Mobile and Location-Based Services Jason I. Hong Product Design and Usability April

The Big Picture Mobile Social Computing –inTouch: Coordination for Families and Small Groups –Whisper Mobile: Coordinating groups for social events Large-scale mobile collaboration –Hitchhiking: Estimating “busyness” of places Key themes: –Usable privacy and security –Location-based services –Mobility –Greater awareness of people and places

The Big Picture Mobile Social Computing –inTouch: Coordination for Families and Small Groups –Whisper Mobile: Coordinating groups for social events Large-scale mobile collaboration –Hitchhiking: Estimating “busyness” of places Key themes: –Usable privacy and security –Location-based services –Mobility –Greater awareness of people and places

inTouch: Coordination for Families Make it easier to coordinate with others while mobile –Better awareness and messaging Target Users: Small to med. groups of people Fluid and demanding schedule Multiple responsibilities Examples: Dual-career families Work groups Ad hoc (ex. conferences) Carpools Mobility AwarenessMessaging

Dual-Career Families Coordination breakdowns inevitable –Children’s activities change without notice –Parent’s meetings run over –Impromptu appointments –Unexpected traffic Result: –High levels of anxiety –Some parents fear about “forgetting” their children Need support for awareness and improvisation

inTouch: Coordination for Families Two week field study with six dual-career families

Check, Double Check, Triple Check

Key Transition Times

inTouch: Coordination for Families Make it easier to coordinate with others while mobile –Better awareness –Contextual messaging Combines: Shared calendar Shared todo lists Reminders Real-time location Proximity

Project: InTouch It’s 4:30pm and Mom is stuck in traffic inTouch checks her calendar and sees she’s supposed to pick up Cindy from ballet

Project: InTouch Mom’s phone senses that she is in a traffic jam, and automatically prepares a status message Mom hits “send”, and Cindy sees that Mom is running late. Cindy decides to wait inside.

Contextual Messaging Using current context to: –Select a message template –Fill in the blanks (like a MadLib) –In most cases, can just hit “send” When is contextual messaging useful? –Calendar alarms “running late, will be there in ” –Current activity “in a meeting now, done at ” –Daily rhythms “picked up kid ok” at 3PM –Messages received “where r u?” -> “I am at ”

Contextual Messaging Messaging can be linked to calendar or reminders –S: Can you get dinner tonight? –J: Ok, I will pick up __________ on my way home –Activate as a reminder when you leave work Message easy to select around 4PM Fill in the blank based on patterns and what’s near your home

Example Mockups Currently developing working prototypes

The Big Picture Mobile Social Computing –inTouch: Coordination for Families and Small Groups –Whisper Mobile: Coordinating groups for social events Large-scale mobile collaboration –Hitchhiking: Estimating “busyness” of places Key themes: –Usable privacy and security –Location-based services –Mobility –Greater awareness of people and places

Whisper Mobile Goal: Make it easy to find, share, and coordinate friends going to social events

Whisper Mobile: Creating an Event Minimal text input –Use location –Use audio –Use camera

Continuing Work Developing working prototype of web site and mobile –Web crawler for finding social events –Web site to coordinate on scale of weeks and days Link with inTouch –Coordinate friends –See who’s late, where we’re going next –Mobile to coordinate on scale of hours and minutes

The Big Picture Mobile Social Computing –inTouch: Coordination for Families and Small Groups –Whisper Mobile: Coordinating groups for social events Large-scale mobile collaboration –Hitchhiking: Estimating “busyness” of places Key themes: –Usable privacy and security –Location-based services –Mobility –Greater awareness of people and places

Project: Hitchhiking Most location-based services about where you are Hitchhiking is about the “busyness” of places –“Is the café busy?” –“How long are the lines at the airport?” –“Where’s an empty room?” –Is there any parking at the shopping district?

Project: Hitchhiking Estimate number of people in a place by counting the number of wireless devices there Periodically upload count + location to our servers Other people can query our servers

Project: Hitchhiking How well does Hitchhiking work?

Project: Hitchhiking Privacy? –Upload anonymized counts only –Upload from approved places only –Our server shows “busyness” of a place only Advantages –Cheap, uses existing devices (everyone is a “sensor”) –Deployable, don’t have to set up lots of new sensors –Privacy What’s next? –Map visualizations

Lots of Large-Scale Mobile Apps Gawker Stalker

Lots of Large-Scale Mobile Apps One-way Matchmaking

Project: Hitchhiking Current implementation on laptops + wifi Place Lab WiFi positioning system calculates location –Unique WiFi MAC Address  Latitude, Longitude ABC –Works indoors and in urban canyons –Works with encrypted nodes –No special equipment –Privacy-sensitive –Rides the WiFi wave

Popular Concept Scenarios

Project: Hitchhiking