Creating Experiences with Wearable Computing Richard Hull, Josephine Reid, and Erik Geelhoed Hewlett-Packard Lab, Bristol 2002 IEEE, Pervasive Computing

Outline Introduction Exploring experience  Experiences from wearable computing application  Three beliefs about experience Experimental Model  A Walk in the Wired Woods User Response Reflections Conclusion

2002 IEEE, Pervasive Computing Introduction Wearable Computing moves from research laboratories to the real world.  Early research focused on new types of device-enabled utility  We can get more experience outside it’s usefulness We can get direct experiences and generate indirect experiences from using the wearable computing object.

2002 IEEE, Pervasive Computing Experience (1/2) Direct Experiences:  Comes from object’s immediate characteristics, it’s appearance, ergonomics and user model.  Ease-of-use has long been a guiding design principle. Indirect Experiences:  Example: The fun of playing an instrument with friends The pleasure of losing yourself in a good book.

2002 IEEE, Pervasive Computing Experience (2/2) Wearable computing applications that deliberately aim to give their users engaging experiences might eventually emerge as a dominant use of the new technology. Goal of project  What makes a wearable computing experience engaging  How the emerging technology might help systematically deliver such experience

2002 IEEE, Pervasive Computing Three Beliefs (1/3) The First is that experience matters  User might significantly value wearable computing’s experiential application  User will encounter many wearable device while engaged in some ongoing experience  The aim must naturally be to augment rather than diminish these active

2002 IEEE, Pervasive Computing Three Beliefs (2/3) Second, we can unpack experience to understand why they are engaging and use that to systematically develop applications. Provisional model:  Predicting that compelling experiences will likely involve stimulation of the senses and challenge and self expression and social interaction

2002 IEEE, Pervasive Computing Three Beliefs (3/3) Third, we believe that experiential applications are more likely to be engaging if creative practitioners (artists, games designers) participate.

2002 IEEE, Pervasive Computing Simple initialization Situated digital experience  We are concentrating on location sensitivity, where the user’s current position, path history,…etc. We use audio as the primary method of communicating to the user

2002 IEEE, Pervasive Computing A Walk in the Wired Woods (1/3) Worked with artist LizMilner and musician Armin Elsaesser to develop an art installation. The woods was installed in the atrium of the HP Lab building in Bristol, Jan~May 2002

2002 IEEE, Pervasive Computing A Walk in the Wired Woods (2/3)

2002 IEEE, Pervasive Computing A Walk in the Wired Woods (3/3) The woods demonstrates a situated soundspace Users automatically receives audio content appropriate to their location The soundspace comprises some 30 pieces of music, woodland sounds, and spoken narrative

2002 IEEE, Pervasive Computing Location Sensing (1/2) Based on a system developed at the Univ. of Bristal A radio frequency transmitter broadcasts a framing pulse and triggers subsequence bursts from a series of ultrasonic transmitters strung above the space

2002 IEEE, Pervasive Computing Location Sensing (2/2) A receiver on the client device hears both the radio pulse and as many of the ultrasonic transmitters as are in range Compute its position by triangulation This system has proved to be both reliable and accurate, with a spatial resolution of around 15cm

2002 IEEE, Pervasive Computing Wireless network The b wireless network installed throughout the building Client uses this to access the directory server to discovery what digital content is situated nearby and to stream audio content from media server

2002 IEEE, Pervasive Computing XML description A unique identifier, a channel assignment,and a name A location and the radius of a circle of applicability around that location The URL of the audio object associated with that aura Knowing whether to loop audio on completion

2002 IEEE, Pervasive Computing Plan View (1/2)

2002 IEEE, Pervasive Computing Plan View (2/2) Different for different channels  Red : pieces of music  Blue : woodland sounds  Black : Stepping stone One of numerous spoken narratives  Green : wolf growls For alerting  Yellow : No mentioned

2002 IEEE, Pervasive Computing Client Device (1/2)

2002 IEEE, Pervasive Computing Client Device (2/2) HP Pocket PC with a compact flash wireless local area network card A small extension board to interface to the location sensing infrasturcture Headphones containing an ultrasonic receiver

2002 IEEE, Pervasive Computing Steps Detect its location within the exhibition-space using the ultrasonic positioning system Interpret its location with respect to the map linking the physical and digital exhibition space Fetch audio data (and other information) on demand from servers over the wireless network Mix and play multiple stereo audio streams through headphones Log the user’s movements around the space and the auras encountered

2002 IEEE, Pervasive Computing User response (1/2) We observed that visitors typically spent around 20 minutes in this installation Blue line in plan view show s a path one visitor followed Users’ feedback was overwhelmingly positive

2002 IEEE, Pervasive Computing User response (2/2) Rank 2 list of seven items using an incomplete block design

2002 IEEE, Pervasive Computing Reflection The woods gave visitors an engaging experience despite its simple functionality. The experience model described suggest fertile directions along which we can orientate an intended experience.

2002 IEEE, Pervasive Computing Conclusion Propose a model : a walk in the wired wood to improve that wearable device creates experiences indirectly It still leave lots of work to do.