Morphome - site visit 2

Site visit in Tampere on 27 November 2003

The aim of the project is to study the design principles for applying proactive computing in a domestic environment: the design of intelligent media and smart products in homes and their interfaces with intelligent materials.

During the first year, the project has conducted a home probes study to get a more holistic overview of proactive computing in homes, especially to specify the needs, experiences, expectations and fears of people in their homes.  The study followed the probes approach where people are given a set of self documentation and reflection tasks to complete and return. These were complemented with site visits and interviews. The researchers wanted to avoid simplifying interactivity to mere situations where technology was used. Instead they tried to find out meanings attached to different components and what role technology had in these meanings.

The self documentation kit given to the families provided several different techniques for studying the functionality and equipment in everyday situations. The main objective of the study was to study the home as an environment of materials and especially technology. Self documenting activities in homes meant taking pictures and keeping working diaries, as well as reflecting on one's own relation to objects. By observing their homes and their daily activities, people became more aware of their home environment.

Two homes in Helsinki and Tampere participated in a pilot study. Some of the questions and tasks in the self documentation kit were approved after this and the real study was performed in six homes in the same cities. The homes were chosen to represent different types from single person homes to family homes.

In a photo assignment, people took photos of their homes. By taking a concrete picture of a thing or situation, it was easier to express stories and fact about it than only talking about the same thing. The aim of a mapping assignment was to reveal what emotional relationships people had to locations and products in their home. As a basis, people used a floor plan of their home where the most important objects had been marked. They were asked to mark different people's territories on an overlay on the floor plan, and then also assign stickers of wild animals to describe the "animal" quality of the products in their homes. After finish documenting their homes, the researchers also interviewed the people and asked them to explain the documents and pictures.

The results of the studies showed both similarities and differences in the way people approach their homes, in the way they socialize or the role they attach to technology in their house. The domestic environment is also very special in the way that it is difficult to study without taking into account emotional, social and cultural aspects. In many cases, technology has become invisible and people take it for granted. But cables and wires were criticized and people both hated them and were very frustrated with the sense of disarray they create. Daily negotiations of the use of objects and spaces seemed to be common. People also used their homes differently when they were alone compared to when there were other people present. The home was often extended to include balconies, gardens, back yards and even the city block. As an overall inclusion, future embedded systems should have interfaces and esthetical elements that are adaptive to both usage situations and user groups. A longer study of the design principles behind proactive computing in homes will be published shortly.

What materials could be used in domestic proactive applications? The researchers designed a prototype pillow for implementing some of their ideas. A pillow is non-technical and soft, and can be used for a lot of different purposes. It also fits well into a home. In this case, the pillow was endowed with a small battery-driven unit and amplifier with microphone, loud-speaker, and an RF-ID reader. It continuously monitored the environment. When it recognized an RF-ID it emitted a predefined sound.

Especially children found the furry pillow interesting, but the fur also collected dust. Usage varied in the different families, sometimes the enthusiasm for the pillow died down quite fast. The pillow was used in children's play, e.g., sometimes considered as an animal, or just used in fantasy games or for making music. It was also used for wrestling and obviously the emitted sounds raised the curiosity of the children to look what was inside. Usage could be quite rough. Technically, the range of the RF-ID reader was quite short and it was not able to identify clashes of several RF-IDs. The antenna was also very fragile and the component that was most likely to come to pieces. Future plans include remedying these shortcomings.

For more information, please see the web pages of the project at http://www.uta.fi/hyper/projektit/morphome/ or contact Coordinator Frans Mäyrä at the Hypermedia Laboratory. The home page includes a short note of the home probes study including pictures and an overview of the first year's activities in the project.

The consortium consists of the following units and researchers:

• Hypermedia Laboratory, University of Tampere (UTA):
• Professor Frans Mäyrä, Professor Tere Vadén, Researcher Anne Soronen, Researcher Olli Sotamaa
• Personal Electronics Group, Institute of Electronics, Tampere University of Technology (TUT):
• Professor Jukka Vanhala, Researcher Jussi Mikkonen
• Department of Product and Strategic Design at the University of Art and Design, Helsinki (UIAH):
• Professor Ilpo Koskinen, Researcher Katja Battarbee

Project home page on this site.