Theses

@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}

}