Joe Tullio

Support for multitasking and background awareness using interactive peripheral displays

In this paper, we describe Kimura, an augmented office environment to support common multitasking practices. Previous systems, such as Rooms, limit users by constraining the interaction to the desktop monitor. In Kimura, we leverage interactive projected peripheral displays to support the perusal, manipulation and awareness of background activities. Furthermore, each activity is represented by a montage comprised of images from current and past interaction on the desktop. These montages help remind the user of past actions, and serve as a springboard for ambient context-aware reminders and notifications.

Inferring calendar event attendance

The digital personal calendar has long been established as an effective tool for supporting workgroup coordination. For the new class of ubiquitous computing applications, however, the calendar can also be seen as a sensor, providing both location and availability information to these applications. In most cases, however, the calendar represents a sequence of events that people could (or should) attend, not their actual daily activities. To assist in the accurate determination of user whereabouts and availability, we present Ambush, a calendar system extension that uses a Bayesian model to predict the likelihood of ones attendance at the events listed on his or her schedule. We also present several techniques for the visual display of these likelihoods in a manner intended to be quickly interpreted by users examining the calendar.

Augmenting shared personal calendars

In this paper, we describe Augur, a groupware calendar system to support personal calendaring practices, informal workplace communication, and the socio-technical evolution of the calendar system within a workgroup. Successful design and deployment of groupware calendar systems have been shown to depend on several converging, interacting perspectives. We describe calendar-based work practices as viewed from these perspectives, and present the Augur system in support of them. Augur allows users to retain the flexibility of personal calendars by anticipating and compensating for inaccurate calendar entries and idiosyncratic event names. We employ predictive user models of event attendance, intelligent processing of calendar text, and discovery of shared events to drive novel calendar visualizations that facilitate interpersonal communication. In addition, we visualize calendar access to support privacy management and long-term evolution of the calendar system.

Investigating the potential of in-home devices for improving medication adherence

We conducted five focus groups with seniors and middle-aged participants who live independently in their own homes to assess the potential value of a home-centered medication reminder system concept. The medication reminder system was conceptualized as a system that uses a television and set-top box, mobile phones and other in-home accessories as a means to set and deliver medication reminders. We found that the main value perceived by participants in the medication reminder system was its ability to provide multiple channels for them to be reminded of medications. The mobile phone, due to its advantages in portability and privacy, was considered to be the most useful device on which to receive reminders. Most participants saw value in receiving secondary reminders on other devices in their home such as the TV, PC, and other in-home accessories. Design implications along with other findings about the challenges faced by participants in managing their medications are discussed.

Investigating the Use of Voice and Text Chat in a Social Television System

We tested a social television system with both voice and text communication in the field for one week, in four households. Participants expressed a preference for the freeform communication features over an earlier system with restricted communication options. Use of the communication features was nevertheless sporadic. Text was used more often than voice communication. However, both were usually used in combination. The in-home context had marked effects on the usage patterns, and we observed issues of privacy and identity verification.

Experience, adjustment, and engagement: the role of video in law enforcement

Questions about the effectiveness of increasingly ubiquitous video technology in law enforcement have prompted an examination of the practices surrounding this technology. We present the results of a multi-site study aimed at understanding the use of video in several phases of law enforcement, from crime prevention and response to investigation and prosecution. Our findings show that while video has provided numerous benefits to law enforcement agencies, in many cases the technology either fails to support key facets of work or introduces new tasks that present an additional burden to workers. We discuss the need to incorporate human experience and tacit knowledge, operator engagement, and the greater ecosystem of work into video deployments.

Use and implications of a shared, forecasting calendar

Changes in modern work environments, combined with advances in sensing and machine intelligence, have given rise to a new class of groupware applications that seeks to facilitate workplace communication through the prediction of future availability and/or location. We present the results of a four-month deployment of an experimental predictive calendar system in an academic setting. While participants appreciated several novel features of the system, most resisted adoption due to the uncertainty of its predictions, its effects on privacy and impression management, and accessibility issues. We present implications for designers who seek to incorporate forecasting components into their groupware tools using observations from the study.

Forecasting presence and availability

Work in the CSCW domain has established that informal, opportunistic communication is a critical aspect of work, and that groupware tools are often used as a basis for establishing and conducting this communication. However, cases exist where such tools are inadequate or nonexistent for conducting informal collaboration, making it difficult for users to effectively determine the current or future location and availability of a colleague. As an example, the shared electronic calendar, while a successful groupware application, often lacks the accuracy necessary to allow users to establish the current and future location of colleagues. Lapses in calendar maintenance can result in the presence of conflicting events and repeatedsensing and machine learning, events that are no longer attended in the shared calendar. Additionally, as workgroups become increasingly distributed, users can no longer rely on firsthandwhere observations, environmental cues, and shared intuitions of colleague schedules to determine availability. The number of possible locations for a colleague may increase, andinterruption given the user’s current context.colleagues may frequently be mobile or in transit. Across In response to these observations, several teams of researchers have undertaken projects that attempt to provide users with information about the current and future presence and availability of colleagues. A number of challenges exist, both from a technological perspective and from a usability perspective.