Application Design for Wearable Computing

1. Application Design for Wearable Computing Team members: Yih-Kuang Lu Hieu Nguyen

2. Wearable Computers – Where’s all started!

3. Outlines • Multimodal interaction, software/application, electronics, design methodology in user-centered design, and rapid prototyping – Wearable computers. • Designers should consider when designing wearable computing devices – Lesson learned & Useful guidelines. • Computer’s closeness to the body and its use while performing other tasks – UCAMP framework. • Areas of user interface, modalities of interaction, and wearable cognitive augmentation – Challenges and trends.

4. Wearable computers • Seek to merge the user’s information space with his or her workspace – make information available at any place, any time. • Application domains range: • Inspection procedures • Maintenance and manufacturing (vehicle & aircraft) • Navigation to on-the-move collaboration and position sensing • Real-time speech recognition and language translation • And more …

5. Wearable computers (cont.) • Advantages: • Body-worn computers that provide hands-free operation offering compelling advantages in many applications • Deal in information rather than programs • Tools in the user’s environment • Portable access to information • Eliminating cost of transferring information • Specialized and modular and easily be reconfigured to meet specific needs of applications

6. Wearable computers (cont.) • Wearable system designers’ challenges: • Identifying effective interaction modalities • Accurately modeling user tasks • New paradigm in computing • No consensus on the mechanical/software HMI • Remodel the current computer interface – shift user’s focus to the environments instead of the computing devices • Handle real-world interactions distractions like walking, driving, etc…

7. Wearable computers (cont.) • Every wearable computer system must be viewed from three different axes. • The Human – interaction between the human body and the wearable object • The Computer – size, power consumption, and UI software • The Application – design challenges and problem-solving capabilities

8. Wearable computers (cont.) • Key research groups: • Carnegie Mellon, Columbia University, Georgia Tech, MIT, Bremen University, Darmstadt University, ETH Zurich, Lancaster University, University of South Australia, and NARA in Japan • WearIt@Work • Large wearable computing consortium of companies and universities in Europe (36 partners), focusing on four application areas: mobile maintenance, emergency rescue, health care, and production. • Commercial companies/products (with limited success) • Xybernaut, CDI, and VIA Inc. • Seiko’s Rupiter wristwatch computer • Panasonic’s wearable brick computer coupled with handheld or arm-worn touch screen • Sony and OQO wearable PCs

9. EXAMPLE: VuMan 3 • Initiated by Carnegie Mellon University • Designed to streamlining Limited Technical Inspections (LTI) of amphibious tractors for the US Marines at Camp Pendleton, CA. • LTI – 600-item, 50 pages checklist, takes 4 to 6 hours to complete. Very Rapid Prototyping of Wearable Computers: A Case Study of VuMan 3 Custom versus Off-the-Shelf Design Methodologies (1997) Journal on Design Automation for Embedded Systems.

10. Lessons Learned From Usage • Maximum Size, weight, energy consumption before change user behavior • No fixed relationship between input/output/display • User less patient, expect instant response • Intuitive to use, no user’s manual • Information overload, user may focus on computer rather than physical world • Potential to lose initiative, user does exactly what the computer tells them to do

11. Design Guidelines for Wearable Computing • Three areas be considered: • Device  Keep user at the center of the design • Interface  Simple and clear interface for navigation • User environment  Readily viewable with limited shift of attention / Accommodate the cultural and esthetic standards • Questions designers should ask when beginning a project: • Does the mental model match the application physical workflow? • Are the user interactions with the application simple and intuitive? • Are the input and output devices and modalities appropriate for the set of projected applications? • Does the system have enough resources (processor, memory, network) to be responsive to the user’s interactions without excess? • Will the form and shape of the wearable computer be comfortable with the movement of the human body? • Where will the computer be placed on the body? What are the size, weight, and power consumption? • Is the device's thermal management and heat dissipation appropriate for the intended physical environment?

12. UCAMP framework • User: The user is at the center of the wearable-computer design process. • Corporal: Wearables should be designed to interface physically with the user without discomfort or distraction. • Attention: Interfaces should be designed for the user’s divided attention between the physical and virtual worlds. • Manipulation: When mobile, users lose some of the dexterity assumed by desktop interfaces. Thus, controls should be quick to find and simple to manipulate. • Perception: A user’s ability to perceive displays, both visual and audio, is also reduced when using a mobile device. Displays should be simple, distinct, and quick to navigate.

13. User • User needs and interactions – mobile users are more impatient…Speed is the key! • Applied user-centered design via User-Centered Interdisciplinary Concurrent System Design Methodology (UICSM)

14. Corporal • Use of the human body as a support environment • User’s physical context may be constantly changing and not fixed between user and device • Symbol Technologies – barcode technology. • Design for wearability considers the physical shape of objects and their active relationship with the human forms • Testing help resolved other needs and minimized health risk concern. • Wearability Design Criteria

15. Attention • The challenge for human–computer interaction design is to use advances in technology to preserve human attention and to avoid information saturation • Humans have a finite capacity that limits the number of concurrent activities they can perform • Human effectiveness is reduced as a person tries to multiplex more activities • After each refocus of attention, a period of time is required to reestablish the context before the interruption • Human short-term memory can hold seven plus or minus two chunks of information

16. Attention (cont.) • Mobile context – user’s attention is divided between computing task and activities in the physical environments. • Resource Competition Framework, based on the multiple resource theory of attention to relate mobile task demands to the user’s cognitive resources • “Task Guidance and Procedure Context: Aiding Workers in Appropriate Procedure Following” warns that mobile interfaces may hinder the user’s primary task if they are not properly designed • The Attention Matrix • Categorizes activities (information, communication, and creation) by the amount of attention they require

17. Attention (cont.)

18. Manipulation • Wearable-computer design offers simple manipulation within a complex set of information • A number of other manipulation devices have been developed and tested for wearable computing • Wheel-pointer • Small keypad or keyboard • Speech Interfaces • Speech Translation • Dual-Purpose Speech

19. Perception • When a user is on the go, the user’s ability to perceive a wearable computer’s interface is lessened • The vibration and visual interference from a moving background interferes with visual tasks • Background noise and the noise from the body itself affect hearing • How to design interfaces to least interfere with the user’s primary tasks while providing the most value in terms of augmentation • A Proactive Assistant (context-aware computing)

20. Research Directions • Three basic functions related to ease of use: Input, Output, and Information representation. Figure: User interface performance thresholds

21. Research Directions (cont.) Figure: Kiviat graphs for wearable computer use modalities

22. Research Directions (cont.) • Wearable Cognitive Augmentation • Knowing the user’s cognitive state would enable development of proactive cognitive assistants that anticipate user needs much like a human assistant does. • What makes this attempt possible is an unprecedented advance in measuring and understanding brain activity during complex tasks using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Figure: fMRI experiment configuration

23. Research Directions (cont.) Expected Figure: Activation volume in dual task compared to single task Actual

24. Conclusions and Future Challenges • User interface models: What is the appropriate set of metaphors for providing mobile access to information • Input/output modalities • Quick interface evaluation methodology: These evaluation techniques should especially focus on decreasing human errors and frustration • Matched capability with applications: the most effective means for information access and resist the temptation to provide extra capabilities • Context-aware applications • Proactive assistant

25. The Past…

26. The Present…

27. The Future…

28. References • Application Design for Wearable Computing • Dan Siewiorek, AsimSmailagic, and Thad Starner2008 • http://seiko-divers.info/scwf/index.php?mod=103&action=0&id=1021052963 • http://alexandria.tue.nl/openaccess/Metis235319.pdf • http://5election.com/2012/09/03/a-short-history-of-wearable-computers/ • http://blog.allstream.com/five-weird-but-wearable-computers/