2026
Shah, Arsh
RowSim: Designing and Evaluating Ambient Interaction in Mixed-Reality Rowing Masters Thesis
Dalhousie University, 2026.
Abstract | BibTeX | Tags: ambient display, control mapping, immersive visualization, IMU, projection mapping, rowing, sensor fusion, simulation
@mastersthesis{Shah2026,
title = {RowSim: Designing and Evaluating Ambient Interaction in Mixed-Reality Rowing},
author = {Arsh Shah},
year = {2026},
date = {2026-08-31},
urldate = {2026-08-31},
school = {Dalhousie University},
abstract = {A rowing ergometer reproduces the effort of rowing while removing its perceptual accom-
paniment, filling the gap with a console that must be read. Ambient-display research has
argued for three decades that information can occupy the periphery, but almost entirely for
people at rest.
RowSim augments an ergometer with a floor-projected fluid simulation driven by the
rower’s movement. Effort scales the wake’s brightness and how hard it pushes the fluid;
nothing is a number or recoverable as a value. Seventeen rowers, twelve casual and five
elite, rowed an open-ended ten-minute session with the console covered, then answered
questionnaires and an interview.
The groups differed by a factor of 3.7 in mean power, with all seven physical measures
separating them; no engagement measure did. Two participants independently reported that
the flow did not read as their own, because no action could stop it: restoring optic flow is a
coupling problem, not a rendering one.
The contribution is a working system and evidence that a peripheral, non-symbolic
display remains usable during exertion, together with a perceptual account of why the
missing accompaniment matters and of the one condition the display failed to meet.},
keywords = {ambient display, control mapping, immersive visualization, IMU, projection mapping, rowing, sensor fusion, simulation},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {mastersthesis}
}
A rowing ergometer reproduces the effort of rowing while removing its perceptual accom-
paniment, filling the gap with a console that must be read. Ambient-display research has
argued for three decades that information can occupy the periphery, but almost entirely for
people at rest.
RowSim augments an ergometer with a floor-projected fluid simulation driven by the
rower’s movement. Effort scales the wake’s brightness and how hard it pushes the fluid;
nothing is a number or recoverable as a value. Seventeen rowers, twelve casual and five
elite, rowed an open-ended ten-minute session with the console covered, then answered
questionnaires and an interview.
The groups differed by a factor of 3.7 in mean power, with all seven physical measures
separating them; no engagement measure did. Two participants independently reported that
the flow did not read as their own, because no action could stop it: restoring optic flow is a
coupling problem, not a rendering one.
The contribution is a working system and evidence that a peripheral, non-symbolic
display remains usable during exertion, together with a perceptual account of why the
missing accompaniment matters and of the one condition the display failed to meet.
paniment, filling the gap with a console that must be read. Ambient-display research has
argued for three decades that information can occupy the periphery, but almost entirely for
people at rest.
RowSim augments an ergometer with a floor-projected fluid simulation driven by the
rower’s movement. Effort scales the wake’s brightness and how hard it pushes the fluid;
nothing is a number or recoverable as a value. Seventeen rowers, twelve casual and five
elite, rowed an open-ended ten-minute session with the console covered, then answered
questionnaires and an interview.
The groups differed by a factor of 3.7 in mean power, with all seven physical measures
separating them; no engagement measure did. Two participants independently reported that
the flow did not read as their own, because no action could stop it: restoring optic flow is a
coupling problem, not a rendering one.
The contribution is a working system and evidence that a peripheral, non-symbolic
display remains usable during exertion, together with a perceptual account of why the
missing accompaniment matters and of the one condition the display failed to meet.