Operators in Process Industry: Interaction with Wearable Computers

Field operators need access to and interaction with more information than is available today during field operations. Wearable computers can provide relevant information with hands-free interaction techniques to support work tasks in the field. Potential implications of introducing wearable computers are collaboration, information overload, situation awareness and social relationships. Interaction techniques between humans are natural and well known and include voice, gestures, eye movements and biopotentials. Voice is a promising interaction technique for wearable computers, assuming improvements for rough and noisy environments. Wearable computers may change the roles and responsibilities while providing extended support for communication and collaboration. Field operators will be better prepared to prevent failures and secure quality. Control room operators will perform more administrative and management tasks. Correspondence and offprint requests to: C. Skourup, ABB AS, Corporate Research Center, Bergerveien 12, PO Box 90, N-1375 Billingstad, Norway. Email: charlotte.skourup@no.abb.com     

Patterns of Mobile Interaction

The design of systems for mobile scenarios covers a wide range of issues, ranging from mobile networking to user interface design for mobile devices. Mobile applications often run distributed on several connected devices, used by many users simultaneously. Considering all issues related to mobile scenarios, a designer might be overwhelmed. As a solution, we propose a specific kind of design patterns which we call mobility patterns, derived from successful mobile applications. They allow a designer to re-use design elements as building blocks in their own designs. After describing the idea of mobility patterns, we give a brief overview of patterns we have identified so far. Two patterns are described in more detail with the help of our research platforms QuickStep and Pocket DreamTeam.     

The Mobile Phone: An Identity on the Move

This paper analyses the shifting identity of the mobile phone in the light of research carried out in 1996 on a representative population sample from five major European countries: Italy, UK, France, Germany and Spain. A total of 6609 people were interviewed by means of a telephone survey. The mobile phone emerged as a charismatic technology compared to other mobile technologies (laptop and car phone) and as a leading technology that, in just a few years, has appropriated 11% of total telephone traffic. It has “dragged” its widespread presence and amount of use from the workplace to the domestic sphere, although in Italy, where it has had greatest success, its widespread use has been detached from its use in the workplace. Another emerging result is that the use of the mobile phone is not correlated to strong residential mobility in individuals.     

RSVP Browser: Web Browsing on Small Screen Devices

In this paper, we illustrate the use of space-time trade-offs for information presentation on small screens. We propose the use of Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP) to provide a rich set of navigational information for Web browsing. The principle of RSVP browsing is applied to the development of a Web browser for small screen devices, the RSVP browser. The results of an experiment in which Web browsing with the RSVP browser is compared with that of a typical WAP browser suggests that RSVP browsing may indeed offer alternative to other forms of Web browsing on small screen devices.     

Customizing Graphics for Tiny Displays of Mobile Devices

Advances in mobile devices and wireless telecommunication infrastructure already provide mobile users with access to online information sources and services. Compared to the PC world, however, mobile access is still quite restricted, especially with regard to the display of graphical representations, such as images, drawings, diagrams, maps and logos. Since graphical representations are increasingly used in the World Wide Web for the purpose of information presentation, the adaptation of graphics for tiny displays is a challenge that should not be neglected. The current contribution discusses several transformation approaches which might be employed to accomplish this adaptation task.     

Configuring the Mobile User: Sociological and Industry Views

This article considers the role of the consumer in the diffusion of mobile telecommunications technologies. There is presently little research on the consumption and use of mobile technologies, and the aim of the present paper is to facilitate discussion about the way consumer behaviour is currently understood in industry and academia. The paper considers key themes in social science research on mobile ICTs, and understandings of the consumer held by those in the mobile industry. Bringing these understandings together, we reiterate the now well attested view that the diffusion and consumption of mobile telephony and computing cannot be understood without investigating the contexts and processes of their use in everyday life.     

Negotiating Use: Making Sense of Mobile Technology

This paper is based on a study of the ways in which a group negotiated the use of a new mobile technology. The group was made up of ski instructors who, during a one-week ski trip, were equipped with a mobile awareness device called the Hummingbird. The group was studied using ethnomethodologically inspired qualitative methods, with the focus on the group members’ different views of the Hummingbird’s intended use. Negotiations of use occurred using two methods: talk and action. The users negotiated issues such as where and when to use the technology, and whether to consider the Hummingbird a work tool or a gadget for social events. Further, the empirical results clearly show how negotiations of new, mobile technology differ from stationary technology.     

Context Awareness and Mobile Phones

This paper investigates some aspects of how context-awareness can support users of mobile phones, in particular the calling party. The use of mobile and stationary phones is discussed in relation to situational properties of a phone conversation, especially with regards to who might benefit from context-awareness in this context. An initial hypothesis is that mobile phone users communicate context information to each other (verbally) to a much higher degree than do stationary phone users. Mobile phone users could benefit much from context awareness technology, in particular when about to make a call, if they can receive context information regarding the person they are trying to reach prior to establishing the call. We argue that such technology should require low amounts of explicit user interaction, and could lead to less disrupting calls in inappropriate moments, as well as less frustration for the calling party when a call is not answered.     

User and Concept Studies as Tools in Developing Mobile Communication Services for the Elderly

The basis of this study was the ageing of the population all over the world. The study concentrated on finding out the key service needs of elderly people. The service needs from the end users’ as well as the experts’ perspective were gathered by means of various group methods such ideation sessions. Four mobile communication service concepts were created using these groups’ opinions. After diverse communication, these concepts were tested by the elderly. The research methods comprised a user study and a concept study.  Based on the results, the needs could be prioritised. Additionally, the main trend of the results confirmed the opinions presented in the literature. One important finding was the positive opinions about additional value of wireless devices and services. This knowledge can be used in mobile communication product development. Most of the elderly are ready to accept new forms of mobile communication service. Ease of use and actual need of the services are important criteria. The elderly are ready to begin using the services as long as they truly facilitate independent living.     

Citywide: Supporting Interactive Digital Experiences Across Physical Space

The Citywide project is exploring ways in which technology can provide people with rich and engaging digital experiences as they move through physical space, including historical experiences, performances and games. This paper describes some initial results and experiences with this project based upon two prototype demonstrators. In the first, we describe an application in which a search party explores an archaeological site, uncovering enacted scenes within the virtual world that are of a historical relevance to their particular physical location. In the second, we describe a museum experience where participants explore an outdoors location, hunting for buried virtual artifacts that they then bring back to a museum for a more detailed study. Our demonstrators employ a varied set of devices, including mobile wireless interfaces for locating hotspots of virtual activity when outdoors, to give different experiences of the virtual world depending upon location, task, available equipment and accuracy of tracking. We conclude by discussing some of the potential advantages of using an underlying shared virtual world to support interactive experiences across extended physical settings.     

Accessing Context in Wearable Computers

We present an easy interaction technique for accessing location-based contextual data shown on a head-worn wearable computer display. Our technique, called Context Compass, is based on a regular compass metaphor. Each object belonging to the user’s current context is visualised on a linear compass shown on the screen. The object directly in front of the user is shown in the middle of the compass and can be activated. Whenever the user turns his or her head, the objects on the screen move accordingly. Therefore, an object can be selected by simply turning one’s head towards it. Context Compass consumes a minimal amount of screen space, making it ideal for usage with see-through head-worn displays. An initial pilot study, applying a newly developed usability method customised especially for Context Compass, revealed that Context Compass can be learned virtually immediately. Further, the method itself proved to be successful in evaluating techniques such as Context Compass.     

The Design and Implementation of a Mobile Learning Resource

The convergence of mobile communications and handheld computers offers the opportunity to develop technology that will assist individuals and groups to learn anytime, anywhere. We describe the theory-informed design, implementation and evaluation of a handheld learning device. It is intended to support children to capture everyday events such as images, notes and sounds, to relate them to web-based learning resources, to organise these into a visual knowledge map, and to share them with other learners and teachers. A working prototype system, for children aged 9–11, is discussed and evaluated, as an exemplar of personal mobile systems for life-long learning.     

Evaluating Interface Design Choices on WAP Phones: Navigation and Selection

Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) phones are a growing relevant part of the mobile market, and the number of WAP services offered is rapidly increasing. Usability is crucial for these services, which must be easily operated on small screens and keyboards. Unfortunately, there are very few published studies on the evaluation of WAP devices and services on users. This paper presents a user study that evaluates two important interface design choices for WAP services (implementation of single-choice selection, and navigation among the different cards of a WAP site), neither of which has been investigated thoroughly in the literature or in design practice.     

Mobile Devices as Props in Daily Role Playing

Mobile devices such as cameras or mobile phones can be used as props; actively to convey a specific impression to people in the vicinity and to feel better when interacting with them. Based on field studies and interviews, three aspects of users acting with mobile devices are described: warm versus cold devices; how a mobile device conveys a specific impression by association to similar devices and specific situations of use; and how the characteristics of a mobile device may open or restrict the body language of the user.     

Composite Device Computing Environment: A Framework for Situated Interaction Using Small Screen Devices

Contemporary small screen devices are used as personal companion or communication devices. However, their physical dimensions constrain the processing, communication and user interface capabilities. Thus, rich content presentation and diverse service access via small screen appliances is limited accordingly. This paper introduces the Composite Device Computing Environment (CDCE) that provides a framework for dynamically detecting and utilising surrounding computing resources to overcome the small screen device limitations. CDCE includes the communication infrastructure in addition to supporting alternative models for interactivity between small screen clients and surrounding computing resources.     

Discovery and Integration of Mobile Communications in Everyday Life

We report on the results of a study in which 19 new mobile telephone users were closely tracked for the first six weeks after service acquisition. Results show that novices tend to rapidly modify their perceptions of social appropriateness around mobile phone use, that actual nature of use frequently differs from initial predictions, and that comprehension of service-based technologies can be problematic. We also describe instances and features of mobile telephony practice. When in use, mobile phones occupy multiple social spaces simultaneously, spaces with norms that sometimes conflict: the physical space of the mobile phone user and the virtual space of the conversation.     

Location Models from the Perspective of Context-Aware Applications and Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

Location models are crucial for providing location-dependent data to context-aware applications. In this paper, we present two approaches for modeling location information taken from an infrastructure-based and an ad hoc network-based application scenario. From these approaches we derive requirements for a general location modeling language for ubiquitous computing. Correspondence to: M. Bauer, Fakult?t Informatik, Universit?t Stuttgart, Breitwiesenstr. 20-22, D-70565 Stuttgart, Germany. Email: mabauer@informatik.uni-stuttgart.de     

What are a Location’s “File” and “Edit” Menus?

The promise of mobile devices lies not in their capacity to duplicate the capabilities of desktop machines, but rather in their promise of enabling location-specific tasks. One of the challenges that must be addressed if they are to be used in this way is how intuitive interfaces for mobile devices can be designed that enable access to location-specific services usable across locations. We are developing a prototype mobile valet application that presents location-specific services organised around the tasks associated with a location. The basic elements of the interface exploits commonalties in the way we address tasks at various locations just as the familiar “file” and “edit” menus in various software applications exploit regularities in software tasks.     

The Human Communication Space: Towards I-centric Communications

In the last few years, a variety of concepts for service integration and corresponding systems have been developed. On the one hand, they aim for the interworking and integration of classical telecommunications and data communications services. On the other, they are focusing on universal service access from a variety of end-user systems. Many of the technical problems, resulting from the service integration, and service personalisation have been solved during the last years. However, all these systems are driven by the concept of providing several technologies to users by keeping the peculiarity of each service.  Looking at humans’ communication behaviour and their communication space, it is obvious that human beings interact habitually in a set of contexts with their environment. The individual information preferences and needs, persons to interact with, and the set of devices controlled by each individual define their personal communication space. Following this view, a new approach is to build communication systems not on the basis of specific technologies, but on the analysis of the individual communication spaces. The result is a communication system adapted to the demands of each individual (I-centric). The communication system will act on behalf of users’ demands, reflecting recent actions to enable profiling and self-adaptation to contexts and situations.  In this paper, we introduce I-centric Communications, an approach to design communication systems that adapt themselves to the individual communication space and individual environment and situation. In this context “I” means I, or individual, “Centric” means adaptable to I requirements and a certain user environment.     

First Person Indoor/Outdoor Augmented Reality Application: ARQuake

This paper presents a first person outdoor/indoor augmented reality application ARQuake that we have developed. ARQuake is an extension of the desktop game Quake, and as such we are investigating how to convert a desktop first person application into an outdoor/indoor mobile augmented reality application. We present an architecture for a low cost, moderately accurate six degrees of freedom tracking system based on GPS, digital compass, and fiducial vision-based tracking. Usability issues such as monster selection, colour, input devices, and multi-person collaboration are discussed.