[Wear-Hard] CFP: Ensembles of On-Body Devices workshop at MobileHCI'10
daniel.ashbrook at nokia.com
daniel.ashbrook at nokia.com
Thu Mar 11 12:43:54 EST 2010
[Apologies if you receive multiple copies of this message]
Summary:
Workshop on Ensembles of On-Body Devices
in conjunction with MobileHCI 2010
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Lisbon, Portugal
http://burx.com/ensembles
Submission deadline: April 30, 2010
Full call:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CALL FOR PAPERS:
MobileHCI Workshop on Ensembles of On-Body Devices
http://burx.com/ensembles
a workshop at MobileHCI
Tuesday, September 7th, 2010
Lisbon, Portugal
With the continuing miniaturization of powerful computation into
mobile devices, there exists an opportunity for re-envisioning how we
interact with our personal technology. In addition to a core
computational/interaction component such as a mobile phone, there
could be substantial benefit to a user by offering an ensemble of
multiple mobile devices that can be used together. Such devices could
provide novel input or output capabilities, or distribute user
interactions in a more effective way. Our goal with this workshop is
to foster discussion about what possibilities such collections of
devices might offer.
Ensembles of On-Body Devices
============================
There has recently been a surge of interest in combining various forms
of mobile computing with multiple other devices, either simultaneously
or in succession. This idea has been called "dynamic composable
computing" [5], "personal information environments" [2], "ensembles of
devices" [4], or "computing ecologies". The emphasis thus far has
largely been on easily adding and subtracting multifariously-featured,
but overall quite capable, devices, for example by dynamically
attaching a laptop to an available display in a room [1]. This work
has enabled the use of nearby capabilities such as those in the
environment including large-screen displays, speakers, printers, and
input devices. However, there are situations when environmental
resources are unavailable or otherwise occupied.
Mobile phones - now powerful general-purpose computers - offer many
advantages; however, due to their small sizes and handheld-focused
interaction, their usability is often limited. We believe there is an
opportunity to overcome these limitations in the fully mobile space by
using analogous concepts put forth by previous research combining
mobile devices with fixed infrastructure.
In this workshop, we will explore ways to take advantage of the
affordances of several computing items associated with a single mobile
user or amongst a set of mobile users. By utilizing several devices
or peripherals, the mobile platform can be enhanced to provide
increased capabilities. Bluetooth peripherals - such as hands-free
headsets, which allow one to interact with the phone without it being
in one's hand - offer a hint at the possibilities inherent in using
several mobile devices in conjunction.
There are many new technologies that offer expanded - and distributed
- input and output for mobile devices. Pico projectors are beginning
to appear in commercial products, including mobile phones; some
wristwatches include Bluetooth communication and display
functionality; and tiny LCD displays can be purchased. Small and
cheap sensors such as accelerometers, gyroscopes, strain sensors and
miniature cameras are now widely available and can expand the
capability of the user to do input. Bluetooth offers a low bandwidth
interconnect for on body devices, and there may be new opportunities
for high bandwidth peripherals using new technologies such as Ultra
Wide Band radios, or Low Power WiFi. Wireless power is also becoming
a reality [3]. A single user may also have multiple handsets (i.e.,
both home and work mobile phones) that could be used in conjunction.
A user may also have other mobile computers with unique capabilities
such as e-book readers with electronic ink displays. Devices could
also be shared across multiple users, further increasing the number
and type of components with which users might interact.
The purpose of this workshop, then, is to encourage discussion and
exploration of how collections of on-body devices may be created,
supported, and utilized. There are many open research questions in
this space, but we intend to concentrate discussion on HCI issues.
The open questions that we intend to use as a starting point for
discussion include:
* What kinds of devices can be used as peripherals? What are
their affordances and limitations?
* Under what circumstances might users be content with
lower-fidelity input and output, and how can such limitations be
made clear?
* With a given collection of devices, what novel interaction
techniques can be explored? Are there interactions that cannot be
realized in any other way?
* How can a user interface be distributed across an arbitrary
number of devices with varying capabilities?
* How can such a UI accommodate the dynamic nature of
mobility - with peripherals appearing and disappearing (often
without warning) and the user's context changing - possibly making
some modalities less useful or even dangerous?
* What are the technical usability challenges to such an endeavor?
* What existing research points in this direction, and what
devices and techniques could be adapted to become part of an
on-body ecology of devices?
References
----------
1. Trevor Pering, Roy Want, Barbara Rosario, Shivani Sud, and Kent
Lyons. Enabling pervasive collaboration with platform composition.
In Pervasive Computing, pages 184-201, Jan 2009.
2. Jeffrey S. Pierce and Jeffrey Nichols. An infrastructure for
extending applications' user experiences across multiple personal
devices. In UIST '08: Proceedings of the 21st annual ACM symposium
on User interface software and technology, pages 101-110, New York,
NY, USA, 2008. ACM.
3. Alanson Sample and Joshua R Smith. Experimental results with
two wireless power transfer systems. In IEEE Radio and Wireless
Symposium, pages 1-3, Oct 2009.
4. Bill N Schilit and Uttam Sengupta. Device ensembles. IEEE
Computer, 37(12):56-64, Jan 2004.
5. Roy Want, Trevor Pering, Shivani Sud, and Barbara Rosario.
Dynamic composable computing. In HotMobile '08: Proceedings of the
9th workshop on Mobile computing systems and applications, Feb 2008.
Submissions
===========
Submissions should be a maximum of four pages in the ACM Mobile HCI
2010 format and address open research questions on the topics of
interest which will be used to foster workshop discussion.
Submissions are due by April 30th, 2010 by 23:59 PDT (UTC-7) and
should be emailed to ensembleworkshop at burx.com.
A small committee will peer-review submitted papers. Papers will be
selected based on several criteria:
* Does the paper fit the theme of the workshop?
* How potentially transformative are the ideas in the paper?
* Does the paper address the research questions of the workshop,
or pose new research questions?
* Is the paper well-written?
Notification of acceptance will be provided by May 21st, 2010. Please
note that accepted workshop papers will NOT be published in the
conference proceedings nor in the ACM Digital Library. However, the
accepted papers will be disbursed to all participants so that they may
familiarize themselves with the workshop material prior to attending.
Workshop Format
===============
The workshop will follow the full-day format to allow for as much
discussion as possible amongst the participants. We will divide the
workshop into four parts (pre- and post- break for the morning and
afternoon). During the first session, each participant will give a
very short presentation (duration dependent on number of accepted
participants) explaining his or her research and ideas to the other
participants. To encourage discussion, a "back channel" - a web page
simultaneously editable/viewable by many users - will be available to
participants. During presentations, the other participants will be
encouraged to use the back channel to note directions for further
discussion. After the morning break, we will hold a group discussion
about themes which emerged across the participant's talks. Those
themes will be the focus of the first half of the afternoon's agenda.
There will be 3-5 breakout groups formed to discuss in-depth some of
the ideas and issues that were noted during the morning. In the
remaining time, the participants will be brought back together, and a
representative from each group will present the results of the
discussion and talk about future opportunities.
Organizers
==========
Daniel Ashbrook, Ph.D.
----------------------
Daniel Ashbrook is a Senior Researcher in New Mobile Forms and
Experiences at Nokia Research Center Hollywood. He received his
Ph.D. in Computer Science from the Georgia Institute of Technology
in 2009. In over a decade of research in mobile technology, he has
concentrated on the creation and usability of new wearable and
on-body technologies. His thesis concentrated on microinteractions
- interactions with a device that take fewer than four seconds to
complete.
Kent Lyons, Ph.D.
-----------------
Kent Lyons is a Research Scientist at Intel Labs in Santa Clara.
Kent received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the Georgia
Institute of Technology in 2005. His research interests are focused
on the interaction issues surrounding mobile, ubiquitous, and
wearable computing. He has performed research examining and
overcoming the limitations brought about by mobile devices; and more
broadly, is interested in the integration of HCI and mobile devices
and their use to enhance everyday life.
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