Efstathia Kostopoulou

Tension Space Analysis: Exploring Community Requirements for Networked Urban Screens

This paper draws on the design process, implementation and early evaluation results of an urban screens network to highlight the tensions that emerge at the boundary between the technical and social aspects of design. While public interactive screens in urban spaces are widely researched, the newly emerging networks of such screens present fresh challenges. Researchers wishing to be led by a diverse user community may find that the priorities of some users, directly oppose the wishes of others. Previous literature suggests such tensions can be handled by ‘goal balancing’, where all requirements are reduced down to one set of essential, implementable attributes. Contrasting this, this paper’s contribution is ‘Tension Space Analysis’, which broadens and extends existing work on Design Tensions. It includes new domains, new representational methods and offers a view on how to best reflect conflicting community requirements in some aspects or features of the design.

Exploring the effect of spatial layout on mediated urban interactions

In this paper we focus on the spatial configuration and emergent social interactions in two locations in London mediated by interactive and networked urban displays. Our analysis draws upon interactions mediated through displays we implemented in the real world connecting four urban spaces [1]. We outline our case study and the methodology we implemented, including the analysis of the spatial layout on the micro/local scale in two sites, followed by the observations of social behavior and technologically mediated interactions by actors, spectators and passers-by during two community events, before finally outlining the following identified interaction zones: 1) direct interaction space surrounding the display (direct); 2) the surrounding public space (wide); and 3) across spatial boundaries i.e. the remotely connected space through networked displays (connected) over time. We highlight site-specific interactions and compare them to the more generic types of interactions, thus contributing to the understanding of mediated social interactions. We suggest that the properties of the spatial layout play a significant role and, to a certain extent, frame the type of interactions mediated through public displays. We highlight in particular the dynamic and interconnected nature of this mediation, defined through the spatial layout, people, type of social activities, and time of the day.

Moment Machine: Opportunities and Challenges of Posting Situated Snapshots onto Networked Public Displays

Large public displays are becoming a ubiquitous resource in the urban environment. Interconnected over the Internet these hitherto isolated “ad displays” could become a novel and powerful communication medium – networked public displays. One example for such a novel type of communication is their use as community tools. Scattered across the urban landscape and equipped with additional sensors, such as cameras, they provide the opportunity for local community members to take images of themselves and leave their “mark” in the setting, e.g., on their way to school, work, or meeting with friends. In order to understand the potential of posting situated snapshots on networked public displays in the context of place-based communities we designed and developed the Moment Machine – a networked public display application that allows one-click photo capture. In this paper we report on identified opportunities and challenges emerging from 6 user trials in the wild at 2 locations.

Considering Communities, Diversity and the Production of Locality in the Design of Networked Urban Screens

Highly diverse settings such as London (with people from ~179 countries speaking ~300 languages) are unique in that ethnic or socio-cultural backgrounds are no longer sufficient to generate a sense of place, belonging and community. Instead, residents actively perform place building activities on an ongoing basis, which we believe is of great importance when deploying interactive situated technologies in public spaces. This paper investigates community and place building within a complex multicultural context. We approached this using ethnography, complemented with workshops in the wild. By studying the relationships arising between different segments of the community and two networked screen nodes, we examine the place building activities of residents, and how screen nodes are incorporated into them. Our research suggests that urban screens will be framed (and eventually used) as part of this continuing process of social, spatial and cultural construction. This highlights the importance of enabling socially meaningful relations between the people mediated by these technologies.

Screens in the Wild: Exploring the Potential of Networked Urban Screens for Communities and Culture

In this paper, we describe our Research-in-the-Wild driven methodology to tackle a complex range of social, technical and interactional issues when implementing networked Urban Screens in London and Nottingham, UK [1]. The diversity of the local communities provides a unique opportunity for the research to examine interactions within the town centres, as well as UK-wide.

VisAge: augmented reality for heritage

In this paper we describe the VisAge project, which explored how a community-based Augmented Reality (AR) system could be used to tell stories and cultural histories about urban environments. Our work focussed on two main themes --- user engagement and immersiveness of the experience. To address the first theme, we developed an online portal where anybody could upload digital content and create their own stories using routes through a physical environment. To address the second theme, we developed a flexible, reconfigurable mobile platform to investigate different types and kinds of displays. The performance of the system was assessed in a series of workshops, which have provided insights to inform the development of future systems.

Longitudinal, cross-site and "in the Wild": a study of public displays user communities' situated snapshots

Networked public displays are a new medium, and as such they can improve the quality and experience of urban spaces by providing new means to engage members of place-based communities. As they are located in different public spaces understanding commonalities and differences between their users helps in building a solid foundation for knowledge on how networked public displays operate. In this paper, we describe findings from a 12 weeks deployment of the Moment Machine application that allows posting and viewing situated snapshots across 4 displays placed in urban settings of the Screens in the Wild Network (UK). We describe similarities/differences between the four user communities in terms of the photos taken, returning users behavior, interaction session properties etc. Overall, our findings contribute to the buildup of knowledge on general engagement patterns of networked public displays. We suggest that situated snapshots and their analysis as described in this paper can be used as a research tool and methodology for capturing and uncovering the part of a place-based community interested in interacting with public displays.

AUR: Augmented Urban Reality

In this paper we present the Augmented Urban Reality Project (AUR), developed by University College London in association with augmented reality specialists, Holition (UK). We designed and implemented an urban experience, which combines two screens during the Arts Trail in Leytonstone (UK): 1) the situated urban screen enabling sharing of photos taken by artists and the local community and displaying them on the high street, 2) a mobile screen, with which users can a) select a destination or an art venue, b) through an AR view the user will be guided by a walking 3D digital character, which is superimposed on the real world, c) take photos and share selected ones with the situated screen. The diversity of the local communities and the active art scene provide a unique opportunity for the research to examine interactions between the communities within the town centre.