Photo Sharing for Intergenerational Connections ME310 Design Documentation Sara Jaafar ∙ Mishel Johns ∙ Shiquan Wang ∙ Xuesen Li Yingwei Li ∙ Yunjun Wu ∙ Jingxian Zhang ∙ Yikang Liu 1 Executive Summary Digital technology forms the basis for most remote communication today. As we gain more freedom in being able to communicate across distances and time zones, we also move a large proportion of our communication online. We use mobile phones, email, social networking, teleconferencing and video chatting regularly. However, not all people are comfortable with the use of technology. At particular disadvantage are seniors, especially those in developing countries, who did not encounter any digital technology in their youth and find learning to use modern devices extremely difficult. Our switch to digital communication has created a barrier between people living in the digital realm and those living in the physical one. Add to this the divergent interests of different generations, and migration to and between cities that tears families apart and the fast paced city lifestyle that more of the world is moving into, and we have a dire need of technology that can keep family members connected. Our mission is to bridge the gap between the Digital Foreigners (seniors), and their tech-savvy relatives, the Digital Natives (the youth), by creating a connection experience that takes into account the generation gap, physical separation, and lack of time for communication. We aim to provide an engag- ing and pleasurable experience for both generations by tailoring their end of the system to their needs. Sponsored by Microsoft Research Asia, the Stanford and USTC teams have worked for 30 weeks on researching the needs of the user, brainstorming for solutions, prototyping and testing multiple solutions before settling on a promising concept and building a device that can solve these problems. After extensive research, interviews, and discussions, we compiled a long list of issues about technology that concern the elderly, and areas where there are opportunities for enhancement or creation. Some of the solutions that we prototyped include simplified variations on video chatting and interactive surfaces, methods to save a ’family legacy’ alongside video interactions, and remote tactile communication. We found that photo sharing is an area where the disconnect is particularly bad. While the youth have smartphones and digital cameras at their disposal and take thousands of photos each year, only a minute fraction of these ever make it to their grandparents. We have Facebook, Instagram and a whole host of other online services we can use to share photos with our friends and, to some extent, our parents. Seniors who do not use technology are left completely out of the loop. In fact, the few seniors who do use computers do it mostly to download and view photos sent to them as attachments to emails. Seniors tend to have physical albums with a lot of pictures taken over the years. They cherish these albums and enjoy looking through them. A photo means more to their generation than to the youth, since the era of cheap digital photos is not very old. A successful connection of these two worlds offers promise as a means to improve communication between generations, by giving an easy way for the younger generation to send photos to seniors in order to keep them in the loop. This can not only offer the 1 Front Matter 2 Figure 1.1: The Family Album direct benefit of being able to look at what their family is doing, but also act as a catalyst for further interactions over the phone or in person. The challenge here is to create a system that is accessible to the elderly while offering the convenience and the connectivity of digital technology to the younger generation. Present attempts to enter this problem space (Digital Photo Sharing), like digital photo frames, have not been very successful due to multiple reasons, the primary one being the lack of control seniors have over what photos are being displayed - the difficulty of navigation through photos. Our solution is the Family Album, a photo sharing device, which consists of a projector and a camera fixed above a blank paged-photo album. The camera is used to detect a page number/code on the page, and the projector displays the corresponding image on the page. It is important to hide the technology so as not to appear daunting to seniors, so we merged the electronics with an elegant lamp that can fit in any senior’s home. Photos are can be added to the album either by sending an email with the photos attached, or by using the Family Album Windows Phone app. The photo will be auto- matically downloaded and the user will be alerted of new photos via a notification on the contents page. In addition to adding photos, the app allows you to change photo captions, create albums and rearrange and delete photos. To combat the problem of multiple rela- tives sending photos and the larger number of photos than pages on the album, we have multiple virtual albums that can be cycled through using a pull chain switch. We tested our device with seniors in multiple senior centers near Palo Alto. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive, with users appreciating the ease of use and the intuitive interface. No one needed an explanation of how to use the device - everyone Front Matter 3 Figure 1.2: Woman intrigued by our Family Album knows how to flip through an album. Some users found it magical, with one user believing that we were using ’magic paper’ that would show the photo only under the light of the lamp. Users also told us the importance of having large and clear pictures, and there were mixed comments about the need to have a portable album, one that could be pulled closer to the eye to see the picture better. We presented a simple yet successful design of the Family Album. Future work to enhance it relate to making the system faster and more reliable. We have received sugges- tions about converting the Family Album into a platform that programmers can develop further applications for, to develop functionality like showing short video clips, displaying families’ social networking feeds in clipboard format on the Album, and allowing audio feedback to pictures. We believe it is important to ensure that features do not grow to a point where the device starts becoming confusing to the elderly user. Contents 1 Front Matter 1 ExecutiveSummary .................................. 1 Glossary......................................... 10 2 Context 11 2.1 NeedStatement.................................. 11 2.2 ProblemStatement................................ 12 2.3 Corporate Partner: Microsoft Research Asia . 13 2.4 TheDesignTeam................................. 14 3 Design Requirements 19 3.1 Functional Requirements and Constraints . 19 3.2 Opportunities................................... 22 3.3 Assumptions ................................... 22 3.4 BusinessRequirements. 24 4 Design Development 25 4.1 Brainstorming................................... 25 4.2 User Benchmarking and Needfinding . 37 4.3 BusinessBenchmarking ............................. 46 4.4 Technology Benchmarking . 46 4.5 Idea Exploration / Brainstorming . 58 4.6 Critical Function and Critical Experience Prototypes (CFP/CEP) . 66 4.7 FamilyWindow.................................. 77 4.8 FamilyChannel.................................. 84 4.9 FamilyAlbum................................... 93 4.10 Final Production: Spring Quarter . 101 5 Design Description 111 5.1 Full Bill of Materials . 111 5.2 Family Album Specifications . 111 5.3 ProductElectronics ...............................117 5.4 Software Programs . 129 5.5 Windows Phone app . 133 6 Project Management 135 6.1 ProjectPlanning .................................135 6.2 What happened in Winter Quarter? . 138 6.3 Budget.......................................142 6.4 How were the resources allocated in Winter Quarter? . 144 6.5 How were the resources allocated in Spring Quarter? . 148 6.6 Distributed Team Management . 148 4 Contents 5 6.7 Reflection .....................................150 7 Resources 156 Bibliography 158 8 Appendix 159 Appendix A - Family Album testing . 159 AppendixB-RaspberryPiSetup . .161 AppendixC-ServerSetup ..............................175 Appendix D - Windows Phone app . 180 AppendixE-Need-finding ..............................214 Appendix F - Photo Sharing Needfinding . 217 Appendix G - Fall Quarter Prototype Descriptions . 218 Appendix H - Tactile Messaging CFP Component Specifications . 225 Appendix I - 3D Table Design Description . 226 AppendixJ-FamilyChannelUsertesting. 227 Appendix K - Technology Benchmarking Online . 230 Appendix L - CFP CEP Handout . 230 Appendix M - Fall Final Brochure . 230 Appendix N - Dark Horse Handout . 230 Appendix O - Funky Prototype Handout . 230 Appendix P - Functional Prototype Handout . 230 AppendixQ-WinterFinalBrochure. 230 Appendix R - Part X is done Handout . 230 Appendix S - Penultimate Handout . 230 AppendixT-EXPEBrochure ............................230 Appendix U - EXPE Poster . 230 List of Figures 1.1 TheFamilyAlbum.................................. 2 1.2 Woman intrigued by our Family Album . 3 3.1 Demonstratingtheeffectofppi . 21 4.1 The digital native . 26 4.2 The digital immigrant (http://www.carp.ca/2012/07/26/) . 27 4.3 The physical user (http://gobeabird.com/kin-folk/) . 28 4.4 The extreme user (http://www.jeffpearlman.com/2008/07/page/6/) . 29 4.5 Elder’sDailyLifeCurve .............................. 33 4.6 Possible Needs Brainstorm . 34 4.7 Possible Solutions