Location-dependent information appliances for the home

ABSTRACT

Ethnographic studies of the home revealed the fundamental roles that physical locations and context play in how household members understand and manage conventional information. Yet we also know that digital information is becoming increasingly important to households. The problem is that this digital information is almost always tied to traditional computer displays, which inhibits its incorporation into household routines. Our solution, location-dependent information appliances, exploit both home location and context (as articulated in ethnographic studies) to enhance the role of ambient displays in the home setting; these displays provide home occupants with both background awareness of an information source and foreground methods to gain further details if desired. The novel aspect is that home occupants assign particular information to locations within a home in a way that makes sense to them. As a device is moved to a particular home location, information is automatically mapped to that device along with hints on how it should be displayed.

REFERENCES

• 1: Ambient#8482; commercial product description for the Ambient Orb. Available at http://www.ambientdevices.com/cat/orb/orborder.html
• 2: Boyle, M. and Greenberg, S. Rapidly Prototyping Multimedia Groupware. Proc. DMS 2005, Knowledge Systems Institute (2005).
• 3: Andy Crabtree , Tom Rodden, Domestic Routines and Design for the Home, Computer Supported Cooperative Work, v.13 n.2, p.191-220, April 2004 [doi>10.1023/B:COSU.0000045712.26840.a4]
• 4: Crabtree, A., Rodden, T., Hemmings, T. and Benford S. Finding a Place for UbiComp in the Home. Proc. Ubicomp 2003. Springer-Verlag (2003), 208--226.
• 5: Paul Dourish, Re-space-ing place: "place" and "space" ten years on, Proceedings of the 2006 20th anniversary conference on Computer supported cooperative work, November 04-08, 2006, Banff, Alberta, Canada [doi>10.1145/1180875.1180921]
• 6: W. Keith Edwards , Rebecca E. Grinter, At Home with Ubiquitous Computing: Seven Challenges, Proceedings of the 3rd international conference on Ubiquitous Computing, p.256-272, September 30-October 02, 2001, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
• 7: Elliot, K. and Greenberg, S. (2004). Building Flexible Displays for Awareness and Interaction. Video Proc. of Ubicomp 2004. The same paper also appears in the Workshop on Ubiquitous Display Environments, held at Ubicomp 2004.
• 8: Kathryn Elliot , Carman Neustaedter , Saul Greenberg, StickySpots: using location to embed technology in the social practices of the home, Proceedings of the 1st international conference on Tangible and embedded interaction, February 15-17, 2007, Baton Rouge, Louisiana [doi>10.1145/1226969.1226985]
• 9: Elliot, K., Neustaedter, C. and Greenberg, S. Time, Ownership and Awareness: The Value of Contextual Locations in the Home. Proc. Ubicomp 2005, Springer-Verlag (2005), 251--268.
• 10: Bill Gaver , Heather Martin, Alternatives: exploring information appliances through conceptual design proposals, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems, p.209-216, April 01-06, 2000, The Hague, The Netherlands [doi>10.1145/332040.332433]
• 11: Greenberg, S. and Fitchett, C. Phidgets: Incorporating Physical Devices into the Interface. Proc. UIST 2001, ACM Press (2001).
• 12: Harper, R., Evergeti, V., Hamill, L. and Strain, J. Paper-mail in the Home of the 21st Century. Proc. Okios Conference on Digital Technology in Home Environments. (2001)
• 13: Debby Hindus, The Importance of Homes in Technology Research, Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Cooperative Buildings, Integrating Information, Organization, and Architecture, p.199-207, October 01-02, 1999
• 14: Humble, J., Crabtree, A., Hemmings, T., Akesson, K., Koleva, B., Rodden, T., and Hansson, P., "Playing with the Bits": User Configuration of Ubiquitous Domestic Environments, Proc. Ubicomp 2003, Springer-Verlag (2003), 256--263.
• 15: Hilary Hutchinson , Wendy Mackay , Bo Westerlund , Benjamin B. Bederson , Allison Druin , Catherine Plaisant , Michel Beaudouin-Lafon , Stéphane Conversy , Helen Evans , Heiko Hansen , Nicolas Roussel , Björn Eiderbäck, Technology probes: inspiring design for and with families, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems, April 05-10, 2003, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, USA [doi>10.1145/642611.642616]
• 16: Hiroshi Ishii , Brygg Ullmer, Tangible bits: towards seamless interfaces between people, bits and atoms, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems, p.234-241, March 22-27, 1997, Atlanta, Georgia, United States [doi>10.1145/258549.258715]
• 17: Sung Woo Kim , Min Chul Kim , Sang Hyun Park , Young Kyu Jin , Woo Sik Choi, Gate reminder: a design case of a smart reminder, Proceedings of the 5th conference on Designing interactive systems: processes, practices, methods, and techniques, August 01-04, 2004, Cambridge, MA, USA [doi>10.1145/1013115.1013128]
• 18: Tara Matthews , Anind K. Dey , Jennifer Mankoff , Scott Carter , Tye Rattenbury, A toolkit for managing user attention in peripheral displays, Proceedings of the 17th annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology, October 24-27, 2004, Santa Fe, NM, USA [doi>10.1145/1029632.1029676]
• 19: Matthews, T., Gellersen, H., Van Laerhoven, K., and Dey, A. K. Augmenting collections of everyday objects: A case study of clothes hangers as an information display. Proc. Pervasive (2004) 340--344.
• 20: McPhail, S. and Greenberg, S. The Flower in Bloom. Video at //grouplab.cpsc.ucalgary.ca/phidgets/gallery/flower-in-bloom.html.
• 21: Todd Miller , John Stasko, The InfoCanvas: information conveyance through personalized, expressive art, CHI '01 extended abstracts on Human factors in computing systems, March 31-April 05, 2001, Seattle, Washington [doi>10.1145/634067.634248]
• 22: Jon O'Brien , Tom Rodden , Mark Rouncefield , John Hughes, At home with the technology: an ethnographic study of a set-top-box trial, ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI), v.6 n.3, p.282-308, Sept. 1999 [doi>10.1145/329693.329698]
• 23: Claudio S. Pinhanez, The Everywhere Displays Projector: A Device to Create Ubiquitous Graphical Interfaces, Proceedings of the 3rd international conference on Ubiquitous Computing, p.315-331, September 30-October 02, 2001, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
• 24: Tom Rodden , Andy Crabtree , Terry Hemmings , Boriana Koleva , Jan Humble , Karl-Petter Åkesson , Pär Hansson, Between the dazzle of a new building and its eventual corpse: assembling the ubiquitous home, Proceedings of the 5th conference on Designing interactive systems: processes, practices, methods, and techniques, August 01-04, 2004, Cambridge, MA, USA [doi>10.1145/1013115.1013127]
• 25: Alex S. Taylor , Laurel Swan, Artful systems in the home, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems, April 02-07, 2005, Portland, Oregon, USA [doi>10.1145/1054972.1055060]
• 26: Peter Tolmie , James Pycock , Tim Diggins , Allan MacLean , Alain Karsenty, Unremarkable computing, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems: Changing our world, changing ourselves, April 20-25, 2002, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA [doi>10.1145/503376.503448]
• 27: Weiser, M. and Brown, J. S. Designing Calm Technology. PowerGrid Journal 1, 1, July 1996.
• 28: Craig Wisneski , Hiroshi Ishii , Andrew Dahley , Matthew G. Gorbet , Scott Brave , Brygg Ullmer , Paul Yarin, Ambient Displays: Turning Architectural Space into an Interface between People and Digital Information, Proceedings of the First International Workshop on Cooperative Buildings, Integrating Information, Organization, and Architecture, p.22-32, February 01, 1998
• 29: Abigail Sellen , Richard Harper , Rachel Eardley , Shahram Izadi , Tim Regan , Alex S. Taylor , Ken R. Wood, HomeNote: supporting situated messaging in the home, Proceedings of the 2006 20th anniversary conference on Computer supported cooperative work, November 04-08, 2006, Banff, Alberta, Canada [doi>10.1145/1180875.1180933]

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.2 User Interfaces (D.2.2, H.1.2, I.3.6)

Keywords:
ambient displays, case studies, domestic technology, location-based design, tangible interfaces, ubiquitous computing