[Research] Ubiquitous Computing Evaluation

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Stumbled across this workshop about Evaluation Methodologies for Ubiquitous Computing

Interactive systems, and in particular, ubiquitous computing pose more complex evaluation methodologies than non-interactive text retrieval. However, there are several possibilities. One possibility is to start by conducting evaluations on the various aspects that make up subsystems of ubiquitous computing: perceptual user interfaces, dynamic service discovery, wireless networking services, distributed data systems and input and output using distributed user interfaces. Issues here would be to establish metrics and evaluation methodologies for individual components and to determine what, if anything, successful evaluations imply about the entire system.

Another possibility would be to evaluate individual systems, end -to-end, as they are built using traditional usability evaluation methodologies. This would give us information about individual systems and would perhaps allow researchers more flexibility in choosing particular domains. Would this necessitate changes in usability evaluation methodologies? Typical usability metrics are effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction. Are these valid metrics for technology that is still under development? Is it feasible to compare systems across domains of use?

Another issue for evaluation of ubiquitous computing systems is that we would like to employ rapid evaluation methods whose results will be available in time to influence the final design. Creation of such methods and their validation would represent an important contribution to the HCI community.

[Research] Prototyping location based services

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Via ,Fab, Topiary is a a tool for prototyping location-enhanced applications. It allows you to carry out wizard-of-oz experiments, with a really good touch.

Topiary lets designers create a map that models the location of people, places, and things; use this active map to demonstrate scenarios depicting location contexts; use these scenarios in creating storyboards that describe interaction sequences; and then run these storyboards on mobile devices like PDAs, with a wizard updating the location of people and things on a separate device.

Topiary allows designers to quickly design, prototype, and test a location-enhanced application without requiring them to implement the application or deploy a supporting infrastructure, enabling them to get early feedback about their design from real end users.

[Research] Applying Social Network Analysis to small groups?

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I often think that social network analysis does not really suit to my research needs (studying the effects of technology on small groups). But it seems that it could fit. In Social Network Analysis - The Science of Measuring, Visualizing and Simulating Social Relationships, the authors took an example on the soccer field:

The Rapid Vienna network consists of the 11 players on the field, and we observed who passed the ball to whom during the course of a match. The resulting graph consists of a number of players (nodes) and a number of passes (arrows). To the left is the graph that depicts Rapid’s passing game during the last 15 minutes of a soccer match between Rapid Vienna and Sturm Graz on December 7, 2003. As soon as we add additional information such as the players’ names and their positions (red = attack, green = midfield, yellow = defense), we have produced a network. Networks are graphs with additional information about nodes and/or arrows. Once the empirically calculated data have been transformed into a relational graph, vari-ous questions can be answered. Which player initiated the most passes (Jazic)? Who was on the receiving end of the most passes (Jazic)? Who controlled Rapid’s play (Jazic, Hoffman)? Which players were involved in the most combination pass plays (Jazic, Hofmann, Feldhofer, Martinez, Carics)? Who played together with whom and who didn’t (not a single pass from Ivanschitz to Wagner!)? Which combinations of players made up the back-bone of the team (e.g. the Feldhofer-Carics-Pashazadeh triad)? Which players had a simi-lar role (Ivanschitz / Martinez)? Where are the weak points of Rapid’s play (Kulovits)? Which players do I have to “shut down” to achieve maximum disruption of the flow of Rapid’s play (Jazic, Hofmann, Feldhofer)? To answer questions like these, social network analy-sis has developed a comprehensive set of measure-ment, visualization and simulation techniques.

The picture shows rapid’s passing game during the last 15 minutes of a soccer match between Rapid Vienna and Sturm Graz on December 7, 2003 (data by Harald Katzmair and Helmuth Neundlinger). Left: graph, Right: network: It's a bit what I had in mind with the catchbob analysis: analysing the number of interactions between the three persons and representing it with this kind of network:

[Research] Challenges to studying ubiquitous computing

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Interesting part of Designing through exploration: using observational methods in ubiquitous technology research (by Brown, B. and A. Weilenmann) about the challenges to study ubiquitous computing uses.

In this paper, the authors explain the added value of evaluating ubiquitous computing products. They advocated for 'exploring' rather than 'evaluating'.They exemplify this claim with 3 systems.

I am strongly interested in their argumentation about the challenges to study Ubicomp:

  • ubicomp is experimental then work on prototype: fragile, unreliable, sometimes physically larger than final product
  • the real world (where the experiment is conducted) is very different from the lab settings
  • ubicomp designed to be embedded into the environment often for long periods of time: difficult to study over time (longitudinal studies) -> difficult to create usage scenario, and it will be difficult to study them in lab context
  • ubicomp often involved in chains of interaction between different device and individuals so it's difficult to take this into account in the usage scenario.
  • ubicomp used in lots of different environments, different from classical one, and often multi.context, unpredictable use of mobile stuff.
  • ubicomp use: short and sporadic


Those challenges are hard to solve in a conventional lab study. Besides, experiments outside the lab are difficult as well.

[Locative Media] Savannah: a strategy-based adventure game for kids

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Savannah is " is a strategy-based adventure game where a virtual space is mapped directly onto a real space".

The Savannah project is an ambitious combination of games technology, mobile computing and innovative approaches to teaching and learning. It aims to support Year 7 children to become collaborative, reflective and imaginative learners in the fields of ecology and ethology. The project brings together the motivation of games play, with the near magical quality of wireless computing to create an engaging world where children learn through a cycle of experience and reflection, of ‘being’ animals and reflecting on animals’ behaviour in their environment. (...) Children ‘play’ at being lions in a savannah, navigating the augmented environments with a mobile handheld device. By using aspects of game play, Savannah challenges children to explore and survive in the augmented space. To do this they must successfully adopt strategies used by lions. (...) The project has demonstrated that mobile technology games can generate high degrees of engagement and enthusiasm in children. (...) In respect of the role of games in education, Savannah has identified that the main motivating feature of games is likely not to be complex graphics, but the establishment of appropriate and authentic challenges.

[Tech] Haptic phones?

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This Vibetonz system seems to provides cell phones with a new feature: haptics. More explanation here (.pdf)

VibeTonz is intended to enable users to download different vibrations the same way they download ringtones now. The vibrations could be used to add sensory depth to emoticons sent by instant messaging, or to provide sensory feedback when navigating by a global positioning system

Here is the interface to compose the vibrations from MIDI files:

[Locative Media] Old locative media game: mobi mushi

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Mobi Mushi is an old location-based game (as attested by the pic below, 2002 :) ). It's in french, on orange phone, designed by gameloft. The idea is simple: you have a character (called mobimushi). Thanks to the geolocation feature, the character detects the places from where you connect. You have to take this into account to raise your mobimushi and have it battle it out with other pets. Yes, it's a bit passé but the idea is cool.

Comment marche la " géo-intelligence " du MobiMushi ? A chaque connexion, vous êtes localisé géographiquement. Le MobiMushi sait donc où vous vous trouvez. Si c'est un lieu que vous lui avez déjà appris, il le reconnaît immédiatement. Si c'est un lieu qu'il n'a jamais vu, il vous demande de le nommer pour qu'il sache quel comportement adopter. Dans chaque lieu vous attendent de nouvelles surprises !
Qu'est-ce qu'attend mon MobiMushi ? Le MobiMushi évolue à chaque action en fonction de 4 jauges : plaisir, forme, amis et savoir. Le but du jeu est de maintenir au maximum ses jauges au-dessus de zéro. C'est parfois complexe puisque certaines actions font monter une jauge et en font descendre une autre. Chaque fois qu'il se produit un impact sur une jauge, elle s'affiche à l'écran. Vous pouvez à tout moment consulter les niveaux des quatre jauges dans Menu du jeu > Tout sur mon MobiMushi.
Comment apprendre un nouveau lieu à mon MobiMushi ? Dès que vous vous connectez dans un nouveau lieu, votre MobiMushi vous questionne et vous gratifie d'un bonus si vous avez de la chance. Vous êtes alors aiguillé vers les écrans de configuration du lieu, soit directement en cliquant sur 'Continuer', soit en cliquant sur 'Où on est?' à partir du menu du jeu. Choisissez le type qui correspond le mieux à l'endroit dans lequel vous vous trouvez : Bureau, Lycée, Bistrot, Transports… Il y en a pour tous les goûts et toutes les situations. Vous pouvez alors donner un nom spécifique au lieu. Cliquez sur 'Valider' et vous y êtes !

[Research] Observing ubicomp interactions

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Very informative paper with regard to the analysis we want to conduct on catchbob.Designing through exploration: using observational methods in ubiquitous technology research by Barry Brown, Alexandra Weilenmann

The evaluation and study of ubiquitous computing is an essential part of learning from design success and failure. Yet understanding technologies which are, by their very nature, embedded in the world presents new challenges for evaluation. In particular, there are limitations in how approaches based on experimental lab studies can reveal about complex contexts outside the laboratory. Observational methods offer an alternative approach which allows broader lessons to be drawn from prototypes’ use insitu. Part of this is moving from the ‘evaluation’ the use of systems to ‘exploring’ their use. We discuss three different studies where we have used observational methods to explore the use of ubicomp. In the ‘tourism study’ we studied a setting before the introduction of technology to learn what sorts of ubiquitous technologies would be appropriate for tourists. In the ‘lighthouse co-visiting study’ we conducted a field experiment of a prototype museum co-visiting system. Lastly, in the ‘hummingbird study' we looked at the use of a location based technology by ski instructors as part of nonstaged activities. Each of these studies show how observational methods and experimental ubicomp technologies can be combined. From these example we discuss the different stages of conducting an observational study, and give pointers to how ubicomp designers themselves could use observational methods in their work.

[Prospective] Voicemail extinction?

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The Feature has a post about the decrease in the voicemail feature of mobile phones.

 Although society is now becoming accustomed to time shifting entertainment, it is becoming less tolerant of doing the same with communication.

Voice is still the killer application on mobile phones but, especially with younger generations, it may not be the sound of voice that is driving its success. A new study sponsored by Mobeon, a company which delivers messaging servers, has found that there is a growing generation gap between voicemail users and those who opt to send a text instead. When younger generations are faced with a an outgoing message, they often hang up and send a text, or they skip the call altogether and send a text message to begin with. Older generations, especially those who grew up with answering machines and other asynchronous communication, don't mind leaving a message. (...) The clarity of a text message is superior to that of a voice message in most cases. However it seems that more of the arguments in favor of text messages these two companies have found all exploit the fact that an SMS comes directly to the recipient's handset.

At work, in two years, I used 2 times my answering machines and the two times I had to ask the administrator for my passsword.

[Research] Research about pokemon and children's culture

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I stumbled across this research projects which I found appealing: POKÉMON: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Children’s Global Media Culture.

The Pokémon project examined the rise and fall of one of Japan’s most profitable and popular exports. (...) In 1999, Professor Joseph Tobin of the University of Hawaii, an internationally renowned scholar in the field of Japanese/American educational and cultural studies, gathered a multi-national research team to investigate the Pokémon phenomenon.

The conference they held about it was called ‘Pikachu’s Global Adventure’, it is available now as a book. The methodology they used is pretty interesting, especially the last point:

  1. An overview of the Pokémon phenomenon, considering the production context (of the Nintendo Corporation), the characteristics of Pokémon texts, and debates about audiences. These findings were set in the context of broader debates about the relations between ‘structure’ and ‘agency’ in Cultural Studies.
  2. An analysis of children’s creative writing using Pokémon themes and characters. Four stories written by 8-9-year-olds were analysed in detail, in order to explore the creative nature of children’s engagements with Pokémon, and the ways in which their writing functions as a form of identity construction.
  3. Research with reception class children (aged 4-5), exploring the nature of children’s play using Pokémon toys and artefacts. This study explored how play can give status to officially ‘disapproved’ forms of knowledge, and thereby empower children whose position in the classroom would otherwise be marginal.
  4. A case study of one child learning to play the Pokémon computer game. The analysis considered the use of knowledge and skill in game playing; the social negotiations that surround it; the interaction between the game and other media forms; and the nature of ‘interactivity’ in games of this kind.

[Prospective] Closer to Johnny Mnemonic Jones' than ever

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In Johnny Mnemonic (William Gibson's short story, shot in a movie by Robert Longo, with a pre-matrix Keanu Reeves) there was this nice dolphin called Jones:

He was more than a dolphin, but from another dolphin's point of view he might have seemed like something less. I watched him swirling sluggishly in his galvanized tank. Water stopped over the side, wetting my shoes. He was surplus from the last war. A cyborg.

We are close to that, with this amazing news:

A University of Florida scientist has created a living "brain" of cultured rat cells that now controls an F-22 fighter jet flight simulator.

Scientists say the research could lead to tiny, brain-controlled prosthetic devices and unmanned airplanes flown by living computers.

And if scientists can decipher the ground rules of how such neural networks function, the research also may result in novel computing systems that could tackle dangerous search-and-rescue jobs and perform bomb damage assessment without endangering humans.

[Locative Media] The added value of pointing: geovector

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It's good to see enbodiment in computer science. Relying on deictic acts is an interesting way to interact with objects. This is the point of geovector. They havedeveloped "a number of applications that show the potential and actual benefits of pointing in real world situations." Among all the applications (there is of course a "point of buy" app but I am not really fan of it), the "Real Doom" seems pretty cool (even though it reminds me the ARQuake but with less augmented reality spin). The features of this Real Doom are:

  • Using positioning to allow the user to move around and the heading sensor to point their weapon
  • Real Doom turns the real world into a gaming environment. Any location can be turned into a gaming area. Easily create game maps with your friends or go online and download the latest map for your location.
  • With communications via CDMA, GPRS or WiFi Real Doom is multi-playable, with the ability to play against other real world competitors or even play against console or pc opponents!
  • As Doom created the FPS genre, Real Doom is creating the Real Gaming genre. Soon we will see other exciting 3D titles for the Real World.

[Locative Media] Conqwest: urban mobile game

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Conqwest:

More than a hundred players and phones, 5-meter tall giant inflatable animals designed by an artist in the UK, $5000 prizes, semacodes nodes on billboards, on buses, and on a taxi navigating the streets.

It's an urban mobile treasure hunt, with 5 teams from local high schools racing to be the first to find $5000 in treasure - and win the money to keep it for their school. event team mountain lion moves out

Teams had to first capture one of many zones by carrying a 5 meter high animal totem (cougar, lion, eagle...) for their team into the zone base. Once there, they checked in and out with semacode nodes. If two teams vyed for control of a zone, they battled it out with a bidding war: the winner got the zone and the loser got their money.

The game was played in Minneapolis; Denver, Salt Lake City, Seattle, and Phoenix will follow.