Martin Tomitsch

UbiqLog: a generic mobile phone-based life-log framework

Smartphones are conquering the mobile phone market; they are not just phones; they also act as media players, gaming consoles, personal calendars, storage, etc. They are portable computers with fewer computing capabilities than personal computers. However, unlike personal computers, users can carry their smartphone with them at all times. The ubiquity of mobile phones and their computing capabilities provide an opportunity of using them as a life-logging device. Life-logs (personal e-memories) are used to record users’ daily life events and assist them in memory augmentation. In a more technical sense, life-logs sense and store users’ contextual information from their environment through sensors, which are core components of life-logs. Spatio-temporal aggregation of sensor information can be mapped to users’ life events. We propose UbiqLog, a lightweight, configurable, and extendable life-log framework, which uses mobile phone as a device for life logging. The proposed framework extends previous research in this field, which investigated mobile phones as life-log tool through continuous sensing. Its openness in terms of sensor configuration allows developers to create flexible, multipurpose life-log tools. In addition to that, this framework contains a data model and an architecture, which can be used as reference model for further life-log development, including its extension to other devices, such as ebook readers, T.V.s, etc.

Investigating intuitiveness and effectiveness of gestures for free spatial interaction with large displays

A key challenge for creating large interactive displays in public spaces is in the definition of ways for the user to interact that are effective and easy to learn. This paper presents the outcomes of user evaluation sessions designed to test a series of different gestures for people interacting with large displays in the public space. It is an initial step towards the broader goal of establishing a natural means for immersive interactions. The paper proposes a set of simple gestures for the execution of the basic actions of selecting and rearranging items in a large-scale dashboard. We performed a comparative analysis of the gestures, leading to a more in-depth understanding of the nature of spatial interaction between people and large public displays. More specifically, the analysis focuses on the scenarios when the interaction is restricted to an individuals own body, without any further assistance from associated devices. The findings converge into the elaboration of a model for assisting with the applicability of spatial gestures in response to both the context and the content they are applied to.

Evaluating the Effect of Style in Information Visualization

This paper reports on a between-subject, comparative online study of three information visualization demonstrators that each displayed the same dataset by way of an identical scatterplot technique, yet were different in style in terms of visual and interactive embellishment. We validated stylistic adherence and integrity through a separate experiment in which a small cohort of participants assigned our three demonstrators to predefined groups of stylistic examples, after which they described the styles with their own words. From the online study, we discovered significant differences in how participants execute specific interaction operations, and the types of insights that followed from them. However, in spite of significant differences in apparent usability, enjoyability and usefulness between the style demonstrators, no variation was found on the self-reported depth, expert-rated depth, confidence or difficulty of the resulting insights. Three different methods of insight analysis have been applied, revealing how style impacts the creation of insights, ranging from higher-level pattern seeking to a more reflective and interpretative engagement with content, which is what underlies the patterns. As this study only forms the first step in determining how the impact of style in information visualization could be best evaluated, we propose several guidelines and tips on how to gather, compare and categorize insights through an online evaluation study, particularly in terms of analyzing the concise, yet wide variety of insights and observations in a trustworthy and reproducable manner.

Vote as you go: blending interfaces for community engagement into the urban space

This paper presents a series of studies on situated interfaces for community engagement. Firstly, we identify five recurring design challenges as well as four common strategies used to overcome them. We then assess the effectiveness of these strategies through field studies with public polling interfaces. We developed two very different polling interfaces in the form of (1) a web application running on an iPad mounted on a stand, allowing one vote at a time, and (2) a playful full-body interaction application for a large urban screen allowing concurrent participation. We deployed both interfaces in an urban precinct with high pedestrian traffic and equipped with a large urban screen. Analysing discoverability and learnability of each scenario, we derive insights regarding effective ways of blending community engagement interfaces into the built environment, while attracting the attention of passers-by and communicating the results of civic participation.

Energy-Efficient Integration of Continuous Context Sensing and Prediction into Smartwatches

As the availability and use of wearables increases, they are becoming a promising platform for context sensing and context analysis. Smartwatches are a particularly interesting platform for this purpose, as they offer salient advantages, such as their proximity to the human body. However, they also have limitations associated with their small form factor, such as processing power and battery life, which makes it difficult to simply transfer smartphone-based context sensing and prediction models to smartwatches. In this paper, we introduce an energy-efficient, generic, integrated framework for continuous context sensing and prediction on smartwatches. Our work extends previous approaches for context sensing and prediction on wrist-mounted wearables that perform predictive analytics outside the device. We offer a generic sensing module and a novel energy-efficient, on-device prediction module that is based on a semantic abstraction approach to convert sensor data into meaningful information objects, similar to human perception of a behavior. Through six evaluations, we analyze the energy efficiency of our framework modules, identify the optimal file structure for data access and demonstrate an increase in accuracy of prediction through our semantic abstraction method. The proposed framework is hardware independent and can serve as a reference model for implementing context sensing and prediction on small wearable devices beyond smartwatches, such as body-mounted cameras.

Comparative feedback in the street: exposing residential energy consumption on house façades

This study investigates the impact of revealing the changes in daily residential energy consumption of individual households on their respective house facades. While energy feedback devices are now commercially available, still little is known about the potential of making such private information publicly available in order to encourage various forms of social involvement, such as peer pressure or healthy competition. This paper reports on the design rationale of a custom-made chalkboard that conveys different visualizations of household energy consumption, which were updated daily by hand. An in-situ, between-subject study was conducted during which the effects of such a public display were compared with two different control groups over a total period of 7 weeks. The competitive aspects of the public display led to more sustained behavior change and more effective energy conservation, as some graphical depictions such as a historical line graph raised awareness about consumption behavior, and the public character of the display prompted discussions in the wider community. The paper concludes with several considerations for the design of public displays, and of household energy consumption in particular.

An in-the-wild study of learning mid-air gestures to browse hierarchical information at a large interactive public display

This paper describes the design and evaluation of our Media Ribbon, a large public interactive display for browsing hierarchical information, with mid-air gestures. Browsing a hierarchical information space is a fundamental form of interaction. Designing learnable mid-air gestures is a current challenge for large display interaction. Our in-the-wild evaluation draws on 41 days of quantitative log data, with 4484 gestures detected, and qualitative data from 15 interviews, and associated video. We explored: whether our design enabled people to learn the gestures; how our tutorial and feedback mechanisms supported learning; and the effectiveness of support for browsing hierarchical information. Our contributions are: (1) design of large public display for browsing of hierarchical information; (2) with its gesture set; (3) insights into the ways people learn and use this interface in our context; and (4) guidelines for designing learnable mid-air gestures.

Strategies for Intuitive Interaction in Public Urban Spaces

Characterised by the increased spread of technology out of workplaces and into public spaces and homes,theso-calledthird-waveofhuman-computerinteractionhasplacedgreaterfocusonscenarios that are socially situated, context dependent and not necessarily task oriented. This movement has led to studies investigating how people interact with digital applications in public spaces, but the discussion of intuitive interaction thus far has not been extended to this new realm of user interfaces. Designing for intuitive interaction in public spaces differs from traditional digital applications due to the inherently fluid social nature and often large-scale character of urban interventions. This article discusses the design of interaction for public spaces, based on applications we developed along the years, contrasted to similar endeavours elsewhere. We analyse them through the lens of frameworks for intuitive interactions and derive a series of strategies towards designing for immediate use and high crowd turnaround in urban interventions. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS • Analysis of different types of interactive public spaces, in terms of spatial layout, distribution of focal points and how people negotiate the space in order to engage in the interaction. • Classification of urban interfaces into three broad categories according to crowd self-organization around the digitally enhanced environments: performative, allotted and responsive ambient interfaces. • Discussion of intuitive aspects of interactive public spaces with reference to established literature on intuitive interaction. • Proposal of user feedback strategies for designing intuitive interaction in public spaces derived from the presented analysis and discussion.

Accessible real-world tagging through audio-tactile location markers

Real-world tagging technologies, such as RFID or visual codes, have enabled new application scenarios that foster mobile interaction with the physical world. While the application scenarios are promising for many contexts, the technologies are currently lacking accessibility. Especially blind and visually impaired people are not able to interact with tags if they are not aware of their presence. We propose audio-tactile location markers as a remedy to this problem. An audible signal leads users to the tag, which can be identified through tactile exploration. Preliminary user studies with four blindfolded subjects using an initial prototype showed the applicability of using an audible signal for locating tags.

Personal and private calendar interfaces support private patterns: diaries, relations, emotional expressions

This paper yields new insights into the emotional value of personal calendars for their users and explores their habits. Using an ethnographic approach we collected data about personal scheduling and revealed highly interesting aspects that are particular valid for private calendars. Interestingly, we found that users still prefer paper calendars although they have access to PDAs and desktop interfaces. One of the main reasons for this is that the calendar represents an integrated all-in-one tool, and the properties of paper support this functionality more efficient than rigid digital calendars. We further observed that calendars have an important emotional value to their users, recording states of relations and emotional expressions like diaries. Based on our results we raise broad issues for the design of calendars that exploit the potential of advanced technology.