Edge of Tomorrow:Designing Sustainable Edge Computing

Vaunted as the next frontier within the scope of the Internet of Things (IoT), Edge Computing (EC) is seen as a means to improve efficiency and privacy across IoT infrastructures. This is because it enables data to be processed where it originates, that is, at the so-called ‘edge’ of the network, this being within, or close to, individual Internet-connected devices. Consequently, EC is considered more secure than conventional processing methods as data need not travel over networks to and from the centralised ‘Cloud’. We argue that EC optimisation might also offer credible benefits for environmental sustainability, particularly regarding decarbonisation by minimising data-distribution. To make this case, we outline the creation of two integrated design fictions which highlight environmental harms resulting from widespread Cloud data management, as well as envisioning potential future sustainability advantages of Edge-based processing. Based upon our process, we put forward an initial model for Sustainable Edge Computing

Design fiction as world building

Design Fiction has garnered considerable attention during recent years yet still remains pre-paradigmatic. Put differently there are concurrent,but incongruent, perspectives on what Design Fiction is and how to use it. Acknowledging this immaturity, we assert that the best way to contribute to the establishment of an evidence-based first paradigm, is by adopting a research through design approach. Thus, in this paper we describe ‘research into design fiction, done through design fiction’. This paper describes the creation of two Design Fictions through which we consider the relationship between narrative and Design Fiction and argue that links between the two are often drawn erroneously. We posit that Design Fiction is in fact a ‘world building’ activity, with no inherent link to ‘narrative’ or ‘storytelling’. The first Design Fiction explores a near future world containing a system for gamified drone-based civic enforcement and the second is based on a distant future in which hardware and algorithms capable of detecting empathy are used as part of everyday communications. By arguing it is world building, we aim to contribute towards the disambiguation of current Design Fiction discourse and the promotion of genre conventions, and, in doing so to reinforce the foundations upon which a first stable paradigm can be constructed

The Future Is Metahistory:Using Spime-based Design Fiction As A Research Lens For Designing Sustainable Internet of Things Devices

A spime describes a device that could generate data about itself throughout its entire life-cycle and this ‘metahistory’ would be saved and remain searchable and mineable. Given growing Internet of Things (IoT) device e-waste and material scarcity issues, the concept of spimes provides a useful approach to addressing the current lack of consideration of sustainability in the IoT. Using Design Fiction, we generated a series of near future artefacts that help concretise a world in which the UK Government sanctions the use of blockchain technologies to sustainably manage spime metahistories. The Government’s so called ‘Open Traceability Protocol’ enables citizens to securely trade data-rich spime objects, use recycling apps to search for replacement spime components, and to access spime devices’ provenance information. The paper outlines the design of the artefacts that ask whether increased data transparency would place greater accountably upon designers and producers in relation to the resources they deplete to manufacture connected products, while at the same time making such issues explicit to users of IoT devices. We also discuss how reflecting upon our design process enabled us to develop a theoretical lens – IoT Design Ethics and IoT Data Ownership – through which aspects of IoT unsustainability can be more thoroughly considered. Finally, we argue that viewing this lens alongside two previously developed spime research lenses allows the formation of an overarching multidimensional lens for spimes, which we contend researchers and practitioners can harness in order to begin reframing IoT design culture as a more sustainable paradigm for design practice

The RMS Survey: The Bolometric Fluxes and Luminosity Distributions of Young Massive Stars

Context: The Red MSX Source (RMS) survey is returning a large sample of massive young stellar objects (MYSOs) and ultra-compact (UC) \HII{} regions using follow-up observations of colour-selected candidates from the MSX point source catalogue. Aims: To obtain the bolometric fluxes and, using kinematic distance information, the luminosities for young RMS sources with far-infrared fluxes. Methods: We use a model spectral energy distribution (SED) fitter to obtain the bolometric flux for our sources, given flux data from our work and the literature. The inputs to the model fitter were optimised by a series of investigations designed to reveal the effect varying these inputs had on the resulting bolometric flux. Kinematic distances derived from molecular line observations were then used to calculate the luminosity of each source. Results: Bolometric fluxes are obtained for 1173 young RMS sources, of which 1069 have uniquely constrained kinematic distances and good SED fits. A comparison of the bolometric fluxes obtained using SED fitting with trapezium rule integration and two component greybody fits was also undertaken, and showed that both produce considerable scatter compared to the method used here. Conclusions: The bolometric flux results allowed us to obtain the luminosity distributions of YSOs and UC\HII{} regions in the RMS sample, which we find to be different. We also find that there are few MYSOs with L $\geq$ 10$^{5}$\lsol{}, despite finding many MYSOs with 10$^{4}$\lsol{} $\geq$ L $\geq$ 10$^{5}$\lsol{}.Comment: 12 pages, 12 figures, 3 tables, accepted to A&A. The full versions of tables 1 and 2 will be available via the CDS upon publicatio

Spimes Not Things:Creating A Design Manifesto For A Sustainable Internet of Things

The rhetoric that surrounds the Internet of Things (IoT) contends it will bring about utopian transformative change throughout society, particularly in regards to sustainability. Little discourse however, recognises the intrinsically unsustainable nature of IoT devices themselves. Under a façade of innovation, the IoT is a breeding ground for superfluous, novelty ‘gizmo’ products whose design incorporates environmentally damaging modes of manufacture, consumption and disposal. To bring attention to this growing unsustainable design culture, we have produced a manifesto entitled Spimes Not Things: A Design Manifesto for A Sustainable Internet of Things. It is the synthesis of a practice-led research project which explores Sterling’s spimes concept using Design Fiction methods, as part of a Research through Design approach. This paper outlines the manifesto’s creation, its theoretical foundations and its intentions. The manifesto is the first step towards the reframing of design practices that will contribute to a more sustainable IoT product paradigm

Spimes Not Things:A Design Manifesto For A Sustainable Internet Of Things

The manifesto focuses on strategies for incorporating sustainability into the design of Internet of Things (IoT) devices. We hope it helps to galvanise product designers, interaction designers, creative technologists and makers into action - the people who have the skills and know how to use materials and technologies to design future sustainable connected products. The IoT is rapidly expanding and it is beginning to have both advantages and disadvantages for our society and our planet. The manifesto might therefore also be of interest to environmentalists, connected product manufacturers, tech firms, politicians and legislators - those who campaign for sustainable change and those who have the power to deliver it

Do-It-Yourself Medical Devices:Exploring Their Potential Futures Through Design Fiction

With ever increasing demands on healthcare around the world, ensuring adequate provision for patients is becoming more and more challenging. In this paper, we focus on future healthcare provision, specifically looking at how Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Medical Devices might become widely adopted. Our motivation is to move beyond current debates, which tend to focus on technological capabilities, and instead consider the implications of those technologies for future policy and regulation. Discussions around the future are often challenging, as people find it difficult to envisage how disruptive technologies make futures that stand apart from their current and previous experiences. To facilitate these discussions, we use Design Fiction to speculate about a multi-purpose DIY Medical Device which can support various medical conditions. Using Design Fiction in this way allows us to concretize and explore a future world in which DIY Medical Devices exist, and thus enable meaningful discussions around the social and ethical implications of such DIY medical cultures

The Little Book of Sustainability for the Internet of Things

There are numerous loud and powerful voices promoting the Internet of Things (IoT) as a catalyst for changing many aspects of our lives for the better. Think healthcare, energy, transport, finance, entertainment and in the home – billions of everyday objects across all sorts of sectors are being connected to the Internet to generate data so that we can make quicker and more efficient decisions about many facets of our lives. But is this technological development completely benign? Despite all their positive potential, IoT devices are still being designed, manufactured and disposed of in the same manner that most other ‘non-connected’ consumer products have been for decades – unsustainably. Furthermore, little of the discourse around the IoT recognises or responds to this growing issue. We hope this Little Book will kickstart this important conversation and help those creating future IoT products and services to consider new approaches that have sustainability baked-in. Further, we propose the re-characterising of IoT objects as spimes1 to provide an alternative approach for enabling sustainable IoT device design. Spimes are a potential class of internet-connected objects which, unlike present day IoT devices, would be designed such that they can be managed sustainably throughout their entire lifecycle, from their initial design and production, to having their components recycled and reused at the end of their life

Design fiction:how to build a Voight Kampff machine

Tyrell: Is this to be an empathy test? Capillary dilation of the so-called blush response? Fluctuation of the pupil. Involuntary dilation of the iris... Deckard: We call it Voight-Kampff for short. Design fiction is a broad term that occupies a space within the wider miscellany of speculative design approaches and is appearing as a nasent method for HCI research. The factor that differentiates and distinguishes designs fiction from other approaches is its novel use of world building and in this paper we consider whether there is value in creating fictional research worlds through which we might consider future interactions. As an example we build a world in which algorithms for detecting empathy will become a major compnent of future communications. We take inspiration from the sci-fi film Blade Runner in order to consider what a plausible world, in which it is useful to build a Voight-Kampff machine, might be like