Jeannette Shiaw-Yuan Chin

An experimental comparison of physical mobile interaction techniques: touching, pointing and scanning

This paper presents an analysis, implementation and evaluation of the physical mobile interaction techniques touching, pointing and scanning. Based on this we have formulated guidelines that show in which context which interaction technique is preferred by the user. Our main goal was to identify typical situations and scenarios in which the different techniques might be useful or not. In support of these aims we have developed and evaluated, within a user study, a low-fidelity and a high-fidelity prototype to assess scanning, pointing and touching interaction techniques within different contexts. Other work has shown that mobile devices can act as universal remote controls for interaction with smart objects but, to date, there has been no research which has analyzed when a given mobile interaction technique should be used. In this research we analyze the appropriateness of three interaction techniques as selection techniques in smart environments.

Some socio-technical aspects of intelligent buildings and pervasive computing research

You had to live—did live, from habit that became instinct—in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and…every movement scrutinized. (George Orwell, 1984) Recent reports from the European Parliament Technology Assessment unit and the UK Information Commissioners Office have highlighted the need for debate on how society should balance the convenience that new technology affords with the need to preserve privacy. To date, most of the debate has addressed the more visible aspects of technology and privacy such as surveillance cameras, identity/loyalty cards, internet search engines and radio frequency identification (RFID) tags. In this article we seek to use our experience as computer scientists to advance this debate by considering issues arising from our research related to intelligent buildings and environments, such as the deployment of autonomous intelligent agents. Intelligent buildings and environments are based on the use of numerous ‘invisible’, omnipresent, always-on, communicating computers embedded in everyday artefacts and environments. While most current intelligent building technology is based around automated reactive systems, research is under way that uses technology to gather personal information from people and use this information to deliver personalized services to them. While promising great benefits, this technology, by being invisible and autonomous, raises significant new dangers for individuals and society as a whole. Perhaps the most significant issue is privacy—an individuals right to control the collection and use of personal information. Rather than focusing on the ‘here and now’, this article looks forward to where this research could lead, exploring the issues it might involve. It does this by presenting descriptions of current work, interleaved with a set of short vignettes that are intended to provoke thought so that developers and the population at large might consider the personal and regulatory needs involved. We end this article by offering a conceptual framework for situating multidisciplinary socio-technical research in intelligent buildings.

Soft-appliances: A vision for user created networked appliances in digital homes

In this paper we introduce a vision for a new type of domestic appliance, a soft-appliance, constructed from aggregations of elementary network services. The vision is based on the possibility of ‘deconstructing’, logically, conventional home appliances such as TVs into their elemental functions which may then be combined in novel ways with other deconstructed services to generate soft-appliance of a persons own choosing. Additionally our aim is to describe the computer science challenges involved in fulfilling this vision. An essential component of this vision is a concept called a MAp (meta-appliance/application); a semantic data template that describes the soft or virtual-appliance that can be instantiated by manufacturers and end-users in a way that redefines the nature of an appliance and which can be created, owned and traded. We also present a socio-technical framework to motivate the discussion of this research agenda, especially the use of the agent technology that would be needed to realise this vision.

Programming iSpaces — A Tale of Two Paradigms

‘iSpace, the final frontier’ — this parody of Star Trek encapsulates many of our aspirations for this area as, in the longer term, iSpaces are likely to be the key to mankind’s successful exploration of deep space. In outer space, or hostile planetary habitats, it is inevitable that people will survive in wholly technologically supported artificial environments [1]. Such environments will contain numerous communicating computers embedded into a myriad of devices, sensing, acting, delivering media, processing data, and providing services that enhance the life-style and effectiveness of the occupant and, in outer space, preserving human life. Such environments will also include robots [2]. In today’s iSpaces, while human life will not normally be at stake, the underlying principles and technology are much the same. Today our homes are rapidly being filled with diverse types of products ranging from simple lighting systems to sophisticated entertainment systems, all adding to the functionality and convenience available to the home user. The iSpace approach envisages that, one day soon, most artefacts will contain embedded computers and network connections, opening up the possibility for hundreds of communicating devices, co-operating in communities serving the occupant(s). The seeds of this revolution have already been sown in that pervasive technologies such as the Internet and mobile telephones already boast over 200 and 680 million users, respectively [3].

An end user tool for customising personal spaces in ubiquitous computing environments

We present a variant of end-user programming targeting ubiquitous computing environments that allows non-technical users to create “programs” to customise their personal living spaces. Using this end-users do not need to write program code, or follow a rigid sequential list of actions in order to achieve results Rather they only need to show the system the required behaviour via physical interactions with the environment. Finally, we report on a user evaluation that indicates end-users find this approach to be a useful and enjoyable experience.

End-user Customisation of Intelligent Environments

One of the striking aspects of world-wide-web is how it has empowered ordinary non-technical people to participate in a digital revolution by transforming the way services such as shopping, education and entertainment are offered and consumed. The proliferation of networked appliances, sensors and actuators, such as those found in digital homes heralds a similar ‘sea change’ in the capabilities of ordinary people to customise and utilise the electronic spaces they inhabit. By coordinating the actions of networked devices or services, it is possible for the environment to behave in a holistic and reactive manner to satisfy the occupants needs; creating an intelligent environment. Further, by deconstructing traditional home appliances into sets of more elemental network accessible services, it is possible to reconstruct either the original appliance or to create new user defined appliances by combining basic network services in novel ways; creating a so called virtual appliance. This principle can be extended to decompose and re-compose software applications allowing users to create their own bespoke applications. Collectively, such user created entities are referred to as Meta – appliances or – applications, more generally abbreviated to MAps.

A DIY approach to pervasive computing for the Internet of Things: A smart alarm clock

This paper explores how the recent development of low-cost System on a Chip (SoC) boards can be used by the Internet of Things (IoT) DIY community to assist the process of smart object innovation through the example of an intelligent alarm clock. The alarm clock will combine existing traffic and weather web services with local temperature sensor readings to provide a suitable alarm time for the user. Included is a brief review of currently available IoT components and state-of-the-art alarm clocks offering augmented features. Provided is a description and justification of both the hardware and software components of the alarm clock. CPU and memory resource testing demonstrate the computational suitability of the SoC device in the context of an intelligent alarm clock. User feedback regarding the features of the alarm clock provides suggestions for further development.

An End-User Platform for FPGA-Based Design and Rapid Prototyping of Feedforward Artificial Neural Networks With On-Chip Backpropagation Learning

The hardware implementation of an artificial neural network (ANN) using field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) is a research field that has attracted much interest and attention. With the developments made, the programmer is now forced to face various challenges, such as the need to master various complex hardware-software development platforms, hardware description languages, and advanced ANN knowledge. Moreover, such an implementation is very time consuming. To address these challenges, this paper presents a novel neural design methodology using a holistic modeling approach. Based on the end-user programming concept, the presented solution empowers end users by means of abstracting the low-level hardware functionalities, streamlining the FPGA design process and supporting rapid ANN prototyping. A case study of an ANN as a pattern recognition module of an artificial olfaction system trained to identify four coffee brands is presented. The recognition rate versus training data features and data representation was analyzed extensively.

A multi-dimensional model for task representation and allocation in intelligent environments

In the future, homes will have numerous intelligent communicating devices, and the user would like to configure and coordinate their actions. Appliances and people in intelligent environments will have some degree of mobility. If the user wants to go from one place to another, using the same community, the agent should be able to generalize the service, trying to build an equivalent collection of coordinating services. This ‘work in progress’ paper addresses this issue by proposing a multi-dimensional model that allows visualistation of devices, temporal relationships, mutual interdependencies and the environment dynamics. The model both offers a simplified means of visualising the task space and the interdependencies together with a means of reasoning about algorithmic solutions to task processing. The work is aimed at supporting research into Pervasive Home Environment Networks (PHEN) which is funded by the UK’s Department of Trade and Industry Next Wave Technologies and Markets programme.

Recyclable, Eco-Friendly, On-Demand Bin (ReDBin)

This concept paper discusses the need for a new household waste management system and presents a comprehensive literature review of research that concerns the production of high-tech refuse bins. In particular, The paper uses this literature review to argue the case for a new type of high-tech refuse-bin called ReDbin, for which we present an architectural model, comparing it to two other notable approaches, Big Belly and BURBA. Finally we describe our plans for future work.