Sarah Clinch

How close is close enough? Understanding the role of cloudlets in supporting display appropriation by mobile users

Transient use of displays by mobile users was prophesied two decades ago. Today, convergence of a range of technologies enable the realization of this vision. For researchers in this space, one key question is where to physically locate the application for which the display has been appropriated. The emergence of cloud and cloudlet computing has increased the range of possible locations. In this paper we focus on understanding the extent to which application location impacts user experience when appropriating displays. We describe a usage model in which public displays can be appropriated to support spontaneous use of interactive applications, present an example architecture based on cloudlets, and explore how application location impacts user experience.

Pervasive Displays: Understanding the Future of Digital Signage

Fueled by falling display hardware costs and rising demand, digital signage and pervasive displays are becoming ever more ubiquitous. Such systems have traditionally been used for advertising and information dissemination, with digital signage commonplace in shopping malls, airports and public spaces. While advertising and broadcasting announcements remain important applications, developments in sensing and interaction technologies are enabling entirely new classes of display applications that tailor content to the situation and audience of the display. As a result, signage systems are beginning to transition from simple broadcast systems to rich platforms for communication and interaction. In this lecture, we provide an introduction to this emerging field for researchers and practitioners interested in creating state-of-the-art pervasive display systems. We begin by describing the history of pervasive display research, providing illustrations of key systems, from pioneering work on supporting collaboration to contemporary systems designed for personalized information delivery. We then consider what the near future might hold for display networks -- describing a series of compelling applications that are being postulated for future display networks. Creating such systems raises a wide range of challenges and requires designers to make a series of important trade-offs. We dedicate four chapters to key aspects of pervasive display design: audience engagement, display interaction, system software, and system evaluation. These chapters provide an overview of current thinking in each area. Finally, we present a series of case studies of display systems and our concluding remarks.

The Impact of Mobile Multimedia Applications on Data Center Consolidation

The convergence of mobile computing and cloud computing enables new multimedia applications that are both resource-intensive and interaction-intensive. For these applications, end-to-end network bandwidth and latency matter greatly when cloud resources are used to augment the computational power and battery life of a mobile device. We first present quantitative evidence that this crucial design consideration to meet interactive performance criteria limits data center consolidation. We then describe an architectural solution that is a seamless extension of todays cloud computing infrastructure.

Using mobile devices to personalize pervasive displays

Personalising content on public displays can be achieved through many methods; recent work has often used the Bluetooth capabilities of mobile devices [6, 2]. However, power and privacy concerns may lead users to switch off the Bluetooth on their mobile devices, making them less useful for display personalisation. In this demonstration we show applications built using Tacita, an alternative method for allowing mobile users to make display personalisation requests. 2. DEMONSTRATION OVERVIEW We previously demonstrated Tacita at HotMobile [4] and Mobisys [1] 2012. The system is comprised of four components: 1) an Android application that allows viewers to define content preferences; 2) a display component that schedules and renders content onto a display; 3) a set of Web applications designed for rendering on public displays; and 4) a map provider, which provides a database of display locations and available applications [Figure 1].

Smartphones and Pervasive Public Displays

How might we use smartphones to interact with the next generation of pervasive public-display systems? The author discusses using smartphones to let users customize and control the pervasive displays and digital signage they encounter during everyday trips for errands, business, and pleasure.

Yarely: a software player for open pervasive display networks

This paper describes Yarely, a software player designed to support the next generation of pervasive display networks. We identify five design goals for future digital signage players: the ability to provide basic signage functionality (media scheduling and playback) and support for openness, extensibility, resilience and appropriation. The paper describes the design and implementation of Yarely in light of these design goals. We present an evaluation of the system in the form of deployment and usage data alongside a reflection on the degree to which Yarely successfully addresses the needs of future pervasive display systems.

Privacy Mediators: Helping IoT Cross the Chasm

Unease over data privacy will retard consumer acceptance of IoT deployments. The primary source of discomfort is a lack of user control over raw data that is streamed directly from sensors to the cloud. This is a direct consequence of the over-centralization of todays cloud-based IoT hub designs. We propose a solution that interposes a locally-controlled software component called a privacy mediator on every raw sensor stream. Each mediator is in the same administrative domain as the sensors whose data is being collected, and dynamically enforces the current privacy policies of the owners of the sensors or mobile users within the domain. This solution necessitates a logical point of presence for mediators within the administrative boundaries of each organization. Such points of presence are provided by cloudlets, which are small locally-administered data centers at the edge of the Internet that can support code mobility. The use of cloudlet-based mediators aligns well with natural personal and organizational boundaries of trust and responsibility.

Understanding Display Blindness in Future Display Deployments

Digital displays are heralded as a transformative medium for communication. However, a known challenge in the domain is that of display blindness in which passersby pay little or no attention to public displays. This phenomenon has been a major motivation for much of the research on public displays. However, since the early observations, little has been done to develop our understanding of display blindness -- for example, to identify determining factors or propose appropriate metrics. Hence, the degree to which developments in signage form, content, and interaction address display blindness remains unclear. In this paper we examine and categorize current approaches to studying and addressing display blindness. Based on our analysis we identify open questions in the research space, including the impact of display physicality and audience differences, relationships with other observed effects, the impact of research interventions, and selection of appropriate metrics. The goal of this paper is to start a discussion within the community on the topic, and to inform the design of future research.

Repurposing Web Analytics to Support the IoT

Internet of Things analytics engines are complex to use and often optimized for a single domain or limited to proprietary data. A prototype system shows that existing Web analytics technologies can successfully be repurposed for IoT applications including sensor monitoring and user engagement tracking.

Impact of Video Summary Viewing on Episodic Memory Recall: Design Guidelines for Video Summarizations

Reviewing lifelogging data has been proposed as a useful tool to support human memory. However, the sheer volume of data (particularly images) that can be captured by modern lifelogging systems makes the selection and presentation of material for review a challenging task. We present the results of a five-week user study involving 16 participants and over 69,000 images that explores both individual requirements for video summaries and the differences in cognitive load, user experience, memory experience, and recall experience between review using video summarisations and non-summary review techniques. Our results can be used to inform the design of future lifelogging data summarisation systems for memory augmentation.