Casablanca: Designing Social Communication Devices for the Home

1
Casablanca Designing Social Communication
Devices for the Home

• Debby Hindus, Scott D. Mainwaring, Nicole Leduc,
  Anna Elisabeth Hagstrom and Oliver Bayley
• Interval Research Corporation

2
Project Goal

• Incorporate media space concepts into domestic
  environments

3
Influences

• Previous work in computer-mediated communication
  (e.g. awareness, audio-related media spaces)
• Home technologies (e.g. HomeNet)

4
Early Prototypes

• CommuteBoard
• NeighborNet
• KitchenNet

Poor video performance over ISDN
5
CommuteBoard

• Handwriting and audio sensing
• Helping carpool participants arrange their rides
  more effectively
• Feedback pros useful, fun, casual interface.
• Cons audio not informative, handwriting hard to
  read, space limited

6
CommuteBoard

• Conclusions on home-based technology
• Use simple, expressive means to communicate
• Aesthetics are important
• Video and audio need high-speed to be effective

7
Themes

• Household as displays
• Household as sanctuary
• Family life is household priority
• Women are household communicators
• Telephone not adequate
• Design implications focus on aesthetics, family
  life and adult women

8
Concepts

• Awareness-related
• In Touch- thinking of you tokens
• Presence Light linked objects showing activity
  
• Audio Space-related
• RoomLink connects rooms in 2 households via high
  quality audio
• Note and Picture Sharing
• MessageBoard- a way for collocated individuals to
  share notes, photos etc on the same space

9
Feedback

• RoomLink widely regarded as useful Appreciated
  sound quality
• MessageBoard- valued for group coordination,
  artifact sharing abilities
• In Touch fun but not very practical
• Presence Light- perceived as a privacy threat

10
Prototypes

• Intentional Presence Light- share a users
  presence only when activated by user
• Curtain /lampshade devices
• Users choose icons to represent them
• ScanBoard- similar to messageboard using existing
  technology
• Post messages
• Scan pictures
• move/hide notes
• Automatically updated through shared database

11
Prototypes-Results

• IPL valued for Intentionality and aesthetics
• ScanBoard valued for scanning and sharing
• Both valued for Expressiveness and simplicity

12
Conclusions

• Domestic domains are distinct from workplace
  environments, with different goals and priorities
• Media space in homes will span a wide range
• Social communication is a valuable research area
• Let users express themselves, but keep it simple
• Dont make users feel obligated to keep in touch

13
Questions

• Isnt focus group data fundamentally flawed?
• Most of these applications only work if other
  people you know had them also. How will that
  affect popularity? (curse of the videophone)
• Are these applications appealing to men also?
• What happens when things malfunction?

14
At Home with Ubiquitous Computing Seven
Challenges

• W. Keith Edwards and Rebecca E. Grinter
• Computer science laboratory, Xerox Palo Alto
  Research Center

15
Smart Homes

• Definition Domestic environments in which we are
  surrounded by interconnected technologies that
  are responsive to our presence and actions.

16
Aware Home Research Initiative (AHRI)

• Interdisciplinary work at Georgia Tech
• Uses both location-aware and context aware
  technologies
• Challenges in both developing the technology and
  addressing privacy concerns

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AwareHome

• Design for people improve communication, create
  memory aids, home assistants- especially good for
  elderly and homebound
• Examples
• Dudes Magic Box
• Gesture Pendant

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Seven Challenges

• The Accidentally Smart Home
• Impromptu Interoperability
• No Systems Administrator
• Designing for Domestic Use
• Social Implications of Aware Home Technologies
• Reliability
• Inference in the Presence of Ambiguity

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The Accidentally Smart Home

• Existing homes do not have infrastructure in
  place
• Technology will most likely be added piecemeal
• Result Unintended communication btw devices
• How will people understand how to fix problems as
  they arise?
• Design Challenge Provide ways to help users
  understand the capabilities of the technology and
  how to control it

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Impromptu Interoperability

• The ability to interconnect without advance
  planning
• How do we solve Issues with incompatible
  device/software?
• Challenge every device must be programmed to
  understand every device it may ever encounter or
  need to connect with
• Standards may help devices connect with a class
  of devices but not every individual one
• Need new models of connectivity (e.g. CoolTown,
  Speakeasy)

21
No Systems Administrator

• Computers in home users become system
  administrators
• Home networks add increased workload and
  complexity to admin tasks
• Challenge dont require expert level knowledge
  to use system
• How can small devices provide rich interaction
  without sacrificing simplicity?
• How do we design for remote diagnosis and support
  while preventing unwanted parties from using it?

22
Designing for Domestic Use

• Vendors and users find it hard to predict in what
  context people will use technology
• Most home devices shared, rules dictate use
• Best technology are the most flexible
• Smart technology will be disruptive in domestic
  environment
• Challenge Designing Technology that can adapt
  to domestic routines

23
Social Implications of Aware Home Technologies

• Labor saving devices really labor-changing
  reduce work time initially, but increases
  expectations
• Good parenting- discussion of values regarding
  technology use can lead to broader debates( e.g.
  V chip)
• Privacy issues

24
Reliability

• Existing domestic technology very reliable
• Different development culture- wary of bugs, hard
  to implement patches, upgrades
• Different technological approaches bulk of
  functionality placed on network, not device
  utility approach)
• Different market expectations-appliances so
  reliable, not seen as complex systems
• Different regulations- safety, service standards
  in place
• Challenge Achieving expected level of
  reliability need adequate time and resources

25
Inference in the Presence of Ambiguity

• Technology that assists/predicts human behavior,
  not well received
• How smart does a smart home need to be to be
  useful and successful?
• Machine inference- greater possibility of error
• If inference is required, models of actions and
  preferences must be built
• Challenge Ensure ambiguity is not hidden from
  users or parts of system that need to access it
• Inference needs to be predictable and recoverable

26
Conclusion

• Homes not currently designed to be smart
• Need a balance between reliability and
  Interoperability
• Social impact of technology hard to predict
• Big question How smart does the smart home need
  to be? Smartness makes it disruptive to users,
  unpredictable

27
Questions

• How will these technologies affect the home as
  sanctuary belief?
• How expensive would these systems be to set up,
  even if they were built in to a new house?
• Will there ever be enough demand to warrant
  standards in connectivity?
• How will Smart homes change communication within
  families?
• Because routines are so personal and unique, how
  do we design a system to adapt seamlessly?