Victoria Shipp

The timestreams platform: artist mediated participatory sensing for environmental discourse

Ubiquitous and pervasive computing techniques have been used to inform discourses around climate change and energy insecurity, traditionally through data capture and representation for scientists, policy makers and the public. Research into re-engaging the public with sustainability and climate change issues reveals the significance of emotional and personal engagement alongside locally meaningful, globally-relevant and data-informed climate messaging for the public. New ubiquitous and pervasive computing techniques are emerging to support the next generation of climate change stakeholders, including artists, community practitioners, educators and data hackers, to create scientific data responsive artworks and performances. Grounded in our experiences of community based artistic interventions, we explore the design and deployments of the Timestreams platform, demonstrating usages of ubiquitous and pervasive computing within these new forms of discourse around climate change and energy insecurity.

Understanding food consumption lifecycles using wearable cameras

Application of design in HCI is a common approach to engendering behavioural change to address important challenges such as sustainability. Encouraging such change requires an understanding of current motivations and behaviours in the domain in question. In this paper, we describe use of wearable cameras to study motivations and behaviours around food consumption by focusing on two contrasting cultures, Malaysia and the UK. Our findings highlight the potential of wearable cameras to enhance knowledge of food consumption practices and identify where and how some digital interventions might be appropriate to change food behaviour. This includes appealing to people’s motivations behind food consumption and capitalising on existing practices such as gifting of food and social meals. We propose a food consumption lifecycle as a framework to understand and design human–food interaction. The use of wearable cameras enabled us to capture a high-level overview of spatially distributed food-related practices and understand food behaviours in greater depth.

The ethics of wearable cameras in the wild

Improvements in wearable camera technologies are providing academic and industry researchers with new ways to answer questions about participant behaviour. Although promising, these methods raise a number of ethical concerns in regards to agency, accountability, third party trust, and the delegation of responsibility. In this paper we consider the use of wearable cameras in research through the utilisation and adaptation of the Ethical Technology Assessment (eTA) method within a workshop involving a group of stakeholders, including researchers, technologists, and research participants. We conclude the paper with recommended principles for researchers and ethics review committees interested in assessing the usage of wearable cameras for conducting research outside of lab settings.

The Ethical Challenges of Experience Sampling Using Wearable Cameras

Self-report methods such as experience sampling provide an important means of understanding individual behaviors. The arrival of wearable camera technologies opens up research opportunities to provoke and explore in-depth contextual self-reflection on individual behaviors. Studies with wearable cameras have the potential to extend or/and complement existing experience sampling methods and provide greater insight into human behavior. However, the use of wearable cameras raises distinctive ethical challenges. This paper outlines a number of ethical challenges occasioned by the use of wearable cameras in research, both tractable and intractable.

Wearables or infrastructure: contrasting approaches to collecting behavioural data in the home

This paper examines and contrasts two approaches to collecting behavioural data within the home. The first of these involves filming from static video cameras combined with network logging to capture media consumption activities across multiple screens. The second utilises wearable cameras that passively collect still images to provide insights into food related behaviours. The paper compares the approaches from the perspective of the researchers and participants, and outlines the key benefits and challenges of each, with the aim of further mapping the space of possibilities now available when studying behaviour in the home.

Understanding underutilisation: methods for studying fruit and vegetable buying behaviours

This paper outlines research focused on understanding why people do or do not buy underutilised fruit and vegetables. This will inform the design of future interventions to promote more sustainable food related behaviour. A background to underutilised crops and food sustainability is provided. This is followed by an overview of the proposed method for capturing the entire purchasing and consumption experience using wearable cameras.

The Role of Self-Reflection in Sustainability

Sustainability is a major call of all research and applied services. Mobile technology can offer innovative ways to address sustainability issues. Self-reflection -in interviews or surveys- is a well-applied data collection method within HCI and provides affordances to observe and transform human behavior by bringing new awareness. While sustainability and self-reflection have been researched and addressed widely within the HCI field, the potential links between them (and how one can influence the other via technology) has yet to be explored within MobileHCI settings. This workshop brings together a cross-domain group of individuals to explore and discuss the role of self-reflection in sustainability. We want to generate new insights regarding mobileHCI technologies, design and methods that have direct sustainable impact in the world.

The Role of Accidental Self-Reflection in Wearable Camera Research

Self-reflection is an important tool for understanding and encouraging behavior change for wellbeing and personal sustainability. This can be a deliberate choice, or unintentionally prompted decision. In this paper we discuss self-reflection on participating in an experience sampling study. 14 Participants wore an Autographer camera for five working days. During the post study interview participants reflected on whether the camera prompted self-reflection or behavior change. We discuss how the experience of wearing cameras can prompt changes in routines through self-reflection, and the implications of this for sustainability research in HCI.

Annotation and anonymity: playful photo-sharing by visiting groups of teenagers

This paper investigates the playful photo taking behaviour of teenagers during group visits to two touristic public events (an airshow and a guided tour of a museum). These studies provide the feedback for the iterative development of a smartphone based anonymous image annotation and sharing application. The resulting implications for the design of such photo systems are examined, specifically the appropriateness of opportunistic upload for social media. Playfulness in photography has many implications regarding wider social behaviours. Comic annotations provide the ability to create humorous reinterpretations of photos, and the presence of humour and in-jokes affect the makeup of the audience with whom a group would like to share. It is counter-productive that an application encouraging such limiting behaviours may conflict with the open nature of touristic events. In addition, the shared images have an ephemeral quality and are therefore of transient value (compared to more tangible souvenirs), and their production through the application can ultimately distract from the experience of the visit itself.