Application Design for Wearable Computing

Team members:Yih-Kuang LuHieu Nguyen

Wearable Computers – Where’s all started!

Outlines• Multimodal interaction, software/application, electronics,

design methodology in user-centered design, and rapid prototyping – Wearable computers.

• Designers should consider when designing wearable computing devices – Lesson learned & Useful guidelines.

• Computer’s closeness to the body and its use while performing other tasks – UCAMP framework.

• Areas of user interface, modalities of interaction, and wearable cognitive augmentation – Challenges and trends.

Wearable computers• Seek to merge the user’s information space with his or her

workspace – make information available at any place, any time.

• Application domains range:– Inspection procedures– Maintenance and manufacturing (vehicle & aircraft)– Navigation to on-the-move collaboration and position sensing– Real-time speech recognition and language translation– And more …

Wearable computers (cont.)• Advantages:

– Body-worn computers that provide hands-free operation offering compelling advantages in many applications

– Deal in information rather than programs– Tools in the user’s environment– Portable access to information– Eliminating cost of transferring information– Specialized and modular and easily be reconfigured to meet specific

needs of applications

Wearable computers (cont.)• Wearable system designers’ challenges:

– Identifying effective interaction modalities– Accurately modeling user tasks– New paradigm in computing– No consensus on the mechanical/software HMI– Remodel the current computer interface – shift user’s focus

to the environments instead of the computing devices– Handle real-world interactions distractions like walking,

driving, etc…

Wearable computers (cont.)• Every wearable computer system must be viewed from three

different axes.

1. The Human – interaction between the human body and the wearable object

2. The Computer – size, power consumption, and UI software

3. The Application – design challenges and problem-solving capabilities

Wearable computers (cont.)• Key research groups:

– Carnegie Mellon, Columbia University, Georgia Tech, MIT, Bremen University, Darmstadt University, ETH Zurich, Lancaster University, University of South Australia, and NARA in Japan

• WearIt@Work– Large wearable computing consortium of companies and universities in

Europe (36 partners), focusing on four application areas: mobile maintenance, emergency rescue, health care, and production.

• Commercial companies/products (with limited success)– Xybernaut, CDI, and VIA Inc. – Seiko’s Rupiter wristwatch computer – Panasonic’s wearable brick computer coupled with handheld or arm-worn

touch screen– Sony and OQO wearable PCs

EXAMPLE: VuMan 3

Very Rapid Prototyping of Wearable Computers: A Case Study of VuMan 3 Custom versus Off-the-Shelf Design Methodologies (1997) Journal on Design Automation for Embedded Systems.

• Initiated by Carnegie Mellon University

• Designed to streamlining Limited Technical Inspections (LTI) of amphibious tractors for the US Marines at Camp Pendleton, CA.

• LTI – 600-item, 50 pages checklist, takes 4 to 6 hours to complete.

Lessons Learned From Usage

• Maximum Size, weight, energy consumption before change user behavior

• No fixed relationship between input/output/display• User less patient, expect instant response• Intuitive to use, no user’s manual • Information overload, user may focus on computer rather

than physical world• Potential to lose initiative, user does exactly what the

computer tells them to do

Design Guidelines for Wearable Computing• Three areas be considered:

– Device Keep user at the center of the design– Interface Simple and clear interface for navigation– User environment Readily viewable with limited shift of attention /

Accommodate the cultural and esthetic standards

• Questions designers should ask when beginning a project:– Does the mental model match the application physical workflow?– Are the user interactions with the application simple and intuitive?– Are the input and output devices and modalities appropriate for the set of projected

applications?– Does the system have enough resources (processor, memory, network) to be

responsive to the user’s interactions without excess?– Will the form and shape of the wearable computer be comfortable with the

movement of the human body?– Where will the computer be placed on the body? What are the size, weight, and

power consumption?– Is the device's thermal management and heat dissipation appropriate for the

intended physical environment?

UCAMP framework• User: The user is at the center of the wearable-computer

design process.• Corporal: Wearables should be designed to interface

physically with the user without discomfort or distraction.• Attention: Interfaces should be designed for the user’s

divided attention between the physical and virtual worlds.• Manipulation: When mobile, users lose some of the dexterity

assumed by desktop interfaces. Thus, controls should be quick to find and simple to manipulate.

• Perception: A user’s ability to perceive displays, both visual and audio, is also reduced when using a mobile device. Displays should be simple, distinct, and quick to navigate.

User

• User needs and interactions – mobile users are more impatient…Speed is the key!

• Applied user-centered design via User-Centered Interdisciplinary Concurrent System Design Methodology (UICSM)

Corporal• Use of the human body as a support environment• User’s physical context may be constantly changing and not fixed

between user and device• Symbol Technologies – barcode technology.

– Design for wearability considers the physical shape of objects and their active relationship with the human forms

– Testing help resolved other needs and minimized health risk concern.

• Wearability Design Criteria

- Placement- Humanistic form language- Human movement- Human perception of size- Size variations- Attachment

- Contents- Weight- Accessibility- Interaction- Thermal- Aesthetics

Attention

• The challenge for human–computer interaction design is to use advances in technology to preserve human attention and to avoid information saturation

– Humans have a finite capacity that limits the number of concurrent activities they can perform

– Human effectiveness is reduced as a person tries to multiplex more activities

– After each refocus of attention, a period of time is required to reestablish the context before the interruption

– Human short-term memory can hold seven plus or minus two chunks of information

Attention (cont.)• Mobile context – user’s attention is divided between computing task

and activities in the physical environments.

• Resource Competition Framework, based on the multiple resource theory of attention to relate mobile task demands to the user’s cognitive resources

• “Task Guidance and Procedure Context: Aiding Workers in Appropriate Procedure Following” warns that mobile interfaces may hinder the user’s primary task if they are not properly designed

• The Attention Matrix– Categorizes activities (information, communication, and creation) by the

amount of attention they require

Attention (cont.)

Manipulation

• Wearable-computer design offers simple manipulation within a complex set of information

• A number of other manipulation devices have been developed and tested for wearable computing– Wheel-pointer– Small keypad or keyboard– Speech Interfaces– Speech Translation– Dual-Purpose Speech

Perception• When a user is on the go, the user’s ability to perceive a wearable

computer’s interface is lessened– The vibration and visual interference from a moving background

interferes with visual tasks– Background noise and the noise from the body itself affect hearing

• How to design interfaces to least interfere with the user’s primary tasks while providing the most value in terms of augmentation

– A Proactive Assistant (context-aware computing)

Research Directions

• Three basic functions related to ease of use: Input, Output, and Information representation.

Figure: User interface performance thresholds

Research Directions (cont.)

Figure: Kiviat graphs for wearable computer use modalities

Research Directions (cont.)• Wearable Cognitive Augmentation

– Knowing the user’s cognitive state would enable development of proactive cognitive assistants that anticipate user needs much like a human assistant does.

– What makes this attempt possible is an unprecedented advance in measuring and understanding brain activity during complex tasks using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

Figure: fMRI experiment configuration

Research Directions (cont.)

Figure: Activation volume in dual task compared to single task

Expected

Actual

Conclusions and Future Challenges

• User interface models: What is the appropriate set of metaphors for providing mobile access to information

• Input/output modalities• Quick interface evaluation methodology: These evaluation

techniques should especially focus on decreasing human errors and frustration

• Matched capability with applications: the most effective means for information access and resist the temptation to provide extra capabilities

• Context-aware applications• Proactive assistant

The Past…

The Present…

The Future…

References

• Application Design for Wearable Computing– Dan Siewiorek, Asim Smailagic, and Thad Starner 2008

• http://seiko-divers.info/scwf/index.php?mod=103&action=0&id=1021052963

• http://alexandria.tue.nl/openaccess/Metis235319.pdf• http://5election.com/2012/09/03/a-short-history-of-wearable-co

mputers/

• http://blog.allstream.com/five-weird-but-wearable-computers/