of the control unit. The method may comprise the further step of using the processor determining a predetermined action responsive to the user interaction. The method may comprise the further step of updating the interactive display with the predetermined action to provide interactive feedback to the user responsive to the user interaction with the interaction means.

[0020] According to a particular arrangement of the third aspect, there is provided a method for providing a playful urban system comprising the steps of: providing an interactive display surface adapted to provide real-time feedback of an action to the user; providing an interaction means to enable the user to interact with the system; providing a control unit comprising: a processor and a control input for receiving a control signal indicative of an interaction by the user with the interaction means; providing at least one sensor located proximal to the interaction means, the sensor adapted to detect the interaction by the user with the interaction means, wherein the at least one sensor is adapted to identify the location of where the user interacts with the system and to transmit a control signal to the control input; detecting with the at least one sensor the user interaction with the interaction means; providing a control signal to the control input of the control unit; using the processor determining a predetermined action responsive to the user interaction; and updating the interactive display with the predetermined action to provide interactive feedback to the user responsive to the user interaction with the interaction means. [0021] The interaction means may comprise at least one waste receptacles comprising an entry aperture. Each receptacle may be adapted to receive a waste item from the user. The user interaction comprises a user depositing a waste item through the entry aperture.

[0022] According to a fourth aspect of the invention, there is provided a waste disposal system. The waste disposal system may comprise at least one waste receptacle. The waste disposal system may further comprise at least one sensor adapted to detect a current status of the waste receptacle and to transmit a control signal to a control unit. The waste disposal system may further comprise a control unit adapted to receive the control signal. The control unit may comprise a processor responsive to the control signal and adapted to determine a current status of the waste disposal system. The control unit may further comprise a communications unit adapted to broadcast a communications signal to a centralised monitoring facility to communicate the current status of the waste disposal system to the monitoring facility.

[0023] According to a particular arrangement of the fourth aspect, there is provided a waste disposal system comprising: at least one waste receptacle; at least one sensor adapted to detect a current status of the waste receptacle and to transmit a control signal to a control unit; a control unit adapted to receive the control signal and comprising: a processor responsive to the control signal and adapted to determine a current status of the waste disposal system; and a communications unit adapted to broadcast a communications signal to a centralised monitoring facility to communicate the current status of the waste disposal system to the monitoring facility. [0024] The at least one sensor may be adapted to determine a current capacity of the at least one waste receptacle. The at least one sensor may comprise either a weight sensor or an optical sensor adapted to detect a current capacity of the at least one waste receptacle.

[0025] According to a fifth aspect of the invention, there is provided a waste disposal system comprising an interactive game. The waste disposal system may comprise at least one sensor unit adapted to sense at least one environmental condition in the vicinity of the waste disposal system. The waste disposal system may be adapted to execute a proportional action in the game in response to set at least one environmental condition.

[0026] According to a particular arrangement of the fifth aspect, there is provided waste disposal system comprising: at least one waste receptacle; at least one sensor adapted to detect a current status of the waste receptacle and to transmit a control signal to a control unit; a control unit adapted to receive the control signal and comprising: a processor responsive to the control signal and adapted to determine a current status of the waste disposal system; and a communications unit adapted to broadcast a communications signal to a centralised monitoring facility to communicate the current status of the waste disposal system to the monitoring facility.

[0027] The at least one environmental condition may comprise the presence of at least one user in the vicinity of the waste disposal system. The at least one environmental condition may further comprise the presence of a user in the vicinity of the system interacting with the waste disposal system.

[0028] The user interaction may comprise depositing a waste item into a receptacle of the waste disposal system. The user interaction may further comprise the user exhibiting a desirable facial expression (e.g. smiling) in response to the proportional action in the game.

[0029] According to a sixth aspect, there is provided a computer program product having a computer readable medium having a computer program recorded therein for providing a playful urban system the computer program product comprising: computer program code means for providing an interactive display surface adapted to provide real-time feedback of an action to the user computer program code means for providing an interaction means to enable the user to interact with the system; computer program code means for providing a control unit comprising: a processor and a control input for receiving a control signal indicative of an interaction by the user with the interaction means; computer program code means for providing at least one sensor located proximal to the interaction means, the sensor adapted to detect the interaction by the user with the interaction means, wherein the at least one sensor is adapted to identify the location of where the user interacts with the system and to transmit a control signal to the control input; computer program code means for detecting with the at least one sensor the user interaction with the interaction means; computer program code means for providing a control signal to the control input of the control unit; computer program code means for using the processor determining a predetermined action responsive to the user interaction; and computer program code means for updating the interactive display with the predetermined action to provide interactive feedback to the user responsive to the user interaction with the interaction means. [0030] According to a seventh aspect, there is provided a computer program for providing a playful urban system the program comprising: code for providing an interactive display surface adapted to provide real-time feedback of an action to the user code for providing an interaction means to enable the user to interact with the system; code for providing a control unit comprising: a processor and a control input for receiving a control signal indicative of an interaction by the user with the interaction means; code for providing at least one sensor located proximal to the interaction means, the sensor adapted to detect the interaction by the user with the interaction means, wherein the at least one sensor is adapted to identify the location of where the user interacts with the system and to transmit a control signal to the control input; code for detecting with the at least one sensor the user interaction with the interaction means; code for providing a control signal to the control input of the control unit; code for using the processor determining a predetermined action responsive to the user interaction; and code for updating the interactive display with the predetermined action to provide interactive feedback to the user responsive to the user interaction with the interaction means. [0031] According to an eighth aspect, there is provided a computer program element comprising computer program code means to make a computer execute a procedure to provide a playful urban system comprising the steps of: providing an interactive display surface adapted to provide real-time feedback of an action to the user; providing an interaction means to enable the user to interact with the system; providing a control unit comprising: a processor and a control input for receiving a control signal indicative of an interaction by the user with the interaction means; providing at least one sensor located proximal to the interaction means, the sensor adapted to detect the interaction by the user with the interaction means, wherein the at least one sensor is adapted to identify the location of where the user interacts with the system and to transmit a control signal to the control input; detecting with the at least one sensor the user interaction with the interaction means; providing a control signal to the control input of the control unit; using the processor determining a predetermined action responsive to the user interaction; and updating the interactive display with the predetermined action to provide interactive feedback to the user responsive to the user interaction with the interaction means.

[0032] According to a ninth aspect, there is provided a computer readable medium, having a program recorded thereon, where the program is configured to make a computer execute a procedure to providing a playful urban system comprising the steps of: providing an interactive display surface adapted to provide real-time feedback of an action to the user providing an interaction means to enable the user to interact with the system; providing a control unit comprising: a processor and a control input for receiving a control signal indicative of an interaction by the user with the interaction means; providing at least one sensor located proximal to the interaction means, the sensor adapted to detect the interaction by the user with the interaction means, wherein the at least one sensor is adapted to identify the location of where the user interacts with the system and to transmit a control signal to the control input; detecting with the at least one sensor the user interaction with the interaction means; providing a control signal to the control input of the control unit; using the processor determining a predetermined action responsive to the user interaction; and updating the interactive display with the predetermined action to provide interactive feedback to the user responsive to the user interaction with the interaction means.

[0033] A further aspect of the invention provides a non-transitive carrier medium for carrying computer executable code that, when executed on a processor, causes the processor to perform a method as described herein. [0034] A further aspect of the invention provides a system configured for performing a method as described herein.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0035] Notwithstanding any other forms which may fall within the scope of the present invention, a preferred embodiment / preferred embodiments of the invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: [0036] Figure 1A shows a photograph of an playful urban system comprising an interactive waste disposal system as described herein;

[0037] Figures IB & 1C show photographs of users in the vicinity of the waste disposal system of Figure 1 and interacting with the waste disposal system; and [0038] Figure 2 shows a schematic diagram of the waste disposal system of Figure 1 showing a plurality of waste receptacles (bin compartments), sensors for detecting interactions by said users with the waste receptacles and the interactive display of the waste disposal system.

[0039] Figure 3 shows a schematic diagram of the control and sensor units of the waste disposal system of Figure 1.

[0040] Figure 4 shows a graph of average user interactions with the waste disposal system of Figure 1 over a three week period with the integrated interactive components of the waste disposal unit turned off in Week 1, on in Week 2 and turned off again in Week 3.

DEFINITIONS [0041] The following definitions are provided as general definitions and should in no way limit the scope of the present invention to those terms alone, but are put forth for a better understanding of the following description.

[0042] Unless defined otherwise, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by those of ordinary skill in the art to which the invention belongs. It will be further understood that terms used herein should be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning in the context of this specification and the relevant art and will not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein. For the purposes of the present invention, additional terms are defined below. Furthermore, all definitions, as defined and used herein, should be understood to control over dictionary definitions, definitions in documents incorporated by reference, and/or ordinary meanings of the defined terms unless there is doubt as to the meaning of a particular term, in which case the common dictionary definition and/or common usage of the term will prevail.

[0043] For the purposes of the present invention, the following terms are defined below. [0044] The articles "a" and "an" are used herein to refer to one or to more than one (i.e. to at least one) of the grammatical object of the article. By way of example, "an element" refers to one element or more than one element.

[0045] The term "about" is used herein to refer to quantities that vary by as much as 30%, preferably by as much as 20%, and more preferably by as much as 10% to a reference quantity. The use of the word 'about' to qualify a number is merely an express indication that the number is not to be construed as a precise value.

[0046] Throughout this specification, unless the context requires otherwise, the words "comprise", "comprises" and "comprising" will be understood to imply the inclusion of a stated step or element or group of steps or elements but not the exclusion of any other step or element or group of steps or elements.

[0047] Any one of the terms: "including" or "which includes" or "that includes" as used herein is also an open term that also means including at least the elements/features that follow the term, but not excluding others. Thus, "including" is synonymous with and means "comprising".

[0048] The term, "real-time", for example "displaying real-time data" or "real-time interaction" refers to the display of the data or response to an interaction respectively without intentional delay, given the processing limitations of the system and the time required to accurately measure the data and transmit control signals to interactive elements of the systems disclosed herein.

[0049] Although any methods and materials similar or equivalent to those described herein can be used in the practice or testing of the present invention, preferred methods and materials are described. It will be appreciated that the methods, apparatus and systems described herein may be implemented in a variety of ways and for a variety of purposes. The description here is by way of example only.

[0050] The various methods or processes outlined herein may be coded as software that is executable on one or more processors that employ any one of a variety of operating systems or platforms. Additionally, such software may be written using any of a number of suitable programming languages and/or programming or scripting tools, and also may be compiled as executable machine language code or intermediate code that is executed on a framework or virtual machine. [0051] In this respect, various inventive concepts may be embodied as a computer readable storage medium (or multiple computer readable storage media) (e.g., a computer memory, one or more floppy discs, compact discs, optical discs, magnetic tapes, flash memories, circuit configurations in Field Programmable Gate Arrays or other semiconductor devices, or other non-transitory medium or tangible computer storage medium) encoded with one or more programs that, when executed on one or more computers or other processors, perform methods that implement the various embodiments of the invention discussed above. The computer readable medium or media can be transportable, such that the program or programs stored thereon can be loaded onto one or more different computers or other processors to implement various aspects of the present invention as discussed above.

[0052] The terms "program" or "software" are used herein in a generic sense to refer to any type of computer code or set of computer-executable instructions that can be employed to program a computer or other processor to implement various aspects of embodiments as discussed above. Additionally, it should be appreciated that according to one aspect, one or more computer programs that when executed perform methods of the present invention need not reside on a single computer or processor, but may be distributed in a modular fashion amongst a number of different computers or processors to implement various aspects of the present invention.

[0053] Computer-executable instructions may be in many forms, such as program modules, executed by one or more computers or other devices. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, etc. that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. Typically the functionality of the program modules may be combined or distributed as desired in various embodiments.

[0054] Also, data structures may be stored in computer-readable media in any suitable form. For simplicity of illustration, data structures may be shown to have fields that are related through location in the data structure. Such relationships may likewise be achieved by assigning storage for the fields with locations in a computer-readable medium that convey relationship between the fields. However, any suitable mechanism may be used to establish a relationship between information in fields of a data structure, including through the use of pointers, tags or other mechanisms that establish relationship between data elements.

[0055] Also, various inventive concepts may be embodied as one or more methods, of which an example has been provided. The acts performed as part of the method may be ordered in any suitable way. Accordingly, embodiments may be constructed in which acts are performed in an order different than illustrated, which may include performing some acts simultaneously, even though shown as sequential acts in illustrative embodiments.

[0056] The phrase "and/or," as used herein in the specification and in the claims, should be understood to mean "either or both" of the elements so conjoined, i.e., elements that are conjunctively present in some cases and disjunctively present in other cases. Multiple elements listed with "and/or" should be construed in the same fashion, i.e., "one or more" of the elements so conjoined. Other elements may optionally be present other than the elements specifically identified by the "and/or" clause, whether related or unrelated to those elements specifically identified. Thus, as a non-limiting example, a reference to "A and/or B", when used in conjunction with open-ended language such as "comprising" can refer, in one embodiment, to A only (optionally including elements other than B); in another embodiment, to B only (optionally including elements other than A); in yet another embodiment, to both A and B (optionally including other elements); etc. [0057] As used herein in the specification and in the claims, "or" should be understood to have the same meaning as "and/or" as defined above. For example, when separating items in a list, "or" or "and/or" shall be interpreted as being inclusive, i.e., the inclusion of at least one, but also including more than one, of a number or list of elements, and, optionally, additional unlisted items. Only terms clearly indicated to the contrary, such as "only one of or "exactly one of," or, when used in the claims, "consisting of will refer to the inclusion of exactly one element of a number or list of elements. In general, the term "or" as used herein shall only be interpreted as indicating exclusive alternatives (i.e. "one or the other but not both") when preceded by terms of exclusivity, such as "either," "one of," "only one of," or "exactly one of." "Consisting essentially of," when used in the claims, shall have its ordinary meaning as used in the field of patent law.

[0058] As used herein in the specification and in the claims, the phrase "at least one," in reference to a list of one or more elements, should be understood to mean at least one element selected from any one or more of the elements in the list of elements, but not necessarily including at least one of each and every element specifically listed within the list of elements and not excluding any combinations of elements in the list of elements. This definition also allows that elements may optionally be present other than the elements specifically identified within the list of elements to which the phrase "at least one" refers, whether related or unrelated to those elements specifically identified. Thus, as a non-limiting example, "at least one of A and B" (or, equivalently, "at least one of A or B," or, equivalently "at least one of A and/or B") can refer, in one embodiment, to at least one, optionally including more than one, A, with no B present (and optionally including elements other than B); in another embodiment, to at least one, optionally including more than one, B, with no A present (and optionally including elements other than A); in yet another embodiment, to at least one, optionally including more than one, A, and at least one, optionally including more than one, B (and optionally including other elements); etc.

[0059] In the claims, as well as in the summary above and the description below, all transitional phrases such as "comprising," "including," "carrying," "having," "containing," "involving," "holding," "composed of," and the like are to be understood to be open-ended, i.e., to mean "including but not limited to". Only the transitional phrases "consisting of and "consisting essentially of alone shall be closed or semi-closed transitional phrases, respectively.

[0060] For the purpose of this specification, where method steps are described in sequence, the sequence does not necessarily mean that the steps are to be carried out in chronological order in that sequence, unless there is no other logical manner of interpreting the sequence.

[0061] In addition, where features or aspects of the invention are described in terms of Markush groups, those skilled in the art will recognise that the invention is also thereby described in terms of any individual member or subgroup of members of the Markush group.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0062] It should be noted in the following description that like or the same reference numerals in different embodiments denote the same or similar features.

Urban Interfaces [0063] Urban interface design is traditionally linked with the usage of non-participatory media or systems, such as parametric design, transportation planning or computer assisted architectural design. In the last decade, a growing number of research fields, including media architecture, human-computer interaction and interaction design, began to study the integration of digital technologies and media into the built environment. This shift was driven by technological advancements, which led to what has been described as the third wave of human-computer interaction (B0dker, 2006). It propagates the idea that technologies are entering all aspects of daily lives. The design of technologies is thus no longer limited to the work realm and office environments.

[0064] Research emerging from this movement puts the user, or the citizen, at the centre and studies the interactions between people and their mediated environments. Much of this research has focused on using interactive surfaces and screens to design and present intuitive but responsive interfaces between the physical and the digital worlds. To that end urban interfaces include, but are not limited to, public information kiosks, urban screens, and media facades. Urban interfaces can also be designed to provide more immersive experiences by embedding appropriate sound components to the visual displays (Hespanhol, et al., 2014).

[0065] Urban interfaces simultaneously inspire opportunities to further reinforce the relationships between people and their associated environments beyond just the street level by creating media architecture interfaces. The concept of media architecture interfaces emphasises the idea on connecting media facades (that are generally vertical surfaces attached to buildings) with interactive technologies. For example, to control the digital projection projected onto a building via interacting with an interactive screen on the street. Media architecture interfaces might potentially encourage people to selfintervene their routine and communicate or interact with urban interfaces differently (Behrens et al., 2014).

[0066] Although the development and deployment of digital technologies in urban environments and the implementation of media architecture interfaces is receiving increasing attention, there is a lack of literature on enforcing the importance of playful experience as motivator for behavioural awareness in urban interface design. Urban interfaces are platforms to redesign the social footprint and citizen experiences by intervening the urban spaces with responsive but meaningful interactions. Gamification and Game Thinking

[0067] The concept of game thinking has always been facilitated with strategic decision making, including the planning of ancient warfare and the design of modern gambling systems. It is generally being considered as a technique of creative thinking, which is to use all the resources available to create engaging experiences to motivate desired behaviours. However, game thinking does not necessarily involve building an actual game but to encourage the sustaining interests from people (Werbach and Hunter, 2012) . It also involves risk-taking, for example, almost all games have the risk of giving up territories, of having to start from the beginning or not successfully completing the task in the given time limit. There is little to gain if nothing is risky in the game (Dormans, 2008) . Nowadays, different kinds of games excite millions of people all over the world. For example, many people are spending a lot of time, effort and money to perform relatively repetitive tasks in a video game. What if this power can be used for accomplishing other goals?

[0068] Gamification - the augmentation of an object in a non-game context via game thinking and game mechanics - has become increasingly popular. Although it has recently established itself as an independent field of research, existing studies have found that gamification still bears the fundamental principles of human-computer interaction, where gamification concentrates more on enhancing user interaction through playful and 'gameful' experiences, with the latter focusing mainly on the communication between users and technology. A current review of gamification studies suggests that people generally engage in activities that are either intrinsically rewarding (e.g. satisfaction about contributing to a charity) or extrinsically rewarding (e.g. a winning an poker game) (Zichermann & Cunningham, 2011).

[0069] In the past decade, many researchers investigated the application of gamified approaches to general everyday activities in order to trigger a change in user interaction patterns (Fogg et al., 2002). However, the efficiency of creating playful experiences has been criticised on several criteria (Winn, 2008). For example, researchers are questioning the degree to which the knowledge participants acquire in game environments lends itself to real- world applications (e.g., the transferability of simulation-based driver education to real- world driving ability) (Gee, 2010).

[0070] Furthermore, games based on traditional platforms, such as desktop computers or mobile devices seem to generate unclear results of interaction outcomes. This is due to the lack of effectiveness in conveying conceptual meaning, as well as the underlying cognitive meanings in the hasty interactive game experiences (Ramsden, 1985; Gee, 2003). Despite that, researchers started emphasising the importance of relevant and authentic real-world tasks in encouraging user interactions.

Gamification in Urban Environments [0071] Augmented reality games have the potential to turn everyday environments into sophisticated but intuitive gamified responsive environments. In a relatively early mobile augmented reality game, BotFighters (Sotamaa, 2002), users were able to look for other players' bots out on the street based on the current location. These approaches of designing interactive games, which immerse the gaming experiences within the physical world, have established a new era of how people interact with the urban environment.

[0072] The domain of urban gamification covers a broad category of entertainment that involves, but is not limited to, location-based mobile games, urban informatics games, multi- platform or stream-media games, immersive games, urban role-play games, and augmented reality games (Feiner, Maclntyre, Hollerer & Webster, 1997). In these games, the players are supported by real-life surroundings and interact with technology enhanced objects. In other words, there is no need for developers to simulate a game world, such as in desktop computer simulation games, such as the Sims. Researchers have argued that a fundamental property of game experiences is that they modify the social landscape. The potential outcome of reducing the distinction between different virtual and realistic landscapes is that the internal social principles of a game can influence the previously established activity principles. That is, activities in the game have the possibility to be transferred to activities outside the game environment (Bang et al., 2009).

[0073] This concept of integrating gamification with augmented reality involves the overlapping of virtual game scenarios onto real world objects in urban environments. A particular form of augmented reality is the use of urban screens (Ojala et al., 2012) or media facades, which can represent a gateway into a virtual world or an augmentation of a physical form. Paired with gamification, this form of augmented reality enables intuitive playful engagement with everyday physical artefacts and spaces (Wiethoff & Gehring, 2012).

[0074] Gamification principles have also been applied to interactive media interfaces in public urban space, leading to a more immersive experience (e.g., applying flexible user views from computer games such as 3rd person view and front bumper view, to information displays for describing tourism attractions) (Feiner et al, 1997). Gamification is now applied in many different areas, including media advertising, personal health management (e.g., motivating users to frequently exercise by rewarding them with virtual prizes), and urban sustainability where it has been mainly used for alleviating energy consumption issues and promoting greener transportation activities (Lin et al., 2006; Froehlich et al., 2009). Designing Playful Urban Interfaces

[0075] This section presents a number of considerations for designing playful urban interfaces such as the example waste disposal system disclosed herein. [0076] Augmenting the urban environment. Gamified urban experiences involve some form of mediated augmentation of the real world. This augmentation can take one of two approaches. The first approach is to use mobile or wearable augmented reality devices, through which the user can perceive the gamified environment. This approach is employed by some of the previously mentioned examples, such as BotFighters, and others, including Human Pacman (Cheok et al., 2003) and Google's augmented reality game Ingress (Niantic Labs from Google, 2012). The second approach is to embed digital technology within the urban environment. This can be achieved either through attaching digital displays to architectural surfaces (e.g. in the form of urban screens or media facades) or projection of digital content onto architectural surfaces. This form of digital augmentation can also be limited to non-visual interfaces, e.g. by using sound, for example linked through sensors to the movement of swings as in 21 Balancoires (Andraos & Mongiat, 2011).

[0077] Mapping digital content and physical form. Digital augmentation in urban environments interfaces with people through changes in sound, light and dynamic content, which is integrated into physical spaces with cultural context and historical meanings. Therefore, unlike native virtual platforms such as a mobile device that provide the full flexibility to create potential fully virtual environments, the design of digital augmented urban environments requires a careful alignment of digital content and physical form. This distinguishes gamified urban environments from traditional games for desktop computer and mobile devices, as there is a need to make sure that the digital interfaces compliments and acknowledges the physical form (Vande Moere et al., 2011 ; Tomitsch, 2014).

[0078] Designing the interaction. Playful urban interfaces can either be of interactive or reactive nature. Giannetti (2004) defines reactive systems as systems that reflect external stimuli, such as user behaviour or environmental conditions, whereas interactive systems allow users to influence their output. The latter is more commonly used in previous gamified urban environments, as it is a more direct translation of the interaction models employed in games on traditional platforms, such as desktop computers and mobile devices. This approach allows people to directly and explicitly control the experience. In contrast, reactive systems respond to environmental factors in a more subtle way, which may also make it more difficult for people to understand the link between their interactions and the reactions they cause in the urban interface. For example, in Chromapollination (Hespanhol and Tomitsch, 2012), the movement of people affect the visuals displayed in the LED ceiling. The installation therefore continuously responds to the flow of passers-by, constantly changing and evolving without requiring any form of explicit user input. The two approaches for interaction models are not mutually exclusive. Urban interfaces can also take on hybrid forms. For example, in the Piano Stairs (Volkswagen Group, 2009), people walking up the stairs are causing the augmented environment to respond in a reactive expression. But the installation also allows people to explicitly interact with the work, using their feet to influence the output of the system.

Example - TetraBIN - A Playful Urban Interface

[0079] The development of a playful urban interface in the form of a waste disposal system as disclosed herein (referred to hereinafter as the TetraBIN' system) started from a brief that called for playful urban interfaces to address urban issues. The issue that TetraBIN sought to address was the problem of littering in the city. Littering is a common issue in urban environments that affects liveability and incurs high maintenance costs. Previous human-computer interaction research has investigated ways to enhance people's awareness about waste in the street (Paulos & Jenkins, 2005), and to encourage sustainable waste management in the home (Comber et al., 2012). City councils are currently addressing this issue through campaigns (e.g. in the form of billboards) or laws, which try to control littering through fines. Through an iterative design process that involved a number of preliminary prototype evaluations and research into similar gamified urban interventions (e.g. The World's Deepest Bin; Bottle Bank Arcade Machine) the solution arrived at made use of game mechanics to reward positive interactions rather than penalising people for their actions (Volkswagen Group, 2009). The intervention in its final form transformed, in a highly playful embodiment, the act of disposing rubbish in the street by augmenting council city bins with an interactive digital skin (Figure 1). It turned the act of putting rubbish into a bin into collaboratively participating in urban game play. The game play is loosely based on the well-known Tetris game, since its game mechanics mapped well with the dynamics of throwing a piece of rubbish into a bin. Putting a piece of rubbish into the TetraBIN released a block circling around the top edge of the bin. The goal was to fill up an entire row by waiting for the right moment to drop the rubbish and thus releasing a block. Squares rather than the traditional Tetris blocks where chosen for the example implementation in an attempt to simplify the game play. It was hoped that this would further support the short-paced interaction people have within urban environments. Example 1 - Technical Implementation

[0080] A schematic top view diagram of the TetraBIN system 100 is shown in Figure 2.

[0081] The TetraBIN prototypes were custom-built to specifically fit the physical form of standard city bins in an inner-city location. These bins were of circular shape and consisted of three waste receptacle compartments 101, 102 and 103. Each compartment had a waste receptacle, which could be accessed and emptied through a hinged door. In order to make the gamified experience available to any passer-by, the physical bin was augmented rather than using an augmented reality device. To create the augmentation a custom-made LED display 110 was built which was attached to a traditional urban waste bin. This decision was driven by the circular shape of the bin and the fact that in order to maintain its purpose as a bin. Using individual LEDs 111 limited the pixel density that was able to be achieved, however, through initial prototype tests it was found that the nature of the game did not require a high-resolution display. [0082] Two prototypes of the TetraBIN 100 were built using bins provided by the local city council. The LED display 110 covering each bin consisted of 900 RGB LEDs 111 controlled by a custom developed control unit connected to a standard computer as shown in Figure 3. Each LED 111 was individually controllable and able to display millions of different colours. The LEDs came preassembled on strings of 50 LEDs each with wires for power, data and ground running from one waterproof LED module to another. For the installation of TetraBIN 100 connected multiple LED strings were connected to form the custom two-dimensional curved screen around the waste bin. The LEDs 111 were mounted to custom-made curved Perspex sheets 112, which matched the dimensions of the hinged doors of the bins. For diffusion and as a protection layer, the LEDs 111 were covered with a translucent layer of 6mm polycarbonate sheeting 113.

[0083] To measure the event of rubbish being put into one of the bin's compartments, infrared and ultrasonic beam sensors / rangefinders 121 and 122 were installed inside the top of the bin. If the sensor beam was broken the sensor (121 or 122) sent a control signal message to the a control unit comprising a processor, which then translated the detection event to control the output displayed on the curved screen via predetermined action operations. Three pairs of this custom-developed infrared sensor per bin were used to recognise rubbish being put into any of the bin's three waste receptacles/compartments 101, 102 and 103.

[0084] Content generated by the control unit was displayed on the LED display screen 110 as if it formed a single continuous cylindrical screen. The TetraBIN installation setup further included Internet connectivity through a Pocket WiFi and speakers (230 of Figure 3) for audio feedback. The speaker, which was connected to the computer, played 8-bit sound in response to one of the blocks being released, further enhancing the connection between the game world and the physical world. Colour was added to the game elements shown on the LED display 110 for aesthetic reasons, with each block being randomly assigned a colour once it was released. The block circling around the top (the 'teaser') was rendered in white.

[0085] Figure 3 shows a schematic view of the control unit 200 for the TetraBIN waste disposal system 100. A computer 210 comprising a Mac Mini (including a Core i5 2.3GHz processor) was used. The computer 210 was connected to a custom-built LED controller 220 and the interface for the infrared beam sensors. For water and theft protection all the components were housed inside a base station sitting underneath the bin.

[0086] In alternative arrangements of the TetraBIN waste disposal system 100, the interactive display 110 may be a touch sensitive display. For example, the surface of interactive display 110 may additionally comprise capacitive sensors e.g. each LED may be a capacitive sensor such that users will also be able to integrate with the TetraBIN system 100 through touch interactions.

[0087] In further arrangements still, the TetraBIN waste disposal system 100 may additionally comprise the plurality of solar cells for electrical power generation which may be subsequently stored in a battery storage module included in the TetraBIN system 100. Such solar power generation capability would enable the TetraBIN system to function without requiring an external power connection and thus forming a further power drain on urban power systems. Such solar enabled TetraBIN systems 100 may serve to save energy during daytime operation, and also to use additional excess generated energy stored in a battery module to power the interactive components of the TetraBIN system 100 during night-time hours or overcast conditions where solar energy production is greatly diminished. [0088] In further arrangements, each LED of the display panel 110 may also be a solar cell collector unit connected to the internal battery storage module. Furthermore if the solar- enabled TetraBIN system 100 generates more power than the system itself requires, the TetraBIN system units 100 may be connected to the urban power grid for supply of renewable- sourced additional electrical energy into the urban power grid.

Field Study 1 - Evaluation of TetraBIN during a Light Festival

[0089] The TetraBIN waste disposal system 100 was evaluated through two field studies. In this section the setup and findings from the first study are described, for the two TetraBIN units installed in an open space during an 18-day light festival. The festival included a total of 56 light installations, including light sculptures and fagade projections, which were activated every night between 6pm and midnight. A total of 1.43 million people visited the festival over the 18 days. [0090] Due to the nature of conducting a field study during a festival, the installation took on the role of an exhibition artefact. Festival organisers provided staff to man the bins and provide spatial guidance to the audience at all times. A box of cardboard pieces was placed next to the bins to ensure people were able to experience the interactive installation, even when they did not have any rubbish on them. The cardboard was reused to reduce the rubbish generated by the installation itself.

[0091] Although the nature of the festival environment made it challenging to collect data about user interactions, it allowed us to identify aspects that would have been difficult or impossible to measure in the lab. For example, to observe a participant's natural emotional expression of depositing rubbish into a public bin presents many difficulties, as this act is intrinsically or extrinsically driven by the participant's own motivation.

[0092] Rather than instructing participants to interact with the system in a lab environment, they were able to initiate any interactions with TetraBIN based on their own needs and motivations. In addition, they might find that their usual perception of a particular public space has been changed by the presence of the interactive installation. The creation of public interactive installations investigating the dynamics of public participation and interaction is therefore inherently experimental. In order to collect realistic and natural feedback about people's reactions to and interactions with public interactive experiences, quantitative and qualitative methods of collecting and analysing the data were employed. Quantitative data was collected through automatically logging user interactions with TetraBIN. A further count of the number of people interacting with the installation from 6:30 pm to 12 pm was taken each night during the festival. Qualitative data in this field study was limited to observations and informal conversations with participants. In particular people's emotional expressions while interacting with the installation were observed.

[0093] During this deployment it was observed that the intervention led passers-by to playfully explore the gamified interface to an extent that reached far beyond participating in game play by putting rubbish into a bin. Festival visitors created their own game rules, engaged in ad-hoc multi-player game plays with strangers, and expressed a strong sense of ownership and attachment to the abstract digital reflection of their "rubbish".

Field Study 2 - Evaluation of the TetraBIN system in an Everyday Environment

[0094] For the second field study, one TetraBIN 100 was installed in a pedestrian avenue in a university campus for a period of 21 days. This study was conducted during regular semester dates that excluded any public holidays in order to retain the validity of the data. The purpose of this second evaluation was to collect field data in an everyday urban environment and to contrast this data with the findings from the light festival deployment. The aim was to derive descriptive statistics of the system usage to assess the effectiveness of the installation design outside a festival context. For analysis of the second installation, qualitative and quantitative analysis methods were combined in line with comparative data analysis methodologies, in order to obtain the most comprehensive results (Pagel, 1992).

[0095] To better understand the underlying nature of people's experience and interaction patterns short interviews with a total of 15 participants (7 female, 8 male; aged between 18 and 53) were conducted. Interview participants were randomly selected during the 21 -day deployment and approached immediately after they interacted with the installation. The interview data was analysed using inductive content analysis technique in order to identify common aspects and themes for people's interaction with the TetraBIN (Rouke, 2001). [0096] User interactions with the bin through sensor logs were again recorded, i.e. the precise number and exact time when items were dropped into the bin. A total of 498 pieces of rubbish were disposed into the bin during the study period, indicating a high participation rate even outside a festival context.

[0097] In order to measure the impact of the gamified augmentation, the study was broken into the following stages (Figure 4): (1) One week of the bin without augmentation; (2) one week of the bin augmented with the gamified interface; and (3) one week of with the augmentation removed. Each stage started on a Tuesday and ended on a Monday. This approach was chosen to ensure the study stages were not aligned with the patterns of a regular week, which could have led to the presumption that the bin would be turned off on the weekend.

[0098] The interviews took between 5 and 10 minutes and were conducted at the site. It was designed to help elucidate the reasons behind the interaction patterns, and to clarify participants' responses to and behaviours with the installation. It is important that the natural variability found in the general population is reflected in the group of participants selected. As much as possible, the interviews aimed to select equal numbers of male and female participants, with an age distribution reflecting the population around the site where the installation was placed.

[0099] Participants were approached after they had just completed their interaction with the TetraBIN system installation. The nature of the investigation study was verbally explained to participants, specifically inviting them to be open with their responses. This ensured that qualitative data collection conformed to standards of content analysis in human- computer interaction research.

[0100] The interview consisted of questions assessing:

(1) Participants' demography (gender, age group, occupation).

(2) Participants' interactions with the installation and contingency of willingness to use again and to assess the effectiveness of the playful elements integrated with the installation.

(3) Participants' perceptions of the usefulness of the installation. This is to measure participants' deviation from what the installation is designed for, and the extent to which the participants draw from their past familiar experiences.

(4) Participants' experiences with the installation, to assess whether the installation was designed correctly for motivating targeted activities and providing specific experiences, as well as to identify if the intervention was performed at the most opportune moment when participants have both ability and motivation (Fogg, 2003).

(5) Participants' environmental awareness, to assess if the participants were aware of their spatial presence and whether their actions have been made visible through their self-monitoring in an urban environment. (6) The influence of social factors on participants, to assess participants' level of social awareness while interacting with the installation, for example, whether they were encouraged to use the installation because other people were doing it.

(7) Design evaluation, to assess participants' difficulties or other concerns while using the installation.

[0101] Additionally, observations were conducted as a complementary unobtrusive method for collecting qualitative data. There is a risk that the shift from unobtrusive observation data collection to obtrusive reactive oral interview might cause participants to react differently since they are now aware they are being studied. However, this is not a concern in human-computer interaction studies especially when the experience involves design-led interactions and experiences.

Field Test Results and Discussion

[0102] This section discusses the findings from both field studies. Digital traces of personal interactions in public space leading to a sense of ownership. People claiming ownership of certain elements of the playful element generated by the installation, such as claiming over the 'block' that people released by putting a piece of garbage into the bin. The use of colours and the design of the neutral 'teaser' block, which was randomly assigned a colour when released, seemed to amplify this effect.

[0103] For example, a person shouted out "The green block is mine, hope I can get another green one next to it!" after putting her piece of rubbish into the bin.

[0104] Social media as a trigger for interactions. It was observed that some people came to interact with the installation because they were encouraged by the selfies their friends had posted on social media. Similarly, the opportunity to share their interaction on social media seemed to encourage some people to interact. One participant stated "I am going to form a letter 'Z' and take a selfie with the bin!", while interacting with TetraBIN and attempting to create a special pattern on the bin by using the playful game element generated by the installation.

[0105] Loosely defined game mechanics motivate opportunistic behaviours. It was also observed that due to the short interactions people typically had with the intervention, not many people actually attempted to complete entire rows, which was the original aim of the game. [0106] Instead, people invented different ways of playing games on the spot, such as stacking blocks of certain colours on top of each other. This led to a game-over state, in which the entire bin briefly flashed in a white light and then started anew. This effect was perceived as a reward, with one child calling out to his father, "Daddy look! I've cleaned the bin!", and another kid shouted out "I made the city brighter!" while witnessing the TetraBIN screen fade to white. Although TetraBIN was designed as a collaborative game that requires people to work together to win the game, people that way invented a competitive mode, with the person stacking up blocks all the way to the top first being seen as the winner. The installation thus appeared to be successful at attracting people into game play as well as motivating opportunistic behaviours or improvisations.

[0107] TetraBIN was designed with playful openness in mind, every element can be interpreted and recognised by people in their own way. In particular younger participants seemed to not recognise the Tetris-style game, as they may have possibly never come across such vintage-style 8-bit games before. So they might play the game in regards to the rules they created themselves, such as matching the same colour to win. The fact that the blocks were shaped as squares rather than the typical Tetris blocks may have further hindered recognition and led people to invite their own interpretations. On the other hand, it was observed that people, who immediately recognised the familiar Tetris game, would start paying more attention to the bin and to carefully plan their interaction in order not to "mess up the game".

[0108] Digital augmentation leading to associations with the underlying physical structures. Several people initially thought that the blocks displayed on the outside of the bin would visualise how much rubbish had been placed into the bin. A person has asked "Oh, did my piece of rubbish just land the left corner?" when a "block" falls down to the left handside corner of the bin. It would be interesting to explore this and other mappings in future studies of the TetraBINs. For example, the display could show a message for council workers that the bin needs to be serviced once it is full, and making use of networking technologies, it could redirect people to other nearby bins.

[0109] Playful elements encourage a change in people 's interaction patterns with urban interface. The evaluation of TetraBIN in an everyday environment involved continuous data collection of how many pieces of rubbish were disposed over three weeks. The embedded sensors were triggered 498 times (498 pieces of rubbishes have been disposed into TetraBIN). 99 pieces of rubbish were collected in the first week when TetraBIN was turned off, 207 pieces were collected in the second week when the augmentation was turned on, and 192 pieces were collected when the augmentation was switched off again. The distribution of rubbish disposal over time shows a similar pattern across individual weeks is shown in Figure 4 showing data analysis of pieces of rubbish collected during the three-week fieldstudy, with TetraBIN being turned off in Week 1 (trace 401), active in Week 2 (trace 402), and turned off again in Week 3 (trace 403).

[0110] From the study results shown in Figure 4 it can be seen that playful elements encourage a change in people's interaction. From Figure 4 it can be seen that slightly more interactions seemed to occur in the evening, which can likely be attributed to the fact that the playful elements were brighter and more visible during dusk and after sunset (around 5 PM during the time the study took place). Interestingly, the largest amount of interactions occurred around 6.00PM in the third week, with 29 pieces of rubbish being collected in only an hour, even though TetraBIN was off during that time. A significant change of interaction patterns over time can be observed from the graph of Figure 4, where more pieces of rubbish were collected starting from the second week 402 - the week the augmentation was turned on. This interaction pattern remained following a similar trend in the third week when the installation was turned off again. Although, further analysis and a longer evaluation period are necessary, this might indicate a change in people's behaviour. It was expected that the interactions would decline again when the augmentation was turned off in the third week. The fact that people's interactions with TetraBIN remained similar might indicate an increase of noticeability of the bin or an increase in people's expectations to have playful rewards (and seek playful experiences) when they put pieces of rubbish into TetraBIN. It also brings about opportunities to question whether there is a change in people's attitudes towards the activity of rubbish disposal, however this requires further studies in different disciplinary set-up to be determined.

[0111] Perceived playfulness affects people 's interactions with playful urban interfaces. According to the responses of the selected interview participants, perceived playfulness plays a crucial role in influencing a participant's motivation towards an urban interface. Perceived playfulness includes both personal and neutral factors. The personal factor is based on participants' initial evaluations of the system's playability according to their first impression. An encounter with a novel playful urban interface is generally a visual one, and during their interactions with the system, constant visual information immediately elicits aesthetic judgments (Jacobsen, 2006). For example, when people interact with an aesthetically pleasing, colourful mobile application, these visual aspects provide the initial attraction and temptation to use the application. However, once interacting with the application, people may realize that in order to advance the player must solve sophisticated mathematical equations. Participants may no longer feel attracted, as they may not be interested in mathematical applications. Perceived playfulness also has a neutral factor, which may be reinforced by commendations from respected and sources (e.g. an award- winning urban installation design or a privacy statement to guarantee privacy).

[0112] Also, if people see anything that looks familiar, reminds them of their memories or draws on their previous experiences, their cognitive system will be more likely to support their initial motivation to interact with the product or service. Both the personal and neutral factors of perceived playfulness might affect people's believability and interactivity of the urban interface.

[0113] Participant l 's response: "You could do with more bins. If you do this in very crowded places, the symbolic and awareness it raises probably better than the actual purpose it serves, I would sit down for 20 minutes to play it."

[0114] Participant 6's response: "It was quite fun, like it incentivizes you to definitely to spend some time with it I think, or at least for myself. It was quite fun to trying to get the squared block to light up like playing games, and you need to spend some time with it." P9: "I think it's definitely the most enjoyable game I've ever played with a public urban installation; I think people like me will be spending more time to use it because of the game aspects."

[0115] Participant 7's response: "Oh this one seems more interactive in a way, it has some games everyone knows. I tried some other installations before; you just kind of want to try to see what it does. For this one, I already knew it's a game, and I already knew how to use a bin. So I know in some way how it works."

Conclusion

[0116] In light of the study results described above, it is concluded that the concept of playful urban interfaces based on the review of technology-based urban interventions, gamification theory, and the design, implementation and evaluation of a playful urban interface in the form of TetraBIN. [0117] Enabled by technological advancements, a number of playful urban interfaces have been implemented by artists, designers and researchers since the introduction of the Stairs in Stockholm in 2009 - which can be considered one of the first examples for playful urban interfaces. Entire conferences, such as the Conference on Playable Cities (LINK), are dedicated to the discourse of the role of play in city life. The injection of play into the everyday fabric of cities has been both praised and criticised in popular media (e.g. Baggini, 2014; Goodyear, 2014). It is argued that playful urban interfaces can play a complimentary role to other 'smart city' initiatives for shaping life and liveability in today's cities. Similar to tactical urbanism, playful urban interfaces are strategic interventions that can be either temporary or permanent, and tackle certain issues in urban environments (Lydon, 2014). They are typically bottom-up strategies driven by individuals or collectives, but have the potential to trigger a ripple effect and lead to large-scale changes supported through local governments.

[0118] Based on the analysis of previous works and literature, identified a number of considerations are identified to assist in the design of playful urban interfaces, including (1) approaches for augmenting the built environment; (2) strategies for mapping digital content and physical form; (3) interaction models; and (4) deciding on game mechanics. These considerations guided the design of TetraBIN, which addresses the issue of littering and waste management, by turning city bins into playful urban interfaces. The evaluation of TetraBIN in a festival environment showed that people actively engaged with the playful interface, involving social interaction and creating their own game rules. The evaluation during a three-week field study in an everyday environment indicates that the temporary installation of playful urban interfaces potentially leads to a change in how people interact with their environment. [0119] It is believed that that there are many opportunities in today's cities to turn existing infrastructures into playful urban interfaces. The studies conducted around the playful urban installation of the Tetra bin disclosed herein provides as a first step towards better understanding how playful urban interfaces can contribute to life and liveability in cities of the 21st century. [0120] The methods of providing a playful urban interface (and associated sub methods as disclosed herein may be implemented using a computing device / computer system 500, such as that shown in Figure 5 wherein the methods disclosed herein may be implemented as software, such as one or more application programs executable within the computing device 500. In particular, the steps of methods disclosed herein are effected by instructions in the software that are carried out within the computer system 500. The instructions may be formed as one or more code modules, each for performing one or more particular tasks. The software may also be divided into two separate parts, in which a first part and the corresponding code modules performs the described methods and a second part and the corresponding code modules manage a user interface between the first part and the user. The software may be stored in a computer readable medium, including the storage devices described below, for example. The software is loaded into the computer system 500 from the computer readable medium, and then executed by the computer system 500. A computer readable medium having such software or computer program recorded on it is a computer program product. The use of the computer program product in the computer system 500 preferably effects an advantageous apparatus for .

[0121] With reference to Figure 5, an exemplary computing device 500 is illustrated. The exemplary computing device 500 can include, but is not limited to, one or more central processing units (CPUs) 501 comprising one or more processors 502, a system memory 503, and a system bus 504 that couples various system components including the system memory 503 to the processing unit 501. The system bus 504may be any of several types of bus structures including a memory bus or memory controller, a peripheral bus, and a local bus using any of a variety of bus architectures. [0122] The computing device 500 also typically includes computer readable media, which can include any available media that can be accessed by computing device 500 and includes both volatile and non-volatile media and removable and non-removable media. By way of example, and not limitation, computer readable media may comprise computer storage media and communication media. Computer storage media includes media implemented in any method or technology for storage of information such as computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules or other data. Computer storage media includes, but is not limited to, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flashmemory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digital versatile disks (DVD) or other optical disk storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium which can be used to store the desired information and which can be accessed by the computing device 500. Communication media typically embodies computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules or other data in a modulated data signal such as a carrier wave or other transport mechanism and includes any information delivery media. By way of example, and not limitation, communication media includes wired media such as a wired network or direct-wired connection, and wireless media such as acoustic, RF, infrared and other wireless media. Combinations of the any of the above should also be included within the scope of computer readable media. [0123] The system memory 503 includes computer storage media in the form of volatile and/or non-volatile memory such as read only memory (ROM) 505 and random access memory (RAM) 506. A basic input/output system 507 (BIOS), containing the basic routines that help to transfer information between elements within computing device 500, such as during start-up, is typically stored in ROM 505. RAM 506- typically contains data and/or program modules that are immediately accessible to and/or presently being operated on by processing unit 501. By way of example, and not limitation, Figure 5 illustrates an operating system 508, other program modules 509, and program data 510.

[0124] The computing device 500 may also include other removable/non-removable, volatile/non- volatile computer storage media. By way of example only, Figure 5 illustrates a hard disk drive 511 that reads from or writes to non-removable, non-volatile magnetic media. Other removable/non-removable, volatile/non-volatile computer storage media that can be used with the exemplary computing device include, but are not limited to, magnetic tape cassettes, flash memory cards, digital versatile disks, digital video tape, solid state RAM, solid state ROM, and the like. The hard disk drive 511 is typically connected to the system bus 504 through a non-removable memory interface such as interface 512.

[0125] The drives and their associated computer storage media discussed above and illustrated in Figure 5, provide storage of computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules and other data for the computing device 500. In Figure 5, for example, hard disk drive 511 is illustrated as storing an operating system 513, other program modules 514, and program data 515. Note that these components can either be the same as or different from operating system 508, other program modules 509 and program data 510. Operating system 55, other program modules 514 and program data 515 are given different numbers hereto illustrate that, at a minimum, they are different copies.

[0126] The computing device also includes one or more input/output (I/O) interfaces 530 connected to the system bus 504 including an audio-video interface that couples to output devices including one or more of a video display 534 and loudspeakers 535. Input/output interface(s) 530 also couple(s) to one or more input devices including, for example a mouse 531, keyboard 532 or touch sensitive device 533 such as for example a smartphone or tablet device. Input devices also include input ports, for example, serial, parallel, usb or the like input ports adapted to be connected to external input sensors, for example IR sensor 121 and ultrasonic sensor 122, among other external sensors as would be appreciated by the skilled addressee, to receive input data on user interactions with the system 100 as described herein, upon which input signals, the computing device can react ant compute an appropriate proportionate response to the environmental input from the external sensors.

[0127] In other particular arrangements of the TetraBIN waste disposal system 100 the computing device may also comprise further I/O interfaces as would be appreciated by the skilled addressee, such interfaces being adapted to facilitate connection of the TetraBIN system 100 to a further electronic or computing device. Such further electronic computing device may be adapted to perform a variety of tasks with respect to the operation and maintenance of the TetraBIN system 100. For example, additional interactive games may be uploaded to the central control unit of the TetraBIN system 100 thereby to refresh any user interaction with the system that may wane over time if only a single interactive game is associated with the TetraBIN system 100. Additionally, data from the TetraBIN system 100 may be exported or downloaded for further analysis of user interactions with the system 100. Of relevance to the descriptions below, the computing device 500 may operate in a networked environment using logical connections to one or more remote computers. For simplicity of illustration, the computing device 500 is shown in Figure 5 to be connected to a network 520 that is not limited to any particular network or networking protocols, but which may include, for example Ethernet, Bluetooth or IEEE 802.X wireless protocols. The logical connection depicted in Figure 5 is a general network connection 521 that can be a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN) or other network, for example, the internet. The computing device 500 is connected to the general network connection 521 through a network interface or adapter 522 which is, in turn, connected to the system bus 504. In a networked environment, program modules depicted relative to the computing device 500, or portions or peripherals thereof, may be stored in the memory of one or more other computing devices that are communicatively coupled to the computing device 500 through the general network connection 521. It will be appreciated that the network connections shown are exemplary and other means of establishing a communications link between computing devices may be used. [0128] In particular arrangements of the playful urban system, such as for example the TetraBIN interactive waste disposal system 100, the system may connected with a centralised monitoring facility via the communications link by which the system 100 can communicate various operating characteristics to the central monitoring facility. For example the system 100 may comprise additional sensors such as, for example, a weight sensor associated with each waste receptacle, or alternatively an optical sensor associated with each waste receptacle, the sensor being adapted to determine, for example a measure of the capacity of the waste receptacle. For instance, the sensor may determine that the waste receptacle is full or near to full and requires maintenance such as emptying the receptacle. In other arrangements, the system 100 may be linked in a networked environment with other nearby systems such that the collection of the plurality of systems may interact with one another or alternatively synchronise particular interactions among each networked system. Alternatively, the TetraBIN interactive waste disposal system 100 may also include waste sorting capabilities, for example based on the size of the waste item deposited into the waste receptacles as determined by the ultrasonic or IR input detection sensors (e.g. 121 and 122 of Figure 3). For example, should the input detection sensor identify a large item being deposited into the wait receptacle by a user, it may be directed to a specific compartment within the waste receptacle or the bin itself reserved for such large objects. Alternatively, additional sensors may be incorporated such as metallic sensors that may be used to detect metallic, potentially recyclable, items such as drink cans which, when deposited into the TetraBIN system 100 waste receptacle are separated out from general rubbish to enable ease of collection for recycling purposes. Additional waste categorisation sensors and mechanisms may also be incorporated into the TetraBIN waste disposal system 100 as would be appreciated by the skilled addressee for categorisation and separation of various types of waste deposited into the waste receptacles of the TetraBIN system 100.

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INTERPRETATION

Bus [0176] In the context of this document, the term "bus" and its derivatives, while being described in a preferred embodiment as being a communication bus subsystem for interconnecting various devices including by way of parallel connectivity such as Industry Standard Architecture (ISA), conventional Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) and the like or serial connectivity such as PCI Express (PCIe), Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (Serial ATA) and the like, should be construed broadly herein as any system for communicating data.

In accordance with:

[0177] As described herein, 'in accordance with' may also mean 'as a function of and is not necessarily limited to the integers specified in relation thereto.

Composite items

[0178] As described herein, 'a computer implemented method' should not necessarily be inferred as being performed by a single computing device such that the steps of the method may be performed by more than one cooperating computing devices. [0179] Similarly objects as used herein such as 'web server', 'server', 'client computing device', 'computer readable medium' and the like should not necessarily be construed as being a single object, and may be implemented as a two or more objects in cooperation, such as, for example, a web server being construed as two or more web servers in a server farm cooperating to achieve a desired goal or a computer readable medium being distributed in a composite manner, such as program code being provided on a compact disk activatable by a license key downloadable from a computer network.

Database:

[0180] In the context of this document, the term "database" and its derivatives may be used to describe a single database, a set of databases, a system of databases or the like. The system of databases may comprise a set of databases wherein the set of databases may be stored on a single implementation or span across multiple implementations. The term "database" is also not limited to refer to a certain database format rather may refer to any database format. For example, database formats may include MySQL, MySQLi , XML or the like. Wireless:

[0181] The invention may be embodied using devices conforming to other network standards and for other applications, including, for example other WLAN standards and other wireless standards. Applications that can be accommodated include IEEE 802.11 wireless LANs and links, and wireless Ethernet. [0182] In the context of this document, the term "wireless" and its derivatives may be used to describe circuits, devices, systems, methods, techniques, communications channels, etc., that may communicate data through the use of modulated electromagnetic radiation through a non- solid medium. The term does not imply that the associated devices do not contain any wires, although in some embodiments they might not. In the context of this document, the term "wired" and its derivatives may be used to describe circuits, devices, systems, methods, techniques, communications channels, etc., that may communicate data through the use of modulated electromagnetic radiation through a solid medium. The term does not imply that the associated devices are coupled by electrically conductive wires. Processes:

[0183] Unless specifically stated otherwise, as apparent from the following discussions, it is appreciated that throughout the specification discussions utilizing terms such as "processing", "computing", "calculating", "determining", "analysing" or the like, refer to the action and/or processes of a computer or computing system, or similar electronic computing device, that manipulate and/or transform data represented as physical, such as electronic, quantities into other data similarly represented as physical quantities.

Processor:

[0184] In a similar manner, the term "processor" may refer to any device or portion of a device that processes electronic data, e.g., from registers and/or memory to transform that electronic data into other electronic data that, e.g., may be stored in registers and/or memory. A "computer" or a "computing device" or a "computing machine" or a "computing platform" may include one or more processors.

[0185] The methodologies described herein are, in one embodiment, performable by one or more processors that accept computer-readable (also called machine-readable) code containing a set of instructions that when executed by one or more of the processors carry out at least one of the methods described herein. Any processor capable of executing a set of instructions (sequential or otherwise) that specify actions to be taken are included. Thus, one example is a typical processing system that includes one or more processors. The processing system further may include a memory subsystem including main RAM and/or a static RAM, and/or ROM. Computer-Readable Medium:

[0186] Furthermore, a computer-readable carrier medium may form, or be included in a computer program product. A computer program product can be stored on a computer usable carrier medium, the computer program product comprising a computer readable program means for causing a processor to perform a method as described herein.

Networked or Multiple Processors:

[0187] In alternative embodiments, the one or more processors operate as a standalone device or may be connected, e.g., networked to other processor(s), in a networked deployment, the one or more processors may operate in the capacity of a server or a client machine in server-client network environment, or as a peer machine in a peer-to-peer or distributed network environment. The one or more processors may form a web appliance, a network router, switch or bridge, or any machine capable of executing a set of instructions (sequential or otherwise) that specify actions to be taken by that machine.

[0188] Note that while some diagram(s) only show(s) a single processor and a single memory that carries the computer-readable code, those in the art will understand that many of the components described above are included, but not explicitly shown or described in order not to obscure the inventive aspect. For example, while only a single machine is illustrated, the term "machine" shall also be taken to include any collection of machines that individually or jointly execute a set (or multiple sets) of instructions to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein.

Additional Embodiments:

[0189] Thus, one embodiment of each of the methods described herein is in the form of a computer-readable carrier medium carrying a set of instructions, e.g., a computer program that are for execution on one or more processors. Thus, as will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, embodiments of the present invention may be embodied as a method, an apparatus such as a special purpose apparatus, an apparatus such as a data processing system, or a computer-readable carrier medium. The computer-readable carrier medium carries computer readable code including a set of instructions that when executed on one or more processors cause a processor or processors to implement a method. Accordingly, aspects of the present invention may take the form of a method, an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects. Furthermore, the present invention may take the form of carrier medium (e.g., a computer program product on a computer-readable storage medium) carrying computer-readable program code embodied in the medium.

Carrier Medium:

[0190] The software may further be transmitted or received over a network via a network interface device. While the carrier medium is shown in an example embodiment to be a single medium, the term "carrier medium" should be taken to include a single medium or multiple media (e.g., a centralized or distributed database, and/or associated caches and servers) that store the one or more sets of instructions. The term "carrier medium" shall also be taken to include any medium that is capable of storing, encoding or carrying a set of instructions for execution by one or more of the processors and that cause the one or more processors to perform any one or more of the methodologies of the present invention. A carrier medium may take many forms, including but not limited to, non-volatile media, volatile media, and transmission media.

Implementation: [0191] It will be understood that the steps of methods discussed are performed in one embodiment by an appropriate processor (or processors) of a processing (i.e., computer) system executing instructions (computer-readable code) stored in storage. It will also be understood that the invention is not limited to any particular implementation or programming technique and that the invention may be implemented using any appropriate techniques for implementing the functionality described herein. The invention is not limited to any particular programming language or operating system.

Means For Carrying out a Method or Function:

[0192] Furthermore, some of the embodiments are described herein as a method or combination of elements of a method that can be implemented by a processor or a processor device, computer system, or by other means of carrying out the function. Thus, a processor with the necessary instructions for carrying out such a method or element of a method forms a means for carrying out the method or element of a method. Furthermore, an element described herein of an apparatus embodiment is an example of a means for carrying out the function performed by the element for the purpose of carrying out the invention. Connected

[0193] Similarly, it is to be noticed that the term connected, when used in the claims, should not be interpreted as being limitative to direct connections only. Thus, the scope of the expression a device A connected to a device B should not be limited to devices or systems wherein an output of device A is directly connected to an input of device B. It means that there exists a path between an output of A and an input of B which may be a path including other devices or means. "Connected" may mean that two or more elements are either in direct physical or electrical contact, or that two or more elements are not in direct contact with each other but yet still co-operate or interact with each other. Embodiments:

[0194] Reference throughout this specification to "one embodiment" or "an embodiment" means that a particular feature, structure or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present invention. Thus, appearances of the phrases "in one embodiment" or "in an embodiment" in various places throughout this specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment, but may. Furthermore, the particular features, structures or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner, as would be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art from this disclosure, in one or more embodiments.

[0195] Similarly it should be appreciated that in the above description of example embodiments of the invention, various features of the invention are sometimes grouped together in a single embodiment, figure, or description thereof for the purpose of streamlining the disclosure and aiding in the understanding of one or more of the various inventive aspects. This method of disclosure, however, is not to be interpreted as reflecting an intention that the claimed invention requires more features than are expressly recited in each claim. Rather, as the following claims reflect, inventive aspects lie in less than all features of a single foregoing disclosed embodiment. Thus, the claims following the Detailed Description of Specific Embodiments are hereby expressly incorporated into this Detailed Description of Specific Embodiments, with each claim standing on its own as a separate embodiment of this invention. Furthermore, while some embodiments described herein include some but not other features included in other embodiments, combinations of features of different embodiments are meant to be within the scope of the invention, and form different embodiments, as would be understood by those in the art. For example, in the following claims, any of the claimed embodiments can be used in any combination.

Specific Details

[0196] In the description provided herein, numerous specific details are set forth. However, it is understood that embodiments of the invention may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known methods, structures and techniques have not been shown in detail in order not to obscure an understanding of this description.

Terminology

[0197] In describing the preferred embodiment of the invention illustrated in the drawings, specific terminology will be resorted to for the sake of clarity. However, the invention is not intended to be limited to the specific terms so selected, and it is to be understood that each specific term includes all technical equivalents which operate in a similar manner to accomplish a similar technical purpose. Terms such as "forward", "rearward", "radially", "peripherally", "upwardly", "downwardly", and the like are used as words of convenience to provide reference points and are not to be construed as limiting terms.

Different Instances of Objects

[0198] As used herein, unless otherwise specified the use of the ordinal adjectives "first", "second", "third", etc., to describe a common object, merely indicate that different instances of like objects are being referred to, and are not intended to imply that the objects so described must be in a given sequence, either temporally, spatially, in ranking, or in any other manner.

Comprising and Including:

[0199] In the claims which follow and in the preceding description of the invention, except where the context requires otherwise due to express language or necessary implication, the word "comprise" or variations such as "comprises" or "comprising" are used in an inclusive sense, i.e. to specify the presence of the stated features but not to preclude the presence or addition of further features in various embodiments of the invention.

[0200] Any one of the terms: "including" or "which includes" or "that includes" as used herein is also an open term that also means "including at least" the elements/features that follow the term, but not excluding others. Thus, including is synonymous with and means comprising.

Scope of Invention

[0201] Thus, while there has been described what are believed to be the preferred arrangements of the invention, those skilled in the art will recognize that other and further modifications may be made thereto without departing from the spirit of the invention, and it is intended to claim all such changes and modifications as fall within the scope of the invention. Functionality may be added or deleted from the block diagrams and operations may be interchanged among functional blocks. Steps may be added or deleted to methods described within the scope of the present invention.

[0202] Although the invention has been described with reference to specific examples, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the invention may be embodied in many other forms.

Industrial Applicability

[0203] It is apparent from the above, that the arrangements described are applicable to the mobile device industries, specifically for methods and systems for distributing digital media via mobile devices.

[0204] It will be appreciated that the methods/apparatus/devices/systems described/illustrated above at least substantially provide a playful urban interface addressing urban challenges through playful interventions.

[0205] The methods/apparatus/devices/systems described herein, and/or shown in the drawings, are presented by way of example only and are not limiting as to the scope of the invention. Unless otherwise specifically stated, individual aspects and components of the methods/apparatus/devices/systems may be modified, or may have been substituted therefore known equivalents, or as yet unknown substitutes such as may be developed in the future or such as may be found to be acceptable substitutes in the future. The methods/apparatus/devices/systems may also be modified for a variety of applications while remaining within the scope and spirit of the claimed invention, since the range of potential applications is great, and since it is intended that the present methods/apparatus/devices/systems be adaptable to many such variations.