Transcript No Slide Title

Getting Physical
Saul Greenberg
University of Calgary
Canada
Ubiquitous Computing
Mark Weiser (Xerox Parc):
 A less-traveled path I call the invisible; its highest ideal is
to make a computer so imbedded, so fitting, so natural, that
we use it without even thinking about it.
 Provide hundreds of wireless computing devices per person per office,
of all scales (from 1" displays to wall sized)….This is different from
PDA's, dynabooks, or information at your fingertips. It is invisible,
everywhere computing that does not live on a personal device of any
sort, but is in the woodwork everywhere.
 Invisible Everywhere Computing
 invisible: tiny, embedded, attachable…
 everywhere: wireless, dynamically configurable, remote access, adapting…
Ubicomp is Situated Computing
Makes use of simple
shared context
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space
time
proximity
affordances
Participation in the
context
 is physical
 is out here with us
 is in many small and
large places, including
trivial ones
Extracted from Mark Weiser’s UbiqCom web site
Extracted from Mark Weiser’s UbiqCom web site
Technology trends for Ubicomp
Displays
 very small (inches) to very large (walls)
Processors:
 cheap, small, dedicated, microprocessors
Low Power
 small batteries, solar (?)
Wireless
 Wireless ethernet, infrared, mobile standards, Bluetooth (in-room), inbuilding, metropolitan
Operating systems
 Linux on a chip, Windows CE, …
Packaging
 non-conventional devices
Modified from Mark Weiser’s UbiqCom web site
Extracted from Mark Weiser’s UbiqCom web site
Extracted from Mark Weiser’s UbiqCom web site
ParcTab
Mobile hardware
 infrared
 room-sized cells
 location information
Device
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small case with belt clip, ½ size of PDAs
touch sensitive 128x64 pixels display
3 finger-operated mechanical buttons (chorded)
piezo-electric speaker
low power needs (~ 1 week between charges )
Can be used in either hand
 rotates display
Extracted from Mark Weiser’s UbiqCom web site
Tangible Media
Hiroshi Ishii (MIT)
 Tangible Bits gives physical form to digital
information, seamlessly coupling the dual worlds of
bits and atoms.
 Tangible User Interfaces employ physical objects,
surfaces, and spaces as tangible embodiments of digital
information.
 These include foreground interactions with graspable
objects and augmented surfaces, exploiting the human
senses of touch and kinesthesia.
 Background information displays use "ambient media"
-- ambient light, sound, airflow, and water movement-that communicate digitally-mediated senses of activity
and presence at the periphery of human awareness.
Adapted from Tangible Media Group web site
Pinwheels
Extracted from Tangible Media Group web site
SenseTable
A system for tracking the
positions and states of multiple
objects wirelessly on a flat
surface.
Objects can be equipped with
various controls -- dials or
buttons -- which can be
monitored in real-time.
. When coupled with a projector,
the system can display
information about the objects on
or near the objects themselves.
Extracted from Tangible Media Group web site
Bottles
Bottles: opening and closing
bottles is the primary mode
of interaction with digital
contents e.g., opening it tells
a story
Music bottles: movement
and uncorking of the bottles
controls the different sound
tracks and the patterns of
colored light that are rearprojected onto the tables
translucent surface.
Extracted from Tangible Media Group web site
Triangles
When the pieces connect together,
they can trigger digital events.
These events can influence the
progress of a non-linear story, or
allow users to organize media
elements in order to create their
own story space.
Extracted from Tangible Media Group web site
TouchCounters
Computational tags track the
usage of physical objects.
TouchCounters sense activity
through magnetic,
acceleration, and infrared
sensors, and indicate their
status on bright LED
displays.
TouchCounters can be
networked to a web server
that generates use histograms
for each object.
Extracted from Tangible Media Group web site
HandScape
A vectorizing digital tape
measure for digitizing field
measurements, and
visualizing the volume of the
resulting vectors with
computer graphics.
Using embedded orientationsensing hardware, it captures
relevant vectors on each
linear measurements and
transmits this data wirelessly
to a remote computer in realtime.
Extracted from Tangible Media Group web site
Personal Ambient Display
Small, physical devices worn
to display information to a
person in a subtle, persistent,
and private manner.
Ambient information is
displayed solely through
tactile modalities such as
heating and cooling,
movement and vibration, and
change of shape.
Extracted from Tangible Media Group web site
InTouch
Force-feedback technology is
employed to create the
illusion that people,
separated by distance, are
interacting with a shared
physical object.
When one of the rollers is
rotated, the corresponding
roller on the other distant
object rotates in the same
way. Two people separated
by distance can then play…
Extracted from Tangible Media Group web site
PingPong Plus
features a "reactive table"
that incorporates sensing,
sound, and projection
technologies.
Projectors display patterns of
light and shadow on the
table; bouncing balls leave
images of rippling water; and
the rhythm of play drives
accompanying music and
visuals.
Extracted from Tangible Media Group web site
Marble Answering Machine
Incoming voice messages are
physically instantiated as
marbles.
The user can grasp the
message (marble) and drop it
into an indentation in the
machine to play the message.
The user can also place the
marble onto an augmented
telephone, thus dialing the
caller automatically.
Durrell Bishop
Bench
…two cold steel benches located in
different cities. When a person sits
on one of these benches, a
corresponding position on the other
bench warms, and a bi-directional
sound channel is opened. At the
other location, after feeling the
bench for "body heat," another
person can decide to make contact
by sitting near the warmth. Initially
the sound channel is distorted, but
as the second party lingers, the
audio channel clears.
--summarized by Ishii and Ullmer
Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby at the RCA
Ambient Light Display
light reflection from
water onto ceiling
Roomware
Computer-augmented room elements
 like doors, walls, furniture (e.g. tables and
chairs) with integrated information and
communication technology.
From the GMD Darmstadt
web site on I-Land
Roomware
Dynawall
From the GMD Darmstadt web site on I-Land
Roomware
CommChair
From the GMD Darmstadt web site on I-Land
Roomware
ConnecTable
By moving multiple ConnecTables
together, they can be arranged to
form a large display area. Integrated
sensors measure the distance
between the ConnecTables and
initiate the automatic coupling of
the displays
From the GMD Darmstadt web site on I-Land
Roomware
InteracTable
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touch-sensitive plasma-display (PDP) is integrated into the table top
Border for leaning…
From the GMD Darmstadt web site on I-Land
Phillips –
Intelligent Information Surfaces
Tokens
From the Philips Lime Video CD
Designing out of the box
The problem:
 programming / designing with physical devices is hard
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circuit design (electrical engineering)
microprocessor interface to digital/analog devices
‘wire’ interface (serial, USB, wireless, IR…)
wire protocol
connection/disconnection/intermittent connectivity
software to use devices
maintenance and extensibility
 simple things take a long time to do
 most people don’t bother
Solution 1: Interdisciplinary team
Proximity detector
ultrasonic sensor
Works, but…
 Still takes time
 When one of the team
leaves, knowledge is
lost
 systems hard to
maintain &
extend
Hydra unit
video, camera,
speakers, microphone
Rotating figurine
servo motor
Tippable figurine
light sensors
Solution 2: Hack existing devices
Programmable Embodied
Agents (Kaminsky et al)
 hacked Microsoft Actimates
Solution 2: Hack existing devices
Programmable Embodied
Agents (Kaminsky et al)
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Arm position -> quantity
Squeezing hand/leg -> counting
Movement-> task progress
Proxy for other person
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squeeze hand, other’s hand goes up)
Event monitoring
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Signal document is printing, then complete
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Barney Email biff
Solution 3: Phidgets
Physical Widgets
 simple, easy to program devices and
component-based software with well-defined
API
 building blocks for physical interfaces
 analogous to GUI widgets
Phidget Examples
GlabServo:
 Control 1 or 2 servo motors
Glab Powerbar
 Control power state of outlets on a power bar
Glab InterfaceKit
 8 simple input and outputs plus 2 sensors
 A constructor kit
Glab ProximitySensor
 Returns how close something is to it
Glab MotionDetector
 Periodically returns the amount of motion in a space
Related areas
Mobile Computing
Augmented Reality
Context-aware computing
Reactive Environments
Ubiquitous Media
Cooperative Buildings