ContextAware Communication

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Context-Aware Communication

• Patrick Malatack

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Key Idea

• Communication is a killer app for ubicomp
• Example activities
• Staying in touch
• Coordinating with friends and family
• Being aware of activities of friends and family
• Non-ubicomp evidence
• Popularity of Social Networking web sites
• Popularity of sharing sites
• Popularity of Blogs / Message boards

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Problems with Keeping in Touch

• Irrelevant messages
• Vacation mail, surveys, junk email
• Interruptions
• During meetings, concerts, movies, dinner,
  driving
• Lack of awareness on callee side
• Phone tag, time zone issue (oops!)
• Information overload
• Can make it hard to find useful messages (ex.
  delayed flight)
• Device overload
• Fax, email, landline phone, mobile phone, IM

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Readings

• Context Aware Computing
• 2002, looked at field of context-aware
  communication specifically and attempted to
  define and characterize field.
• Presented history of devices and inventions in
  the field
• Articulated design principles for C-A
  Communication
• Social Disclosure of Place From Location
  Technology to Communication Practices
• 2005, designed, developed, evaluated a system for
  disclosing you location to other people based on
  user defined settings
• Out of PlaceLab

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Context-Aware Communication

• Main idea
• Use sensors and other pieces of context
• to improve awareness of and communication with
  others
• while minimizing overload, irrelevancy, and
  interruptions

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C-A Comm Working Definition

• C-A Communication applications apply knowledge
  of peoples context (and activities) to reduce
  person-to-person communication barriers
• C-A Communication is subset of C-A Computing
• Does not include, e.g., control of environment,
  or apps that filter information about nearby
  restaurants and printers
• Information versus communication
• Is the chirping Lovegety an information or
  communication device?
• Article takes broad view of communication

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Context-Aware Comm Dimensions
Less Privacy
Less Common Sense
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C-A Communication Research

• Grouped by application types
• Routing
• Addressing
• Messaging
• Caller Awareness
• Screening

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directing communication to nearby appropriate
devices
Routing

• Following Callers on PARCs Etherphone System
• Olivettis Active Badge Aiding a Telephone
  Receptionist
• Ubiquitous Message Delivery

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PARC Etherphone (Swinehart, et al. 1987)

• 50 Etherphones
• Location registered by
• Logging in
• Visiting
• Distinctive ring tones

• Etherphone 1
• Autonomous routing (action)
• Manual sensing
• Etherphone 2
• Autonomous routing (action)
• Autonomous sensing
• More brittle
• New defaults for visitors

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ORL Active Badge Aid to a receptionist (Want
Hopper 1992)

• Infrared emitting badges and network of receivers
• Initial application was an Aid for a telephone
  receptionist
• Give a person info for tracking down callee

• Receptionist 1
• Autonomous sensing
• Manual routing
• Receptionist 2
• Autonomous sensing
• Autonomous routing
• Less intelligent
• People wanted to control based on who they were
  with, where they are, etc. -gt more work

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targeting communication at appropriate people
Addressing

• Context-Aware Mailing List
• PARCTAB Virtual Whiteboard

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Context-Aware Mailing List(Dey, Abowd Salber
2001)

• In-out board using iButton RF tags
• Dynamic e-mail list for directingemail to people
  who are in the building
• lets get lunch
• talk in 5 minutes
• C-A Mailing List
• Triggered autonomous action
• (could be) Autonomous sensing

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providing the right message at the right time
Messaging

• Contextual Reminder Messages in CybreMinder
• MITs Active Messenger

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CybreMinder(Dey 2000)

• To-do items associated with location and context
• Can be sent to other people
• Context include forecast is for rain and Bob is
  leaving home.
• CybreMinder
• Autonomous sensing
• Autonomous action (delivery)

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Providing Awareness
Allows others to determine availability to talk

• Awareness with AwareNex
• Audio Aura
• Triggering Real World Meetings with Roomotes
• LoveGety

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Erfolgs LoveGety (Awareness)

• A Japanese toy (circa 1998) for meeting people,
  beeps when a compatible partner is nearby.
• Detects other devices in a 15 foot range and
  bleep
• Blue and Pink models (blue only responds to pink
  and vice versa)
• 3 Modes
• Chat mode if you're interested in meeting
  someone for conversation
• Karaoke mode if you're looking for a "playmate,"
  
• Get-get mode for those looking to move straight
  away into something a bit more intimate.

Many spinoffs like Party Bapp-X andMedia Labs
Meme Tag
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Audio Aura(Mynatt 1999)

• Auditory cues as people walk around an office
  place
• Going to an empty office creates an audio cue
  about how long it has been empty
• A group pulse if people are meeting
• Automated sensing
• Little automated communication

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Users determine wether or not they want to talk
Screening

• Calls.Calm making Caller-Callee Calm
• Context-Call

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Calls.Calm (Pedersen 2001)

• Calls.Calm uses web phones to mediate
  communication with subscribers.
• A person (a) selects who to call and
• (b) is greeted by the callees contact page
  contextualized and customized for the caller or
  if the caller is unknown,
• (c) a generic page.

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5 Design Considerations

• Improving relevance
• Deciding when a communication is relevant to the
  persons current (or near future) situation.
• For example, getting notification about an email
  from your travel agent regarding itinerary
  changes while packing to leave for the airport.
• Minimizing disruption
• Improving awareness
• Reducing overload
• Selecting channels

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5 Design Considerations

• Improving relevance
• Minimizing disruption
• Deciding when and how to notify people that they
  have a communication.
• For example, your phone should vibrate and not
  ring, when you are at the symphony (unless it is
  truly urgent).
• Improving awareness
• Reducing overload
• Selecting channels

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5 Design Considerations

• Improving relevance
• Minimizing disruption
• Improving awareness
• Deciding what information and mechanisms can help
  people make intelligent communication decisions.
• For example, the caller should be told you are at
  the movies before the call goes through.
• Reducing overload
• Selecting channels

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5 Design Considerations

• Improving relevance
• Minimizing disruption
• Improving awareness
• Reducing overload
• Deciding how to reduce the number of
  communications that dont apply given your
  context.
• For example, filtering out emails about going to
  lunch when you are away from the office (or
  already at lunch).
• Selecting channels

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5 Design Considerations

• Improving relevance
• Minimizing disruption
• Improving awareness
• Reducing overload
• Selecting channels
• Deciding which communication device should be
  used to get in touch with somebody.
• For example, routing calls to your home phone
  instead of your cell phone when you are at home
  and cellular reception is poor.

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Social Disclosure of Place

• Reno
• J2me application
• Nokia 6600
• Cell tower based location estimation
• Always on
• avoid real privacy threats
• Minimize deployment barriers

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Social Disclosure of Place

• Study design
• 8 members
• Project members or families
• 5 were members of the team
• Disclosure based on relationship
• Accidental disclosures occurred
• 8 disclosures a day on average