Emotions in context: examining pervasive affective sensing systems, applications, and analyses

Pervasive sensing has opened up new opportunities for measuring our feelings and understanding our behavior by monitoring our affective states while mobile. This review paper surveys pervasive affect sensing by examining and considering three major elements of affective pervasive systems, namely; “sensing”, “analysis”, and “application”. Sensing investigates the different sensing modalities that are used in existing real-time affective applications, Analysis explores different approaches to emotion recognition and visualization based on different types of collected data, and Application investigates different leading areas of affective applications. For each of the three aspects, the paper includes an extensive survey of the literature and finally outlines some of challenges and future research opportunities of affective sensing in the context of pervasive computing

Providing enhanced social interaction services for industry exhibitors at large medical conferences

Large medical conferences offer opportunities for participants to find industry exhibitors that offer products and services relevant to their professional interests. Companies often invest significant effort in promotions that encourage participants to spend time at their stand (e.g. providing free gifts, leaflets, running competitions) and register some contact details. Attendees will use the conference to find others who also share similar professional interests, as well as keep up to date with developments on products such has pharmaceuticals and medical equipment. From both perspectives, a number of improvements can be made to enhance the overall experience by using existing active RFID technology: Vendors would be able to more closely monitor the success of their promotions with statistics on the stand's visitors, as well as find more potential customers by using real-time visualizations; Participants would be able to log their social interactions, keeping an electronic history of the people they have met. The SocioPatterns project and Live Social Semantics experiments have recently demonstrated a scalable and robust infrastructure that would support these kinds of improvements. In this paper, we propose an infrastructure that provides enhanced social interaction services for vendors and participants by using small active RFID badges worn by attendees and attached to fixed location

Kehollistuneet vuorovaikutuskoreografiat. Kinesteettinen lähestymistapa älykkäiden ympäristöjen suunnitteluun

Research investigates interaction design through application of the concept of choreography. Special attention is paid to assess what kind of influences technological designs have on the user’s body and movements. Choreographic approach to interaction design emphasizes the felt experience of movement as content to interaction design and offers methods for conducting multi-level choreographic analysis. The concept of kinesthesia, which refers to the felt sensation of movement, is regarded as the foundational concept for both understanding and realizing the choreographic analysis. Choreographic method is applied in studying a future vision of intelligent information and communication environments. Intelligent environment refers to development where objects in everyday environments become connected and form a communicating-actuating network that possess abilities to collect information on the environment and of its users, and enables processing of this information for serving the user’s needs. The research data consists of two visions on intelligent environments in video format, introduced by Microsoft. Visions are analyzed through choreographic analysis with intention to investigate interactions between the user, the intelligent environment and the computer system. Micro level choreography analysis focuses on how the user experiences choreographies as movement continuums. Also local level choreographies that address the broader interaction context will be analyzed. Task based analysis focuses on two functions, first, sending and fetching digital information and, second, real time re-modelling of data and visualizations. Phenomenological methodology that enabled embodiment of the choreographies through dancing was applied in the analysis. Dancing aimed at internalizing the choreographies and enabled the analysis of felt sensation of movement. Key finding of the study is that choreographic analysis and hermeneutics of the body work well to be utilized in tandem in conducting a case study research on intelligent ICT environments. Dancing is considered as choreographic practice that provides understanding on the unfolding of interactions in space, time and movement. Furthermore, dancing integrates the designer’s explicit technological information to the design context and highlights the kinesthetic dimension of interaction. Presented methods provide relevant support for defining technological systems in intelligent ICT environments that are grounded in the embodied experience of interaction. I suggest that ‘dancing as choreographic practice’ is to be applied in user-centered design of intelligent information and communication environments.Tutkimus tarkastelee vuorovaikutussuunnittelua koreografian käsitteen kautta. Koreografinen lähestymistapa tarkastelee teknologian kokonaisvaltaista ohjausvaikutusta käyttäjän liikkeeseen teknologian käyttötilanteessa. Koreografinen suunnitteluote korostaa liikkeen kokemuksen huomioimisen tärkeyttä vuorovaikutussuunnittelussa ja tarjoaa menetelmiä monitasoisen vuorovaikutusanalyysin toteuttamiseen. Kinestesian käsite, jolla tarkoitetaan liikkeen kokemista kehossa, nousee yhdeksi koreografisen lähestymistavan keskeisistä käsitteistä. Sovellan koreografista menetelmää tulevaisuuden älykästä informaatio- ja kommunikaatioympäristöä kuvaavan vision tutkimiseen. Älykkäällä ympäristöllä viittaan kehityskulkuun, jossa jokapäiväisissä ympäristöissämme läsnä oleva teknologia verkottuu, kykenee keräämään ja jakamaan tietoa ympäristöstä ja käyttäjistä sekä mahdollistaa tiedon jalostuksen käyttäjän tarpeita palvelevalla tavalla. Aineistona on käytetty Microsoftin teknologiavisioita, joissa esitetyt kuvaukset älykkäistä ympäristöistä sekä esimerkit käyttäjän ja teknologian välisistä liikkeellisistä vuorovaikutuksista nousevat analyysin kohteeksi. Analyysissa keskitytään ensinnäkin käyttäjän toteuttamien mikroliikkeiden jatkumon kokemuksen analyysiin. Toiseksi analysoidaan yksilön kokemusta paikallisen tason koreografioissa. Tällä analyysitasolla huomiota kiinnitetään teknologista vuorovaikutusta laajemman vuorovaikutustapahtuman kontekstiin jolloin mm. sosiaaliset tapahtumat ja tilan vaikutus vuorovaikutukseen tulevat huomioiduksi. Analyysi toteutetaan tehtäväperusteisena ja analyysi käsittää kaksi toimintoa: tiedostojen jakaminen ja vastaanottaminen sekä datan ja visualisointien muokkaus. Toteutin tutkimuksen nojaten fenomenologiseen metodologiaan, joka mahdollisti koreografioiden henkilökohtaisen omaksumisen tanssin eli tutkimuksen kohteena olevien vuorovaikutustapojen kehollisen harjoittamisen kautta. Teknologiavisioissa esitetyn liikemateriaalin perusteella jäsentyi koreografia, jonka tanssiminen mahdollisti liiketiedon sisäistämisen ja vuorovaikutusten kehollisesti koettujen ulottuvuuksien arvioinnin. Tutkimus osoitti koreografisen analyysin ja osittain tanssimalla toteutetun ruumiin hermeneuttisen lähestymistavan soveltuvan hyvin sovellettavaksi yhdessä älykästä ympäristöä käsittelevässä tapaustutkimuksessa. Tutkimuksen johtopäätöksenä koreografisen menetelmän ja vuorovaikutusten kehollisen harjoittamisen todetaan auttavan suunnittelijaa tilassa, ajassa ja liikkeessä tapahtuvien vuorovaikutusten jäsentämisessä, ja arvioimaan miten teknologisen järjestelmän suunnitteluratkaisut vaikuttavat käyttäjän kehoon ja liikkeeseen vuorovaikutustapahtumassa. Esitän ’tanssimista koreografisena käytäntönä’ sovellettavaksi älykkäiden ympäristöjen käyttäjäkeskeisen suunnittelun menetelmänä

Comparison of two approaches for web-based 3D visualization of smart building sensor data

Abstract. This thesis presents a comparative study on two different approaches for visualizing sensor data collected from smart buildings on the web using 3D virtual environments. The sensor data is provided by sensors that are deployed in real buildings to measure several environmental parameters including temperature, humidity, air quality and air pressure. The first approach uses the three.js WebGL framework to create the 3D model of a smart apartment where sensor data is illustrated with point and wall visualizations. Point visualizations show sensor values at the real locations of the sensors using text, icons or a mixture of the two. Wall visualizations display sensor values inside panels placed on the interior walls of the apartment. The second approach uses the Unity game engine to create the 3D model of a 4-floored hospice where sensor data is illustrated with aforementioned point visualizations and floor visualizations, where the sensor values are shown on the floor around the location of the sensors in form of color or other effects. The two approaches are compared with respect to their technical performance in terms of rendering speed, model size and request size, and with respect to the relative advantages and disadvantages of the two development environments as experienced in this thesis

The Internet-of-Things Meets Business Process Management: Mutual Benefits and Challenges

The Internet of Things (IoT) refers to a network of connected devices collecting and exchanging data over the Internet. These things can be artificial or natural, and interact as autonomous agents forming a complex system. In turn, Business Process Management (BPM) was established to analyze, discover, design, implement, execute, monitor and evolve collaborative business processes within and across organizations. While the IoT and BPM have been regarded as separate topics in research and practice, we strongly believe that the management of IoT applications will strongly benefit from BPM concepts, methods and technologies on the one hand; on the other one, the IoT poses challenges that will require enhancements and extensions of the current state-of-the-art in the BPM field. In this paper, we question to what extent these two paradigms can be combined and we discuss the emerging challenges

Designing Familiar Open Surfaces

While participatory design makes end-users part of the design process, we might also want the resulting system to be open for interpretation, appropriation and change over time to reflect its usage. But how can we design for appropriation? We need to strike a good balance between making the user an active co-constructor of system functionality versus making a too strong, interpretative design that does it all for the user thereby inhibiting their own creative use of the system. Through revisiting five systems in which appropriation has happened both within and outside the intended use, we are going to show how it can be possible to design with open surfaces. These open surfaces have to be such that users can fill them with their own interpretation and content, they should be familiar to the user, resonating with their real world practice and understanding, thereby shaping its use

uC: Ubiquitous Collaboration Platform for Multimodal Team Interaction Support

A human-centered computing platform that improves teamwork and transforms the “human- computer interaction experience” for distributed teams is presented. This Ubiquitous Collaboration, or uC (“you see”), platform\u27s objective is to transform distributed teamwork (i.e., work occurring when teams of workers and learners are geographically dispersed and often interacting at different times). It achieves this goal through a multimodal team interaction interface realized through a reconfigurable open architecture. The approach taken is to integrate: (1) an intuitive speech- and video-centric multi-modal interface to augment more conventional methods (e.g., mouse, stylus and touch), (2) an open and reconfigurable architecture supporting information gathering, and (3) a machine intelligent approach to analysis and management of heterogeneous live and stored sensor data to support collaboration. The system will transform how teams of people interact with computers by drawing on both the virtual and physical environment

Physikit: Data Engagement Through Physical Ambient Visualizations in the Home

Internet of things (IoT) devices and sensor kits have the potential to democratize the access, use, and appropriation of data. Despite the increased availability of low cost sensors, most of the produced data is "black box" in nature: users often do not know how to access or interpret data. We propose a "human-data design" approach in which end-users are given tools to create, share, and use data through tangible and physical visualizations. This paper introduces Physikit, a system designed to allow users to explore and engage with environmental data through physical ambient visualizations. We report on the design and implementation of Physikit, and present a two-week field study which showed that participants got an increased sense of the meaning of data, embellished and appropriated the basic visualizations to make them blend into their homes, and used the visualizations as a probe for community engagement and social behavior

Usable privacy and security in smart homes

Ubiquitous computing devices increasingly dominate our everyday lives, including our most private places: our homes. Homes that are equipped with interconnected, context-aware computing devices, are considered “smart” homes. To provide their functionality and features, these devices are typically equipped with sensors and, thus, are capable of collecting, storing, and processing sensitive user data, such as presence in the home. At the same time, these devices are prone to novel threats, making our homes vulnerable by opening them for attackers from outside, but also from within the home. For instance, remote attackers who digitally gain access to presence data can plan for physical burglary. Attackers who are physically present with access to devices could access associated (sensitive) user data and exploit it for further cyberattacks. As such, users’ privacy and security are at risk in their homes. Even worse, many users are unaware of this and/or have limited means to take action. This raises the need to think about usable mechanisms that can support users in protecting their smart home setups. The design of such mechanisms, however, is challenging due to the variety and heterogeneity of devices available on the consumer market and the complex interplay of user roles within this context. This thesis contributes to usable privacy and security research in the context of smart homes by a) understanding users’ privacy perceptions and requirements for usable mechanisms and b) investigating concepts and prototypes for privacy and security mechanisms. Hereby, the focus is on two specific target groups, that are inhabitants and guests of smart homes. In particular, this thesis targets their awareness of potential privacy and security risks, enables them to take control over their personal privacy and security, and illustrates considerations for usable authentication mechanisms. This thesis provides valuable insights to help researchers and practitioners in designing and evaluating privacy and security mechanisms for future smart devices and homes, particularly targeting awareness, control, and authentication, as well as various roles.Computer und andere „intelligente“, vernetzte Geräte sind allgegenwärtig und machen auch vor unserem privatesten Zufluchtsort keinen Halt: unserem Zuhause. Ein „intelligentes Heim“ verspricht viele Vorteile und nützliche Funktionen. Um diese zu erfüllen, sind die Geräte mit diversen Sensoren ausgestattet – sie können also in unserem Zuhause sensitive Daten sammeln, speichern und verarbeiten (bspw. Anwesenheit). Gleichzeitig sind die Geräte anfällig für (neuartige) Cyberangriffe, gefährden somit unser Zuhause und öffnen es für potenzielle – interne sowie externe – Angreifer. Beispielsweise könnten Angreifer, die digital Zugriff auf sensitive Daten wie Präsenz erhalten, einen physischen Überfall in Abwesenheit der Hausbewohner planen. Angreifer, die physischen Zugriff auf ein Gerät erhalten, könnten auf assoziierte Daten und Accounts zugreifen und diese für weitere Cyberangriffe ausnutzen. Damit werden die Privatsphäre und Sicherheit der Nutzenden in deren eigenem Zuhause gefährdet. Erschwerend kommt hinzu, dass viele Nutzenden sich dessen nicht bewusst sind und/oder nur limitierte Möglichkeiten haben, effiziente Gegenmaßnahmen zu ergreifen. Dies macht es unabdingbar, über benutzbare Mechanismen nachzudenken, die Nutzende beim Schutz ihres intelligenten Zuhauses unterstützen. Die Umsetzung solcher Mechanismen ist allerdings eine große Herausforderung. Das liegt unter anderem an der großen Vielfalt erhältlicher Geräte von verschiedensten Herstellern, was das Finden einer einheitlichen Lösung erschwert. Darüber hinaus interagieren im Heimkontext meist mehrere Nutzende in verschieden Rollen (bspw. Bewohner und Gäste), was die Gestaltung von Mechanismen zusätzlich erschwert. Diese Doktorarbeit trägt dazu bei, benutzbare Privatsphäre- und Sicherheitsmechanismen im Kontext des „intelligenten Zuhauses“ zu entwickeln. Insbesondere werden a) die Wahrnehmung von Privatsphäre sowie Anforderungen an potenzielle Mechanismen untersucht, sowie b) Konzepte und Prototypen für Privatsphäre- und Sicherheitsmechanismen vorgestellt. Der Fokus liegt hierbei auf zwei Zielgruppen, den Bewohnern sowie den Gästen eines intelligenten Zuhauses. Insbesondere werden in dieser Arbeit deren Bewusstsein für potenzielle Privatsphäre- und Sicherheits-Risiken adressiert, ihnen Kontrolle über ihre persönliche Privatsphäre und Sicherheit ermöglicht, sowie Möglichkeiten für benutzbare Authentifizierungsmechanismen für beide Zielgruppen aufgezeigt. Die Ergebnisse dieser Doktorarbeit legen den Grundstein für zukünftige Entwicklung und Evaluierung von benutzbaren Privatsphäre und Sicherheitsmechanismen im intelligenten Zuhause