LIFE WITH AN ITWIST: TECHNOLOGY THAT PROMOTES AWARENESS

Jiannis Georgiadis

Art & Technology, Anders Carlssonsgatan 9, Chalmers University, Göteborg, Sweden

georgiad@ituniv.se

Keywords: awareness-enabling, socially responsible, ubiquitous computing

Abstract The ideas of ubiquitous and calm technologies were first articulated by Mark Weiser in his seminal 1991 article. Since then different research initiatives emerged to explore various facets of this vision. The focal point though has been, so far, trying to infuse context-awareness and smartness into devices and artefacts in order to serve us better by making us more efficient in completing day-to-day tasks. This paper will add another dimension to the ubiquitous computing vision; one that views technology as a means to understand, reflect and meditate on ourselves, our immediate surroundings and our relations. This other facet of IT is illustrated with two example viewpoints and sketches-of-concept that embody most of its characteristics.

1 Introduction

Many visions of the future predict a world saturated with computing and communication capability, yet gracefully integrated with human users. The first attempt to articulate such a vision was by Mark Weiser in his seminal 1991 article [1], whose opening words are that “The most profound technologies are those that disappear. They weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life until they are indistinguishable from it”. This is the essence of the vision he described as ubiquitous and calm computing, stating that people, information and the environment should interact in a transparent way.

His quote has been interpreted many ways and different research initiatives emerged to explore the various facets of this vision, each concentrating on different and complementary aspects of it. What has once been described as ubiquitous and calm computing is now also called pervasive computing, ambient computing, disappearing computer, every-day computing and more recently palpable computing.

The motivation behind such efforts is to make computers fade in the background, where they can provide information and exercise control when needed but without being obtrusive. How to optimally accomplish this is still under investigation and two key

questions raised are: how to make computers vanish in the background and how to develop unobtrusive yet helpful systems.

In making them disappear, should they be so well integrated with life that they are completely indistinguishable from it, working behind the scenes, or also afford to be noticed and mentally apprehended? Should they just be embedded in the environment or in the culture as well?

In making them unobtrusive there are a few implications. Should they be pro-active towards our needs or not-active at all? Act automagically or suggest course of action instead? Should information be available anytime/anywhere or at the right time and place? These are some of the questions being asked by researchers exploring the vision of ubiquitous computing [2, 3, 4, 5].

Various technologies supporting this vision have been developed and human-centric design methodologies and practices have been applied in order to extract people’s needs and develop systems suitable to satisfy them. It is furthermore envisaged that sensing a broad set of physical phenomena will become a common aspect of small embedded computers which will communicate with each other (as well as with some more powerful infrastructure) to co-ordinate their actions and make inferences about their users depending on the context of the situation [6, 7, 8].

Nevertheless, the focal point has been, so far, trying to infuse context-awareness and smartness into devices and artefacts in order to serve us better by making us more efficient in completing day-to-day tasks. Promising to enhance our quality of life by being assistive. Thus, helping us do things better, or with less strain and mental gymnastics.

This short paper will add another dimension to Weiser’s vision above. How can we make smart and context-aware devices, when sometimes we ourselves don’t fully realise the ambience of the setting we are in? Can technology be used for making us more aware of the context in which we live in, our environment?

In trying to explore these questions another facet of IT will be presented; one that views technology as a means to understand, reflect and meditate on ourselves, our immediate surroundings, and our relations. Neither

as a tool for carrying out mundane tasks nor as a life-automation system but one whose goal is to promote awareness, provide cues for realising the ambience around us, empower and enhance social interaction. One which aims to probe us into enhancing our peripheral reach by learning more about our surrounding environment, the ways we affect it and are affected by it.

This other facet of IT will be illustrated with two example viewpoints and sketches-of-concept that embody most of its characteristics.

2 Two Example Viewpoints The following example viewpoints provide openings through which the characteristics of ambient and awareness-enabling technology are exposed. Two concepts will be presented: the first as an example of promoting an individuals awareness and sensitivity towards the environment by monitoring and presenting the amount of rubbish produced in a local neighbourhood; and the second as an example of using technology to raise a society’s awareness by capturing the atmosphere in the house of commons and presenting it to the general public.

Garbage Monitor

Usually, in urban settings, the only things that one is concerned with when dealing with domestic waste are to replace the rubbish bags once full, store them somewhere until the scheduled day and time the city council’s services collect them, and fail not to forget to take them outside when collection time is due. A mundane process we do almost mechanically, sometimes two or three times a week, without being fully aware that every time we put rubbish in the bin we burden the environment. The fact that we produce heaps of rubbish every day is hidden in landfills and recycling centres and the accumulated amount is never directly viewable. Garbage collection, a pervasive and well-integrated technology, is hiding something from us. In this respect, we are never fully aware of the ways that we affect and are affected by our immediate environment. Our sensitivity level towards it is unconsciously sliding down when we put rubbish in the bin.

The concept presented here, based in a local neighbourhood, attempts to expose and keep us constantly aware of the fact that rubbish accumulates. The garbage monitor system consists of household rubbish bins equipped with sensors that detect when the bins are being opened or closed, weight sensors that calculate the amount of rubbish in each bin, as well as wireless transceivers to communicate between them and with the wall monitors that display the state of the local landfill. Interconnected, the rubbish bins monitor and present to their housekeepers the amount of rubbish produced in their local neighbourhood. Every time one opens the bin, throws rubbish in and closes

the lid, the bin broadcasts the fact along with the weight of rubbish it received to its neighbours. Bins within radio reach receive this information and update the status of the local landfill by adjusting the garbage-level meter.

Sketch-of-concept 1: The “Garbage Monitor” as an example of promoting an individual’s awareness and sensitivity towards the environment. Interconnected household rubbish bins monitor and present to their housekeepers the amount of rubbish produced in their local neighbourhood. This new state is reflected on their respective owner’s monitors, which constantly display the amount of rubbish produced in the local neighbourhood and provide glanceable information to the waste problem. Being constantly displayed, the projected image, also demonstrates the temporal dimension of the problem by showing the accumulation of rubbish with respect to how long it takes for them to disintegrate. Although, give the timescales involved this might be a cosmic event. Sketch-of-concept 1 illustrates this idea.

For individuals this is a technology to realise and reflect on the fact that each day we all contribute something to the local landfill without even thinking about it. By making such information glanceable one would hope to raise an individuals awareness of the problem. Perhaps even motivate attitude change and encourage recycling. By providing cues to realise the context of the action of putting rubbish in the bin, sensitivity and situated learning can be promoted1. Even though this concept could be augmented by processing the data gathered and presenting housekeepers with informative facts about the effects of their actions on the environment, the interpretation of the image is left up to an individual’s judgement. Regarding privacy concerns, no personal information needs to be captured and released for the system to be effective.

For the local garbage collection services such a system would allow them to examine waste management at a finer granularity. They could put problematic areas under the microscope, fine tune the service and target their campaigns better, which would be likely to be more effective since more sensitive and aware citizens would be more receptive.

The “Garbage Monitor” concept is presented as an example of a, probably far from calm and comforting, but ambient, palpable and awareness-enabling technology that hopes to promote an individuals sensitivity towards the environment. The concept following aims to enhance a society’s awareness by capturing the atmosphere in a parliament and presenting it to the general public.

House of Commons V-indicator

A lot of effort has been directed at understanding and analysing people’s habits and needs in the workplace as well as in domestic settings. In this direction researchers have even gone to the extent of constructing special environments as test-beds to exercise novel pervasive technologies and monitor their occupants in a quest to develop systems suitable to satisfy people’s present and future needs [3, 9]. Undoubtedly, many of the findings will be valuable especially for the elderly who need more support from their environment.

So far little attention has been paid to spaces of public interest and consequently such spaces have not been subjected to similar investigations. One such place of public concern is the House of Commons and the concept presented here attempts to heighten a society’s awareness by capturing the vibe or atmosphere in the parliament and presenting it to the general public. Weight sensors embedded in every seat and bench in the house of commons capture the action of people standing up/sitting down as a rough indicator of commotion in the room. For example, in the UK parliament, politicians who wish to take a stand next, denote this by standing up and the presiding officer decides who is to speak next [10]. More people standing up wanting to speak next implies a more vibrant atmosphere in the house of commons. Similarly, great events of the parliamentary year, such as the budget speech, with the entire parliament body seated in the House of Commons, would score higher in the vibe indicator. Furthermore, if we allow each member of the parliament (MP) to occupy only one specific chair during his/her tenure, then the system could also be used to monitor their attendance in the House of Commons or even the “health” of individual politicians. How much weight they put on or lost as a result of work stress, lack of exercise or even as the consequences of a “good life”.

This concept could also be augmented with sound level meters to detect the loudness of a spokes-man’s voice as a rough indicator of emotional tension in his speech. After capturing and aggregating the information from the sensors, the room’s atmosphere is presented to the general public with the help of a meter that could either be placed outside the parliament, as a physical object, or broadcasted as a soft image. Sketch-of-concept 2 illustrates this idea.

At times when apathy prevails and people’s interest in

the commons has declined dramatically, as is evident from the turnout percentages of national elections, the “House of Commons V-indicator” seeks to stimulate and tickle one’s consciousness about what is happening behind the parliament’s doors. Using technological means other than the audio-visual real-time streaming of parliamentary proceedings delivered for example by www.parliamentlive.tv, it provides glanceable information from a space of public interest that is not practically accessible. Typically, when thinking about such technologies images of grey powers spying on everything spring to mind. This concept also seeks to reverse this belief and put citizens in the role of the prying eye.

Sketch-of-concept 2: The “House of Commons V-indicator” as an example of raising a society’s awareness. The room’s vibe is captured through weight sensors embedded in the benches and presented to the general public. Additionally, one would hope to alert MPs to the fact that they serve a public function under the continuous auspices of the people that elected them. It is also a case, where the fact that subjects know they are being observed will hopefully make them better. Not that concerns about knowing the history of an MP’s votes, answers and proposals should be ignored; this concept only aims to act as a probe that stimulates people to investigate such things further.

Similar ideas could be applied in other places as well, where events such as theatrical plays and public talks, for example, are staged. The above concept is presented as an example of using ambient technology to raise a society’s awareness and interest in the commons.

3 In Conclusion

Although, ubiquitous computing imposes a number of technological challenges, perhaps the biggest one lies in its seamless integration with life itself. And as life is not only about completing day-to-day tasks, so maybe IT should focus on other aspects of It as well.

In this respect, this paper elaborated on a less utilitarian and less individualistic perspective of

technology; one whose emphasis is on promoting awareness. Using technology to make us more conscious of our surrounding environment, encourage reflection and empower in a socially responsible and environmentally friendly way. As punctuation marks provide subtle cues for reading out a sentence, similarly the concepts presented herein serve the purpose of providing subtle directional cues for realizing and analysing the ambience around us. At the same time these concepts are just instantiations of sensitive electronic environments that aspire to enhance our experiences, lifestyle and perception of everyday life. Not without direction though, but towards a more aware life.

Of course, further work needs to take place in order to formulate a framework suitable to develop, evaluate and probe into such ideas further. How to evaluate the long-term effects of such systems on people’s lives, when these systems are not user-needs driven and do not intend to provide instant satisfaction?

At this stage, the main contribution of this short paper is the concept of awareness-enabling and socially responsible technology for the provision of what the late Weiser and other IT humanists have in mind.

References [1] M. Weiser. The Computer for the 21st Century. Scientific American, September 1991. [2] M. Weiser and John Seely Brown. Designing calm

technology. PowerGrid, July 1996. [3] S. S. Intille. Designing a Home of the Future. Pervasive Computing, April 2002. [4] Palpable Computing: A new perspective on ambient computing. www.palcomproject.org, April 2004. [5] P. Sengers, J. Kaye, K. Boehner, J. Fairbank, G. Gay, Y. Medynskiy, and S. Wyche. Culturally Embedded Computing. Pervasive Computing, January 2004. [6] D. Estrin, R. Govindan, J. Heidemann, and S. Kumar. Next century challenges: Scalable coordination in sensor networks. In 5th Annual International Conference on Mobile Computing and Networks (MobiCOM ’99), Seattle, Washington, USA, August 1999. [7] J. Hill, R. Szewczyk, A. Woo, S. Hollar, D. Culler, and K. Pister.System architecture directions for networked sensors. In 9th International Conference on Architectural Support for Programming Languages and Operating Systems, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, November 2000. [8] H-W. Gellersen, A. Schmidt, and M. Beigl. Multi- Sensor Context-Awareness in Mobile Devices and Smart Artefacts. Mobile Networks and Applications, October 2002. [9] C. D. Kidd, R. Orr, G. D. Abowd, C. G. Atkenson, I. A. Essa, B. McIntyre