UbiMount: 2nd workshop on ubiquitous computing in the mountains

Mobile and wearable computing has great potential to support alpine outdoor sport activities. This includes, but is not limited to, rock climbing, hiking, mountain biking, paragliding, and skiing. Interestingly, technology for tracking, monitoring and supporting sport activities is broadly used in sports like running or cycling, but has not reached the top of the mountains yet. Nevertheless, such technologies could support people in many mountain scenarios such as activity tracking, navigation, or emergency support. Technologies and applications for mountaineers can learn from ubiquitous computing research in many ways to provide more joyful, motivating and safer outdoor experiences

Auto(mobile): Mobile Visual Interfaces for the Road

The increased prevalence of mobile touch screen interfaces in cars provides for new challenges in terms of optimizing safety, usability and affective response. While touch screens have certain usability benefits, the interfaces present significant visual attention demands from the driver. Suppose that you are traveling to an unfamiliar destination in your city to visit a friend. You know that she lives close to a popular landmark (mall, tourist attraction) and have visited that landmark several times. If you get directions from your GPS to visit your friend, it will most likely provide a shortest or fastest route, none of which will take into account the fact that you have visited the popular landmark several times. Additionally, the amount of navigational details that you would need to get to the popular landmark would be far fewer than the assistance you would need when you are driving in an unfamiliar region. By using context from the phone and car, more informed visual navigation applications can be created for a better user experience