Intelligent Products

1
Intelligent Products

• Lars Erik Holmquist
• Future Applications Lab
• Viktoria Institute
• leh_at_viktoria.se
• www.viktoria.se/fal

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Today...

• Introduction to the teachers
• Overview of the schedule
• Overview of intelligent products and related
  areas
• Ubiquitous computing
• Context awareness
• Augmented reality
• Tangible interfaces

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Teachers

• The Future Applications Lab
• Research group at the Viktoria Institute in
  Göteborg
• Supervisor course examiner Lars Erik Holmquist
• Ph.D. students Lalya Gaye, Maria Håkansson, Sara
  Ljungblads, Johan Sanneblad, Tobias Skog

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Future Applications Lab

• Develops and studies the information technology
  of the future
• Sample projects
• Wearable music smart pin-boards artistic
  information displays context-aware photography
• www.viktoria.se/fal

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Schdeule

• Modules
• Overview weeks 36-38, 1.5 p.
• Lars Erik
• Physical prototyping w. 39, 1 p.
• Albrecht Schmidt
• Case studies - week 40-42, 1.5 p.
• Lalya, Tobias Johan
• Design studies - week 43-44, 1 p.
• Maria Sara
• Guest lecture conclusion 45

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Details

• Overview module
• Sept. 2 - today
• Sept. 3 - the Smart-Its platform project
  assignment
• Sept. 9 - TTT part I
• Sept. 11 - TTT part II
• Sept. 16 - TTT part III
• Sept. 18 - project presentations

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Physical prototyping

• Guest lectures by Albrecht Schmidt, Media
  Informatics Group, University of Munich
• Introduction to physical prototyping of
  context-aware products with sensors, actuators,
  Smart-Its, etc.
• This will be an intense week!

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Case studies

• Sept. 30 Oct. 2
• Sensors and musical interaction Sonic City -
  Lalya Gaye
• Oct. 7 Oct. 9
• Ambient information displays informative art -
  Tobias Skog
• Oct. 14 Oct. 16
• Graphics and communication on hand-held
  computers GapiDraw and OpenTrek - Johan Sanneblad

10
Design study

• Designing intelligent products based on user
  needs and empirical observations
• Sara Maria
• Oct. 21 Oct. 23
• Background Case study PinPlay at Göeborg Film
  Festival
• Assignments
• Oct. 28 Oct. 30
• Design work
• Presentations

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Guest lecture

• November 4
• Oskar Juhlin, Mobility Studio, Interactive
  Institute
• The interactive road
• Kristina Höök, DSV
• Computers and emotions
• November 6
• Final lecture... TBA!

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Intelligent products

• Definition
• An intelligent product is an everyday artifact
  where computation is used to invisibly support or
  enhance its intended use.

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Not an intelligent product

• The computer is not an everyday artifact
• The computation is not used to invisibly support
  or enhance its usage

14
A failed intelligent product

• The Electrolux Screenfridge did not manage to
  sell many units!
• It seemed like such a good idea - so whats the
  problem?

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The reasoning

• The product was based on quite innovative
  research (at MERL, MIT Media Lab, and elsewhere)
• The fridge is the low-tech communication
  central for most families - its where all
  important messages are put!
• So why not combine that with electronic
  communication?

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Pricing problem

• The price was much higher than for an ordinary
  fridge plus a laptop computer
• And you would need to pay a monthly broadband
  charge!
• Also, how often do you change your fridge?
  Definitely not as often as you change computer!

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The real failure

• The problem is that there is very little
  integration between the fridge itself and what
  happens on the screen!
• The first version came out when the Web was
  really hot, so of course they put up a web
  browser
• But this does not actually support or enhance any
  activity related to the fridge!

18
A successful intelligent product

• The Furby doll is an artifact where computation
  invisibly supports the intended usage (in this
  case, play!)
• Furbys are cheap (30) and are in many ways
  smarter than most desktop computers...

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What Furby does

• The Furby is a regular doll but it can also
• Communicate with users using sensors and
  actuators
• Model its own emotional state
• Go through a learning period
• Socialize and collaborate with other Furbys
• Amuse and do secret tricks

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Furbys senses

• Sensors
• Pressure switches in front back (feel)
• Light sensor in forehead (see)
• Microphone (hear)
• Mouth sensor (taste)
• Orientation sensor
• I.R. communication (to talk to other Furbys)

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Furby internals

• 1 MHz 8-bit processor
• Single reversible motor drives ears, eyes, etc.
• One rotation takes it through all expressions
• All Furby motions were pre-designed by a skilled
  puppeteer

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Why Furby works

• Furbys behavior is extremely well designed to
  support a certain activity
• The user gets no indication that Furby is based
  on what quite recently would be considered very
  advanced AI!
• And the mass-market target has made it very cheap

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Furby vs. screenfridge

• Expensive - one per household
• Computation an add-on, not integrated with
  activity
• Not attentive
• Not reactive

• Cheap - accessible for the kids
• Computation seamlessly integrated with user
  activity
• Attentive
• Reactive

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Origins of the computer

• The interactive desktop computer can be traced
  back to the sixties
• Man-Computer Symbiosis - Licklider, 1960
• Interactive graphics - Sutherlands Sketchpad,
  1963
• Hyperlinks, graphics, mouse, e-mail,
  telecollaboration - Engelbarts 1968 demo

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Where it all came together

• Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) collected
  the most visionary computer scientists of the
  early 1970s (Alan Kaye, Bob Metcalfe...)
• They invented or refined the necessary
  ingredients
• Ethernet
• Laser printer
• Bit-mapped graphics
• Object-oriented programming
• Graphical user interfaces

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Xerox ALTO, 1974

• Built as a research tool for the PARC staff
• Introduced the Graphical User Interface (GUI)
• Windows
• Icons
• Menus
• Pointer
• Also network printing, WYSIWYG editing, etc.

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Xerox STAR, 1981

• 384 KB (expandable to 1.5MB) of real memory
• 10, 29 or 40 MB hard drive
• 17-inch display with bitmapped graphics
• Mouse
• 8" floppy drive
• Ethernet connection
• 16,595 to 50.000

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The STAR Interface

• Designed for document workers
• Based on extensive ethnographical studies of book
  publishers
• The commandos Cut and Paste are remnants of
  that study!

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Apple Macintosh, 1984

• First mass-market interactive desktop computer
• Pre-cursor Apple Lisa (1982)
• GUI based on licensed Xerox patents
• In use, differences to todays Windows XP or
  Apple OS X are mostly cosmetic!

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Furby vs. computer

• Expensive - only one per person
• Computation only available in a stationary box
• Not attentive
• Not reactive

• Cheap - buy as many as you like!
• Computation seamlessly integrated with user
  activity
• Attentive
• Reactive

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Moores law

• Gordon E. Moore predicted in 1965 that the number
  of transistors per chip would continue to
  increases with a factor of two per year.

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The real implication

• Processing speed and storage capacity double
  every 18th month
• Expected to hold for at least another 10 years
  (just as in 1965!)

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Computer trends
size
number
One Computer for many people
Le Grand Napoleon
One Computer for every user
Many Computers for everyone
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Ubiquitous Computing

• Experiments by Mark Weisers group at Xerox PARC
  ca. 1988-94
• Based the design of new computers and interfaces
  on human measurements
• Tabs - inch
• Pads - foot
• Boards - yard

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Ubiquitous Computing

• The idea for UC first arose from contemplating
  the place of todays computer in actual
  activities of everyday life. studies of work
  life teach us that people primarily work in a
  world of shared situations However the
  computer today is isolated and isolating from the
  overall situation, and fails to get out of the
  way of the work. (Mark Weiser)

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Personal computing

• Moved from many users per computer to one user -
  one computer
• Considering the user as integral part of the
  system (previously users were system periphery)
• The basis for the desktop computer

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Ubiquitous computing

• Stresses physical integration
• Considering what surrounds computers and user
  as integral part of the system
• The physical setting, the overall situation - the
  context
• The personal computer is largely isolated and
  isolating from the overall situation

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UbiComp technology

• PARCs experiment anticipated many things were
  seeing now
• Hand-held computers
• Always-on wireless networking
• Interactive whiteboards
• Pen and gesture interfaces
• Location and context-awareness
• The aim was to seamlessly integrate computing in
  everyday activities

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PARCTab

• A very small pen-based computer
• Extremely portable
• Always connected
• Location-aware
• Pre-cursor to todays handheld computers
• Relied on infrared infrastructure for
  communication and location sensing

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PARCPad

• Pen-based interaction inspired by paper notebooks
• Networking allows users to collaboratively share
  notes in real-time
• Can also share content with the LiveBoard

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PARC LiveBoard

• Large touch-sensitive screen allows freeform
  input, editing and storage of notes
• The size affords easy collaboration in everyday
  environments
• Commercialized by Smart Technologies

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What surrounds us

• There are many ways in which we can better
  integrate computing into the real world, for
  instance
• Location-awareness computers that are aware of
  their location
• Context-awareness modelling the environment and
  user actions
• Augmented reality overlaying digital information
  on the physical world
• Tangible interaction merging user interaction
  with manipulation of physical world

43
Location awareness

• Everything has a location people, places,
  things, activities, events, situations
• Location information can be very well processed
  in computers
• powerful index to occurrences in the physical
  world
• Geometric and symbolic modelling, location
  arithmetics and spatial reasoning

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Significance of location

• if a computer merely knows what room it is in,
  it can adapt its behavior in significant ways
  without requiring even a hint of artificial
  intelligence (M. Weiser)
• The UbiComp group at Xerox PARC borrowed some
  significant technology (and a person!) from
  Cambridge to accomplish this goal...

45
The Active Badge

• Olivetti Research Labs, Cambridge, UK, 1989-92
• Indoor Location System
• Based on infrared emitter on badge plus
  infrastructure of stationary receivers
• Pioneered use of location in interactive
  applications
• Artificial sensing augment phenomenon of
  interest (peoples presence) to make it
  sense-able

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Active Badge applications

• With the Active Badge, researchers could invent
  entirely new applications
• Automatic routing of telephone calls to the
  nearest phone
• Log-on to a computer by simply walking in the
  room
• Applications that infer higher-level activities,
  e.g. meetings

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Big Brother sees you!
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Context-aware Computing

• More than just location!
• Modelling user activity and features of the
  environment
• The goal is to make applications that are better
  at supporting the entire user activity (not just
  whats in the computer)
• Simple examples would be a screen that gets
  brighter when the sun is shining on it, or a ring
  signal that gets louder if the room is noisy

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What is context?

• context-aware software adapts according to the
  location of use, the collection of nearby people,
  hosts, and accessible devices, as well as to
  changes to such things over time. The context
  can also include other parameters such as
  lighting, noise level, network connectivity,
  communication costs, communication bandwidth, and
  even the social situation e.g., whether you are
  with your manager or with a co-worker. (Schilit,
  1994)

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Remember me?
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Getting context

• Context acquisition
• Collect data via various sensors
• Abstract data to higher-level aggregations
  (percepts)
• Associate observations with user-level context
• Context-aware applications
• Using inferred context to support users
• World
• Sensors
• Percepts
• Context
• Application

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Context-aware phone

• The TEA-project (1998-2000) constructed a
  context-aware phone
• Sensors in the phone were used to infer
  higher-level meaning, e.g. walking, at home,
  etc.
• The phonebook was augmented to show the current
  status of each person

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Augmented Reality (AR)

• AR concerns overlapping digital information with
  the real world
• One way of doing that is through see-through
  displays which form a filter to the real world
  (c.f. wearable computing)

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The Digital Desk

• Seamless integration between physical and digital
  documents on a real desk (no metaphor!)
• A camera tracks objects on the desk
• An overhead projector displays directly on top of
  the working surface
• Xerox EuroPARC 1990-93

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Sensing user activity

• The Digital Desks camera display arrangement
  is used in many other systems
• Another way of registering user activity is to
  have a sensitive surface, e.g.
• MERL DiamondTouch
• Sony SmartSkin (video)