Mohit Jain

User learning and performance with bezel menus

Touchscreen phones tend to require constant visual attention, thus not allowing eyes-free interaction. For users with visual impairment, or when occupied with another task that requires a users visual attention, these phones can be difficult to use. Recently, marks initiating from the bezel, the physical touch-insensitive frame surrounding a touchscreen display, have been proposed as a method for eyes-free interaction. Due to the physical form factor of the mobile device, it is possible to access different parts of the bezel eyes-free. In this paper, we first studied the performance of different bezel menu layouts. Based on the results, we designed a bezel-based text entry application to gain insights into how bezel menus perform in a real-world application. From a longitudinal study, we found that the participants achieved 9.2 words per minute in situations requiring minimal visual attention to the screen. After only one hour of practice, the participants transitioned from novice to expert users. This shows that bezel menus can be adopted for realistic applications.

Combating rural child malnutrition through inexpensive mobile phones

Most organizations in the developing world still rely on paper for record keeping, giving rise to many problems in aggregation, storage, transmission and analysis of data. Errors and time delays associated with paper data are particularly problematic in the domain of healthcare. We present a case study of CommCare, a low-cost mobile phone data collection solution deployed to enhance the paper-based record management system of a non-profit organization working in prevention of child malnutrition in rural central India. Through a three-month unsupervised field trial with ten rural health workers we report data management gains in terms of data quality, completeness and timeliness for 836 recorded patient cases, and demonstrate strong preference of the system by health workers. We found that the motivation for use and acceptance of the system was tied to respect and social power in local communities associated with using the device, as well as non-work-related uses of the phone.

Deep conservation in urban India and its implications for the design of conservation technologies

Rapid depletion of fossil fuels and water resources has become an international problem. Urban residential households are among the primary consumers of resources and are deeply affected by resource shortages. Despite the global nature of these problems, most of the solutions being developed to address these issues are based on studies done in the developed world. We present a study of energy, water and fuel conservation practices in urban India. Our study highlights a culture of deep conservation and the results raise questions about the viability of typical solutions such as home energy monitors. We identify new opportunities for design such as point-of-use feedback technologies, modular solutions, distributed energy storage, harnessing by-products and automated load shifting.

Exploring display techniques for mobile collaborative learning in developing regions

The developing world faces infrastructural challenges in providing Western-style educational computing technologies, but on the other hand observes very high cell phone penetration. However, the use of mobile technology has not been extensively explored in the context of collaborative learning. New projection and display technologies for mobile devices raise the important question of whether to use single or multiple displays in these environments. In this paper, we explore two mobile-based techniques for using co-located collaborative game-play to supplement ESL (English as a Second Language) education in a developing region: (1) Mobile Single Display Groupware: a pico-projector connected to a cell phone, with a handheld controller for each child to interact, and (2) Mobile Multiple Display Groupware: a phone for each child. We explore the types of interaction that occur in both of these conditions and the impact on learning outcomes.

UrJar: A Lighting Solution using Discarded Laptop Batteries

Forty percent of the worlds population, including a significant portion of the rural and urban poor sections of the population in India, does not have access to reliable electricity supply. Concurrently, there is rapid penetration of battery-operated portable computing devices such as laptops, both in the developing and developed world. This generates a significant amount of electronic waste (e-waste), especially in the form of discarded Lithium Ion batteries which power such devices. In this paper, we describe UrJar, a device which uses re-usable Lithium Ion cells from discarded laptop battery packs to power low energy DC devices. To understand the usability of UrJar in a real world scenario, we deployed it at five street-side shops in India, which did not have access to grid electricity. The participants appreciated the long duration of backup power provided by the device to meet their lighting requirements. To conclude, we present an ecosystem which consists of a community-level energy shed and UrJar devices individually owned by households, as a mechanism for DC electrification of rural areas in developing countries. We show that UrJar has the potential to channel e-waste towards the alleviation of energy poverty, thus simultaneously providing a sustainable solution for both problems.

Energy Usage Attitudes of Urban India

Though rapid increase in energy consumption has become a global problem, most of the solutions developed to address it for residential consumers are based on qualitative studies conducted with small numbers of users, typically in the developed world. Recent work has begun to explore consumption practices, and motivations, barriers and other factors affecting energy consumption in urban India. However, the small numbers of participants in those studies limit their generality. Our work contributes to this picture through a survey of 1724 residents of urban India, exploring the motivations and barriers affecting energy conservation and their opinions about sharing energy consumption data and future technologies for conservation. We found that urban Indians practice conservation because it is a learned habit and to save money, while comfort and convenience are the major barriers in conserving energy. Contrary to previous findings, we did not find a major influence of tradition, spirituality or moral reasons for conservation. Moreover, participants have minimal privacy concerns regarding sharing energy data. Interestingly, participants were not only interested in energy monitoring solutions, but were also positive about automated energy controlling systems, which contrasts previous findings. We conclude with design opportunities for this demographic such as information-sharing opportunities, appliance level consumption disaggregation, and convenient manual controls. Index Terms—Energy, Sustainability, Survey, India.

Collaborative energy conservation in a microgrid

KBFSC (Kuala Belalong Field Studies Centre) is a research centre located in a remote tropical evergreen rainforest in Brunei Darussalam in South East Asia. It is visited by biologists and ecologists from all over the world. Power is available at the centre for 8-10 hours per day from a diesel generator (DG). The diesel travels2-3 hours by road, by boat and on foot over harsh terrain to reach the centre from the closest gas station. This paper describes the software and hardware of a microgrid system that was designed and deployed at KBFSC to reduce the fuel consumption while improving duration of power availability. A key feature of the energy management software is a collaborative scheduler interface that provides visitors at the centre the choice of scheduling appliance usage. The system optimises generator active hours using a customised DG Optimiser technique, to ensure minimum diesel consumption. Simulations extrapolating from empirical data suggest that our system could reduce diesel consumption by a third, and total cost by 20%, while making power available 24 hours a day. In addition, a user study with 8 visitors and 4 administrators showed that the collaborative scheduler interface is effective and usable.

Short Paper: Comparing Energy Feedback Techniques for Dormitory Students in India

Recent research work has explored solutions to address the problem of increased energy consumption by providing feedback to individuals about their consumption patterns, thus motivating them for conservative actions. In particular, university dormitory setting provides an excellent venue to explore effectiveness of energy feedback mechanisms. Most of such dormitory studies used a web-based portal for enabling competition among students as motivation for energy saving. Moreover, the majority of them have been conducted in the developed world. In this paper, we report a 6-week study conducted in an Indian university with 432 students (18 groups), comparing five different eco-feedback techniques. The results show that Daily Individual Paper Feedback encourages more conservation, both among males and females, with 19.4% and 7.6% reduction, respectively. We conclude with a discussion on the importance of easy and regular availability of information, effectiveness of paper-based feedback, and role of gender in eco-feedback.

Comparison of Phone-Based Distal Pointing Techniques for Point-Select Tasks

Many different mobile phone-based distal pointing techniques have been proposed and evaluated. Interaction with distant large-screen displays, including interactive TV, requires active pointing and selection of target items. In this paper, we empirically compare four different phone-based distal pointing techniques for point-select tasks. Results show that participants prefer a discrete pointing technique using the phone’s touchscreen as a touchpad. This method also achieved the highest accuracy among the techniques studied, with comparable speed. We discuss the implications of our findings for distal interaction.

DISHA: Disease and health awareness for children on multiple input devices

Much recent work in multiple input use scenarios for childrens learning software has focused either on math or on English language learning. The persistence of under-information among children in the developing world on issues of hygiene and disease prevention remains a massive challenge within the scholarly community in public health, especially in the developing regions that multiple input learning technologies are designed for. DISHA is a collaborative platform for public health information for children in low-income regions using multiple mice. The system is designed towards collaborative use of screen resources.