Locative Media Lalya Gaye Ubiquitous Computing course IT-University in Göteborg 31 November 2007.

Locative Media

Lalya Gaye

Ubiquitous Computing course

IT-University in Göteborg

31 November 2007

Aims and scope• Overview of the field• Technology overview • Discussion of design and prototyping approaches• Design issues: focus on sustainability in locative media

IntroductionLocative Media Lecture

Introduction Lecture Content

Ubiquitous computing: recap

Ubicomp technologies

Locative Media: definition and origins

Themes, projects and related design issues

Characteristics, challenges and design opportunities

Technologies available to the general public

Sustainable Design?

Ubiquitous ComputingRecap

• Mark Weiser’s vision (1991)– disappearing computer– everyday world literally used as interface

“The most profound technologies are those that disappear. They weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life until they are indistinguishable from it.”


• The computer: calculator -> information system -> interactive -> pc -> mobile, integrated, networked

• Levels of interaction: electrical -> symbolic -> textual -> visual -> social, tangible

• Evolution of the user interface: from immersing the user in the computer’s world to computing increasingly adapting to the user’s world and skills.

• Ubicomp = opposite of virtual reality: embedded reality.


• Evolution of computer-human interaction:– more of the human’s everyday world and everyday

skills in computing– computers an increased part of our everyday life– requiring less specialised knowledge to operate them – relying increasingly on user’s everyday skills – smaller computers– from one computer for many user, to many computers


• Designing ubicomp systems:

Focus on the interaction between user & technology (as opposed to form and function), on what experience the user gets from it, on what added-value ubicomp brings to his/her life.

• Follow needs and requirements but also entice new behaviours?


• Enhance people’s activities by making computing available at hand, when and where needed (including when the users are mobile)

• Computing naturally blending into everyday settings, vanishes into the background

• The physical and social world around us as digitally augmented and distributed interface

• Manipulating digital data = manipulating entities in the physical world

• Literally build on people’s everyday use of the physical and social world, in situation and in real time.

• Peripheral awareness• Greenfield: “information processing dissolving into behaviour”• IT + everyday life as design material (f. ex. I/O Brush)


Implementing the ubicomp vision:– Many interconnected computers per person– Mobile devices combined with computers embedded

in the environment (e.g. post-hoc augmentation of everyday objects with sensors and networked communication)

– With awareness of physical & social context + each other

-> Mapping the digital world to the physical one-> User interface: tangible and embedded in the real world


Implementing the ubicomp vision:– Distributed interface: networking mobile devices and

embedded computers (sensors, processors, etc) -> flexible and seamless integrated whole -> e.g. any display or input device can become one’s own (user mobility)

– Interaction in context and in real time (f.ex. tracking things and people -> relevant information and interaction opportunity to the right person at the right time)


Types of systems:– “walk-up-pop-up”– wearables– ambient displays– intelligent work environments– augmented, interconnected everyday

objects– etc


Media cup, TecO

Ubiquitous ComputingTechnologies

• Ubiquitous Computing (Weiser): computing interweaved in everyday life, “where the action is” (Dourish)– context awareness– embedded sensor networks – global positioning– wearable computing– augmented & mixed-reality– ad hoc and p2p user networks


* Embedded sensor networks

• Sensors:

- in everyday environments

- on people

- on artefacts• Sensor fusion: combining different data and placements

to gather context


* Context-aware computing

• “computer-based devices [that] reach out into the real world through sensors” [Gellerson].

• “A system is context-aware if it uses context to provide relevant information and/or services to the user, where relevancy depends on the user’s task.” [Dey & Abowd, 1999].



• Enables computing to run into the background and adapt to changes of context in order to present appropriate behaviour to specific situations. – “presentation of information and services to a user”– “automatic execution of a service” depending on

context appropriateness– or “tagging of context to information for later retrieval”

[Dey].



Gellersen et al.



Gellersen et al.


* Tangible computing • Input, data, output and networking contained and

accessed within the same tangible artefact – Paper, cups, pens, umbrellas or specially designed

artefacts• Tangible objects as active entities that respond to the

environment, to user manipulation and people’s activities in general

• Building on the users’ cognitive abilities


* Social computing • Incorporating understandings of the social world into

interactive systems– Social traces left by people on objects or places– Mobile social networks between co-located

acquaintances – enhancing user awareness by providing them

information about others and their activity


* Augmented reality

• Superimposing a digital world upon the real one – User experiences both as co-existing parts of the

same reality– User is able to interact with their combination in real

time• Interfaces:

– 3D computer graphics seen through transparent head-mounted displays or augmented glasses

– Spatialised audio cues heard through headphones


* Augmented reality

• Mixed-reality: digital world not directly overlaid on the physical one but still presented as part of the same reality, f.ex. – with both realities displayed on the screen of hand-

held device)


* Wearable computing

• Computing incorporated into clothing• Make use of body-related information or interaction

forms to control processes : - body movements- biometrics

• Embedded displays (e.g. glasses)


* Platforms:– Smart-Its– Smart Dust– Pin & Play– Tiny OS– etc


• Smart-Its:– sensors: sound, light, acceleration (2d), pressure– core board: context-recognition, communication

interface (RF)


Locative Media:Background

• Typical contexts of use for ubicomp: home, office work, cafeterias, grad-students research labs, etc

• Locative media = media with sense of place• New media + urban aesthetic practices + community

uses of public space + contextual art + mobile, ubiquitous and geographical technologies

• City, public spaces• Ubiquitous computing in public space:

Minority Report dystopia (video: 44:20) vs. current creative uses and appropriations of public space?

Locative MediaBackground

Urban aesthetic practices• Mobility as creative act• Creative use of public space

• Walking:– aboriginal walkabouts– situationist dérive, psycho-geography

Locatived MediaBackground

Urban aesthetic practices

• Mobility as creative act

• Creative use of public space

• Graffiti

• Reclaim the Streets

• Urban sports:

– skateboarding

– parkour (video)

-> urban space as resource for aesthetic movements

Locative MediaBackground

Themes and Projects

• Pervasive Gaming: the world as a game-board• Space annotation: media with a specific position in space• Location awareness & GPS-enabled locative media• Mobile music & locative audio• Radio pirates• Social spaces

• etc

Locative Media ProjectsThemes

Locative Media ProjectsPervasive Gaming

• The world as game-board

• Botfighters and Pirates! • Backseat Gaming (video)• Can You See Me Now? (video)• iPerG• ...

Locative Media ProjectsPervasive Gaming

Can You See Me Know? Blast Theory + Equator

• Media with a specific position in space• User-authored social cues

• Virtual: Geonotes (video)Urban Tapestries(animations)

• Physical: Yellow Arrow (video)Grafedia

Locative Media ProjectsSpace Annotation

Grafedia, grafedia.net

Yellow Arrow, Count Media

• GPS-drawing• Non-linear narratives:

Hundekopf (video)

Locative Media ProjectsGPS & Positioning

Hundekopf, knifeandfork

• Tracking and mapping paths• Biomapping (video), Drift, Net_Derive (video)...

Locative Media ProjectsGPS & Positioning

Biomapping, Christian Nold Drift, Teri Rueb

• Audio space annotation

• Mobile music sharing/listening:

- distributed

- ad hoc

- sound walks

• Mobile music making:

- situated

- collaborative

• Wearable audio

Locative Media ProjectsMobile Music and Locative Audio


Hear&There(Rozier, MIT Medialab, 1999)

Tacticle Sound Garden [TSG] (video)

(Mark Shepard, Buffalo Univ. 2004-06)

Tejp / Audio tags(PLAY & FAL, 2003-04)



Audio Bombing (video)(Fleming et al., 2007)

Sonic Graffiti (video)(C-Y Lee, 2007)



[Murmur] (murmur.ca)


• Sound walks

• Electric walks (Christina Kubisch)

• Drift (Rueb)

• 34n118w (Knowlton, Spellman, 2005)

• Craving (Garnicnig, Haider, 2007)

• Seven Mile Boots (Beloff et al., 2003-04)

• The Case at Kulturhuset (Knifeandfork, 2004)

• Riot! (Mobile Bristol, Hewlett Packard)


• Distributed and located music

Location 33 (Carter & Liu, USC, 2005)


• Mobile music sharingSoundPryer (Mattias Östergren, Interactive Institute, 2001)

TunA (Arianna Bassoli et al.,

Medialab Europe, 2002)


• Mobile music sharing

Bass Station (Mark Argo & Ahmi Wolf, 2003)

Push!Music(Håkansson et al., 2005)


• Situated music making

Sonic City (video)(Gaye et al., FAL & PLAY, 2002-04)

Sound Lens(Toshio Iwai, Tokyo Univ.)

Solarcoustics: CONNECT (Barnard, ITP/NYU, 2005)


• Situated music making

Sound Mapping (video)(Mott et al., Reverberant, 1997)

Sonic Interface (Akitsugu Maebayashi, 1999)

Warbike(McCallum, 2005-06)

Skatesonic (video) (van Toder, 2006)


• Collaborative mobile music making

ImprovE (video)(Wideberg & Hasan, 2006)

CosTune (Nishimoto et al., ATR, 2001)

Malleable Mobile Music (Atau Tanaka, Sony CSL, 2004)


• Collaborative mobile music making

China Gates (Clay, Majoe, 2006)

Sequencer404 (Hatcher, Jimison et al., 2006)

Cellphonia (Bull et al, 2006)


• Wearable audio

Nomadic Radio (Shawney, MIT Medialab, 1998)

Sonic Fabric (Alice Santaro, 2002)


• Wearable audio

”Personal instruments”(Krzysztof Wodiczko, 1969)

(Chelle Hugues, RCA/CRD, 2000)


• Wearable audio

Robotcowboy (Wilcox, 2007)

Hearing Sirens (Cathy van Eck, 2007)


• Output: Headphones vs boombox vs using everyday objects

SoundbugTM speakers & piezos

Flower Speakers (LET’S corporation, Japan, 2004)


Bit Radio(Bureau of Inverse Technology)

7/11 (video)(New Beginnings, Göteborg)

Key Chain Radio Station (Rikako Sakai, Ivrea, 2004)

Locative Media ProjectsRadio Pirates

Hummingbirds

Jabberwocky (video)

MobiTip

Locative Media ProjectsSocial Spaces

Charateristics, Challenges and Design Opportunities

Interactions happening anywhere, on the move :• taking advantage of the mobile setting: playing with

social and geographic dynamics implied by mobility

-> outdoors everyday space, location and social context becoming resources for interaction as you move through space

-> spontaneous & situated collaborations with people around or distributed across the city

Characteristics of Locative MediaInteraction Properties

Interactions happening anywhere, on the move • becoming embedded in the physical and social context

of everyday life -> people managing interaction in heterogeneous

context-> and in simultaneity

with other activities(crossing a street...waiting for the bus...)

tunA, Bassoli et al, Medialab Europe, 2002

Characteristics of Locative MediaInteraction Properties

• Usage extended over time and space• Ergonomics• Same application, many devices• Same application, many places• Access variability• Ad-hoc meetings, windows of opportunity• Shifting social roles and contexts• Shifting physical context • Heterogeneous environment• Scales of interaction• Merging digital and physical realms

Characteristics of Locative MediaTechnical Opportunities & Challenges

• User-authored content spread across public space: raises questions about – property of information– privacy & surveillance (loca)– spamming?

• Augmenting environments and supporting activities with embedded computation: what if it changes what makes things what they are?

• If ubicomp spreads into public space, according to whose will? Top-down corporations, government vs bottom-up citizens, communities? Conflicts of interests?

Characteristics of Locative MediaDesign Issues

• User control (Greenfield): How do you know you are interacting with a computer if invisible? How do you protect your privacy? avoid false commands? How do you know where to look for interaction?

• How to query/notify presence, access, place, manipulate media?

• How is the place? Who is there? What activities are going on there? How mobile is/are the user(s)? What meaning do the place, activities, and things around have and for whom?


• Pro-active and calm computing vs engaging

• Ubicomp vs pervasive computing: at hand when needed vs always on everywhere

• Connect physical and virtual world: technical and HCI issue but also sociological, aesthetic, even political and environmental. F.ex. Yellow Arrow vs Geonotes: – physical vs virtual markers– Graffiti style interaction vs screen-based


Enabling technologiesAvailable to General Public

• Mobile peer-to-peer• Tracking, positioning and placement• Sensing and data-processing• Content creation and manipulation

Enabling TechnologiesAvailable to the General Public

* Server-Client

* Mobile peer-to-peer:– Bluetooth– WiFi– Infrared


* Bluetooth• Standard communication protocol for wireless personal

area network (PANs) • Connect and exchange information (commands, files)

between devices • Microwave radio frequency -> non-directional• Short range (power-class-dependent: 1 -10 - 100 m) • Use: BluetunA, bluejacking, Nokia’s Digidress

Enabling TechnologiesMobile Peer-to-Peer

* WiFi• Wireless local area network• Radio, non-directional• Internet and VoIP phone access, network connectivity for

for consumer electronics, etc• Connect to local access points• Server-client vs ad hoc networks


* Phones vs Wifi-enabled PDAs• Connectivity: closed/open network vs operators• Cost• Range• Distributed vs ad hoc vs server-client• Compatibility• Programmability: SDK, OS• Memory, speed


* Platform: Opentrek

• http://www.develant.com/opentrek.php• Peer-to-peer networking platform specifically designed

for Wireless Ad Hoc Networks • Cross-platform! • Ad hoc networking -> collaborate


* Tracking, positioning and placement– Phone cells– WiFi hotspots– GPS– Virtual media– Physical markers: 2D barcodes, RFID, user ID to

phone


* Global Positioning System (GPS) • 30 geo-stationary satellites -> location, speed, direction,

path• Shadows, accuracy• Use: CYSMN?, GPS drawing, Drift• GPS-enabled phones, PDAs• Platform: Geotracing

http://www.geotracing.com

Enabling TechnologiesTracking, Positioning and Placement

* Geotracing

http://www.geotracing.com


* Placing media: socialight.net• In-place and remote annotation

with smart-phone /PDA• social network community• sound, text, images, video• google maps + GPS


* RFID• Radio-frequency identification• Storing and remotely retrieving data • Storage & processing + antenna• Physical markers• Tagging objects• Range: 5-20cm• Passive (powered by inductivity

when used) vs active RFID


* RFID– Uses:– Passports– ransport payments– Product tracking– Automotive– Animal identification– RFID in inventory systems– Human implants– RFID in libraries

• Controversy: privacy issues. Shielding?


* 2D barcodes

• QR (Quick Response) code, Datamatrix code, etc• Physical markers• Can store between one and 500 characters • Tag objects, places• Scan with cameraphones

-> hyperlink (physical mobile interaction)• How to: Kaywa reader http://reader.kaywa.com/ +

generator: http://qrcode.kaywa.com/


* Unique ID to phone

• Physical markers with unique IDs• Tag objects, places• Send number to server

-> store & retrieve media• Arrows available, but not

ID generator


* Sensing:– sensors– data processing: microcontrollers


* Micro-controllers• Basic Stamp II, Basic X – 24 http://www.basicx.com

Tutorial: http://www.tigoe.net/pcomp/index.shtml• Arduino

– open source hardware physical computing I/O platform

– cheap (20 Euro)– easy (Processing)– assemble yourself– stand-alone or connect to

computer (MAX/MSP, etc)– www.arduino.cc

Enabling TechnologiesSensor Data Processing

* Creating and manipulating content:– Mobile Processing– Python– J2ME– miniMIXA– PdA (Pd on PDAs, linux)– Keyworx


* Mobile Processing• http://mobile.processing.org• Open source programming environment for design and

prototyping software for mobile phones. • Similar to Processing environment. • Runs on Java powered mobile devices.• Bluetooth -> communication• Control example: attach light sensor on screen so

sending info from phone to laptop

Enabling TechnologiesCreating and Manipulating Content

* MiniMIXACommercial DJ software for mobile phones, PDAshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6BSGy8mMsU

* KeyworxMultimedia platform (base for GeoTracing f.ex.)http://www.keyworx.org/

* PDa (Puredata anywhere): Pd for Linux on PDAshttp://gige.xdv.org/pda/


* Python PyS60• Interactive object-oriented language• Nokia S60 phones and more• Record, playback, play MIDI notes, control MAX/MSP

patches...• http://www.python.org/• PyS60: http://www.forum.nokia.com/python and

http://www.mobilenin.com/pys60/menu.htm

• Tutorial (Jürgen Scheible - Mobilenin)


• 3rd party software (Java, etc)• Hacking hardware: use camera, microphone, speakers,

audio out...

Enabling TechnologiesHacking mobile phones

Sustainable Design?

• Problem in particular with Ubicomp: technology spread everywhere

• Production, use, reuse, disposal• Use of energy + where to get it from?• Computers get smaller but not batteries• Issues with spreading technology into the wild: not as

controlled environment as homes or offices• Littering: what happens to the embedded technology

after use or break-down? who is responsible/accountable ?

• Physical & virtual littering?• Peak oil!

Sustainable Locative Media?Issues

• Recycling?• Use of existing material and sources of energy? • Biodegradable material, f. ex. paper markers? • The simpler the better?• Wearability? • When should power be on? How should the system

know when it should be on/off?

Sustainable Locative Media?Possible Approaches

* Hacking• Repurposing existing technology

Sustainable Locative Media?Design Inspirations

* Parasating?• Re-using existing features and properties of space and

sources of energy in the environment: power, airflow, conductivity, etc.

• paraSITE• Glitch (Tejp)


* Body-generated energy?• steps, body-heat, etc• Humand-Powered Objects Workshop:

Bike4Tea, DynamoMouse...


* Ephemeral computing (Jernström)?• Deploying and packing up temporary and re-usable

ubicomp infrastructures• SiSSy (video)


Resources:http://www.cs.chalmers.se/idc/ituniv/kurser/07/uc/locmedia/

http://www.cs.chalmers.se/idc/ituniv/kurser/07/uc/locmedia/

http://www.cs.chalmers.se/idc/ituniv/kurser/07/uc/locmedia/

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Locative Media Lalya Gaye Ubiquitous Computing course IT-University in Göteborg 31 November 2007.

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