Augmenting Collections of Everyday Objects:A Case Study of Clothes Hangers as an

Information Display

Tara Matthews, Hans-W. Gellersen, Kristof Van Laerhoven, Anind K. Dey

University of CaliforniaUniversity of CaliforniaBerkeleyBerkeley

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Overview

• Introduction

• Hanger Display

• Evaluation

• Results

• Design Considerations

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Introduction

• One goal of ubiquitous computing:– To support natural interaction technology

• One common solution:– Digitally augment everyday objects that

have well-established functions and meanings

• Our project:– Explore how sets of everyday, physical

artifacts can collectivelyprovide an information display or interactive behavior

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Collections as Interfaces

• Distinction from previous work in collections:– Everyday artifacts are individually meaningful

entities to start with

• Reasons to explore this approach:– Use of everyday context– Collections take advantage of spatial arrangement– Many collections naturally exist

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Case Study: The Hanger Display

• Designed and implemented a generic interface consisting of a collection of augmented hangers on a rod

• Implemented three peripheral display applications for the Hanger Display

• Collected formative user feedback

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The Hanger Display

?

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The Hanger Display

• Each hanger has LED attached• Hangers form a row of LEDs• Lighting of LEDs can mean different things

(many possible inputs)• Three peripheral display inputs:

• Temperature• Barometric pressure• Remote presence

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Design: Why Hangers?

• Common objects in the home, naturally formed into collections

• Hangers associated with• hanging up and picking out clothes• morning rituals• getting ready for work or the day

• During these activities, people are interested in easy access to related information:

• weather or their schedule to determine what to wear• amount of email as an indication of how much work there

is to do• traffic to give an indication of commute time

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Design: Why Hangers?

• Affordances• When hanger is hung on rod, it is “part of the

application”

• Reduces the need for dedicated devices• Hangers are already part of morning activity;

why not make them more useful?

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Challenges

• Preserve natural interaction• Technology cannot interfere with everyday

use of hangers.• People will want to move, add, and remove

hangers.

• Resiliency to change• Everyday use should not interfere with the

technology (i.e., it should not “break” the application).

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Implementation

• Power and data supplied to LEDs via rod using MicroLAN protocol

• Java software on a laptop controls hanger LEDs

• Simple, cheap technology

• Resilient to change

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Formative Evaluation

• In-lab, 8 participants• Purpose:

– Obtain feedback on the concept of everyday object collections as interfaces

• Method:– Showed three applications to

demonstrate Hanger Display– Informally interacted with

display– Interview: qualitative feedback– Brainstorm: new applications

and interaction

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Results

• Realistic use for such displays: all users suggested applications they would use

• Many suggestions involved more interaction, something afforded by physical collections

• Points to new, creative, and useful applications of ubiquitous computing that support activities in situ

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Clothing Shop Example

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Results

• Realistic use for such displays: all users suggested applications they would use

• Many suggestions involved more interaction, something afforded by physical collections

• Points to new, creative, and useful applications of ubiquitous computing that support activities in situ

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Design Considerations

• Existing structures can be useful in defining interface scope

• Interfaces composed of everyday artifacts must be resilient to change

• This type of physical interface could lead to new interaction possibilities

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Conclusion

• Explored how sets of everyday, physical artifacts can collectively provide an information display or interactive behavior

• Benefits of everyday object collections as interfaces:– Everyday objects provide opportunities for useful

applications that support activities in situ

– Collections take advantage of spatial arrangement

• Designed and implemented The Hanger Display as a case study

• Confirmed design considerations for such interfaces

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Questions or Comments?

For more information:http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/~tmatthew/

University of CaliforniaUniversity of CaliforniaBerkeleyBerkeley

Red LED

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Power and Data

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