Michael Beigl

There is more to context than location

Abstract Context is a key issue in interaction between human and computer, describing the surrounding facts that add meaning. In mobile computing location is usually used to approximate context and to implement context-aware applications. We propose that ultra-mobile computing, characterized by devices that are operational and operated while on the move (e.g. PDAs, mobile phones, wearable computers), can significantly benefit from a wider notion of context. To structure the field we introduce a working model for context, discuss mechanisms to acquire context beyond location, and application of context-awareness in ultra-mobile computing. We investigate the utility of sensors for context-awareness and present two prototypical implementations — a light-sensitive display and an orientation-aware PDA interface. The concept is then extended to a model for sensor fusion to enable more sophisticated context recognition. Based on an implementation of the model an experiment is described and the feasibility of the approach is demonstrated. Further, we explore fusion of sensors for acquisition of information on more sophisticated contexts.

Smart-Its Friends: A Technique for Users to Easily Establish Connections between Smart Artefacts

Ubiquitous computing is associated with a vision of everything being connected to everything. However, for successful applications to emerge, it will not be the quantity but the quality and usefulness of connections that will matter. Our concern is how qualitative relations and more selective connections can be established between smart artefacts, and how users can retain control over artefact interconnection. We propose context proximity for selective artefact communication, using the context of artefacts for matchmaking. We further suggest to empower users with simple but effective means to impose the same context on a number of artefacts. To prove our point we have implemented Smart-Its Friends, small embedded devices that become connected when a user holds them together and shakes them.

Multi-sensor context-awareness in mobile devices and smart artifacts

The use of context in mobile devices is receiving increasing attention in mobile and ubiquitous computing research. In this article we consider how to augment mobile devices with awareness of their environment and situation as context. Most work to date has been based on integration of generic context sensors, in particular for location and visual context. We propose a different approach based on integration of multiple diverse sensors for awareness of situational context that can not be inferred from location, and targeted at mobile device platforms that typically do not permit processing of visual context. We have investigated multi-sensor context-awareness in a series of projects, and report experience from development of a number of device prototypes. These include development of an awareness module for augmentation of a mobile phone, of the Mediacup exemplifying context-enabled everyday artifacts, and of the Smart-Its platform for aware mobile devices. The prototypes have been explored in various applications to validate the multi-sensor approach to awareness, and to develop new perspectives of how embedded context-awareness can be applied in mobile and ubiquitous computing.

Mediacups: experience with design and use of computer-augmented everyday artefacts

Abstract Our view of ubiquitous computing is artefact-centred: in this view, computers are considered as secondary artefacts that enable items of everyday use to communicate as networked digital artefacts. This view is expressed in an artefact computing model and investigated in the Mediacup project, an evolving artefact computing environment. The Mediacup project provides insights into the augmentation of artefacts with sensing, processing, and communication capabilities, and into the provision of an open infrastructure for information exchange among artefacts. One of the artefacts studied is the Mediacup itself, an ordinary coffee cup invisibly augmented with computing and context-awareness. The Mediacup and other computer-augmented everyday artefacts are connected through a network infrastructure supporting loosely coupled spatially defined communication.

The MediaCup: Awareness Technology Embedded in a Everyday Object

The MediaCup is an ordinary coffee cup augmented with sensing, processing and communication capabilities, to collect and communicate general context information in a given environment. In this project, coffee cups are computerized to integrate them and the information they hold--where the cup is, how it is handled, and whether its hot or cold--as context into surrounding information ecologies.

UbiComp 2005: Ubiquitous Computing

CarpetLAN: A Novel Indoor Wireless(-like) Networking and Positioning System.- u-Texture: Self-Organizable Universal Panels for Creating Smart Surroundings.- Fast and Robust Interface Generation for Ubiquitous Applications.- Analysis of Chewing Sounds for Dietary Monitoring.- Preventing Camera Recording by Designing a Capture-Resistant Environment.- Self-Mapping in 802.11 Location Systems.- A Study of Bluetooth Propagation Using Accurate Indoor Location Mapping.- A New Method for Auto-calibrated Object Tracking.- Accurate GSM Indoor Localization.- Learning and Recognizing the Places We Go.- Visually Interactive Location-Aware Computing.- DigiDress: A Field Trial of an Expressive Social Proximity Application.- Control, Deception, and Communication: Evaluating the Deployment of a Location-Enhanced Messaging Service.- Place-Its: A Study of Location-Based Reminders on Mobile Phones.- Time, Ownership and Awareness: The Value of Contextual Locations in the Home.- Living for the Global City: Mobile Kits, Urban Interfaces, and Ubicomp.- From Interaction to Participation: Configuring Space Through Embodied Interaction.- Scanning Objects in the Wild: Assessing an Object Triggered Information System.- Abaris: Evaluating Automated Capture Applied to Structured Autism Interventions.- To Frame or Not to Frame: The Role and Design of Frameless Displays in Ubiquitous Applications.- Picking Pockets on the Lawn: The Development of Tactics and Strategies in a Mobile Game.- ActiveTheatre - A Collaborative, Event-Based Capture and Access System for the Operating Theatre.

Building intelligent environments with Smart-Its

Smart-Its are self-contained, stick-on computers that attach to everyday objects. These augmented objects become soft media, enabling dynamic digital relationships with users and each other. In the Smart-Its project, we are developing technology to realize a vision of computation everywhere, where computer technology seamlessly integrates into everyday life, supporting users in their daily tasks. By embedding sensors, computation, and communication into common artifacts, future computing applications can adapt to human users rather than the other way around. However, its currently difficult to develop this type of ubiquitous computing because of the lack of toolkits integrating both the required hardware and software. Therefore, we are creating a class of small computers - called Smart-Its - equipped with wireless communication and sensors to make it possible to create smart artifacts with little overhead.

ActiServ: Activity Recognition Service for mobile phones

Smart phones have become a powerful platform for wearable context recognition. We present a service-based recognition architecture which creates an evolving classification system using feedback from the user community. The approach utilizes classifiers based on fuzzy inference systems which use live annotation to personalize the classifier instance on the device. Our recognition system is designed for everyday use: it allows flexible placement of the device (no assumed or fixed position), requires only minimal personalization effort from the user (1–3 minutes per activity) and is capable of detecting a high number of activities. The components of the service are shown in an evaluation scenario, in which recognition rates up to 97% can be achieved for ten activity classes.

Physical prototyping with Smart-Its

Exploring novel ubiquitous computing systems and applications inevitably requires prototyping physical components. Smart-Its are hardware and software components that augment physical objects with embedded processing and interaction to address this need. Our work, which uses small computing devices called Smart-Its, addresses the need to create embedded interactive systems that disappear from the foreground to become secondary to the physical objects with which people interact during everyday activities. Such systems create new design challenges related to prototyping with embedded technologies and require careful consideration of the physical design context.

RF-Sensing of Activities from Non-Cooperative Subjects in Device-Free Recognition Systems Using Ambient and Local Signals

We consider the detection of activities from non-cooperating individuals with features obtained on the radio frequency channel. Since environmental changes impact the transmission channel between devices, the detection of this alteration can be used to classify environmental situations. We identify relevant features to detect activities of non-actively transmitting subjects. In particular, we distinguish with high accuracy an empty environment or a walking, lying, crawling or standing person, in case-studies of an active, device-free activity recognition system with software defined radios. We distinguish between two cases in which the transmitter is either under the control of the system or ambient. For activity detection the application of one-stage and two-stage classifiers is considered. Apart from the discrimination of the above activities, we can show that a detected activity can also be localized simultaneously within an area of less than 1 meter radius.