12 research outputs found
Further Exploring Communal Technology Use in Smart Homes: Social Expectations
Device use in smart homes is becoming increasingly communal, requiring
cohabitants to navigate a complex social and technological context. In this
paper, we report findings from an exploratory survey grounded in our prior work
on communal technology use in the home [4]. The findings highlight the
importance of considering qualities of social relationships and technology in
understanding expectations and intentions of communal technology use. We
propose a design perspective of social expectations, and we suggest existing
designs can be expanded using already available information such as location,
and considering additional information, such as levels of trust and
reliability.Comment: to appear in CHI '20 Extended Abstracts, April 25--30, 2020,
Honolulu, HI, US
Does Siri Have a Soul? Exploring Voice Assistants Through Shinto Design Fictions
It can be difficult to critically reflect on technology that has become part
of everyday rituals and routines. To combat this, speculative and fictional
approaches have previously been used by HCI to decontextualise the familiar and
imagine alternatives. In this work we turn to Japanese Shinto narratives as a
way to defamiliarise voice assistants, inspired by the similarities between how
assistants appear to 'inhabit' objects similarly to kami. Describing an
alternate future where assistant presences live inside objects, this approach
foregrounds some of the phenomenological quirks that can otherwise easily
become lost. Divorced from the reality of daily life, this approach allows us
to reevaluate some of the common interactions and design patterns that are
common in the virtual assistants of the present.Comment: 11 pages, 2 images. To appear in the Extended Abstracts of the 2020
CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '20
Informing the Design of Privacy-Empowering Tools for the Connected Home
Connected devices in the home represent a potentially grave new privacy
threat due to their unfettered access to the most personal spaces in people's
lives. Prior work has shown that despite concerns about such devices, people
often lack sufficient awareness, understanding, or means of taking effective
action. To explore the potential for new tools that support such needs directly
we developed Aretha, a privacy assistant technology probe that combines a
network disaggregator, personal tutor, and firewall, to empower end-users with
both the knowledge and mechanisms to control disclosures from their homes. We
deployed Aretha in three households over six weeks, with the aim of
understanding how this combination of capabilities might enable users to gain
awareness of data disclosures by their devices, form educated privacy
preferences, and to block unwanted data flows. The probe, with its novel
affordances-and its limitations-prompted users to co-adapt, finding new control
mechanisms and suggesting new approaches to address the challenge of regaining
privacy in the connected home.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures. To appear in the Proceedings of the 2020 CHI
Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '20
You, Me, and IoT: How Internet-Connected Consumer Devices Affect Interpersonal Relationships
Internet-connected consumer devices have rapidly increased in popularity;
however, relatively little is known about how these technologies are affecting
interpersonal relationships in multi-occupant households. In this study, we
conduct 13 semi-structured interviews and survey 508 individuals from a variety
of backgrounds to discover and categorize how consumer IoT devices are
affecting interpersonal relationships in the United States. We highlight
several themes, providing large-scale exploratory data about the pervasiveness
of interpersonal costs and benefits of consumer IoT devices. These results also
inform follow-up studies and design priorities for future IoT technologies to
amplify positive and reduce negative interpersonal effects.Comment: 26 pages, 5 figures, 5 tables. Updated version with additional
examples and minor revisions. Original title: "You, Me, and IoT: How
Internet-Connected Home Devices Affect Interpersonal Relationships
The Shifting Sands of Labour: Changes in Shared Care Work with a Smart Home Health System
Whilst the use of smart home systems has shown promise in recent years supporting older people's activities at home, there is more evidence needed to understand how these systems impact the type and the amount of shared care in the home. It is important to understand care recipients and caregivers' labour is changed with the introduction of a smart home system to efficiently and effectively support an increasingly aging population with technology. Five older households (8 participants) were interviewed before, immediately after and three months after receiving a Smart Home Health System (SHHS). We provide an identification and documentation of critical incidents and barriers that increased inter-household care work and prevented the SHHS from being successfully accepted within homes. Findings are framed within the growing body of work on smart homes for health and care, and we provide implications for designing future systems for shared home care needs
"You Just Assume It Is In There, I Guess": UK Families' Application And Knowledge Of Smart Home Cyber Security
The Internet of Things (IoT) is increasingly present in many family homes, yet it is unclear precisely how well families understand the cyber security threats and risks of using such devices, and how possible it is for them to educate themselves on these topics. Using a survey of 553 parents and interviews with 25 families in the UK, we find that families do not consider home IoT devices to be significantly different in terms of threats than more traditional home computers, and believe the major risks to be largely mitigated through consumer protection regulation. As a result, parents focus on teaching being careful with devices to prolong device life use, exposing their families to additional security risks and modeling incorrect security behaviors to their children. This is a risk for the present and also one for the future, as children are not taught about the IoT, and appropriate cyber security management of such devices, at school. We go on to suggest that steps must be taken by manufacturers and governments or appropriate trusted institutions to improve the cyber security knowledge and behaviors of both adults and children in relation to the use of home IoT devices