1. Introduction to UbiComp
Hao-Hua Chu
UbiComp Lab
Graduate Institute of Networking & Multimedia
Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering
National Taiwan University

2. What is Ubiquitous (Pervasive) Computing?
Bring computing into our everyday activities in the physical world
What is the most natural way to access & interact with the bits in the digital world?
PCs with keyboard & mouse, monitors?
Mobile phones with tiny keypad & tiny screen?
Digital TVs?
Game consoles?
Digital Watches?
Combination of all of them?
Ubicomp not useful for some of my students

3. Natural interaction with the bits (digital world)
Maybe not through any of these unfamiliar digital access devices!
What if familiar physical objects can also become our interface to the digital world?
Desk, wall, floor, chair, fridge, papers, bed,
As if computing devices have disappeared …
Interaction with the digital world is through interaction in the physical world.
Access digital domain through physical world

4. Ubicomp Applied to Healthcare
What is the natural way of delivering online/Internet care to elders at home?
PC-like devices (Notebook PCs, PDAs, cell phones, etc.)?
Elders’ ADLs do not naturally involve PC-like devices
But naturally involve everyday objects in their physical surrounding
Example: good-dietary service
Create an information website?
Built into a dining table
Elders are not going to sit in front of a computer, they are not look at small screen on cell phone or PDAs with small keypad

5. Invisible and Disappearing Computer (Weiser)
Why invisible and disappearing”?
Technology makes lives easier or more difficult (for ordinary people)?
“Usability “ and “simplicity”
Better with nothing-never-nowhere computing
Are you going to spend more (frustration) time “operating machines” or enjoy living?

6. Invisible and Disappearing Computer (Weiser)
Unless necessary, don’t make people operate complex machines to get digital services.
Project Aura (CMU) “The most precious resource in a computer system is .. User Attention. Today's systems distract a user in many explicit and implicit ways, thereby reducing his/her effectiveness.”
Are you going to spend more (frustration) time “operating machines” or enjoy living?

7. Smart Everyday Objects
How to make computing invisible and disappearing?
Hide computing into everyday objects
Embed computing into familiar everyday objects
computing, sensing, and networking capabilities
Everyday objects understand you & environment (context-aware computing).
Context = 5Ws (who – when – where – what – how)

8. Smart Everyday Objects (Examples)
Posture Chair (MIT media lab)
Bionic Running Shoes (Adidas)
Moving Portrait (MIT media lab)

9. More Examples of Smart Objects
History table cloth (EU Equator)
Emotional Décor (NYU)
I/O Brush (MIT)
History table cloth (memory)

10. Surface Computing (Microsoft Research)
A new way that is so familiar to us.
A new way that isn’t really new.

11. Maybe not so smart objects
Casio Color Wrist Camera
Dada MP3 player shoes
LG Internet fridge
Credit Card Barbie Doll (from Accenture)

12. Would you buy it for twice the price?
Please Vote

13. LED Display Cloth

14. A Wearable Display for Team Sports (U. of Sydney)

16. Topobo (MIT)

17. Blendie (MIT)
A “sensitive” blender that can express emotion.

18. Case Studies Diet-aware Dining Table (PERVASIVE 2006)
Geta Sandals (Personal & Ubiquitous Computing)
Object Locator Ring & Watch

19. Case Study 1: Diet-aware Dining Table Detect what and how much you eat from the table
Sensing to recognize behavior
Combine weight sensor and RFID sensors to track food transfer among containers
Interaction
Natural user eating behaviors become system input (no need to operate any devices).
How do you design a user interface without affecting one’s appetite?
We are exploring using computers that not only can sense our behavior, but also influence and change our behavior for better living.
We have experiment this concept by constructing a persuasive smart object – a lunch trary.
The tray can sense a child’s eating behavior using sensors underneath the tray. Over the tray, a projector projects an interactive game. The game takes inputs of eating actions and tries to persuade the child to eat all foods placed on the tray. The game is about coloring a cartoon character. Each bowl of food corresponds to one color. As a child eats on type of food, a part of the cartoon character is colored. To make the cartoon character fully colored, the child needs to eat all the foods on the tray.
We are working with behavior psychologist … food preferences are developed at young age. We dislike a food because we never try it, or eat enough to become accustomed to its taste.

20. Diet-Aware Dining Table: Single Interaction Example
Bob pours tea from the tea pot to personal cup, and drinks it
Put on tea pot.
RFID tag appears
Weight increases ∆w3
Pour tea!
|∆w3 - ∆w1 | ≈ ∆w2
Pick up tea pot.
RFID tag disappears
Weight decreases ∆w1
Pour tea?
Weight increases ∆w2.

21. Case Study 2: Geta Sandals Shoes (Slippers) that track where you walk
Track people’s locations with minimal infrastructure in the deployed environment
Footstep-based localization
Error accumulation (1~10%)
Location-aware RFID tags d1 d2

23. Case Study 3: Object Locator Ring (Watch) Track locations of everyday things
Where did I put these everyday things?
Glasses, cell phones, wallets, keys, remote controls, …
Track locations of everyday things
RFID reader on ring
RFID tags on everyday objects
Ultrasonic Indoor location systems (MIT Cricket)

24. How does it work? Assumption: Picking up phone: Carrying the phone:
Most objects are moved by hands
Picking up phone:
Phone presence (RFID tag) detected by the ring antenna
Carrying the phone:
Continuous presence (on-hand)
Non-presence (pocket-it)
Dropping the phone:
Phone presence (RFID tag) not detected by ring antenna
Location of the object?

25. Part II: Persuasive Objects
(Smart environment, smarter people)

26. Persuasive Computing
Consider a frequent “ where are my (misplaced) things?” person …
Possible solutions
Build an object location tracker
Build a beeper that remind misplaced objects
Which one is more effective use of technology?

27. Can digital technology be used to help us …
Eat healthy
Exercise more
Drive safely
Quit smoking
Become more tidy
Control spending
Dress style

28. Persuasive computing (objects)
Baby Think It Over
Textrix VR Bike
Slot Machine
Smart Tachograph (ETH) 20

29. Case Studies Playful tray (UbiComp 2007) Playful toothbrush (CHI 2008)
Mug-Tree (UbiComp 2007)
Nutritional-aware kitchen (CHI 2007, PERSUASIVE 2008)
Clean-your-room poster
ChroMirror (CHI 2008)
Mug-Forest (New)

30. Case Study 1: Playful Tray Encourage good eating habit in young children
Sense to recognize behavior
Weight sensor underneath the tray to sense eating actions
Eating actions as game input
Play to engage behavior change
Interactive games: coloring cartoon character or penguin fishing
User study on 4 children (autistic)

31. Case Study 2: Playful Toothbrush Encourage proper and thorough brushing for young children
Bad teeth for young children with cognitive impairments)
Sense to recognize behavior
Webcam to detect brushing motions
Brushing actions are game input
Play to engage behavior change
Start with a mirror image of dirty teeth.
Physical brushing maps to virtual plaque removal
User study on 13 kindergarten children
Brush extension
Web camera for tracking brushing motions
Camera #2 to record videos for later human analysis
Brushing game

32. Case Study 3: Mug-Tree Encourage healthy habit of drinking fluid regularly
Sense to recognize behavior
Tilt sensor to detect drinking actions
Drinking actions are game inputs
Play to engage behavior change
Game metaphor: hydrating/dehydrating body -> watering/drying a tree

33. Case Study 4: Nutrition-aware Kitchen Raise awareness of nutritional fact to everyday family cooks
Sense to recognize behavior
Combine weight and camera sensors to detect cooking actions (change food ingredients)
Voice input for food ingredient label
Food ingredients -> meal calories
Play to engage behavior change
Overcooking calories -> overweight on a family member
Imbalance the seesaw board -> big boulder sliding down

34. Case Study 4: Nutrition-aware Kitchen Raise awareness of nutritional fact to everyday family cooks
User study on 3 family cooks
Figure 7. User interface of Calorie-aware Kitchen, including (a) overview of calorie in the system; (b) recommended calorie needs and current used calories; (c) a calorie-aware game with a beloved family member to bring enjoyment of calorie control
(c)
(a)
(b)
recommended calorie needs
current calorie in use in total
calorie of finished course
name of ingredients, total calorie in this container, and the most recent calorie change

35. Case Study 5: Clean-your-room poster Persuade young children to put things back where they belong after using them
Sense to recognize behavior
RFID sensors to check if things were put back in the shelf
Play to engage behavior change
Misplaced things -> trash in the virtual world
Using child's sympathy for the animal to persuade the child to put things back to where they belong.

36. Case Study 6: ChroMirror Persuade people to explore more colorful dressing
Sense to recognize dress & dressing color
Camera and Computer Vision
Play to engage behavior change
Easily and playfully explore & experiment with how different clothing color look on people

37. Case Study 7: Mug-Forest
Can a mobile phone do more than a notebook PC?
Mobility (always with a user), small form factor,
Can a mobile phone be extended for non-verbal communication?

38. Case Study 7: Mug-Forest Use social pressure for persuasion
Sense to recognize drinking action
Accelerometer (in a phone) to detect drinking action
Camera to detect water level
Play to use “social pressure” to engage behavior change
Computer-mediated human persuasion, not computer persuasion

39. Questions & Answers Check out our projects & papers
NTU Ubicomp Lab