Experiences and challenges in deploying potentially invasive sensor systems for dynamic media applications

This paper describes a series of projects that explore a set of dynamic media applications built upon a potentially invasive sensor system - the Ubiquitous Media Portal, featuring high-resolution video and audio capture with user ID/tracking capabilities that we installed throughout our facility. In addition to sensors, the portals provide a display and loudspeaker to locally display information or manifest phenomena from virtual worlds. During an eight-month long period, we implemented four different applications to explore acceptance by our buildingwide users. Our results provide insight into how different levels of information presentation and perceived user control can influence the user acceptance and engagement with such sensor platforms in ubiquitous deployments.Things That Think ConsortiumNokia Research Cente

Dynamic privacy management in pervasive sensor networks

This paper describes the design and implementation of a dynamic privacy management system aimed at enabling tangible privacy control and feedback in a pervasive sensor network. Our work began with the development of a potentially invasive sensor network (with high resolution video, audio, and motion tracking capabilities) featuring different interactive applications that created incentive for accepting this network as an extension of people’s daily social space. A user study was then conducted to evaluate several privacy management approaches – an active badge system for both online and on-site control, on/off power switches for physically disabling the hardware, and touch screen input control. Results from a user study indicated that an active badge for on-site privacy control is the most preferable method among all provided options. We present a set of results that yield insight into the privacy/benefit tradeoff from various sensing capabilities in pervasive sensor networks and how privacy settings and user behavior relate in these environments.Things That Think Consortiu

Gestures Everywhere: A Multimodal Sensor Fusion and Analysis Framework for Pervasive Displays

Gestures Everywhere is a dynamic framework for multimodal sensor fusion, pervasive analytics and gesture recognition. Our framework aggregates the real-time data from approximately 100 sensors that include RFID readers, depth cameras and RGB cameras distributed across 30 interactive displays that are located in key public areas of the MIT Media Lab. Gestures Everywhere fuses the multimodal sensor data using radial basis function particle filters and performs real-time analysis on the aggregated data. This includes key spatio-temporal properties such as presence, location and identity; in addition to higher-level analysis including social clustering and gesture recognition. We describe the algorithms and architecture of our system and discuss the lessons learned from the systems deployment

Designing of a portable and wireless device for ambulatory monitoring of non-invasive blood pressure

En países en vía de desarrollo, la medición de los signos vitales es realizada en hospitales o laboratorios especializados donde los pacientes permanecen bajo observación médica. La integración de sistemas de adquisición de datos biomédicos con las tecnologías de la información, permite un monitoreo continuo de variables fisiológicas sin que el paciente deba desplazarse a centros especializados, lo que mejora la calidad de la atención médica y ofrece posibilidades únicas para la investigación. Este artículo presenta un monitor de presión arterial no invasiva, automático, portátil y de control inalámbrico mediante el uso del protocolo ZigBee, diseñado para ser usado en lugares fuera de la cobertura presencial de instituciones médicas. Además del diseño y la implementación de un prototipo del sistema de monitoreo usando una red inalámbrica de área personal, se presentan resultados satisfactorios de su uso.In developing countries, the measurement of vital signs is performed at hospitals or specialized laboratorieswhere patients remain under medical observation. The integration of biomedical data acquisition systems andinformation technologies allow a continuous monitoring of patient’s physiological variables (parameters)without moving himself to remote medical centers, which improves medical care quality and offers uniqueopportunities for research. This paper presents anautomatic and portable non-invasive blood pressuremonitor, which incorporates a module for wireless communication using the ZigBee protocol, designed tobeused outside the coverage area of health care centers. Additionally to the designing and building of theprototype, the preliminary results of its use are presente

Sistema de monitoreo y alivio del stress

El presente proyecto consiste en el diseño de un Sistema de Monitoreo y Alivio del Stress y la Ansiedad. Este sistema se encarga de recepcionar las señales del cuerpo que distintos estudios han correlacionado con el stress y que son usadas para diagnosticar el estado anímico de la persona. Usando estas señales se activan elementos masajeadores en la parte posterior del cuello del usuario aplicando una presión similar a la producida por un masajista humano. La intensidad con que se aplican los masajes será variada acorde a la reacción del usuario ante el estímulo, generándose así un masaje inteligente adaptado al paciente. Este sistema está dividido en 2 subsistemas con funciones específicas que en conjunto realizan el proceso ya descrito, pero además pueden ser usados por separado como unidades independientes. El primer subsistema es una sistema de adquisición de datos, portátil (60x50x30mm) y cuenta con batería autónoma de hasta de 15 horas de funcionamiento. El segundo subsistema se encarga de realizar los masajes, este requiere de conexión externa a 12VDC y está recubierto por espuma de poliuretano, esta espuma es densa por lo que provee de rigidez al elemento sin restarle comodidad.Tesi

Beyond the lens : communicating context through sensing, video, and visualization

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2011.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 101-103).Responding to rapid growth in sensor network deployments that outpaces research efforts to understand or relate the new data streams, this thesis presents a collection of interfaces to sensor network data that encourage open-ended browsing while emphasizing saliency of representation. These interfaces interpret, visualize, and communicate context from sensors, through control panels and virtual environments that synthesize multimodal sensor data into interactive visualizations. This work extends previous efforts in cross-reality to incorporate augmented video as well as complex interactive animations, making use of sensor fusion to saliently represent contextual information to users in a variety of application domains, from building information management to real-time risk assessment to personal privacy. Three applications were developed as part of this work and are discussed here: DoppelLab, an immersive, cross-reality browsing environment for sensor network data; Flurry, an installation that composites video from multiple sources throughout a building in real time, to create an interactive and incorporative view of activity; and Tracking Risk with Ubiquitous Smart Sensing (TRUSS), an ongoing research effort aimed at applying real-time sensing, sensor fusion, and interactive visual analytic interfaces to construction site safety and decision support. Another project in active development, called the Disappearing Act, allows users to remove themselves from a set of live video streams using wearable sensor tags. Though these examples may seem disconnected, they share underlying technologies and research developments, as well as a common set of design principles, which are elucidated in this thesis. Building on developments in sensor networks, computer vision, and graphics, this work aims to create interfaces and visualizations that fuse perspectives, broaden contextual understanding, and encourage exploration of real-time sensor network data.by Gershon Dublon.S.M

Configurable dynamic privacy for pervasive sensor networks

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2009.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 76-79).Ubiquitous computing sensor networks have greatly augmented the functionality of interactive media systems by adding the ability to capture and store activity-related information. Analyzing the information recorded from pervasive sensor networks can provide insight about human behavior for better personalized system services, as well as richer media content and social communication. With these increased capabilities, serious concerns which create great obstacles to the deployment of such network are raised with regard to privacy and boundaries. However, there exist no real data currently about privacy in pervasive media networks and most studies that have been made so far are speculative. This thesis presents the design and implementation of a configurable infrastructure that can protect users' dynamic levels of privacy in a pervasive sensor network. Through an active badge system, users have different options to disable each type of data transmission. This work evaluates approaches for privacy protection through conducting an extensive user study in an actual ubiquitous invasive sensing environment to obtain feedback via sensor system data and questionnaires and correlates that information for future reference in the design of privacy-protected ubiquitous sensor networks. Results from the user study indicated that an active badge for on-site control, especially periodically broadcast RF beacon for privacy control, is the most effective and acceptable method.(cont.) However, it also suggested that if every occupant in the building used this approach to constantly block all data transmission, significant system blinding (on the order of 30 % or more) would be incurred. These results allow a better understanding of what value is assessed to privacy versus capabilities/awareness beyond the current assumptions.by Nan-Wei Gong.S.M

Wearable sensing for dynamic management of dense ubiquitous media

Most visions of ubiquitous computing anticipate a world permeated by a dense sampling of sensors, many of which will be capable of capturing, analyzing, and transmitting personally relevant and potentially privacy-sensitive media, such as video, audio, and identification information. This paper describes a set of sensor platforms that we have designed to experiment with personalization, interaction, and control in such dense media capture environments.Things That Think Consortiu