dwatch: a personal wrist watch for smart environments

dWatch:

a Personal Wrist Watch for

Smart Environments

Dario Bonino, Fulvio Corno, Luigi De Russis

Politecnico di Torino, e-Lite Research Group

http://elite.polito.it

The 3rd International Conference on

Ambient Systems, Networks and Technologies

August 27-29, 2012, Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada

Outline

Motivations and goals

Requirements

Architecture

Implementation

Experimental results

Conclusions

2 ANT’2012, Niagara Falls, Canada

Motivations

Human-Home Interaction

◦ traditional (buttons, switches, etc.)

◦ computer-based (apps, UIs, etc.)

Needs to find a suitable trade-off

◦ unobstrusive

◦ instantly viewed or operated

◦ feature-rich and personalizable

◦ portable

Wearable computing could be a solution


Our goals

Present a reference architecture

◦ based on features and constraints sparsely

defined in the literature

Provide an implemented system

◦ based on open-source and off-the-shelf

solutions

◦ cost-effective

Use a wirst-watch as interaction means


Why a wrist-watch?

a large fraction of population is already

accustomed to wearing watches

watches are less likely to be misplaced

with respect to phones, tablets or other

mobile platforms

watches are more accessible than other

devices one may carry

the wrist is ideally located for body

sensors and wearable displays


Requirements

Context sensors on board Required

Body sensors on board Optional

Sound emitter and haptics Optional

Localization Optional

Wireless communication Required

Long-lasting battery life Required

Display Required

Touch-access (button) Required

Touch-access (touch screen) Optional

Aspect customization Optional, but typically wanted

Function customization Optional


Reference (logical) architecture

7

Wrist watch Environment

+

Users

Visual Display

(alert / messages

/ feedback)

Body Sensors

(health

monitoring)

Context sensors

(gesture recognition,

external conditions, ….)

Sound emitter

(alert / messages)

Haptics

(alert / feedback)

Communication

system

Power

system

Natural

Interaction

(ubiquitous)

AmI system

Bi-directional Wireless

communication

Communication

system

Sensors

(temperature, light,

presence, water, etc.)

Actuators

(temperature, light,

presence, water, etc.)

Home Intelligence

(learning, user profiling, reasoning, prediction,

etc.)

AmI

interfaces

(IHDs, etc.)

Natural

Interaction

(in-place)

ANT’2012, Niagara Falls, Canada

Implemented architecture

Wrist-worn device

◦ programmable and cost-effective wrist-watch

by Texas Instruments (eZ430-Chronos)

AmI system

◦ Domotic OSGi Gateway (Dog 2.3)


eZ430-Chronos capabilities

9

Context sensors on board Required 3-axis accelerometer,

pressure and temperature

Body sensors on board Optional It supports external heart

rate monitors

Sound emitter and haptics Optional Buzzer

Localization Optional No

Wireless communication Required It supports the SimpliciTI

and the BlueRobin protocols

Long-lasting battery life Required Multiple days, depending on

the usage

Display Required 96-Segment LCD display

Touch-access (button) Required 4 buttons

Touch-access (touch screen) Optional No

Aspect customization Optional, but typically

wanted

No

Function customization Optional Yes

ANT’2012, Niagara Falls, Canada

Wrist-watch implementation (I)

A new firmware, in the C language, has

been developed

◦ http://elite.polito.it/files/releases/dWatch_RFB

SL.txt

Client-server paradigm

◦ due to battery saving concerns, interactions

take place either on a sporadic basis (every

30, 60 or 180 seconds) or manually


http://elite.polito.it/files/releases/dWatch_RFBSL.txt

http://elite.polito.it/files/releases/dWatch_RFBSL.txt

Wrist-watch implementation (II)

New functionalities added

◦ message handling

◦ quick access command

◦ gestures (still under development!)

Two main menus available to users


Qac

Dog 2.3

A software-based home gateway with

◦ high-level semantic device modeling

◦ driver architecture that allows to support

different technologies

Open-source

OSGi-compliant

Website:

◦ http://domoticdog.sourceforge.net/


http://domoticdog.sourceforge.net/




TI Driver for Dog 2.3

Added a driver for the eZ430-Chronos

watch

◦ to support the watch features (original and

implemented)

◦ to implement the server-side of the wireless

communication

◦ included in the online version of Dog


Experimental results (I)

Goal: evaluate the watch functions and the possible adoption scenarios

4 participants

◦ 2 females and 2 males (aged between 35-46)

◦ only one works in the computer science field

◦ all of them habitually wear a wrist watch

During the evaluation, Dog sent to the watch two different messages:

◦ a request to turn off a lamp

◦ a warning message


Experimental results (II)

Grade given to the watch: 3.5 (out of 5)

Participants

◦ would use such a system both in their homes and workplaces

◦ found the watch menus easy to navigate and to use, but only after an initial explanation

◦ were interested in controlling their home appliances with the watch

◦ would spend 20-40 euros to buy a watch with such features


Conclusions

Presented requirements for a wrist-worn human-home interface

Proposed an initial, low-cost implementation based on an off-the-shelf watch, and on open source components

Preliminary user test confirms the functionality of the system and the viability of the approach

Interesting aspects emerging from user testing involve both the device price, and the wish to adopt the watch both in the home and in the work environment

This last observation confirms the unobtrusiveness of the approach and fosters future investigation about the possible uses of such a device


Thank you for your attention!

Luigi De Russis

[email protected]


dwatch: a personal wrist watch for smart environments

Technology