Dawn Woodgate

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

Mobile sensing and mapping applications are becoming more prevalent because sensing hardware is becoming more portable and more affordable. However, most of the hardware uses small numbers of fixed sensors that report and share multiple sets of environmental data which raises privacy concerns. Instead, these systems can be decentralized and managed by individuals in their public and private spaces. This paper describes a robust system called MobGeoSens which enables individuals to monitor their local environment (e.g. pollution and temperature) and their private spaces (e.g. activities and health) by using mobile phones in their day to day life. The MobGeoSen is a combination of software components that facilitates the phone’s internal sensing devices (e.g. microphone and camera) and external wireless sensors (e.g. data loggers and GPS receivers) for data collection. It also adds a new dimension of spatial localization to the data collection process and provides the user with both textual and spatial cartographic displays. While collecting the data, individuals can interactively add annotations and photos which are automatically added and integrated in the visualization file/log. This makes it easy to visualize the data, photos and annotations on a spatial and temporal visualization tool. In addition, the paper will present ways in which mobile phones can be used as noise sensors using an on-device microphone. Finally, we present our experiences with school children using the above mentioned system to measure their exposure to environmental pollution.

Easing the wait in the emergency room: building a theory of public information systems

In this paper we discuss a real world problem encountered during recent fieldwork: that of providing information in public settings when the information has both public and private components. We draw on our ethnographic studies in the waiting area of a busy hospital Emergency department. Despite evidence that lack of information can lead to stress, problem behaviours and poor levels of satisfaction with treatment, little information was made available to patients. We review the types of information needed and propose how the theoretical concepts of public, social and private information spheres relate to public spaces such as the Emergency department waiting area. We argue how the further theoretical concept of interaction spaces may be used in conjunction with these information spheres to inform interaction design for public settings.

Can we do without GUIs? Gesture and speech interaction with a patient information system

We have developed a gesture input system that provides a common interaction technique across mobile, wearable and ubiquitous computing devices of diverse form factors. In this paper, we combine our gestural input technique with speech output and test whether or not the absence of a visual display impairs usability in this kind of multimodal interaction. This is of particular relevance to mobile, wearable and ubiquitous systems where visual displays may be restricted or unavailable. We conducted the evaluation using a prototype for a system combining gesture input and speech output to provide information to patients in a hospital Accident and Emergency Department. A group of participants was instructed to access various services using gestural inputs. The services were delivered by automated speech output. Throughout their tasks, these participants could see a visual display on which a GUI presented the available services and their corresponding gestures. Another group of participants performed the same tasks but without this visual display. It was predicted that the participants without the visual display would make more incorrect gestures and take longer to perform correct gestures than the participants with the visual display. We found no significant difference in the number of incorrect gestures made. We also found that participants with the visual display took longer than participants without it. It was suggested that for a small set of semantically distinct services with memorable and distinct gestures, the absence of a GUI visual display does not impair the usability of a system with gesture input and speech output.

Authenticating ubiquitous services: a study of wireless hotspot access

This paper concerns the problem of phishing attacks in ubiquitous computing environments. The embedding of ubiquitous services into our everyday environments may make fake services seem plausible but it also enables us to authenticate them with respect to those environments. We propose physical and virtual linkage as two types of authenticating evidence in ubiquitous environments and two protocols based on them. We describe an experiment to test hypotheses concerning user responses to physical and virtual linkage with respect to fake Wi-Fi hotspots. Based on our experience we derive an improved protocol for authenticating spontaneously accessed ubiquitous services.

Genomics research in the UK—the social science agenda

Abstract We sketch the development of UK genetics and genomics research, and emphasize the UKs key role in the international genetics and genomics research community. We highlight in particular the part played by the UKs Research Councils and other funders. With the move from genomics to post-genomics research, the field is diversifying, and interdisciplinarity becomes increasingly important, as traditional disciplinary boundaries become blurred, or break down, in the face of newly emerging sciences. We consider the changing nature of health and ill health in the developed and developing world, and questions about the complex nature of the relationships between genes and the environment, and their future implications for human health and human populations. We describe the ESRCs activities, stressing the importance of both the social, ethical and legal issues raised by these emerging disciplines, and of public engagement. Finally, we link the data handling and analysis issues raised by these emerging sciences, with other new research areas, in particular the UKs e-Science programme.

Understanding mass participatory pervasive computing systems for environmental campaigns

Abstract Participate was a 3-year collaboration between industry and academia to explore how mobile, Web and broadcast technologies could combine to deliver environmental campaigns. In a series of pilot projects, schools used mobile sensors to enhance science learning; visitors to an ecological attraction employed mobile phones to access and generate locative media; and the public played a mobile phone game that challenged their environmental behaviours. Key elements of these were carried forward into an integrated trial in which participants were assigned a series of environmental missions as part of an overarching narrative that was delivered across mobile, broadcast and Web platforms. These experiences use a three-layered structure for campaigns that draw on experts, local groups and the general public, who engage through a combination of playful characterisation and social networking.

Bringing School Science to Life: Personalization, Contextualization and Reflection of Self-Collected Data

We investigate the use of mobile and sensor technologies for school science investigations, to bring about a more engaging and hands-on approach to science learning. We report early findings from two trials carried out within the participate project, where schoolchildren were given a range of off the shelf and newly developed technologies to carry out data collection and analysis tasks. Indications are that, not only are the tasks engaging for the pupils, but aspects such as personalization of data, contextual information, and reflection upon both the data and its collection, are important factors in obtaining and retaining their interest.