The Laboratory for Ubiquitous Computing and Interaction at UC Irvine released the first version of a UbiComp reading list. This reading list is necessary for graduate students advancement to candidacy.

Relation to my thesis: keeping track on my literature review. I spotted a Hightower-Borriello article I was not aware of:

Hightower, J. Brumitt, B. and Borriello, G. 2002. The Location Stack: A Layered Model for Location in Ubiquitous Computing. Proc. of the Fourth IEEE Workshop on Mobile Computing Systems and Applications, IEEE Computer Society.

Based on five design principles extracted from a survey of location systems, they present the Location Stack, a layered software engineering model for location in ubiquitous computing.

In the future work section, they mention the challenge of uncertainty representation:

While it is clear that representing the precise nature of a sensor’s measurement uncertainty is critical, a general mechanism for this remains elusive. Traditional Gaussian representations [18] suffer from problems with nonlinear transformation between coordinate frames and the scalability of particle filters to large domains remains a challenge, although scalable state estimation techniques used in mobile robotics [8] are an excellent place to start and are the approach taken by our reference implementation.

Nicolas pointed to me the now (partially) online PhD dissertation of Jane McGonigal entitled This Might Be a Game: Ubiquitous Play and Performance at the Turn of the 21st Century. In chapter 3 Colonizing Play: Citations Everywhere, or, The Ubicomp Games, she explores the role of experimental game development in producing research insights in ubicomp (in our case mutual location-awareness in physical space, technological boundaries and design strategies to be applied) and persuading that the vision of ubicomp is worth pursuing (we do that by deploying an engaging context). She discusses our work on CatchBob! with her performance studies perspective from which the ubicomp field can learn a lot, as I did while reading that chapter. I am glad she included our paper Getting real with ubiquitous computing: the impact of discrepancies on collaboration as part of the “Are we there yet?” (in the 2003-2005 era) discourse. Converging with my impressions of the last UbiComp conference, it has become clear that this question cannot be answered because the “there” (ubicomp desired state) is very ill defined and fuzzy. From the pervasive games reviews by Jane (expect the later seamful games), I do not think they were setup to stage the imperfection, but that came up as an unexpected research outcome of the first real-world runs of CYSMN and CatchBob!

Even if not specifically mentioned, I think that it is understood that we used our game platform as an alibi for our research. I think that as suggested by Starner (2000) gameplay is perfectly suited to smoothing over the inevitable flaws and incompleteness of early technology deployment. However, it is true that, as underlined by Jane, we completely under-produced play. A trait of academic pervasive games is that neither the player nor the game take center stage, but rather the technological and interface aspects. The experiments stage an artificial (if not fake) world for the user to try out. Ciarletty (2005) describes this as the “fake it” environments and missions of so many ubicomp tests (in our case the influence of the experimental psychology approach that constraints us to defined an artificial task).

The dissertation bibliography is available as well.

Relation to my thesis: Happy that my work is cited outside my strict research community. As I wrote it very early in my PhD adventure (1 month), I do not consider (and was told) that the eMinds paper has of big scientific value, but this proves me that other communities (other research communities, industry, designers, artists) can profit to that type of outcomes. I intend my applied research to stay on this accessible track.

I could find some references I could use such as Albert Schmid (2003 or? 2005) encouraged his HCI audience to continue aggressibely pursuing Weiser’s vision, “confronting real people in real everyay environments” with more and more functional ubicomp prototypes. Schmid argues that “developing complex system isn’t a new problem. However when looking at ubicomp system, understanding the full complexity is often differnt and more difficult than in ares of more bounded scope.

References:

Ciarletta, Laurent. “Emulating the Future With/Of Pervasive Computing Development.” Online Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Pervasive Computing. Munich, Germany: 8-13 May 2005.

Schmidt, Albrecht. “Interacting with the Ubiquitous Computer.” Keynote lecture at the Fifth International Symposium on Human Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services. Udine, Italy: 8-11 September 2003.

Schmidt, Albrecht, Nigel Davies, James Landay, and Soctt Hudson. “Rapid Prototyping for Ubiquitous Computing.” Pervasive Computing. 4:4 October-December 2005. 15-17

Starner, Thad, Bastian Leibe, Brad Singletary, Kent Lyons, Maribeth Gandy, and Jarrell Pair. “Towards Augmented Reality Gaming.” Proceedings of IMAGINA 2000 Conference. Monaco: 31 January-2 February 2000.

A IEEE Pervasive special issue on Urban Computing has been initiated by Tim Kindberg (HP Labs Bristol) and will be co-edited by Eric Paulos (Intel Research, Berkeley), Michael Joroff (MIT, School of Architecture and Planning), and Matthew Chalmers (University of Glasgow)

The Call for Papers give the following description:

IEEE Pervasive Computing invites articles about urban computing: the integration of computing, sensing, and actuation technologies into our everyday urban settings and lifestyles. Successful integration requires taking several facets of the urban environment into account at once. Urban settings frame social behaviors; they encompass architectural forms and features that may or may not be harmonious with given technologies; and they are increasingly but variably permeated by wireless networks and fixed and mobile devices. A key challenge is the great diversity and density of people, devices, and built artifacts found in urban places. Urban computing ranges from city-wide transportation-sensing infrastructure, to services embedded in a cafe, to the bluetooth “aura” of an individual’s mobile phone as he or she walks down a street.

Relation to my thesis: Fits to my interests in wireless society, citizen sensors, urban interaction, urban experiences, downtownware, city as a system, design for appropriation, space syntax, and urban real-world deployments. Publication due in June 2007

IEEE Pervasive Computing released a special issue on Intelligent Transportation. Article of interest for my work include:

Eyal de Lara, Keith Farkas, “New Products,” IEEE Pervasive Computing, vol. 5, no. 4, pp. 12-14, Oct-Dec, 2006. Makes an introduction ton IntelliOne.

Anthony D. Joseph, Alastair R. Beresford, Jean Bacon, David N. Cottingham, Jonathan J. Davies, Brian D. Jones, Haitao Guo, Wei Guan, Yong Lin, Houbing Song, Liviu Iftode, Simone Fuchs, Bernhard Lamprecht, Kyandoghere Kyamakya, Jorge González Fernández, Juan Carlos Yelmo García, Yod Samuel Martín García, Jorge de Gracia Santos, Milind Nimesh, Gang Pan, Zhaohui Wu, Qing Wu, Zhenyu Shan, Jie Sun, Jian Lu, Guoqing Yang, Muhammad Khurram Khan, Jiashu Zhang, “Intelligent Transportation Systems,” IEEE Pervasive Computing, vol. 5, no. 4, pp. 63-67, Oct-Dec, 2006. Mentions 10 projects that deal with traffic and vehicular data collection, transmission, and analysis.

Jonathan J. Davies, Alastair R. Beresford, Andy Hopper, “Scalable, Distributed, Real-Time Map Generation,” IEEE Pervasive Computing, vol. 5, no. 4, pp. 47-54, Oct-Dec, 2006. Relates on the challenges of deploying an application that automatically generates up-to-date digital road maps based on the collection and processing of vehicles’ location data.

Relation to my thesis: Articles for my latest interest on transportation data collection in urban environment.

Rukzio, E., Hamard, J., Noda, C., and De Luca, A. 2006. Visualization of uncertainty in context aware mobile applications. In Proceedings of the 8th Conference on Human-Computer interaction with Mobile Devices and Services (Helsinki, Finland, September 12 - 15, 2006). MobileHCI ‘06, vol. 159. ACM Press, New York, NY, 247-250.

Unlike previous research that argue that a context-aware system usability can be improved by displaying the uncertainty to the user, this study shows that the user needs slightly more time and produces slightly more errors when the confidence of the system is visualized.

The user study evaluating the effect of the visualization of uncertainty consisted of three phases which were conducted by every participant: preliminary interview, the test with the prototype and a post interview. The test consisted of mobile web forms pre-filled with the user’s personal information. The input forms were mapped with colors with similar meanings as the traffic lights. As a result many users mentioned that they were distracted by the colors. Most participants stated that they did not take the visualized probabilities into account. Therefore, the authors conclude that in general the visualization of uncertainty in context-aware system is still questionable.

Slides of Enrico’s presentation at MobileHCI 2006.

Relation to my thesis: This study is very close to a type of user study on showing/not showing uncertainty I had in mind. However, I would probably apply it into a stronger contextual setting implying location awareness in a real-world environment. I would also question the way that the confidence is visualized. Moreover, the type of the task might have an impact on the usefulness of uncertainty visualization and the usability of the system. The authors of this study are working on the situations in which the confidence should be visualized or not in order to develop guidelines defining when the uncertainty should be shown and how it should look like. Can’t wait to see the results…

Chalmers, D., Dulay, N., and Sloman, M. 2004. A framework for contextual mediation in mobile and ubiquitous computing applied to the context-aware adaptation of maps. Personal Ubiquitous Comput. 8, 1 (Feb. 2004), 1-18.

The authors present “contextual mediation” as an approach to meeting needs and limits arising from context. They illustrate it with a context-aware map application and present experimental results and experiences which demonstrate that contextual mediation enhances the usability of the application in restrictive contexts of use.

Contextual mediation operates by selecting the most appropriate subset of the offered data in order to satisfy a request. This is a form of application-aware adaptation. Different users, in different contexts, will have differing preferences. Mediation must be able to differentiate between useful and unwanted data and use this differentiation to meet goals, such as timely delivery, screen space availability and price limits.

The data to mediate are categorized as follow: A response to a request is called a document. It may be an area of a map, a Web page, etc. The semantic structure of a document is described by elements. In a map a feature would be described as an element, e.g. the river Thames, the M1, which would take types of river and road. The data realizing the document are referred to as variants.

Utility functions are used to select amongst element to define which are useful and which variants of these elements would be the best for a specific context as well as how much degradation the alternative variants cause. A degradation path will reflect the utilities of the data, such that the least important will be offered for degradation first. User contextual cues are location, speed of movement, task (e.g. delivery, tourist), activity (e.g. passenger, driver) and screen size.

The users studies was based on maps printed on cards as the map application developed had some technical, HCI and data distribution limitations. For most users the mediated maps were both faster to use and subjectively better.

The authors define six uses of contextual information:

• Contextual sensing: where the context is sensed, and information describing the current context
• Contextual augmentation: where context is associated with data
• Context triggered action: such as loading map data for the next location predicted
• Contextual mediation: use of context to modify services provided or the data requested to best meet the needs of the user arising form the context of the interaction
• Context aware presentation: adaptation of the user interface or the presentation of data.

Relation to my thesis: Mediation helps dealing with the multiple constraints (technological, economical, physical, human) of ubiquitous systems. It is the process of highlighting the most relevant information according to the context and avoid unnecessary data visualization clutter and network dependance (e.g. managing latency). However, their network model takes does not take into consideration connectivity issues into consideration (only fluctuant throughput). Interestingly, the map application was not used for user studies as some sort of post-prototype evaluation.

Relevant references:
Chalmers D, Sloman M and Dulay N (2001) Map adaptation for users of mobile systems. In: Proceedings of the 10th International World Wide Web Conference (WWW-10), Hong Kong, China, May 2001

Schmidt A, Aidoo KA, Takaluoma A, Tuomela U, van Laerhoven K and van de Velde W (1999) Advanced interaction in context. In: Proceedings of the 1st International Symposium on Handheld and Ubiquitous Computing (HUC’99), Karlsruhe, Germany, June 1999

Alex Pang and Craig Wittenbrink and Suresh Lodha. “Approaches to Uncertainty Visualization“. In The Visual Computer, vol. 13, no. 8, pp 370–390, 1997.

This paper surveys techniques for presenting data together with uncertainty introduces as the data are derived, transformed, interpolated, and rendered. These uncertainty visualization techniques present data in such a manner that users are made aware of the locations and degree of uncertainty in their data so as to make more informed analyses and decision.

This research lies in the lack of methods that present uncertainty and data. The common underlying problem is visually mapping data and uncertainty together into a holistic view. The ultimate goal of uncertainty visualization is to provide users with visualizations that incorporate and reflect uncertainty information to aid in data analysis and decisions making. The authors define uncertainty to include statistical variation or spread, error and differences, minimum-mamixum range values, noise, or missing data. In this paper, 3 types of uncertainty are considered: statistical, error and range.

The sources of uncertainty, errors and ranges within data include:

• Uncertainty in acquisition: With instruments, there is an experimental variability whether the measurements are taken by a machine or by a scientist. The more times the measurements is taken, the more confident the measurement. But there will be a statistical variation in these measurements.
• Uncertainty in transformation: Data are rescaled, resampled, quantized prior or as part of the visualization stage. These transformations alter the data from its original form, and have the potential of introducing some uncertainty.
• Uncertainty in visualization: The rendering process introduces uncertainty arising form the data collecting process, algorithmic errors, and computational accuracy and precision.

The authors create a classification of uncertainty visualization techniques with five characteristics:

1. Value of datum and its associated value uncertainty (scalar, vector, tensor, multivariate)
2. Location of datum and its associated positional uncertainty (0D, 1D, 2D, 3D, time)
3. Extent of datum location and value (discrete or continuous)
4. Visualization extent (discrete or continuous)
5. Axes mapping defines visualization mapping (experimental or abstract)

The authors developed a variety of new uncertainty visualization methods. They are organized into a table showing general approach versus applications domain.

• Add glyphs: a glyph is a geometrically plotted specifier that encodes data values
• Add geometry: While glyphs do add geometry, they are placed at discrete locations. Adding geometry is used to denote a more continuous representation of data. Techniques include contour lines, isosurfaces, streamlines, and swept surfaces and volumes.
• Modify geometry: Geometry may be translated, scaled, rotated, or generally warped or distorted. They may also be displace, subdivided or refined.
• Modify attributes: uncertainty can be visualized by modifying attributes of geometrey in the rendered scene.
• Animation: Application to most applications, including comparison of animation data and techniques. Uncertainty information can be visualized by mapping them to animation parameters such as: speed or duration, motion blur, range or extend of motion.
• Sonification: Mapping uncertainty to sound.
• Psycho-visual approaches: stereo-pairs and subliminal messages

From the author’s exploration of uncertainty visualization techniques, they have found that continuous visualization extents are more challenging than discrete visualization techniques. This is based on a basic methodology that uses visual tests where users examine visualizations and decode the information within the graphics. The amount of errors between the user interpretation and the encoding is statistically evaluated to determine if the visualization is effective.

Similar papers include:
Visualizing Geospatial Information Uncertainty: What We Know and What We Need to Know and Visualizing Uncertainty in Geo-Spatial Data.
Relation to my thesis: the pipeline of the sources of uncertainty has similarities with my current categorization. The methodology to evaluate infoviz is based on visual tests in during which the user interpretation is evaluated. Interesting reference is the report which identifies four ways of expressing uncertainty:

Barry N Taylor and Chris E Kuyatt. Guidelines for evaluating and expressing the uncertainty of NIST measurement results. Technical report National Institute of Standards and Technology Technical Note. Gaithersburg MD January

Via Nicolas. In the fall of 1995 (early days of the operational GPS), at the MACBA, Laura Kurgan Design installed, “You Are Here: Museu“, a real-time feed of GPS satellite positioning data, from an antenna located on the roof of the gallery. The data where displayed, together with the record of mapping data, in light boxes. The idea is the represent the interferences between the digital and built space. Due to this drift, it is impossible to align the map the museum building with the electronic space engaged in mapping it. Therefore, the GPS information refers to but does not simply represent the space it maps: it exceeds, transforms, and re-organizes that space into another space. It does not only represent a space, but becomes a space by itself.

The idea behind this artistic setting is to give a critical eye to mapping technologies:

At a time when these digital technologies seem to offer great leaps in our ability to locate ourselves, and when not only frightened urbanites but some of our most radical social critics are worried about failures in cognitive mapping, a critical analysis of new mapping technologies seems imperative.

in response to the hype (arleady in 1995, and still know) that is created around location technologies:

“We need to know for certain where we are,” says a man holding a map titled Los Angeles Fires and Civil Unrest in a brochure for real-time GPS mapping software. The open reference of the statement summarizes the promise and the dream of GPS: accurate positions instantaneously and continuously. One newspaper report on GPS in passenger cars was headlined: “In Japan, they may never ask for directions again.” Not simply for pilots and engineers and ambulances, but for everyone, anyone, facing a location crisis. “With today’s integrated circuit technology,” suggests one manufacturer’s handbook, “GPS receivers are fast becoming small enough and cheap enough to be carried by just about anyone. That means that everyone will have the ability to know exactly where they are, all the time. Finally, one of man’s basic needs will be fulfilled. … Knowing where you are is so basic to life, GPS could become the next utility.”

Laura Kurgan Design is also being the Million Dollar Blocks project in 2005.

Relation to my thesis: An artistic setting that is related to my research focus on spatial uncertainty.The idea of defining the mapped space as a new space on it own. It is similar to the censored space mentioned in Managing Multiple Spaces.

Girardin, F., Nova, N., Blat, J. (2006): Towards Design Strategies to Deal with Spatial Uncertainty in Location-Aware Systems, Poster at Ubicomp 2006, Orange County, CA.

Abstract:
Building ubiquitous applications that exploit location requires integrating underlying infrastructure for linking sensors with high-level representation of the measured space to produce a pleasant user experience. However, the real-world constraints limit the efficiency of location technologies. An inherent spatial uncertainty embedded in mobile and location systems constantly challenges the coexistence of digital and physical spaces. This paper reports on a qualitative study of spatial uncertainty in the context of a pervasive game named CatchBob! It is part of ongoing work that aims at capturing information on users’ perceptions of uncertain spatial information in uncontrolled, real-world settings as well as a key element for defining better design strategies to manage spatial uncertainty in location-aware applications.

Related to Posters for UbiComp 2006 Accepted.

Salembier, P. & Pavard, B. (2004) Analyse et modélisation des activités coopératives situées. Evolutions d’un questionnement et apports à la conception, @CTIVITES, n°1, Vol.

Cet article retrace les évolutions d’un programme de recherche centré sur l’analyse, la modélisation et l’instrumentation des activités coopératives. Dans son fil conducteur, il introduit plusieurs points (explication des arrière-plan théoriques, méthodes d’appréhension des objects théoriques ciblés, nature des modèles produits, rapport à la conception des situations) important à considérer lors de la réflexion générale sur l’édute des activités professionnelles, collectives et coopératives. Les auteurs pointent les avantages et les limites de différent orientations théoriques et méthodologiques ayant balisé leur travail.

Mentions sont faites des différentes conceptions de la cooperation homme-machines. Une première orientation illusior et l’approche mimétique dans laquelle la reproduction des caractéristiques des situations de coopération homme-homme se heurte à des limitations technologiques, mais également à des problèmes de font qui ont trait à la non reconnaissance de la profonde asymétrie des partenaires . Ceci est en fait le thème de “Plans and Situated Actions” de Lucy Schuman. Une alternative est “l’allocation de fonction“, c’est-à-dire procéder à la répartition des tâches entre opérateur et système (MABA-MABA: “Men are Better At - Machines Are Better At”). Cette approche a donné lieu à des recherches autour de la notion de “système cognitif joint” où l’artifact informatique tient un rôle d’”outile congnitif“. Une approche pragmatique est l’ingénieurie cognitive qui fait appelle à la “Triade du système cognitif” (Woods, 1998) avec ces trois facteurs: le monde, l’agent (humaine, machine, système “hybride”) qui opère sur les monde et les instances de méditisation du réel. L’idée sous-jacente est que la concéption de supports améliorant l’éfficacité de la réalisation de la tâche passe nécessairement par la compréhension des interactions entre ces trois éléments. Les exigences et contraintes sont pris en compte lors de la construction d’une description cognitive autonome de l’environnement (facteurs augmantant la complexités cognitive de la tâche tels que la nature dynamique de l’environnement, nombre important de parties interconnectées, incertitude des données, ..). Tout déséquilibre de la Triade risque de se traduire par l’émergence d’une situation dangereuse ou non désirée doit alors faire l’objet d’une réponse adaptée. Les méthodes utilisées pour mener à bien le processus de mise en relation systématique entre exigences de la tâche, contraintes imposées par l’environnement et ressources cognitives mobilisables par l’agent, ont été synthétisées sous le terme de “Cognitive Task Analysis“. Le point important est que les situations sont spécifiées en terme cognitifs et non pas comme en ingénieurie classique dans les termes du dispositif technique. Le rôle de cette analyse de l’activité permet d’identifier les bottlenecks dans le système, c’est-à-dire les limitations cognitives dans le couplage opérateur-outil et les contraintes de l’environnement pointées par les opérateur.

Référentiel contextuel
Les auteurs se sont alors centrés sur les mécanismmes informels de la coopération homme-homme, plus précisement sur la construction et l’actualisation dans le cours de l’activité d’un référentiel contextuel partagé qui constitue une des conditions du déploiement efficace de l’activité collective dans un environnement complexe distribué et la régulation par ce collectif de facteurs tels que les variations dans la charge de travail et la fiablilité globale du système socio-technique.

Rôle des artefacts
Les premières analyses sont restés très superficielles quant aux propritétés physiques des objects utilisés par les opérateur. Les objet étaient essentiellement considérés dans leur dimension informationnelles (artefacts cognitifs) et non dans leur dimension manipulable (constituvité matérielle des activités cognitives)

Modélisation et simulation
La construcction de modèles n’est pas jugée nécessaire voire utile par les ethnométhodologue. Les auteurs ont tout d’abord utilisé la modélisation pour décrire et non simuler. Puis ils ont recouru à la simulation:

L’idée est ici plutôt de jouer sur un ensemble de variables exogènes d’environnement pour explorer un changement de situation (introduction d’un nouvel outil, modifications des formes d’organisation du collectif, …) et évaluer son impact sur des variables endogènes jugées pertinentes -par exemple une appréciation quantitative du contexte partagé- (Zorola-Villarreal, Pavard, & Bastide, 1995 ; Salembier, Kahn, Zorola-Villarreal, & Zouinar, 1997). La simulation fonctionne comme un moyen pour « ouvrir l’espace de conception » et nourrir l’interaction (discussion et négociation) entre les acteurs engagés dans la conception autour de différentes alternatives possibles.

Les auteurs vont alors passés des outils logiques classiquement utilisés en sciences cognitive aux théories de la complexité et aux systèmes dynamiques non linéaires. La raison qui movitve ce choix tient à l’acceptation du fait que la dynamique des processus qui supportent la coopération sont la plupart du temps impossilbe à prévoir car non déterministes du fait notamment de leur caractère distribué et de leur sensibilité aux vations environnementales. (Pavard & Dugdale, 2000).

La démarche mise en oeuvre se résume à: analyse de la tâche, analyse de l’activité, simulation papier-crayon, simulation partielle de la situation, mise en situation recréée, simulation informatique.

Limites
Les limites de l’approche sur la modélisation multi-agent est se concentrer essentiellement sur l’émergence de propriétés globales sans pouvoir les articuler avec les comportements locaux des agents ; le spectre d’un collectivisme méthodologique radical n’est pas loin… De plus, la dimension « située » des acteurs, leurs connaissances culturelles, leur intelligence contextuelle, … sont des dimensions difficiles sinon impossibles à représenter de façon synthétique dans les agents distribués (Dugdale & Pavard, 2002).

Dans la suite de l’étude, les outils utilisés sont essentiellement des environnements de simulation multi-agents qui permettent de recréer la dynamique du fonctionnement du collectif en réponse à des modifications de l’environnement externe (survenue d’événements particuliers) ou interne (modification de la structure du collectif d’agents).

Relation to my thesis: Je m’étais éloingné des aspects collectifs et coopératif de l’utilisation d’applications géolocalisées et de leur étude en situation “naturelle” ainsi que de l’utilisation d’ABM. Dans leurs études, Salembier et Pavard utilisent la simulation comme un moyen pour « ouvrir l’espace de conception » et nourrir l’interaction (discussion et négociation) entre les acteurs engagés dans la conception autour de différentes alternatives possibles. Ils ont fait appel à des champs disciplinaires connexes (théorie des actes de langage, théorie des systèmes complexes, éthologie, théorie des systèmes multi-agents, interactionnisme, …).