Pervasive Computing

Towards Spatial Protocol: The Topologies of the Pervasive Surveillance Society

by David Murakami Wood

Murakami Wood, D. (2008) ‘Towards Spatial Protocol: the topologies of the pervasive surveillance society’, in A. Aurigi (ed.) Augmented Urban Spaces. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate.

Securing the Neurocity

by David Murakami Wood

Transforming Traditional Pervasive Computing for Emerging Markets — Underlying Challenges and Opportunities

by Daniyal Al Ghazzawi

Co-authored with Puneet Kaur, Amandeep Dhir, Ibrahim A Albidewi

This paper analyzes Weiser’s original definition of ubiquitous or pervasive computing (PerComp) and compares its... more This paper analyzes Weiser’s original definition of ubiquitous or pervasive computing (PerComp) and compares its presence in developed nations to the needs of emerging markets. The majority of PerComp research is targeted towards industrial nations, while users from resource constrained, low income and digitally unstable regions are often neglected. It is essential for the scientific community to understand the challenges and opportunities faced by PerComp technologies in emerging markets, since these economies account for two-thirds of the worlds’ total population. The PerComp research agenda needs to be extended so that it includes users in emerging markets. PerComp technologies can play a pivotal role in alleviating the poverty of previously neglected emerging markets. This is no easy goal due to the serious challenges posed by the socio-economic levels of the various emerging markets. The overall contribution of this paper is to point out that the main features used to evaluate "traditional" PerComp solutions may not hold for the developing market. The authors surveyed some prior work on challenges for adoption of PerComp systems in developing regions, and the unique opportunities they offer.

Plastic interfaces for ubiquitous learning

by José Rouillard

This chapter presents research around pervasive and ubiquitous computing, particularly
oriented in the field of... more This chapter presents research around pervasive and ubiquitous computing, particularly
oriented in the field of human learning. We are studying several solutions to deliver content
over a heterogeneous networks and devices. Converting and transmitting documents across
electronic networks is not sufficient. We have to deal with contents and containers
simultaneously. Related work in interface adaptation and plasticity (the capacity of a user
interface to withstand variations of both the system physical characteristics and the
environment while preserving usability) is presented and some examples of context-aware
adaptation are exposed. We present an adaptive pervasive learning environment, based on
contextual QR Codes, where information is presented to learner at the appropriate time and
place, and according to a particular task. This learning environment is called PerZoovasive,
where learning activities take place in a zoo and are meant to enhance classroom activities.

Only Touching the Surface: Creating Affinities between Digital Content and Paper

by Beat Signer

Paul Luff, Christian Heath, Moira C. Norrie, Beat Signer and Peter Herdman, Proceedings of CSCW 2004, Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work. Chicago, USA, November 2004

Despite the wide-ranging recognition that paper remains a pervasive resource for human conduct and collaboration,... more Despite the wide-ranging recognition that paper remains a pervasive resource for human conduct and collaboration, there has been uncertain progress in developing technologies to bridge the paper-digital divide. In this essay we discuss the design of a technology that interweaves developments in new materials, electronics and software, and seeks to provide a cheap and accessible solution to creating new affinities between digital content, in whatever form, and ordinary paper. The technology and its design draws from a broad range of field studies, including research in classrooms and museums. These delineate the requirements and considerations that inform solutions to enhancing paper whilst preserving its integrity. The paper also discusses a naturalistic experiment, an evaluation in a museum, where we assessed the technology and the solution. We also chart the progressive development of this solution and the ways in which seemingly simple actions and issues became reconstituted as highly complex technical and analytic problems.

SpeeG: A Multimodal Speech- and Gesture-based Text Input Solution

by Beat Signer

Lode Hoste, Bruno Dumas and Beat Signer, AVI 2012, International Working Conference on Advanced Visual Interfaces, Capri Island, Italy, May 2012

We present SpeeG, a multimodal speech- and body gesture-based text input system targeting media centres, set-top boxes... more We present SpeeG, a multimodal speech- and body gesture-based text input system targeting media centres, set-top boxes and game consoles. Our controller-free zoomable user interface combines speech input with a gesture-based real-time correction of the recognised voice input. While the open source CMU Sphinx voice recogniser transforms speech input into written text, Microsoft's Kinect sensor is used for the hand gesture tracking. A modified version of the zoomable Dasher interface combines the input from Sphinx and the Kinect sensor. In contrast to existing speech error correction solutions with a clear distinction between a detection and correction phase, our innovative SpeeG text input system enables continuous real-time error correction. An evaluation of the SpeeG prototype has revealed that low error rates for a text input speed of about six words per minute can be achieved after a minimal learning phase. Moreover, in a user study SpeeG has been perceived as the fastest of all evaluated user interfaces and therefore represents a promising candidate for future controller-free text input.

PaperPoint: A Paper-Based Presentation and Interactive Paper Prototyping Tool

by Beat Signer

Beat Signer and Moira C. Norrie, Proceedings of TEI 2007, First International Conference on Tangible and Embedded Interaction, Baton Rouge, USA, February 2007

Recent developments in digital pen and paper solutions enable, not only the digital capture of handwriting, but also... more Recent developments in digital pen and paper solutions enable, not only the digital capture of handwriting, but also paper to be used as an interactive medium that links to digital information and services. We present a tool that builds on technologies for interactive paper to enable PowerPoint presentations to be controlled from printed slide handouts. Furthermore, slides can be easily annotated during presentations by simply drawing on the printed version of the slide. As well as discussing the advantages of such a paper-based interface and initial findings on its use, we describe how we were also able to exploit it to provide a general prototyping tool for interactive paper applications.

Fundamental Concepts for Interactive Paper and Cross-Media Information Spaces

by Beat Signer

Beat Signer, Dissertation ETH No. 16218. Zurich, Switzerland, 2006.

Buy from Amazon.co.uk: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fundamental-Concepts-Interactive-Cross-Media-Information/dp/3837027139

While there have been dramatic increases in the use of digital technologies for information storage, processing and... more While there have been dramatic increases in the use of digital technologies for information storage, processing and delivery over the last twenty years, the affordances of paper have ensured its retention as a key information medium. Despite predictions of the paperless office, paper is ever more present in our daily work as reflected by the continuously increasing worldwide paper consumption.

Many researchers have argued for the retention of paper as an information resource and its integration into cross-media environments as opposed to its replacement. This has resulted in a wide variety of projects and technological developments for digitally augmented paper documents over the past decade. However, the majority of the realised projects focus on technical advances in terms of hardware but pay less attention to the very fundamental information integration and cross-media information management issues.

Our information-centric approach for a tight integration of paper and digital information is based on extending an object-oriented database management system with functionality for cross-media information management. The resulting iServer platform introduces fundamental link concepts at an abstract level. The iServer’s core link management functionality is available across different multimedia resources. Only the media-specific portion of these general concepts, for example the specification of a link’s source anchor, has to be implemented in the form of a plug-in to support new resource types. This resource plug-in mechanism results in a flexible and extensible system where new types of digital as well as physical resources can easily be integrated and, more importantly, cross-linked to the growing set of supported multimedia resources. In addition to the associative linking of information, our solution allows for the integration of semantic metadata and supports multiple classification of information units. iServer can, not only link between various static information entities, but also link to active content and this has proven to be very effective in enabling more complex interaction design.

As part of the European project Paper++, under the Disappearing Computer Programme, an iServer plug-in for interactive paper has been implemented to fully integrate paper and digital media, thereby gaining the best of the physical and the digital worlds. It not only supports linking from physical paper to digital information, but also enables links from digital content to physical paper or even paper to paper links. This multi-mode user interface results in highly interactive systems where users can easily switch back and forth between paper and digital information. The definition of an abstract input device interface further provides flexibility for supporting emerging technologies for paper link definition in addition to the hardware solutions for paper link definition and activation that were developed within the Paper++ project.

We introduce different approaches for cross-media information authoring where information is either compiled by established publishers with an expertise in a specific domain or by individuals who produce their own cross-media information environments. Preauthored information can be combined with personally aggregated information. A distributed peer-to-peer version of the iServer platform supports collaborative authoring and the sharing of link knowledge within a community of users.

The associations between different types of resources as well as other application-specific information can be visualised on different output channels. Universal access to the iServer’s information space is granted using the eXtensible Information Management Architecture (XIMA), our publishing platform for multi-channel access.

Our fundamental concepts for interactive paper and cross-media information management have been designed independently of particular hardware solutions and modes of interaction which enables the iServer platform to easily adapt to both new technologies and applications. Finally, the information infrastructure that we have developed has great potential as an experimental platform for the investigation of emerging multimedia resources in general and interactive paper with its possible applications in particular.

The Future of Augmented Reality

by Abbas Tolgay YILMAZ

Co-authored with Mark Surrow, draft only, written in 2011

Design from the Everyday: Continuously evolving, embedded exploratory prototypes

by Margot Brereton

Published and Presented at the Designing Interavtive Systems Conference in Aarhus, Denmark 2010

ACM conference. 22% acceptance rate in the long paper track.

One of the major challenges in the design of social
technologies is the evaluation of their qualities of use... more One of the major challenges in the design of social
technologies is the evaluation of their qualities of use and
how they are appropriated over time. While the field of
HCI abounds in short-term exploratory design and studies
of use, relatively little attention has focused on the
continuous development of prototypes longitudinally and
studies of their emergent use. We ground the exploration
and analysis of use in the everyday world, embracing
contingency and open-ended use, through the use of a
continuously-available exploratory prototype. Through
examining use longitudinally, clearer insight can be gained
of realistic, non-novelty usage and appropriation into
everyday use.

This paper sketches out a framework for design that puts a
premium on immediate use and evolving the design in
response to use and user feedback. While such design
practices with continuously developing systems are common
in the design of social technologies, they are little
documented. We describe our approach and reflect upon its
key characteristics, based on our experiences from two case
studies. We also present five major patterns of long-term
usage which we found useful for design.

New challenges for design participation in the era of ubiquitous computing

by Margot Brereton

MobGeoSen: facilitating personal geosensor data collection and visualization using mobile phones

by eiman kanjo

Fresh: Cellid based mobile forum for community environmental awareness

by eiman kanjo

UBIQUITOUS SUSTAINABILITY, Seoul, Ubicomp, South Korea, 2008

This paper describes our mobile framework Fresh which
engages the public in location sensitive experiences and... more This paper describes our mobile framework Fresh which
engages the public in location sensitive experiences and in
municipal monitoring of their environment, available both
on users’ mobile phones, and online.
This mobile forum is based on Cell-ID positioning and
GPRS communications. It stores and receives information
from a remote server which analyses and processes the
scientific data received from a scalable mobile sensing
framework called MobSens and makes it available to local
communities through Fresh.

Urban computing and mobile devices

by eiman kanjo

Multimodal and multichannel issues in pervasive and ubiquitous computing

by José Rouillard

The Pervasive Fridge

by José Rouillard

A Survey of Tools for Interdisciplinary Design of Pervasive computing

by Jason Forsyth

Authors: Jason Forsyth and Tom Martin
Published: International Journal of Pervasive Computing and Communications

Purpose - To be successful, pervasive computing requires a balance of computing, design, and business requirements to... more Purpose - To be successful, pervasive computing requires a balance of computing, design, and business requirements to be considered throughout the design process. Achieving this synthesis requires a level of interdisciplinary design that is not present in current pervasive design tools. To understand the state of the art and provide insight to future tool designers, we present a survey of design tools for pervasive computing and consider their ability to be used in interdisciplinary design.

Design/Methodology/Approach - We have performed a survey of tools covering many areas within pervasive computing and have evaluated the abilities of each tool with established metrics for pervasive design tools.

Findings - While we have found many design tools are available for constructive pervasive applications, few are suitable through all phases of the design cycle or useful across all the intended application domains of pervasive computing.

Originality/Value - This survey provided an understanding of the state of pervasive design tools, with regards to interdisciplinary design, which has not be previously been performed. Additionally, we provide evaluations of the pervasive tools when used in an interdisciplinary setting. These evaluations provide insight key metrics and allow tool designers to understand the needs of their intended audience.

OutRun: Perversive Games and Designing the De-Simulation of Eight-Bit Driving (FDG 2010)

by Garnet Hertz

Conference proceedings, Foundations of Digital Games 2010, June 12-21, Monterey, CA, USA

This paper outlines the development process of a mixed reality video game prototype that combines a classic arcade... more This paper outlines the development process of a mixed reality video game prototype that combines a classic arcade driving game with a real world vehicle. In this project the user, or player, maneuvers the car-shaped arcade cabinet through actual physical space using a screen as a navigational guide which renders the real world in the style of an 8-bit video game. This case study is presented as a “perversive game”: an attempt to disrupt the everyday by highlighting and inverting conventional behavior through humor and paradox.

Active environments: Sensing and responding to groups of people

by Joe McCarthy

Promoting awareness of work activities through peripheral displays

by Joe McCarthy