Visualisation of spectator activity at stadium events
Alistair Morrison, Marek Bell, Matthew Chalmers
Proc. Information Visualization 2009, iv, pp.219-226

Recent advances in mobile device technology have opened up new possibilities in enhancing the experience of spectators at stadium-based sporting events. In creating novel applications for use in such settings, designers must be aware of the current practices of spectators and of features of the environment at such events that novel applications may seek to exploit. This work forms an early part of the Designing the Augmented Stadium project. Data sets have been collected from spectators, logging the results of Bluetooth scans alongside GPS location. This paper presents an information visualisation tool that can be used in the analysis and exploration of this data, to provide insight into the activities of spectators, the relationship between an individual spectator and the crowd as a whole and the suitability of stadium environments for applications based on infrastructure such as mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) and wireless mesh networking. Various visualisation tools are described and example cases are illustrated, using several real-world data sets recorded at football matches.

The Appropriation of Information and Communication Technology: A Cross-Cultural Perspective
Jose Rojas and Matthew Chalmers
Proc. HCI International 2009, pp. 687-696, published as LNCS 5610.

One of the long standing concerns of the HCI field is to facilitate the introduction of new information and communication technology (ICT) into society by lowering the barriers they might experience through an ongoing cycle of design, development and refinement of features in ICT. Interest in this problem seems to arise from a preoccupation with the fast-paced change of technological development and the seemingly limited ability of society to cope with this deluge of change. The study of such a phenomenon broadly falls within what has been termed the appropriation of ICT. Appropriation is here understood as the “processes by which individuals and communities consciously take both conceptual and operational control of an idea, a tool, a technology, etc. within the context of their real and perceived culture”. It could be argued that in the HCI field there is an assumption that by achieving the right combination of features in a new technology (i.e., a device, system, service, etc.) it is possible to produce a technology that can be “naturally” appropriated. This view of appropriation as a single trait that can be captured and endowed upon new ICT seems to prevent us from considering a wider range of influences that might affect this process. Conversely, this crusade to find the technology that can be seamlessly appropriated does not say anything about the fact that many people, every day, continue using certain technologies like mobile phones, mp3 players, IM clients, the Internet and, of course, computers, regardless of their proficiency operating them. It seems to be there are other reasons beyond the technology itself that influence people in adopting and appropriating an ICT. Elucidating what those other influences might be is precisely the purpose of this work. Therefore, in this paper we will first review a popular approach to the study of appropriation in HCI through the concept of cultural dimensions highlighting some of its shortcomings in this regard. Later we will present alternative approaches to the study of appropriation of ICT. Drawing from these approaches, we will then introduce our work and argue on its relevance to describe the appropriation of ICT.

Adapting Ubicomp Software and its Evaluation
Malcolm Hall, Marek Bell, Alistair Morrison, Stuart Reeves, Scott Sherwood, Matthew Chalmers
Proc. ACM Engineering Interactive Computing Systems 2009, pp. 143-148

In this paper, we describe work in progress on tools and infrastructure to support adaptive component-based software for mobile devices—in our case, Apple iPhones. Our high level aim is ‘design for appropriation’, i.e. system design for uses and contexts that designers may not be able to fully predict or model in advance. Logs of users’ system operation are streamed back in real time to evaluators’ data visualisation tools, so that they can assess design problems and opportunities. Evaluators and developers can then create new software components that are sent to the mobile devices. These components are either integrated automatically on the fly, or offered as recommendations for users to accept or reject. By connecting developers, users, and evaluators, we aim to quicken the pace of the loop of design, use and evaluation so as to improve the process of creating and sustaining contextually fitting software.

EyeSpy: Supporting Navigation Through Play
Marek Bell, Stuart Reeves, Barry Brown, Scott Sherwood, Donny MacMillan, John Ferguson, Matthew Chalmers
Proc. ACM CHI 2009, pp. 123-132

This paper demonstrates how useful content can be generated as a by-product of an enjoyable mobile multiplayer game. In EyeSpy, players tag geographic locations with photos or text. By locating the places in which other players’ tags were created and ‘confirming’ them, players earn points for themselves and verify the tags’ locations. As a side effect of game-play, EyeSpy produces a collection of recognisable and findablegeographic details, in the form of photographs and text tags, that can be repurposed to support navigation tasks. Two user trials of the game successfully produced an archive of geo-located photographs and tags, and in a follow-up experiment we compared performance in a navigation task using photographs from the game, with geo-referenced photos collected from the Flickr website. Our experiences with EyeSpy support reflection upon the design challenges presented by ‘human computation’ and the production of usable by-products through mobile game-play.

Adapting Evaluation to Study Behaviour in Context
Scott Sherwood, Stuart Reeves, Julie Maitland, Alistair Morrison, Matthew Chalmers
Intl. J. Mobile Human-Computer Interaction 1(2), pp. 1-19, April-June 2009

We present a reflection on a series of studies of ubiquitous computing systems in which the process of evaluation evolved over time to account for the increasing difficulties inherent in assessing systems ‘in the wild’. Ubiquitous systems are typically designed to be embedded in users’ everyday lives, however, without knowing the ways in which people will appropriate the systems for use, it is often infeasible to identify a predetermined set of evaluation criteria that will capture the process of integration and appropriation. Based on our experiences, which became successively more distributed in time and space, we suggest that evaluation should become adaptive in order to more effectively study the emergent uses of ubiquitous computing systems over time.

From Awareness to Repartee: Sharing Location within Social Groups
Louise Barkhuus, Barry Brown, Marek Bell, Scott Sherwood, Malcolm Hall and Matthew Chalmers
Proc ACM CHI, 497-506, Florence, 2008.

This paper investigates emergent practices around  ‘microblogging’, changing and sharing status within a social group. We present results from a trial of ‘Connecto’, a phone based status and location sharing application that allows a group to ‘tag’ areas and have individuals’ locations shared automatically on a mobile phone. In use the system moved beyond being an awareness tool to a way of continuing the ongoing ‘story’ of conversations within the group.  Through sharing status and location the system supported each groups’ ongoing repartee – a site for social exchange, enjoyment and friendship.

Problems of space and time: learning from the experience of studying ubicomp use in the wild
Scott Sherwood, Julie Maitland and Matthew Chalmers
Proc. Interact 2007 Workshop: Usability in the Wild, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

In this paper we describe, how the evaluation of ubiquitous computing systems can be problematic, how we augmented existing evaluation techniques to aid in our analysis, and how we created new techniques for evaluation of such systems within everyday settings. We will discuss four systems, briefly highlighting the problems faced and how the experiences from each changed our approach to evaluating the following systems.

Tracking and sharing daily activity levels with unaugmented mobile phones

Julie Maitland, Scott Sherwood, Louise Barkhuus, Ian Anderson, Malcolm Hall, Barry Brown, Matthew Chalmers and Henk Muller
ACM Mobile Networks and Applications (MONET) 12(3), 185-199, June 2007.

This paper explores the potential for use of an unaugmented commodity technology—the mobile phone—as a health promotion tool. We describe a prototype application that tracks the daily exercise activities of people, using an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) to analyse GSM cell signal strength and visibility to estimate a user’s movement. In a short-term study of the prototype that shared activity information amongst groups of friends, we found that awareness encouraged reflection on, and increased motivation for, daily activity. The study raised concerns regarding the reliability of ANN-facilitated activity detection in the ‘real world’. We describe some of the details of the pilot study and introduce a promising new approach to activity detection that has been developed in response to some of the issues raised by the pilot study: Hidden Markov Models (HMM), Task Modelling and Unsupervised Calibration. We conclude with our intended plans to develop the system further in order to carry out a longer-term clinical trial.

Using Location, Bearing and Motion Data to Filter Video and System Logs

Alistair Morrison, Paul Tennent, Matthew Chalmers and John Williamson
Proc. Pervasive 2007, Toronto, 109-126

In evaluating and analysing a pervasive computing system, it is common to log system use and to create video recordings of users. A lot of data will often be generated, representing potentially long periods of user activity. We present a procedure to identify sections of such data that are salient given the current context of analysis; for example analysing the activity of a particular person among many trial participants recorded by multiple cameras. By augmenting the cameras used to capture a mobile experiment, we are able to establish both a location and heading for each camera, and thus model the field of view for each camera over time. Locations of trial participants are also recorded and compared against camera views, to determine which periods of user activity are likely to have been recorded in detail. Additionally the stability of a camera can be tracked and video can be subsequently filtered to exclude footage of unacceptable quality. These techniques are implemented in an extension to Replayer: a software toolkit for use in the development cycle of mobile applications. A report of initial testing is given, whereby the technique’s use is demonstrated on a representative mobile application.

Increasing the Awareness of Daily Activity Levels with Pervasive Computing

Julie Maitland, Scott Sherwood, Louise Barkhuus, Ian Anderson, Malcollm Hall, Barry Brown, Matthew Chalmers and Henk Muller
Proc. ACM Pervasive Health, Innsbruck, 2006.

Public health promotion technology should be accessible to the general public at which it is aimed. This paper explores the potential for use of an unaugmented commodity technology—the mobile phone—as a health promotion tool. We describe a prototype application that tracks the daily exercise activities of people carrying phones, using fluctuation in signal strength to estimate a user’s movement. In a short-term study of the prototype that shared activity information amongst groups of friends, we found that awareness encouraged reflection on, and increased motivation for, daily activity. We describe some of the details of the pilot study, and conclude with our intended plans to develop the system further in order to carry out a longer-term clinical trial.

Ubicomp: From Theory to Play

Matthew Chalmers
Keynote at Ubimob 2006, Paris (abstract)

Ubicomp systems have a history that extends back to the late 1980s, to work at Xerox PARC and EuroPARC. Researchers, in particular Mark Weiser, drew from much older theory and discourse in framing a new system design research agenda. Studying the strengths and the weaknesses in this conceptual work led us to explore new approaches to designing, analysing and understanding the use of ubicomp systems. Our vehicle for much of this research has been mobile multiplayer games, such as Treasure and Feeding Yoshi, and analysis tools such as Replayer. In giving an overview of this work, I hope to give some practical examples of how apparently contradictory opposites within ubicomp are interdependent and synergistic.

Coordinated Visualisation of Video and System Log Data

Alistair Morrison, Paul Tennent, Matthew Chalmers
Proc. 4th Intl. Conf. on Coordinated & Multiple Views in Exploratory Visualization (CMV) 2006, 91-102.

In this paper we present Replayer, a distributed, cross platform toolkit for utilising multiple coordinated visualisations in the analysis and understanding of heterogeneous data. In particular we analyse the methods used to combine recorded media such as video with numerical visualisations such as histograms and time series graphs. We examine in some detail the architecture behind the system, and the techniques used to maintain synchronicity and coordination when interactively brushing components. We demonstrate how Replayer can be used to explore data sets using an array of available visualisations, can focus analysis of video data on the most salient periods and can provide context for every area of the recorded data. (ISBN: 0-7695-2605-5)

Ubiquitous Computing: Experience, Design and Science
Dan Chalmers, Matthew Chalmers, Jon Crowcroft, Marta Kwiatkowska, Robin Milner, Eamonn O’Neill,
Tom Rodden, Vladimiro Sassone, Morris Sloman
UKCRC Grand Challenges, 2006

There is burgeoning population of ‘effectively invisible’ computers around us, embedded in the fabric of our homes, shops, vehicles, farms and some even in our bodies. They are invisible in that they are part of the environment and we can interact with them as we go about our normal activities. However they can range in size from large Plasma displays on the walls of buildings to microchips implanted in the human body. They help us command, control, communicate, do business, travel and entertain ourselves, and these ‘invisible’ computers are far more numerous than their desktop cousins. How many computers will you be using, wearing, or have installed in your body, in 2020? How many other computers will they be talking to? What will they be saying about you, doing for you, or to you? By that time computers will be ubiquitous and globally connected. Shall we be able to manage such large-scale systems, or even understand them? How do people interact with them and how does this new pervasive technology affect society? How can non-computing people configure and control them? What tools are needed for design and analysis of these constantly adapting and evolving systems? What theories will help us to understand their behaviour? These are the sort of issues which make Ubiquitous Computing a Grand Challenge; join us in addressing them. The Ubiquitous Computing Grand Challenge (UbicompGC) is one of the 6 UKCRC Grand Challenges.  It was formed by merging  two of the original Grand Challenges  GC2 “Science for global ubiquitous computing” which focused on theory and GC4 “Scalable ubiquitous computing systems” which focused on engineering aspects.  UbicompGC is formulating a research manifesto which postulates the need for combined Science (theory) as well as addressing the Engineering and Social issues related to building Ubiquitous Systems. So far, most research in the UK and elsewhere has focussed on the Engineering with very little attention on the theory required to underpin the design and analysis of ubiquitous systems which are intrinsically large-scale and complex. Some of the work in the Equator project  has addressed social aspects and how people will interact with Ubiquitous Systems.  The overview page summarises the goals of the challenge.

Supporting Ethnographic Studies of Ubiquitous Computing in the Wild
Andy Crabtree, Steve Benford, Chris Greenhalgh, Paul Tennent, Matthew Chalmers, Barry Brown
Proc. ACM Designing Interactive Systems (DIS) 2006, 60-69.

Ethnography has become a staple feature of IT research over the last twenty years, shaping our understanding of the social character of computing systems and informing their design in a wide variety of settings. The emergence of ubiquitous computing raises new challenges for ethnography however, distributing interaction across a burgeoning array of small, mobile devices and online environments which exploit invisible sensing systems. Understanding interaction requires ethnographers to reconcile interactions that are, for example, distributed across devices on the street with online interactions in order to assemble coherent understandings of the social character and purchase of ubiquitous computing systems. We draw upon four recent studies to show how ethnographers are replaying system recordings of interaction alongside existing resources such as video recordings to do this and identify key challenges that need to be met to support ethnographic study of ubiquitous computing in the wild.

Interweaving Mobile Games with Everyday Life
Marek Bell, Matthew Chalmers, Louise Barkhuus, Malcolm Hall, Scott Sherwood, Paul Tennent, Barry Brown, Duncan Rowland, Steve Benford, Mauricio Capra, Alistair Hampshire

Proc. ACM CHI 2006, Montreal, pp. 417-426.

We introduce a location–based game called Feeding Yoshi that provides an example of seamful design, in which key characteristics of its underlying technologies—the coverage and security characteristics of WiFi—are exposed as a core element of gameplay. Feeding Yoshi is also a long–term, wide–area game, being played over a week between three different cities during an initial user study. The study, drawing on participant diaries and interviews, supported by observation and analysis of system logs, reveals players’ reactions to the game. We see the different ways in which they embedded play into the patterns of their daily lives, augmenting existing practices and creating new ones, and observe the impact of varying location on both the ease and feel of play. We identify potential design extensions to Feeding Yoshi and conclude that seamful design provides a route to creating engaging experiences that are well adapted to their underlying technologies.

Replayer: Collaborative evaluation of mobile applications
Paul Tennent, Alistair Morrison, Matthew Chalmers
Proc. Workshop on Information Visualization and Interaction Techniques for Collaboration Across Multiple Displays, ACM CHI 2006, Montreal.

To adequately gain insight into large bodies of multisource data, analysts from a variety of disciplines often need to work cooperatively, each using distinct sets of skills to focus on specific aspects of the task. We discuss Replayer, a collaborative tool for analysis of recorded data, designed primarily to cater for the evaluation of distributed mobile applications. The system is designed to blend traditional practices of quantitative and qualitative evaluation, drawing inspiration from both and offering support for collaboration to practitioners from different fields.

Domino: Exploring Mobile Collaborative Software Adaptation
Marek Bell, Malcolm Hall, Matthew Chalmers, Phil Gray, Barry Brown
Proc. Pervasive 2006, Dublin, pp. 153-168.

Social Proximity Applications (SPAs) are a promising new area for ubicomp software that exploits the everyday changes in the proximity of mobile users. While a number of applications facilitate simple file sharing between co–present users, this paper explores opportunities for recommending and sharing software between users. We describe an architecture that allows the recommen-dation of new system components from systems with similar histories of use. Software components and usage histories are exchanged between mobile users who are in proximity with each other. We apply this architecture in a mobile strategy game in which players adapt and upgrade their game using components from other players, progressing through the game through sharing tools and his-tory. More broadly, we discuss the general application of this technique as well as the security and privacy challenges to such an approach.

Sharing the square: collaborative leisure in the city streets
Barry Brown, Matthew Chalmers, Marek Bell, Ian MacColl, Malcolm Hall, Paul Rudman
Proc. Euro. Conf. Computer Supported Collaborative Work (ECSCW), Paris, pp. 427-447, 2005

Sharing events with others is an important part of many enjoyable experiences. While most existing co-presence systems focus on work tasks, in this paper we describe a lightweight mobile system designed for sharing leisure. This system allows city visitors to share their experiences with others both far and near, through tablet computers that share photographs, voice and location. A collaborative filtering algorithm uses historical data of previous visits to recommend photos, web pages and places to visitors, bringing together online media with the city’s streets. In an extensive user trial we explored how these resources were used to collaborate around physical places. The trial demonstrates the value of technological support for sociability – enjoyable shared social experiences.  We also discuss support for collaborative photography and the role history can play in collaborative systems.

Picking Pockets on the Lawn: The Development of Tactics and Strategies in a Mobile Game
Louise Barkhuus, Matthew Chalmers, Malcolm Hall, Paul Tennent, Marek Bell, Scott Sherwood, Barry Brown
Draft of a paper in Proc. Ubiquitous Computing (Ubicomp), Tokyo, LNCS 3660, pp. 358-374, 2005

This paper presents Treasure, an outdoor mobile multiplayer game inspired by Weiser’s notion of seams, gaps and breaks in different media.Playing Treasure involves movement in and out of a wi-fi network, using PDAs to pick up virtual ‘coins’ that may be scattered outside network coverage. Coins have to be uploaded to a server to gain game points, and players can collaborate with teammates to double the points given for an upload. Players can also steal coins from opponents. As they move around, players’ PDAs sample network signal strength and update coverage maps. Reporting on a study of players taking part in multiple games, we discuss how their tactics and strategies developed as their experience grew with successive games. We suggest that meaningful play arises in just this way, and that repeated play is vital when evaluating such games.

Three Applications for Mobile Epidemic Algorithms
Paul Tennent, Malcolm Hall, Barry Brown, Matthew Chalmers, Scott Sherwood
Draft of a paper in Proc. Mobile HCI, Salzburg, 2005, pp. 223-226

This paper presents a framework for the pervasive sharing of data using wireless networks. ‘FarCry’ uses the mobility of users to carry files between separated networks. Through a mix of ad-hoc and infrastructure–based wireless networking, files are transferred between users without their direct involvement.  As users move to different locations, files are then transmitted on to other users, spreading and sharing information. We examine three applications of this framework.  Each of these exploits the physically proximate nature of social gatherings.  As people group together in, for example, business meetings and cafés, this can be taken as an indication of similar interests, e.g. in the same presentation or in a type of music. MediaNet affords sharing of media files between strangers or friends, MeetingNet shares business documents in meetings, and NewsNet shares RSS feeds between mobile users.  NewsNet also develops the use of pre-emptive caching: collecting information from others not for oneself, but for the predicted later sharing with others.  We offer observations on developing this system for a mobile, multi-user, multi-device environment.

Mobile Pollution Mapping in the City (UKUbiNetEGS.pdf)
Paul Rudman, Steve North, Matthew Chalmers
Proc. UK-UbiNet workshop on eScience and ubicomp, Edinburgh, May 2005

Mobile computing has the potential to allow both experts and the public to collect and understand environmental data such as pollutants in urban areas. We describe an experimental system—eGS—that allows users to explore a city area while collaboratively visualising a common atmospheric pollutant— carbon monoxide—in real-time.
Users carry a networked tablet PC. Using GPS and an attached sensor, a map shows pollutant values as a colour coded trail as the user moves around the city. Users may take photographs of pollution-significant situations that are referenced against their current map location. Pollutant readings and photographs appear on all users’ maps as shared information for potential collaboration. We report on lessons learned and design issues arising from the implementation and us of this research prototype. In particular, we question some assumptions regarding the use of map-based representations with transient environmental information.

Recording and Understanding Mobile People and Mobile Technology (ReplayerESS.pdf)
Paul Tennent and Matthew Chalmers
Proc. 1st . Intl. Conf. on eSocial Science, Manchester, 2005

We present an approach to recording and understanding the activity of people moving and interacting with each other via technologies such as mobile phones and handheld computers. Our focus is the combination of observational techniques, usually based on video recordings, and system–based techniques that log or instrument the technologies in use. At a higher level, we explore tools to allow sociologists and computer scientists to interact around a coherent visualisation that coupled resources usually associated with just one of these two communities of research practice. The Replayer system supports the creation of system logs, and the visualisation of the results in a display that is synchronised with video and audio recordings. We present a case study showing how Replayer was used in the evaluation of a mobile multi-user system called Treasure, highlighting evaluation results that would not easily have been discovered by more traditional means.

Gaming on the Edge: Using Seams in Ubicomp Games (ACE2005.pdf)
Matthew Chalmers, Marek Bell, Barry Brown, Malcolm Hall, Scott Sherwood & Paul Tennent
Draft of a short paper to appear in Proc. ACM Advances in Computer Entertainment (ACE) 2005

Outdoor multi-player games are an increasingly popular application area for ubiquitous computing, supporting experimentation both with new technologies and new user experiences. This paper presents an outdoor ubicomp game that exploits the gaps or seams that exist in complex computer systems. Treasure is designed so that players move in and out of areas of wireless network coverage, taking advantage not only of the connectivity within a wireless ‘hotspot’ but of the lack of connectivity outside it. More broadly, this paper discusses how the notion of seamful design can be a source of design ideas for ubicomp games.

A later/modified version of this review of Paul Dourish’s Where the Action Is appears in J.CSCW 14, 69-77, 2005.

Sharing photos and recommendations in the city streets (ECHISE2005.pdf)
Marek Bell, Matthew Chalmers, Barry Brown, Ian MacColl, Malcolm Hall, Paul Rudman
Short paper presented at the Pervasive 2005 Workshop on Exploiting Context Histories in Smart Environments (ECHISE)

Sharing events with others is an important part of many enjoyable experiences. While most existing co-presence systems focus on work tasks, in this paper we describe a lightweight mobile system designed for sharing leisure. This system allows city visitors to share their experiences with others both far and near, through tablet computers which share photographs, voice and locations. A collaborative filtering algorithm uses historical data of previous visits to recommend photos, web pages and places to visitors. In an extensive user trial we explored how these resources were used to collaborate around a physical place.

Gaming on the Edge: Using Seams in Pervasive Games (PerGames2005.pdf)
Matthew Chalmers, Louise Barkhuus, Marek Bell, Barry Brown, Malcolm Hall, Scott Sherwood & Paul Tennent
Short paper presented at the Pervasive 2005 workshop on Pervasive Games (PerGames 2005)

Outdoor multi-player games are an increasingly popular application area for pervasive computing, supporting experimentation both with new technologies and new user experiences.  This paper presents a set of experiments with an outdoor pervasive game that exploits the gaps or seams that exist in complex computer systems. The Bill game is designed so that players move in and out of areas of wireless network coverage, taking advantage of the connectivity within a wireless ‘hotspot’ and also of the lack of connectivity outside it. We draw lessons for how such games can successfully encourage social interaction between players, discuss the interaction between the game and the local environment, and describe our approach to recording and ‘replaying’ such games. More broadly, this paper discusses how the notion of seamful design can be a source of design ideas for such games.

Delivering Real-World Ubiquitous Location Systems (CACMLocation.pdf)
Gaetano Borriello, Matthew Chalmers, Anthony LaMarca and Paddy Nixon
Draft of a paper in Communications of the ACM, 48(3), 36-41, March 2005.

Location-enhanced applications are poised to become the first real-world example of ubiquitous computing.  In this paper, we emphasize the practical aspects of getting location-enhanced applications deployed on existing devices, such as laptops, tablets, PDAs, and cell phones, without the need to purchase additional sensors or install special infrastructure.  Our goal is to provide readers with an overview of the practical considerations that are currently being faced, and the research challenges that lie ahead. We ground the article with a summary of initial work on two deployments of location-enhanced computing: multi-player location-based games and a guide for the Edinburgh Festival.

Using Peer-to-Peer Ad Hoc Networks for Play and Leisure(UKUbinet2005.pdf)
Matthew Chalmers, Marek Bell, Barry Brown, Malcolm Hall, Scott Sherwood & Paul Tennent
Proc. UK-UbiNet workshop, Bath, February 2005.

As part of the Equator interdisciplinary research collaboration (www.equator.ac.uk), we are exploring the use of P2P ad hoc networks to support a number of interactive applications for leisure and entertainment, such as mobile multiplayer games and—in collaboration with the Kelvin Institute—a guide and recommender for visitors to the Edinburgh International Festival. This builds on our earlier work on collaborative ubicomp, such as our system for the Lighthouse in Glasgow. Our earlier systems were often constrained to operation within a building—effectively, to within a hotspot—and so we have changed our direction so as to concentrate on new techniques in three areas. Firstly, we are exploring new ways, involving P2P ad hoc networks, to share and disseminate information amongst a community of use. Secondly, we are using these information subsystems in developing new ways to personalise and contextualise the information available, using histories of system use and movement, and personal profiles. Thirdly, we are developing new tools for evaluating such systems in use, combining system logs from multiple devices and digital video from evaluators’ cameras in composable and tailorable visualisation tools.

Space/Place Reconsidered (spaceSpatiality.pdf)
Matthew Chalmers
Proc. 2nd Workshop on Space and Spatiality, Dec. 2004… although, sadly, I couldn’t present it at the actual workshop.

This paper focuses on conceptions of space and media, and how we often conceive of space as a medium that stands as an absolute, above or apart from other media. It is this usually implicit assumption that lets us talk of virtual ‘worlds’ and of working or even living in an information ‘space’. I’d like to present an opposing view, which treats space as merely one medium among the many used in everyday life, and space as relative i.e. only meaningful in and through its relationships to other spaces and other symbols used in human experience. I’ll outline this view, and use it to critique a conceptual treatment of space well–known within HCI and CSCW, the space/place distinction of (Harrison & Dourish 1996). The view is based on experience with information visualisation, collaborative virtual environments (CVEs) and ubiquitous computing systems, as well as some borrowing of structuralist linguistics and semiotics, and philosophical hermeneutics.

A Historical View of Context (jcscwContextOld.pdf)
Matthew Chalmers
Early draft of paper in J. CSCW 13(3), 223-247, August 2004.

This paper re–examines a number of the approaches, origins and ideals of context–aware systems design, looking particularly at the way that the past influences what we do in our ongoing activity. As a number of sociologists and philosophers have pointed out, past social interaction, as well as past use of the heterogeneous mix of media, tools and artifacts that we use in our everyday activity, influence our ongoing interaction with the people and media at hand. We suggest that the past is thus part of one’s current context, and can be seen as combining and interweaving the temporal and subjective patterns of individuals’ use of heterogeneous media as well as objectively structured representations of individual media. Based on this theoretical discussion, we present a number of critiques and suggestions for systems design approaches that reflect this historical aspect of context, and which make good use of the past in supporting ongoing user activity.