@home with IT

1. @home with IT Andy Sloane Professor of Telematics

2. The home computer

3. Is this a home computer?

4. Or this?

5. IT @ home - Outline • What is meant by “home” • The effect of information technology • The changes in IT from “personal” to “pervasive” • The research problems of studying IT/ICT in the home environment IT= Information technology ICT= Information and communication technology

6. Using IT in the home • The last 10 years has seen a huge growth in home “computing” Internet access from home 2004 (UK Gov)

7. What is IT in the home? • Various concepts of the “home computer” • Different contexts of use • Individual use (e.g. homework) • Collective and co-operative (e.g shopping) • But mainly • leisure and entertainment related

8. What is a home?

9. Home? • Difficulty in definition of the home. • Where we live? • Where we ARE? (Wise 2000) • Aspects of home in all locations of choice • Establishing a “milieu” • Sounds, scents and smells, arranging objects/bodies, symbols…

10. Home? • House  Home • Especially with the embedding of ICT • Languages/Cultures differ in their definition of home • North/South Europe differences • Not inanimate objects • Presence, habits, effects of others • May not need a place but other people

11. Research problem • We need to understand the dynamics of the home to be able to study the effects of the technology within it. • Not a technical computing problem but • Social • Psychological • Economic • Cultural

12. Research for future systems • Need to analyse use and behaviour • Assist design of future systems • Improve interfaces • Aid interaction and • Increase usability • Within the context and culture of the home

13. Technology in the home • “Our domesticity is shaped by social and technological changes associated with industrialisation” (Silverstone R 1993) • ICTs fundamentally affect what we mean by home (changing the definition) • ICTs have liberated our domesticity from dependence on physical location (extending the location)

14. Effects on home life • Home life now includes computing on a daily basis (changing the definition) • As a mediator with • Email between individuals • Virtual communities • File sharing • Web cameras • Allow home to be experienced from a distance (extending the location) • Email and other ICT is location-independent

15. Families • Family – a range of sociologically disparate relations • Families live in households – a “moral economy” • Where the private meets the public • 90% of British families with a computer experience arguments over who gets to use the household computer (Livingstone and Bober, 2004)

16. Conflict • ICTs can be used as markers of territory and power • e.g. Young person’s use of mobile phones • 43 per cent of parents of 9-17 year-olds impose rules on Internet use (Livingstone and Bober, 2004) • ICTs are both products and producers of shifts in our domesticity

17. Problems of studying the home? • The home is not an office – even with teleworking! (Hindus 1999) • But work and home are intertwined • Consumers are not knowledge workers • Different power structures exist • Decisions are made differently • Families are not organizations • They are complex, dynamic structures and are all different

18. Consumer input • Need informed consent • Easier in the workplace • Non-standard “users” • Homes can involve children and the aged • Difficult to define the boundaries of a study • Interviewers as guests or intruders?

19. Data gathering • How do we gather information about the home • Any intrusion in the home will affect the results of the experiment (Hawthorne/Heisenberg effect) • Questionnaires • Interviews • Logs • Diaries

20. Methods used • Ethnography (even in limited forms) • Long term, labour intensive • Use of trial/experimental homes • Special situation – not “home” • Using the researcher’s own home • Special sort of user • Not easy to extrapolate

21. Future homes • Smart homes • Many scenarios and examples • Mainly automation • Remote control lights, heating and ventilation • Audio/Video networks • Conspicuous and visible technology

22. Example systems JDS technologies

23. Example – Home safety assistant VHI Healthcare

24. Ubiquitous computing • Implicit, hidden and pervasive technology • Meeting many needs • Physical • Social • Psychological • Emotional

25. New types of equipment • Interactive surfaces • Everyday objects with intelligence • Tables, chairs, walls, pictures • Emotional communication devices • Well-being monitors

26. Interactive Surface - Dynamo Dynamo - a public multi-user interactive surface that supports the cooperative sharing and exchange of a wide range of media in a social setting

27. Intelligent table Scenario - when a family member arrives at home and places their Orange mobile phone on the Intelligent Table, the table could recognise who owns that phone, and offer any of their favourite services – latest news, horoscopes, gig guide, sport alerts, weather etc… through the Message Cube, pre-programmed within existing Orange services through their web site – promoting Brand values and connectivity between Orange and the Home. Designed by Dominic Smith for Orange. http://www.intelligenttable.net/

28. Personal monitors Picture frames – with emotional/well-being information Mynatt and Rowan, (2000)

29. New interactions • Affective computing • Gesture and haptic interfaces • Eye-tracking • Usability and acceptability issues

30. Problems • Security • Information • Viruses, denial of service attacks, • Privacy • Need to control outside access to personal information • Control • Complex technology needs technical expertise • Access • Based on need or ability to pay? • Ethical problem • Need to question the development of technology when it may “harm” the user

31. HCI Issues • Development of new style guides and standards for new forms of human-computer interface • Principles for accessing the same data and functions for multiple heterogeneous devices • New techniques for understanding what people do and why • Defining the equivalent of task in a leisure context • Testing techniques for the home

32. Conclusions • It is difficult to define EXACTLY what a home is • The home is a complex area to study • ICT has a profound effect on the form and function of what we call home • Accurate data gathering is still an active research topic

33. Conclusions • New paradigm – new problems • Technical development alone is not enough • Multi-disciplinary research is essential • New devices will be invented • But, only some of them will be useful.

34. Home computer?

35. Submarine console