smart homes #1 · “smart homes” better people’s lives with increased communication,...

Smart Homes #1Ubiquitous ComputingSpring 2007

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Readings

At Home with Ubiquitous Computing: Seven ChallengesKeith Edwards and Rebecca Grinter

Casablanca: Designing Social Communication Devices for the HomeDebby Hindus et al.

A Survey of Research on Context-Aware HomesMeyer and Rakotonirainy

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At Home with Ubiquitous Computing:Seven Challenges

“Smart homes” better people’s lives with increased communication, awareness, and functionality

However, there exist technical, social, and pragmatic challenges

Raise awareness of existing domestic technology literature

Increase the use of situated studies

an overview

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Technology is getting there:

- Moore’s Law

- Everything networked and wireless

- Increased vendor focus

- Proof of concepts exist: Aware Home @ Ga Tech

But, there still exist some challenges!

the smart home is coming

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The “accidentally” smart home

Impromptu interoperability

No systems administrator

Designing for domestic use

Social implications of aware home technologies

Reliability

Interference in the presence of ambiguity

the seven challenges

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Current “smart” environments are intentional

More realistic that technology brought piecemeal into the house

Even mundane examples, demonstrate big problems

the “accidentally” smart home

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Current “smart” environments are intentional

More realistic that technology brought piecemeal into the house

Even mundane examples, demonstrate big problems

How do users debug their home?

Is this simply “a design problem?”

Solution is to provide affordances


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When designing think of these questions:

- What kinds of affordances do we need to make the system intelligible?

- How can I tell my device is interacting?

- What are the boundaries of my smart home?

- What are the potential configurations of my devices?

- How can users be made aware of the entire houses’ affordances?

- Where will the locus of interaction be in a system that isn’t in one place?

- How do I control these devices and the whole system?


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Ability to interconnect with little advance planning

A priori agreement on syntax and semantics is needed

impromptu interoperability

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Ability to interconnect with little advance planning

A priori agreement on syntax and semantics is needed

Creating standards for all types of devices is not feasible

New models of connectivity are required

impromptu interoperability

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Homeowners will need to be system administrators

Appliance model: “application-centric” computing

Utility model: “thin-client” solution

no systems administrator

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Homeowners will need to be system administrators

Appliance model: “application-centric” computing

Utility model: “thin-client” solution

Why doesn’t plumber/electrician model work?

no systems administrator

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Learning from the telephone

Learning from the cell phone

Learning from domestic technology studies

- domestic technology use governed by rules of the house

- television use indicated who “controlled” an area of the house

- teenagers used individually owned technology to coordinate using a shared technology

- teenagers used “quiet” technologies to avoid disrupting other’s routines

designing for domestic use

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Learning from the telephone

Learning from the cell phone

Learning from domestic technology studies

- domestic technology use governed by rules of the house

- television use indicated who “controlled” an area of the house

- teenagers used individually owned technology to coordinate using a shared technology

- teenagers used “quiet” technologies to avoid disrupting other’s routines

Designers need to pay attention to the subtle house routines

designing for domestic use

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Are domestic technologies labor saving?

Introduction of technology into the home changes societal expectations

Has the introduction of technology increased or shifted the amount of work you do?

social implications of aware home technologies

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Are domestic technologies labor saving?

Introduction of technology into the home changes societal expectations

Has the introduction of technology increased or shifted the amount of work you do?

TV has changed “good parenting” to controlling what not if your child watches

In Europe mobile phones teaches children about managing money and safely gives them increased independence

social implications of aware home technologies

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Current domestic technology is pretty reliable

Because of differences in:

- Development culture

- Technological approaches

- Expectations of the market

- Regulations

reliability

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Current machine inference is kinda bad (e.g. Clippy)

How smart does a smart home have to be?

Is it better to not act or to act and be wrong?

interference in the presence of ambiguity

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Current machine inference is kinda bad (e.g. Clippy)

How smart does a smart home have to be?

Is it better to not act or to act and be wrong?

Modes of intelligence:

- Infer state of world through interpretation of sensor data

- Infer existence of states by aggregating other contexts

- Inter my intent based on its view of the state of the world

- Preemptively act of the assumptions of my intent


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Predictability is important

- System’s expected behavior is known

- System’s facilities for detecting or inferring this condition are known

- Provision is made for the user to override the system’s behavior


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Predictability is important

- System’s expected behavior is known

- System’s facilities for detecting or inferring this condition are known

- Provision is made for the user to override the system’s behavior

How can we redesign the bluetooth speakers to be more predictable?


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Casablanca: Designing Social Communication Devices for the Home

Explore how media space concepts can be incorporated into households and family life

Did prototypes, field studies, and consumer testing of design concepts

Generated conclusions about designing household social communication devices

an overview

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“Phatic” communication: a type of speech in which the ties of union are created and maintained by a mere exchange of words

prototypes supporting household communication

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“Phatic” communication: a type of speech in which the ties of union are created and maintained by a mere exchange of words

CommuteBoard

- handwritten notes and continuous audio-based activity sensing

NeighborNet

- activity sensing with a few discrete levels and optional video connection

KitchenNet

- connections ranging from none to telephonic to video

prototypes supporting household communication

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Two users shared rides to work

Supplanted the existing routine by using a shared whiteboard which displayed handwritten notes

Audio sensors showed ambient noise at other home

commuteboard

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Simple, ephemeral and expressive interactions are effective in homes

Prototypes in the home require higher level of finish than in office due to safety and convenience concerns

Video and audio are attractive, but require high speeds

Synchronicity wasn’t totally necessary

early prototypes lessons

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Simple, ephemeral and expressive interactions are effective in homes

Prototypes in the home require higher level of finish than in office due to safety and convenience concerns

Video and audio are attractive, but require high speeds

Synchronicity wasn’t totally necessary

What about the privacy concerns?

early prototypes lessons

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Conducted 16 in-depth home interviews

Two families visited again for lengthier observations

Later 35 home visits in six cities

ethnographic-inspired methods

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Households are displays

Households are sanctuaries

Family life is the household priority

Women are household communicators

Telephone is not good enough

ethnographic-inspired lessons

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Awareness

- In Touch: tokens can transmit touches to other token holders

- Presence Light: pair of linked lights use their brightness to show activity from the other’s context

Audio

- RoomLink: two locations are linked, so you can hear everything that happens there

Note and Picture Sharing

- MessageBoard: people in different locations can communicate with each other by drawing on a paper-sized whiteboard and can also use it to send physical articles (snapshots, drawings, etc)

concept development

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Two rounds of exploratory focus groups with women

- One group: 25-45 years old

- Other group: 40-55 years old

concept validation

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Two rounds of exploratory focus groups with women

- One group: 25-45 years old

- Other group: 40-55 years old

RoomLink and MessageBoard resonated with participants

Desirable attributes for social communication devices:

- Fun to use, low cost, simple to operate

- Keep in touch or assistance with monitoring

- Respected privacy and didn’t create new social obligations

- Multiple communication modes and enough information

concept validation

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Based on PresenceLight

No active sensing, communication had to be initiated by someone

Intentional Presence Lamp (IPL)

Curtain Model Lampshade Model

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Based on MessageBoard

ScanBoard

ScanBoard Prototype ScanBoard Screen In Use

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Intentionality and aesthetics made IPL attractive

Scanning and sharing made ScanBoard attractive

Expressiveness and simplicity made both attractive

Lessons Learned

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Homes are a distinct domain

Media spaces in homes will span a wide range

Social communication is a suitable research topic

Express just enough meaning, but not too much

Social interaction should not be imposed on users

Guidelines for Designing Social Communication

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A Survey of Research on Context-Aware Homes

Surveyed existing domestic context-aware technology research

Presentation of research issues that need to be addressed to improve quality of people living within context-aware homes

an overview

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“...offer an unobtrusive and appealing environment embedded with pervasive devices that help its occupants to achieve their

tasks at hand; technology that interacts closely with its occupants in the most natural ways to the point where such

interaction becomes implicit.”

the goal of context-aware buildings

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Awareness of its own state and that of related systems

Awareness of user intentions, tasks and feelings

Ability to autonomously adapt its behavior spontaneously on context changes

characteristics of c-a home technology

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basic components of a context-aware system

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Make sensors “smart” by combining them with microprocessors

- Smart-Its

- MOTES

Locate objects and people

- MIT Cricket Indoor Location

- AT&T “Bat”

- Microsoft RADAR

- UCLA Nibble

instrumentation trends

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Tangible interfaces

- Phidgets

Sensors with wireless communication

Video Cameras

- Vision Interfaces Group @ MIT

- Microsoft EasyLiving

instrumentation trends

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Disappearing Computer Initiative

- Identification of a set of UI requirements that fit (functionally and aesthetically) with the context-aware occupants’ lifestyles

- Identification an understanding of occupant’s pattern of behavior evolving in a context-aware home environment from social and economic perspectives

Do we really want the computer to disappear in the home?

user experience trends

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Disappearing Computer Initiative

- Identification of a set of UI requirements that fit (functionally and aesthetically) with the context-aware occupants’ lifestyles

- Identification an understanding of occupant’s pattern of behavior evolving in a context-aware home environment from social and economic perspectives

Do we really want the computer to disappear in the home?

Design for fun

- Communicate emotional/affective information to machines

- Using computer game design theory

user experience trends

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Give users more control and awareness (e.g. W3C P3P)

Two main approaches to ensuring privacy

- Try to make sure as little information as possible gets out

- Restrict the amount of information being acquired

privacy implications of system architecture

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Give users more control and awareness (e.g. W3C P3P)

Two main approaches to ensuring privacy

- Try to make sure as little information as possible gets out

- Restrict the amount of information being acquired

Privacy at the sensor-level

Video is problematic

Let the environment stay “dumb”

privacy implications of system architecture

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smart homes #1 · “smart homes” better people’s lives with increased communication,...

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