Tuomas Lappalainen

Solar shirt: design of an environmental awareness wearable

The Solar Shirt is a wearable computing design concept and demo in the area of sustainable and ecological design. The Solar Shirt showcases a concept, which detects the level of noise pollution in the wearers environment and illustrates it with a garment-integrated display. In addition, the design concept utilizes printed electronic solar cells as part of the garment design, illustrating a design vision towards zero energy wearable computing. The Solar Shirt uses reindeer leather as its main material, giving a soft and luxurious feeling to the garment. The material selections and the style of the garment derive their inspiration from Arctic Design, reflecting the purity of nature and the simplicity and silence of a snowy world.

Ring form factor: a design space for interaction

We present a design space for interaction with a ring, worn on the users finger. Whilst prior work has studied the ring as a means of attachment for hand motion sensors, we investigate the interaction possibilities provided by the natural affordance of the ring form factor itself. Interactions include, for example, changing the placement of the ring on the fingers, moving the ring along or around a finger and spinning of the ring on a surface.

Experiential tangible UI for controlling lighting

In this demo we present a tangible UI concept for controlling the color of lighting. The interaction is performed by placing different color glass objects to a bowl of water. The system demonstrates an aesthetic design for a tangible UI, and aims to provide the user an experience-rich haptic UI. The demo aims towards decorative and calm UIs for home control systems. It seeks to hide conventional technology and switches, and is part of the ubiquitous computing design vision for calm computing.

In the candle light: pervasive display concept for emotional communication

In this paper, we present a concept design and a prototype that utilizes a candle as communication media. We present a motorized candle stand, which casts different shadows on the wall based on messages received by a mobile phone. We envision that this pervasive display concept is suited for emotional communication,. Our work has novelty in human-computer interaction research in its use of a candle as a tangible user interface and a live flame to create a public display. The concept was evaluated using a focus group method. The results show that the emotional communication concept matches well with user perceptions of candle light, and that the authenticity of the flame is an important part of the concept design.

Wearable augmented reality display for wellness

A concept of mobile augmented reality (AR) use for wellness data is explored. We are especially interested in using aesthetic wearables as AR markers for augmented reality applications. A focus group based user study, and a concept design and prototype of a mobile AR based wellness wearable interface is presented. The work extends the research body on wellness wearables in an under-explored design direction.

Concept design for informative illumination on a snowboard

Mountains are a place where many extreme sports take place. These sports are often associated with extreme contextual factors, such as altitude or speed, and the equipment is typically of high quality, high performance, and high cost. However, gear in this domain typically has a low level of information and communications technology integration. Yet, there are possibilities to develop new features that would provide the user more information, increased safety or a richer user experience. In this paper, we describe a concept design to enhance snowboarding gear, where a LED based display on the snowboard is used to communicate the speed of the ride to the user.

Experiences with wellness ring and bracelet form factor

This paper explores experiences with ring and bracelet activity tracker form factors. During the first week of a 2-week field study participants (n=6) wore non-functional mock-ups of ring and bracelet wellness trackers, and provided feedback on their experiences. During the second week, participants used a commercial wellness tracking ring, which collected physical exercise and sleep data and visualized it in a mobile application. Our salient findings based on 196 user diary entries suggest, that the ring form factor is considered beautiful, aesthetic and contributing to the wearers image. However, the bracelet form factor is more practical for active lifestyle, and preferred in situations where the hands are performing tasks requiring gripping objects, such as sport activities, cleaning the car, cooking and washing dishes. Users strongly identified the ring form factor as jewellery that is intended to be seen, whereas bracelets were considered hidden and inconspicuous elements of the users ensemble.

Exploring smart handbag concepts through co-design

In this paper, we explore design preferences and possibilities for smart handbags from the user perspective. We present designs and findings derived through a co-design process, which consisted of two studies; first with individual drawing based brainstorming (n=20), and second with two co-design workshops (n=10), where participants assessed different designs and features, and created low-fi prototypes of smart handbag concepts. Participants proposed large shape and style variations for smart handbags, according to the intended contexts, use cases, and lifestyle. In this respect the desire for modifiability, e.g. adapting in size and shape, was highlighted. The handbags durability, weatherproofness and use of high quality materials were also raised.

Comparing Thermal and Haptic Feedback Mechanisms for Game Controllers

We investigate the use of thermal feedback, i.e. the feeling of warmth and cold, as an output mechanism for hand-held device user interfaces (UIs). In a prototype implementation, we enhanced a console game controller with thermal elements, positioned under the users fingertips. The prototype was evaluated using a simple video game, where the user was required to locate targets based on output cues. In a user study (n = 21) the performance and user experience of using visual, vibrotactile and thermal forms of feedback in the game were compared. Our salient findings suggest that thermal UI feedback is suited for presenting ambient information cues or creating an atmosphere.

Crouch, Hold and Engage: Spatial Aspects of Augmented Reality Browsing

Displays that use an AR browser to augment a printed poster are nowadays commonplace in many cities. Whilst much research exists on the technical issues and interaction techniques related to such AR displays, currently there has been little research on how these applications are actually used. In this paper, we present the first study reporting on usage comfort and spatial aspects when using an AR browsing app on to browse augmented content on a physical poster. Key findings are that the mean distance users preferred to stand from the poster content was 129 cm (SD = 34 cm) and that standing further from the poster enabled a browsing task to be completed more quickly. Based on our findings we make recommendations on the content and spatial location of AR poster installations.