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publications
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Parts of the Smart studio's research is presented in scientific papers, project reports and other writing. You can find these papers on this page. You may find other types of material in the press material section of this site.
To view the papers you will need to have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer. Get Adobe Acrobat Reader Here.
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Awareness Aspects of the Remote Home: A Concept for a Remotely Shared Flat Share
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M. Sc. thesis, human-computer interaction, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Stockholm, 2005.
The RemoteHome is a concept for the first remotely shared apartment. It is one place of living in two different cities: London and Berlin.
This Master’s thesis revolves around the exhibit of the home at the E-cultures Fair in Amsterdam between the 23rd and the 25th of October 2003. It also looks back at previous versions o fthe Remote Home in an effort to evaluate how well the home succeeds in one of
its major goals: To represent awareness on distance.
The home consist of a set of interactive furniture located at two different places and with a similar,although not identical, setup. For the exhibition one piece of furniture, the interactive wall, was modified to become more responsive and easy to understand. During interviews at the exhibition and the following workshop it became apparent that there was no single answer on how to improve
interactiveness and the feeling of presence. This mostly because the RemoteHome as a
project has more than one goal. It is a product for only a few friends or couple but it is
designed to be shown for a larger audience.
The solution suggested for improving interaction and awareness is to choose between
either the home or exhibition setting and continue the development from there.
In a home setting the RemoteHome should focus on feedback, privacy and situation
adaptation. At the fair it should be more self explanatory and conspicuous in order to
mediate any awareness efficiently. Anonymity is one problem that should be dealt with.
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Physical Reflection: methods to improve inaccurate depth maps of objects observed by a 3D camera
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M. Sc. thesis, Centre for Mathematical Studies, Lunds Tekniska Högskola.
This master thesis is a prestudy and a part of the project Physical Reflections for the Smart studio at the Interactive Institute in cooperation with Lunds Tekniska Högskola
Physical Reflection is a project based on the idea that a mechanical mat of nails should reflect an observed object's surface. A 3D camera serves as an observer, having the ability of calculating the depth to each point in the scene. However, this ability is poor and the resulting depth maps are noisy and inaccurate. The main purpose of this thesis is to improve the quality of those depth maps.
An idea to improve inaccurate depth maps of a certain class of objects is to apply a statistical model to them. Faces are an interesting class and they are given special attention in this thesis. A well-known method called the Appearance Model is tested and the facial depth maps are approximated the model to resemble it.
Another method to improve inaccurate depth maps is to fill-in all surface holes of missing data, The advantage is that the method works on all types of objects. A number of different techniques capable of achieving this are tested in this thesis, for example, normalized convolution .
The results showed that the statistical model did not fulfil the requirements of Physical Reflection , but the filling-in surface holes techniques achieved its aim. The thesis demonstrates that a mechanical nail mat can give the impression of a physical reflection of a real-world object and the constellation can be the basis for an interesting art exhibit.
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HellHunt
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Paper presented at the Inter-Society for Electronic Arts festival (ISEA) 2004.
This paper describes the thoughts and ideas behind the
webbased art piece; "HellHunt". In its literal tracking down
the axis of evil, the webspider puts forward a number of highly
relevant questions. "Hellhunt" displays the mutual dependency
between the individual freedom of expression, imagination and
thought on the one hand, while on the other a cultural formation
based upon patterns, symbols and common values.
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Storing, indexing and retrieving my autobiography
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Position Paper, Pervasive 2004 Workshop on Memory and Sharing
of Experiences, April 20th Vienna, Austria
This paper describes an ongoing experiment consisting of
photographing each time my right hand uses an object in order
to create my autobiography for self-reflection and enforcing my
identity. This experiment has now been carried out for six months.
The daily sequences of photos are linked together on a portable
computer based on the typology of the object represented. With
this structure I can review the database and retrieve a record of
my past activities both chronologically and in an associative manner.
The portable database is also used to support communication with persons
in my proximity. Finally I consider a scenario where several users
carrying such database could interact with one another.
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Artefacts as Research
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CHI2004: connect , Vienna, Austria, April 2004
This paper contributes to the discussion about the role of design in HCI research.
The word Design is described both as a process, a practice and a product. It is
argued that design is important to HCI research all these ways. A case study about
an interdisciplinary project, called Brainball, is presented to exemplify the
discussion. It is argued that design practitioners are important when it comes to
materializing abstract ideas and that this embodiment of knowledge is important to
fully understand a new artefact. Design is also needed in a research context to
change and challenge prevailing norms. Finally it is argued that knowledge always is
situated and exists in a certain context of use. To communicate knowledge, it needs
to take a physical shape, to be designed, into an artefact. Challenging the
dichotomy between theory and practice might be the most important contribution by
design to research.
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Making Sense - Design for well-being
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Ph. D. thesis, KTH, 2004
TRITA-NA-0405, ISSN-0348-2952, ISRN-KTH-/NA/R-04/05SE, ISBN-91-7287-710-1
The theme of this dissertation is the design of IT artefacts for increased well-being in the home. The goal has been to provide a better understanding of the coupling between design and health, and to give examples of how to design for increased well-being. The context for the investigation has been the home, and various research initiatives in smart homes and IT-supported care.
We create our reality in the form of material structures such as buildings, products, workplaces and homes. These artefacts are a reflection of ourselves, we have created them and we understand ourselves through them. Together with immaterial artefacts like political systems, educational systems and healthcare, they constitute our society. The totality of these material and immaterial artefacts forms the conditions of our everyday life. This investigation points at a new way to look at artefacts as social actors in an interactive world. In this perspective, use becomes a dialogue and cooperation with the artefact. Design work becomes a careful creative practice in which the focus is the interplay between the artefact and its social environment. Stress and ill-health is an indication that there is an unbalance in the interplay. Well-being on the other hand means that there is a balance between the artificial world and the individual. Design practitioners, and others that create our world, have an important task in designing new artefacts that do not reproduce obsolete or dysfunctional behaviour.
Inspired by coping theories, a salutogenic approach to design aims at identifying and strengthening the aspects of artefacts that help us handle adversities. This means to create artefacts that form a world, which is comprehensible, manageable and meaningful. People that live in environments where they cannot influence decisions, with high demands and The theme of this dissertation is the design of IT artefacts for increased well-being in the home. The goal has been to provide a better understanding of the coupling between design and health, and to give examples of how to design for increased well-being. The context for the investigation has been the home, and various research initiatives in smart homes and IT-supported care.
We create our reality in the form of material structures such as buildings, products, workplaces and homes. These artefacts are a reflection of ourselves, we have created them and we understand ourselves through them. Together with immaterial artefacts like political systems, educational systems and healthcare, they constitute our society. The totality of these material and immaterial artefacts forms the conditions of our everyday life. This investigation points at a new way to look at artefacts as social actors in an interactive world. In this perspective, use becomes a dialogue and cooperation with the artefact. Design work becomes a careful creative practice in which the focus is the interplay between the artefact and its social environment. Stress and ill-health is an indication that there is an unbalance in the interplay. Well-being on the other hand means that there is a balance between the artificial world and the individual. Design practitioners, and others that create our world, have an important task in designing new artefacts that do not reproduce obsolete or dysfunctional behaviour.
Inspired by coping theories, a salutogenic approach to design aims at identifying and strengthening the aspects of artefacts that help us handle adversities. This means to create artefacts that form a world, which is comprehensible, manageable and meaningful. People that live in environments where they cannot influence decisions, with high demands and low control, are likely to become ill. But people that have environments, in which they receive feedback, support and can control their own situa- tion stay well. With new, complex technology such as ubiquitous comput- ing, it becomes even more important to support recognition and routines. And it becomes essential in domestic use and in IT-support for the dis- abled and elderly.
The empirical work reported here consists of four case studies related to IT artefacts for well-being. The case studies include field studies, critical analysis, design concepts, prototype building and evaluation. Based on the findings in these studies, four considerations for design of interactive systems for the home are suggested:design for understanding, for detecting and managing of errors, for disabling and for alternative coping. Finally it is suggested that if research is to concern itself not only with evaluations and general laws, but also with ideas and practical examples of a better future life – then design knowledge becomes an essential element in research. In this endeavour we need more cooperation between practitioners from the social and technical sciences, the humanities and design.
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The Dysfunctionality
of Everyday Things - on stress, design and artifacts
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5th European Academy of Design Conference, Barcelona, Spain, April 2003.
This paper addresses the increasing issue of stress and burnout in contemporary society and attempts to connect this to product design. Stress can be defined as the reaction of a mismatch between the demands of the world and the needs and capacities of the individual. To what degree does technological products and design artefacts contribute to stress? Research shows that software that is unintelligible and difficult to use increase stress in users. But what are the criteria to be used when we design and evaluate products? The paper presents a survey on the relation between stress, relaxation and products. The answers are categorised and conclusions drawn about when and why artefacts stress us. How people cope with life reminds to a large extend on how they cope with products. Health sociologist Antonovsky has developed concepts for evaluating people's abilities to handle the strains of life, which he calls the "Sense of Coherence". The paper argues that this can be applied on products to give guidelines on why products stress us, and to create an understanding of how design can be used to increase relaxation. A special emphasis is placed on Antonovsky's concept Meaningfulness and how this applies in product design.
Keywords: Stress, Health, Product Design, Meaning, Aesthetics
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Semiotics in Product Design
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CID, Nada, KTH, Stockholm, Sep. 2002. CID-175, ISSN: 1403 - 073 X.
This text is an attempt to show how semiotic study can be
used to understand aspects of communication in product design. I
will bring up some of the most common concepts and ideas in
semiotics and see how they can be understood in a design context.
I will also use these theories to analyse some underlying values
and concepts in design theory like the complex interplay between
meaning and form. I do not use semiotics to inform other designers
of how they should do better products, but rather as a tool for
criticising and reflecting about seemingly "natural"
ways of designing...
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Research + Design:
The Making of Brainball
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Interactions, Volume 10, issue 1, pp. 26-34, ACM Press,
New York, NY, USA. ISSN:1072-552
The article is an in depth description about the
making and success of the relaxation game Brainball. The author
describes the background, the design process, user testing and
finally draw conclusions about multidiciplinary research in art
and design.
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The front cover of Interactions, Feb. 2003 |
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Mänsklig teknik eller teknisk mänsklighet?
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CID, KTH och Smart studio.
This report is about the human being and her relationship to a technological
home environment. The purpose is partly to illustrate the interaction between man
and technology in the home that is going on, has been going on and will be going
on in the future. Partly to create new opportunities to think, act and find new
ways about technology and information technology in the home. The matter is viewed
from different angles through litterature studies and accounts for home technology,
information technology, smart homes and intelligent environments. By doing etnografic
studies about human beings' ways of thinking and acting related to home technology
the problem is also viewed from a user perspective.
The text is in Swedish.
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The ReFashion lab: building digital
matter and hybrid space
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Presented at the ISEA 2002 conference in Nagoya, Japan
Interactive Media embedded in architectural settings can create new
forms and organizations of mixed reality environments: enjoyment of the
immediate physical nature of our built environments can be blended with
the ephemeral nature of animated and interactive digital content.
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Camelot - rundabordssamtal och
seminarier kring framtidens boende
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Rapport i programmet Telematik 2004, VINNOVA-rapport VR 2000:13
och TELDOK Rapport 146. In Swedish.
Our goal with the seminars was to initiate a discussion between different
interest groups, with different experiences, opinions and starting points. Our
hope was that, by publishing this material to the public, this discussion will
be considered in future building and research. But also that it will contribute
to a more unconstrained and critical discussion around IT and the future
dwelling.
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Understanding Remote Presence | view pdf
Accepted to NordicCHI. English only.
In this paper, we discuss a study of new media for interpersonal
communication. The paper motivates, designs and presents a small evaluation
of a technology that is intended to support intimacy at distance. It first
presents an ethnographic study examining family communication and the role of
artifacts in supporting emotional closeness, e.g. heirlooms, activities and
places in the house. The paper then describes a couple of prototypes that were
designed to support different types of closeness and how we evaluated one of
these prototypes in a study of 3 families (6 households), for two weeks
each. The interview data that the study presents show that people were generally
positive about the technology, although this depended on the nature of the users'
pre-existing communication patterns. One critical point here is about the importance
of pairing blue sky design with down-to-earth deployment and demonstrate commendable
ethnographic-like work to inform design practice. Finally do we discuss some issues
around users experiences of "telematic emotional communication" and how
this has enriched our understanding of remote presence.
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Rewind - concept design for supporting rest or sleep in public environments | view pdf
Master's Thesis, KTH. English only.
Rewind is a Master's project that focuses on how to support sleeping in public environments. With focus on interdisciplinary methods the project's aim was to investigate the conventions of sleep and to develop a conceptual framework that could inform the design of a device that could support sleeping in public environments...
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Designing the invisible computer - from radio-clock to screenfridge | view pdf
Accepted to NIC2001. English only.
This paper will discuss the concept of invisible computing in a product design
context. Within product development and advertising, design is commonly used to
disregard chronology and semantics. New, unsettling objects can be made to seem old
and familiar, or vice versa, something old can acquire a new, "modern"
look. The paper argues that it is not unproblematic to make computer technology
invisible. Hiding technology and products means to naturalise and normalise something
that is highly complex, problematic and frightening. Instead design should be used to
express and visualise these problematic issues. The paper advocates a critical design
perspective using theories influenced by feminism.
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Virtually Living Together: A design
framework for new communication media |
view pdf
Proc. of the ACM symposium on Designing interactive systems (DIS) 2000, Pages 83 - 91. English only.
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Private and Public Digital
Domestic Spaces |
view pdf
International Journal of Human Computer Interaction; Special Issue of
Home Use of IT, 2000. English only.
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Measuring and Evaluation of
ICT-supported Services in the Domestic Environment |
view pdf
Published and presented at HOIT2000. English only.
A full-scale business structure (IT-BO) for providing ICT-supported
services in a domestic environment has been set up in collaboration between
a major Swedish telecom company and a leading housing company in a suburb of
Stockholm, Sweden. There four working ICT-supported services, viz. a new
electronic key, a digital bulletin board, a new access telephone system and
free internal telephony have been implemented in a multi-storeyed residential
building...
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Understanding Professional
Work and Technology in Domestic Environments |
view pdf
Proc. of CSCW '98, WA - Seattle, ACM Press. English only.
... In this paper will we give our viewpoint of our approach towards
an more holistic view on the use of technology in domestic
environments. The results are based on empirical work
where we in three different studies have been able to
observe the need for and the use of modern IT in improving
daily-life as well as creating opportunities to be able to
perform professional work at home.
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Design Patterns
for Private and Public Digital Spaces in the Home
Environment
International Journal of Man-Machine Studies special Issue
on domestic Technologies, Jan 2001.
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SEATED |
view pdf
Magisterexamensprojekt. Institutionen för Industridesign, Konstfack,
Stockholm, 1999. In Swedish.
I framtidens hem omringas vi av smarta små osynliga produkter
som känner vår närvaro och vet vad vi gör – och varför.
Hur ska vi kunna känna oss hemma i sådana bostäder? Lösningen
är användbar smart teknologi med humor och möjlighet att säga
stopp och stänga av allting när vi vill. The Smart Environment And
TEchnology Design project (SEATED) visar hur IT-teknik i hemmet kan komma att
förändra människors sätt att kommunicera och interagera med
varandra och med de smarta ting som kommer att finnas i bostaden...
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Private and Public Spaces -
the use of Video Mediated Communication in a Future Home Environment |
view pdf
Proc. of CHI '2000, Haag, ACM Press. English only.
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Video Mediated
Communication for Domestic Environments - Architectural and
Technological Design |
view pdf
Streiz et al, Cooperative Buildings, Integrating Information,
Organisation and Architecture, 2nd International Workshop, CoBuild '99,
Pittsburgh, PA, Oct 1999, Proceedings, Lecture Notes in Computer Science,
Springer. English only.
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IT-tjänster för bostaden
i informationssamhället - ett arkitekturperspektiv |
view pdf
Nordisk Arkitekturforskning, vol 12, nr 1 1999. Swedish only.
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Virtually Living Together:
Using multiple-method designing in the search for telematic emotional
communication | view pdf
ACM symposium on Designing interactive systems (DIS) 2000. English only.
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User Study of Video Mediated
Communication in the Domestic Environment with Intellectually Disabled
Persons | view pdf
Presented at NordicCHI 2000. English only.
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plentycast - concept document
| view pdf (14.5 MB - large file!)
The plentycast project
explores a new technology for streaming sound and video over the Internet.
The Smart studio has produced a document containing both reflections on our
relationship to media and suggestions on different ways of using the
plentycast technology.
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orb - a collaborative telepresence
project | view pdf
Final report from the orb project, an artisticly driven project in which the
concept of telepresence was investigated. The project was a collaboration between
the smart studio and the Conceptual Information Arts Dept. (CIA), San Francisco
State University
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Användarstudie av artefakter för
emotionell kommunikation | view pdf
Financed by KFB. Swedish only.
I vår forskning kring nya kommunikationsmedia arbetar vi med att utveckla nya
typer av kommunikationsmedia som skiljer sig ifrån de traditionella tal- och bildmedia
genom att fokusera på de icke-verbala taktila sinnena. "Användarstudier av
artefakter för emotionell kommunikation" är ett projekt som har syftat på
att studera hur dessa kommunikationsmedier kan erbjuda nya möjligheter till social
kommunikation mellan familjemedlemmar. Med medel ifrån KFB har vi nu utfört en
mindre användarstudie av ett par prototyper som vi utvecklat inom detta projekt.
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Virusrapporten: IT, hälsa och framtidens boende | view pdf
Virusprojektet föreslår snygga och smarta lösningar som ska stimulera rörelse, avslappning och kommunikation i framtidens IT-hem.
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Projekt Virus - rapport av förstudien | view pdf
Projektets målsättning är att hitta en boendeform lämpad för så många som möjligt,
inberäknat personer med en viss form av hjälpbehov, på grund av t ex ökad
arbetsbelastning, stress, depression, splittrade familjer, sjukdom, ålderdom eller
funktionshinder. En förutsättning för att vi ska kunna bo kvar i hemmet är att vi kan
känna oss trygga i att vi där kan få den extra hjälp vi behöver. Detta gäller såväl
fysisk som psykisk samt social trygghet. Förstudien fokuserar på människan. Det är
varje individs önskemål, tankar och behov som är kärnan.
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Physical
Computing | view pdf
Using the BX24 microcontroller and simple electronics
and programming to build interactive things.
This is an introductory text aimed primarily at people
who have little or nor previous experience of working with
electronics or programming, but who are bold enough to want
to get started with "physical computing." This
is a recent version of a document first prepared for a workshop
in 2000.
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Den osynliga datorn | view pdf
Form nr 1 2000
Tufft, tungt och mörkt som ett vapen eller smickrande vackert som ett smycke? Datorn
kan idag se ut hur som helst - eller inte synas alls. Vare sig vi vill det eller inte smyger
den sig in "under huden" på oss, eller under tapeten i vårt hem. Håller vi på att bli
offer för maskinterror eller håller datorn bara vänlig koll på våra behov och nycker? I
vart fall en utveckling som genererar ett gigantiskt designarbete.
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Philips Reflex Action - en potent penis | view pdf
Form nr 7 1999
...När min man för en tid sedan köpte en ny rakapparat fick jag mig en tankeställare. Sedd ur en ny vinkel ser rakapparaten , av märket Philips, så till den milda grad ut som en snopp att jag undrar vad Philips produktdesigner tänkt på. Likheten kan rimligtvis inte bara vara en tillfällighet eller?
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scientific |