Tommi Heikkinen

Multipurpose Interactive Public Displays in the Wild: Three Years Later

Extended research on interactive public displays deployed in a city center reveals differences between the publics stated information needs and their actual information behavior and highlights effects that an artificial environment cannot duplicate.

UBI-Hotspot 1.0: Large-Scale Long-Term Deployment of Interactive Public Displays in a City Center

We present the design, implementation, deployment and evaluation of novel urban computing infrastructure called ‘UBI-hotspot’. It is effectively a large interactive public display embedded with other computing resources. We have deployed a network of UBI-hotspots around downtown Oulu, Finland, to establish a public laboratory for conducting experimental ubiquitous computing research in authentic urban setting with diverse real users and with sufficient scale and time span. We focus on the first version of the UBI-hotspot which offers a wide range of services via different interaction modalities. We analyze the usage and user acceptance of the UBI-hotspots from qualitative and quantitative data collected over a period of eight months. Our first observations show that this type of infrastructure may be a useful addition to the urban space.

Web-based framework for spatiotemporal screen real estate management of interactive public displays

In this paper we present a web-based framework for spatiotemporal screen real estate management of interactive public displays. The framework facilitates dynamic partitioning of the screen real estate into virtual screens assigned for multiple concurrent web applications. The framework is utilized in the implementation of so-called UBI-hotspot, which provides various information services via different interaction modalities including mobile. The framework facilitates seamless integration of third party web applications residing anywhere in the public Internet into the UBI-hotspot, thus catering for a scalable and open architecture. We report the deployment of a network of indoor and outdoor UBI-hotspots at downtown Oulu, Finland. The quantitative data on the usage of the UBI-hotspots implicitly speaks in favor of the practical applicability of the framework.

Open Urban Computing Testbed

We present a unique urban computing testbed for studying the utilization of ubiquitous computing technology in the public urban space of a city center. The testbed comprises of a wide range of pervasive computing infrastructure and different middleware resources. We demonstrate the applicability and benefits of the testbed in evaluating technology pilots and prototyping new ubiquitous services in real-world urban setting. We conclude with a discussion on the challenges in deploying this kind of a large-scale testbed in a public urban space.

Scheduling Interactive and Concurrently Running Applications in Pervasive Display Networks

Todays digital signage systems typically show advertisements in the form of images or short videos that their owners and/or operators have arranged in well-defined sequences well before presentation time. In order to make such displays more attractive, both researchers and advertisers have recently begun to explore the concept of interactive applications that allow passers-by to directly or indirectly control a displays content. To integrate such applications with traditional digital signage concepts requires new forms of shared control over application and content scheduling, ultimately creating multi-user and multi-application display systems that go beyond predefined sequences of content items. In this paper we present a system for scheduling both interactive content and traditional digital signage content on networked public displays. We offer a formal notation for describing such novel scheduling problems, based on a list of requirements for scheduling interactive and concurrently running display applications, and describe a web-based application development framework and API for dynamic application scheduling. We also report on an initial prototype system that we have deployed on a university campus.

Lessons Learned from the Deployment and Maintenance of UBI-Hotspots

We provide an experience report of the deployment and maintenance of urban computing infrastructure called UBI-hotspot. It is effectively a large interactive public display embedded with other computing resources such as access points of different wireless networks. We have installed a network of 12 UBI-hotspots in key indoor and outdoor locations around downtown Oulu, Finland. We describe the remote monitoring and management tools we have adopted for the maintenance of the UBI-hotspots. We conclude with a discussion on our lessons learned which should be valuable for other researchers planning similar deployments in public urban spaces.

Towards multi-application public interactive displays

Public displays are becoming a common sight in the urban landscape and they are increasingly being equipped with interaction components such as touch screens. In addition, the Web and its set of enabling technologies are attractive for realizing applications for public displays. We argue that to develop multi-application public displays, then services generally need to be easy to develop, robust, and be easy to deploy and maintain. In this position paper we present a virtual machine-based Web application platform, for decentralized deployment of interactive services on heterogeneous public displays, which satisfies the aforementioned requirements. We also report on some usage experiences of utilizing the platform in a network of large public displays, which we have deployed in a mid-size city.

UBI-hotspots: sustainable ecosystem infrastructure for real world urban computing research and business

We report a novel deployment of so-called UBI-hotspots in a city center to establish an ecosystem infrastructure for conducting diverse urban computing research and business in authentic urban setting. We focus on the value network of the hotspots where the commercial use of the hotspots generates revenue for covering their operational expenses. The value network has been validated by a 12-month long operation, during which the hotspots and their services have been available to the general public on 24/7 basis.

Tandem Browsing Toolkit: Distributed Multi-Display Interfaces with Web Technologies

We present the Tandem Browsing toolkit that allows developers to build multi-display and multi-user applications for pervasive displays with web technologies. Existing tools for this purpose either focus on user needs, rather than developer needs, or do not rely on open web standards. Our proxy-based toolkit allows developers to conceptualize, design and implement interfaces that orchestrate multiple devices in navigating through online content, without any modifications to user devices. We first describe the design and implementation of our toolkit, followed by a qualitative validation with web developers. Then we illustrate the functionality of the toolkit with three prototypes. We conclude with a discussion on the toolkits characteristics and capabilities.

Declarative XML-based layout state encoding for managing screen real estate of interactive public displays

We present a system for managing the screen real estate of interactive public displays with declarative XML-based descriptions of virtual screens and a finite state machine. The proposed approach includes an algorithm for transforming the declarative virtual screens into a sequence of steps required for transiting between layout states. The system is utilized in realizing an interaction model for a network of public displays in a city center. Our practical experiences show how separating layout description from application logic allows rapid configuration of the interaction model.