THE UNIVERSITY of CALGARY Contextual Locations in the Home by Kathryn Kylie Elliot a THESIS SUBMITTED to the FACULTY of GRADUATE
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THE UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY Contextual Locations in the Home by Kathryn Kylie Elliot A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE CALGARY, ALBERTA DECEMBER, 2006 © Kathryn Kylie Elliot 2006 Approval Page THE UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES The undersigned certify that they have read, and recommend to the Faculty of Graduate Studies for acceptance, a thesis entitled “Contextual Locations in the Home” submitted by Kathryn Kylie Elliot in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. Supervisor, Saul Greenberg Department of Computer Science Sheelagh Carpendale Department of Computer Science External Examiner, Barry Wylant Faculty of Environmental Design University of Calgary Date - ii - Abstract In this thesis, I address the problem of designing technology for communication and coordination information management in the home. First, I use contextual interviews to examine how households currently manage this information. From these interviews, I identify five types of communicative information. I then discuss how these types are created and understood by home inhabitants as a function of contextual locations within the home. The choice of location for a piece of information is important to the functioning of the home, and is highly nuanced. Location helps home inhabitants understand time, ownership and awareness. Finally, I show how this understanding can be applied in design through two case studies in location-based home technology design. This will provide practitioners and designers with a more complete view of information in the home, and a better understanding of how technology embedded within the home can augment communication and coordination of home inhabitants. - iii - Publications Materials, ideas, and figures from this thesis have appeared previously in the following publications: Elliot, K. and Greenberg, S.. (2004) Building Flexible Displays for Awareness and Interaction. Video Proceedings and Proceedings Supplement of the UBICOMP 2004 Conference, (Sept 7-10, Nottingham, England) 6 minute video and 2 page paper. The same paper also appears in UbiComp Workshop on Ubiquitous Display Environments, held at UbiComp 2004. Elliot, K., Neustaedter, C. and Greenberg, S.. (2005) Time, Ownership and Awareness: The Value of Contextual Locations in the Home. In Beigl, M., Intille, S., Rekimoto, J. and Tokuda, H. (Eds) UbiComp 2005: Ubiquitous Computing (Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Ubiquitous Computing, Sept 11-14, Tokyo, Japan), LNCS 3660, p251-268, Springer. Elliot, K., Neustaedter, C. and Greenberg, S.. (2006) Sticky Spots and Flower Pots: Two Case Studies in Location-Based Home Technology Design. Report 2006-830-23, Department of Computer Science, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, T2N 1N4. April. Elliot, K., Neustaedter, C. and Greenberg, S.. (2006) StickySpots: A Location-Based Message System for the Home. In Video Proceedings of the Conference on Computer- Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW 2006), (Nov. 4-8, Banff, Canada) 6 minute video and 2 page paper. - iv - Acknowledgements I would not have been able to complete this thesis without the help and support of many people. To Saul, my supervisor: Thank you for everything. You gave me the confidence to try this whole Master’s thing. And whenever I had no idea what to do next, you always put me on the right path, and made the next step seem possible. Thank you for your encouragement, for your guidance and for your patience. To all the amazing people in the Interactions Lab: You have made this such a great place to be for the last four years. Whenever I needed help with anything, there was always someone willing to drop everything and listen to my problems. I have learned so much from the people here, and had so much fun. To Carman: I couldn’t have asked for anyone better to work with! Thank you for always being willing to patiently explain something to me, to show me how to do something, or to help me figure it out myself. I learned so much from you. Thank you for all your help and for your friendship. To Mike R., my brother-in-law: Thank you for introducing me to this stuff, and for making me feel so welcome when I first joined the lab as an undergrad. You have always made time to answer my never-ending questions, and to encourage me. Thanks for being an awesome big brother! To my parents: Thank you for all your love and encouragement, even when it looked like I would be in school forever. Thank you for giving me a love of learning. I always knew that you were there for me and that you believed in me, and I can’t tell you how much that has meant. To Phil, my husband: I cannot say thank you enough. Your unwavering love, support and patience has meant the world to me. You have celebrated with me, listened to me vent and let me cry on your shoulder. You make me smile every day. Thank you for your faith in me. - v - To everyone else who has supported me, encouraged me, distracted me and teased me through this whole process: Thank you, thank you, thank you. I am blessed to have so many wonderful people in my life, and I couldn’t have done this without all of you. - vi - Dedication To my parents the best teachers I’ve ever had. - vii - Table of Contents Approval Page........................................................................................................................... ii Abstract.................................................................................................................................... iii Publications.............................................................................................................................. iv Acknowledgements................................................................................................................... v Dedication............................................................................................................................... vii Table of Contents................................................................................................................... viii List of Tables .......................................................................................................................... xii List of Figures........................................................................................................................ xiii Chapter 1. Introduction............................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Background and Motivation................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Thesis Problems ..................................................................................................................... 6 1.3 Thesis Goals........................................................................................................................... 7 1.4 Organizational Overview ....................................................................................................... 8 Chapter 2. Technology in the Home......................................................................................... 9 2.1 Moving off the Desktop ......................................................................................................... 9 2.1.1 Ubiquitous Computing................................................................................................ 10 2.1.2 Tangible Computing ................................................................................................... 11 2.2 Embodied Interaction ...........................................................................................................14 2.3 Context-Aware Computing .................................................................................................. 15 2.4 The Home of the Future ....................................................................................................... 17 2.4.1 Smart Homes .............................................................................................................. 17 2.4.2 Home Technology ...................................................................................................... 20 - viii - 2.5 The Home is Not the Office ................................................................................................. 26 2.6 Studying the Home...............................................................................................................28 2.7 Summary .............................................................................................................................. 32 Chapter 3. Exploring Communication Information in the Home ........................................... 34 3.1 Study Methodology..............................................................................................................34 3.1.1 Participants ................................................................................................................. 35 3.1.2 Method........................................................................................................................ 37 3.1.3 Analysis ...................................................................................................................... 37 3.2 Communication Information Types ..................................................................................... 38 3.2.1 Memory Triggers.......................................................................................................