Less is more: energy-efficient mobile sensing with SenseLess

Workshop held as part of ACM SIGCOMM 2009We present SenseLess, a system that leverages the different energy consumption characteristics of sensors to maximise battery life in mobile-sensing applications. We use the less expensive sensors more often, thereby enabling us to use the more expensive sensors less frequently. In the context of location-aware services, experimental results indicate that for a typical indoor and outdoor walk, compared to a simple GPS-based system, our SenseLess system can reduce energy consumption by more than 58% when determining a user's location, while maintaining the fidelity of the sensed data. This extends the battery life of a typical handheld device from 9 hours to 22 hours.Postprin

Corseto: A Kinesthetic Garment for Designing, Composing for, and Experiencing an Intersubjective Haptic Voice

We present a novel intercorporeal experience - an intersubjective haptic voice. Through an autobiographical design inquiry, based on singing techniques from the classical opera tradition, we created Corsetto, a kinesthetic garment for transferring somatic reminiscents of vocal experience from an expert singer to a listener. We then composed haptic gestures enacted in the Corsetto, emulating upper-body movements of the live singer performing a piece by Morton Feldman named Three Voices. The gestures in the Corsetto added a haptics-based \u27fourth voice\u27 to the immersive opera performance. Finally, we invited audiences who were asked to wear Corsetto during live performances. Afterwards they engaged in micro-phenomenological interviews. The analysis revealed how the Corsetto managed to bridge inner and outer bodily sensations, creating a feeling of a shared intercorporeal experience, dissolving boundaries between listener, singer and performance. We propose that \u27intersubjective haptics\u27 can be a generative medium not only for singing performances, but other possible intersubjective experiences

Understanding mobile social behaviour using smartphones

This work is funded by the EPSRC/TSB Privacy Value Networks project (EP/G002606/1).Understanding the behaviour of users as they share information with mobile social applications is important for enhancing their experiences and improving the services provided. In this paper, we present an approach to studying users’ behaviour with the Experience Sampling Method, using a single mobile device to ask questions of users and simultaneously monitor their activities and contexts. While our approach presents benefits compared to traditional questionnaires, we also present the challenges faced, and the problems still to be explored.PostprintPeer reviewe

Scaling measurement experiments to planet-scale: ethical, regulatory and cultural considerations

Workshop held as part of 7th Annual International Conference on Mobile Systems, Applications and Services (MobiSys 2009)Conducting planet-scale mobility experiments and measurements is of great interest to network researchers for building the next generation of wireless networking technologies, or for studying inter-disciplinary problems in complex networks. There are many technical challenges that need to be addressed before such experiments can take place. But at the same time, there are many non-technical issues that need to be tackled in order to preserve the welfare of participants in these studies. While some of these issues have been addressed in previous small-scale studies, they become increasingly complex when differences between countries need to be taken into account. This position paper highlights some of these issues and argues that they need to be addressed before planet-scale measurement experiments can be conducted. We discuss ethical, regulatory, cultural and privacy issues, and consider how to design measurement systems that will scale up to planet-wide experiments. We motivate our approach by discussing work in measurement of mobile and online social networks.Postprin

Mobile experience sampling: Reaching the parts of Facebook other methods cannot reach

Paper presented at the Privacy and Usability Methods Pow-wow (PUMP) workshop, in conjunction with the 24th BCS International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction. This work is funded by the EPSRC/TSB Privacy Value Networks project (EP/G002606/1).Location-aware Social Network Sites (SNS) are now widely used by mobile phone users, enabling users to share their location in real time to their social network. Such location-sharing may introduce privacy concerns depending on the user, the location being shared, and the people to whom they are shared. The study of such privacy concerns is difficult, as a user filling out a questionnaire may forget the exact reasons for sharing. We have explored the Experience Sampling Method (ESM) for in situ capture of users’ experiences. This paper describes our mobile phone ESM testbed and presents preliminary results obtained from a 2-week experiment with 40 students sharing their location in real time on Facebook, a popular SNS.PreprintNon peer reviewe

Facebook or Fakebook? The effect of simulation on location privacy user studies

Paper presented at the Privacy and Usability Methods Pow-wow (PUMP) workshop, in conjunction with the 24th BCS International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction. This work is supported by the EPSRC Privacy Value Networks project, EP/G002606/1.PostprintPeer reviewe

Context-based personalised settings for mobile location sharing

This work was supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council [grant number EP/G002606/1].Location-Based Services (LBSes) are increasing in popularity, but create many privacy concerns for users. LBSes usually rely on the same default privacy settings for all users. In this position paper, we claim that such settings are inappropriate for location sharing and that settings should instead rely on contextual information to recommend personalised privacy settings for users. We present results of an initial user study (n=80) to corroborate this position, and suggest avenues for further research.PostprintPeer reviewe