article

PostBits: using contextual locations for embedding cloud information in the home

Authors:

Pattie MaesAuthors Info & Claims

Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, Volume 20, Issue 6

Pages 1001 - 1014

https://doi.org/10.1007/s00779-016-0967-z

Published: 01 November 2016 Publication History

Abstract

Placing information at specific locations in the home provides rich and intuitive ways for people to cope with information, as they leverage semantics of the locations within the home. However, there is no deeper investigation yet on how users would embed digital cloud-based information into various locations in their homes, partly because previous systems were not robust enough to be deployed in real settings for an extended period of time. To this end, we have developed PostBits, a system of display blocks that integrate cloud information with contextually rich physical space. PostBits were designed for long battery life, robust communication and simple interactions, to enable a field deployment. A field study was conducted with 6 families, each using the system in their home for 1 week. We have identified patterns and strategies of how users embed cloud information at contextual locations in the home, and reflect on future design opportunities.

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Cited By

View all

Bressa NVermeulen JWillett W(2022)Data Every Day: Designing and Living with Personal Situated VisualizationsProceedings of the 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3491102.3517737(1-18)Online publication date: 29-Apr-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3491102.3517737
Wannamaker KKollannur SDörk MWillett W(2021)I/O Bits: User-Driven, Situated, and Dedicated Self-TrackingProceedings of the 2021 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference10.1145/3461778.3462138(523-537)Online publication date: 28-Jun-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3461778.3462138

Index Terms

PostBits: using contextual locations for embedding cloud information in the home
1. Applied computing
  1. Computers in other domains
    1. Personal computers and PC applications
2. Human-centered computing
  1. Human computer interaction (HCI)

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Reviews

Reviewer: Christoph F. Strnadl

Imagine electronic Post-it notes allowing users to dynamically access and display information and stick them wherever one thinks the information is needed-the underlying principle of PostBits. Of course, with current technology, PostBits resemble small blocks with a 2.7-inch touchscreen, but using an E-Ink display and a colored plastic coating, the PostBit devices last more than eight days and have been successfully, as this report demonstrates, deployed to home environments. Technically, the PostBit devices are not much more than smart monitors endowed with an 8 MHz central processing unit (CPU) and 4 GB microSD card, communicating with a central (Java-based) server deployed in the (public) cloud using ZigBee as a local low-power wireless protocol and a local Internet protocol (IP) gateway for accessing the Internet. Users control the information displayed on the PostBits by using a simple web user interface and may choose from (pre-integrated) public information feeds (for example, weather, Twitter, news) or enter their own (short) texts. Besides a good technical discussion, the paper also reports on early usage patterns exhibited by six families each using five PostBits in their home environment over the course of one week. Among expected interaction scenarios (for example, shopping lists displayed on PostBits in the kitchen), three emerging usage behaviors are noteworthy: spatially directed remote postings (sending memorable information to a specific PostBit, for example, in your study), active in situ communication (updating your status information on a PostBit at home from work), and spatially filtered information feeds (using two PostBits to simultaneously follow two Twitter streams). The major part of the paper dwells on the sociological dimension of the small-scale field study with a good introduction to related work. Lots of graphics and also photographs from "PostBits in action" render the thorough discussion easily comprehensible. This study is geared to anyone interested in novel applications of the Internet of Things (IoT) at home. Online Computing Reviews Service

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cover image Personal and Ubiquitous Computing

Personal and Ubiquitous Computing Volume 20, Issue 6

November 2016

194 pages

ISSN:1617-4909

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Springer-Verlag

Berlin, Heidelberg

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Published: 01 November 2016

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Bressa NVermeulen JWillett W(2022)Data Every Day: Designing and Living with Personal Situated VisualizationsProceedings of the 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3491102.3517737(1-18)Online publication date: 29-Apr-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3491102.3517737
Wannamaker KKollannur SDörk MWillett W(2021)I/O Bits: User-Driven, Situated, and Dedicated Self-TrackingProceedings of the 2021 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference10.1145/3461778.3462138(523-537)Online publication date: 28-Jun-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3461778.3462138

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Recommendations

An ambient assisted living nighttime wandering system for elderly

Towards an Understanding of College Students’ Perceptions of Smart Home Devices

Toward a Platform for Pervasive Display Applications in Retail Environments

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