Workshop: Near field interactions
This is a call for proposals for a workshop on user-centred
interactions with the internet of things at Nordichi 2006, October 14
and 15, 2006 in Oslo, Norway.
http://nordichi.net.dynamicweb.dk/
The user-centred Internet of Things
The so-called ‘Internet of Things’ is a vision of the future of
networked things that share a record of their interactions with
context, people and other objects. The evolution of networking to
include objects occupying space and moving within the physical world
presents an urgent design challenge for new kinds of networked social
practice. The challenge for design is to overcome the current
overarching emphasis on business and technology that has largely
ignored practices that fall outside of operational efficiency scenarios.
What is imminently needed is a user-centred approach to understand
the physical, contextual and social relationships between people and
the networked things they interact with.
The mobile device as early enabler
The mobile phone is likely to play a key role in the early adoption
of the internet of things. Mobile devices offer ubiquitous networks
and interfaces, enabling otherwise offline objects at the edges of
the network. Near Field Communication (NFC: http://www.nfc-forum.org/
aboutnfc/) is a mobile technology that has been designed to integrate
networked services into physical space and objects. NFC introduces a
sense of ‘touch’, where interactions between devices are initiated by
physical proximity.
In use, the mobile phone brings with it a history of personal and
social activities and contexts. It is in this evolution that we see
user-agency and social motivation emerging as an interesting area
within the internet of things.
Workshop goals
In this workshop we intend to build knowledge around the hands-on
problems and opportunities of designing user-centred interactions
with networked objects. Through a process of ‘making things’ we will
look closely at the kinds of interactions we may want to design with
networked objects, and what roles the mobile phone may play in this.
We will focus on the design of simple, effective and innovative
interactions between mobile phones and physical objects, rather than
focusing on technical or network issues.
The primary questions for the workshop are:
What kinds of common interactions will emerge as networked objects
become everyday?
What role will the mobile phone have to play in these interactions?
How do we encourage playful, experimental and exploratory use of
networked things?
Some secondary questions are:
What interaction models can we bring to the internet of things? Do
the fields of embodied interaction, tangible, social, ubiquitous or
pervasive computing cover the required ground for designers?
What new kinds of social practices could emerge out of the
possibilities presented by networked things?
How will the physical form of everyday objects and spaces be
transformed by networks and near field interactions? How this would
be reflected in users’ behavior?
How can the design of physical objects help in overcoming potential
information or interaction overload, and how does search or
findability change when in a physical context?
How can we move beyond commonsensical features such as object
activation or findability?
What kind of user-communities will co-opt the technology and how will
they hack, adjust and re-form it for their needs?
Workshop structure
Each workshop day will begin with a keynote presentation from invited
experts. On the first day, participants will each give a short
presentation of their position paper, no longer than 5 minutes.
Then groups of 3-4 people, each with different skills and backgrounds
will then work on concepts, scenarios and prototypes. Prototypes may
take the form of physical models, scenarios or enactments. We
encourage the use of our wood, plastic and rapid prototyping
workshops to create physical prototypes of selected concepts. We will
provide workshop assistants for the creation of physical models.
Outcomes
The outcomes should be in a range of implementation styles allowing
for a variety of outputs that speaks to a wide audience. A report
will be written on the workshop, and published on the Touch project
website and in other relevant channels.
Call for participation
The workshop is open to participants from human factors, mobile
technology, social science, interaction and industrial design.
Practitioners and those with industrial experience are strongly
encouraged. Prior research work on embodied interaction, social and
tangible computing would be particularly relevant. Participants will
be selected based on their relevance to the workshop, and the overall
balance of the group. Space is limited to 25 participants.
Call for short position papers
Application is by position paper no longer than two pages. The
position paper can be visual or experimental in design and content.
The themes should cover an issue that is relevant to the design of
interactions with everyday objects.
Deadline for papers is 1 August, selected participants will be
notified on the 9 August. The workshop itself is October 14 and 15,
2006.
Papers and any questions should be submitted to timo (at)
elasticspace (dot) com before 1 August.
Organisers
Timo Arnall is a designer and researcher at the Oslo School of
Architecture & Design (AHO). Timo’s research looks at practices
around ubiquitous computing in urban space. At the moment his work
focuses on the personal and social use of Radio Frequency
Identification (RFID) technologies, looking for potential
interactions with objects and city spaces through mobile devices.
Previously his research looked at flyposting and stickering in public
space, suggesting possible design strategies for combining physical
marking and digital spatial annotation. Timo leads the research
project Touch at AHO, looking at the use of mobile technology and
Near Field Communication.
Julian Bleecker is a Research Fellow at the University of Southern
California’s Annenberg Center for Communication and an Assistant
Professor in the Interactive Media Division, part of the USC School
of Cinema-Television. Bleecker’s work focuses on emerging technology
design, research and development, implementation, concept innovation,
particularly in the areas of pervasive media, mobile media, social
networks and entertainment. He has a BS in Electrical Engineering and
an MS in computer-human interaction. His doctoral dissertation from
the University of California, Santa Cruz is on technology,
entertainment and culture.
Nicolas Nova is a Ph.D. student at the CRAFT (Swiss Federal Institute
of Technology Lausanne) working on the CatchBob! project. His current
research is directed towards the understanding of how people use
location-awareness information when collaborating in mobile settings,
with a peculiar focus on pervasive games. After an undergraduate
degree in cognitive sciences, he completed a master in human-computer
interaction and educational technologies at TECFA (University of
Geneva, Switzerland). His work is at the crossroads of cognitive
psychology/ergonomics and human-computer interaction; relying on
those disciplines to gain better understanding of how people use
technology such as mobile and ubiquitous computing.
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