Engaging with a Situated Display via Picture Messaging

Physical spaces are made meaningful to us in a number of ways - by their form and materials, by the activities that take place in them and through social interaction with co-occupants of the space. Increasingly, we are now encountering hybrid electronic and physical spaces where computing capabilities are embedded into the environment or are mobile, personal and networked– environments known as ubiquitous computing. How do we create meaning for these hybrid spaces?

Author: Karen Martin
Author: Alan Penn
Author: Lesley Gavin

Publication: ACM Conference Human Factors in Computing Systems | full text (PDF)

Year: 2006

In-between Theory and Practice: Dialogues in Design Research

Research into the process of designing new technologies has undergone considerable changes over the past twenty years. Various trends in the field of Human and Computer Interaction have challenged the traditional engineering-style, top-down approach and  the associated cognitive methodology that regards individuals as making rational decisions and plans according to an abstract model of the world.

Author: Arianna Bassoli
Author: Johanna Brewer
Author: Karen Martin

Publication: ACM Conf Human Factors in Computing Systems CHI 2007 | full text (PDF)

Year: 2007

Undersound: Music And Mobility Under the City

For researchers in ubiquitous computing there is a growing concern in understanding how innovative technologies might reflect and enhance current social practices of mobility and the personal and collective relationships we begin to build with and within the spaces we move through every day. In this paper we present a design sketch for an example of such a technology. Currently a work-in-progress in its conceptual stage, undersound is an application drawing on prior research, to support music sharing and distribution within the London Underground.

Author: Arianna Bassoli
Author: Johanna Brewer
Author: Karen Martin

Publication: Poster at the 8th International Conference of Ubiquitous Computing | full text (PDF)

Year: 2006