Projects

Persuasive Applications

Ambient Lifestyle Feedback Systems

Ambient lifestyle feedback systems are embedded computer systems designed to motivate changes in a person's lifestyle by reflecting an interpretation of targeted behavior back to the person. Other interactive systems including ”serious games” have been applied for the same purpose in areas such as nutrition, health and energy conservation, but they suffer from drawbacks such as inaccurate self-reporting, burdens placed on the user, and lack of effective feedback. Ambient lifestyle feedback systems overcome these challenges by relying on passive observation, calm presentation style and emotionally engaging feedback content. (more details)

Case study #1: EcoIsland

EcoIsland is a system persuading individuals and families to change their lifestyle patterns to reduce CO2 emissions. EcoIsland visualizes the user’s current eco-friendly behavior as an island shared by his/her family members. Several persuasive techniques developed in behaviorism, social psychology, and economy are used to offer incentives to him/her to encourage eco-friendly behavior. (more details)

Case study #2: Virtual Aquarium

The objective of Virtual Aquarium is to promote good toothbrushing practices. The system is set up in the lavatory where it turns a mirror into a simulated aquarium. Fish living in the aquarium are affected by the users’ toothbrushing activity. If users brush their teeth properly, the fish prosper and procreate. If not, they are weakened and may even perish. (more details)

Case study #3: Mona Lisa Bookshelf

Mona Lisa Bookshelf is aimed at keeping a bookshelf organized. It tries to encourage users to keep books in order and to return missing books, but also to take books out every now and then for reading. Each book in the shelf is linked with a piece of a digital image of the Mona Lisa. Like a picture puzzle, the image changes according to how the books are positioned. A high-quality flat display placed near the bookshelf shows the image to the users. (more details)

Action-based Micro Pricing Systems

Economic incentives are a powerful way of shaping consumer behavior towards more commercially efficient and environmentally sustainable patterns. In this project, we explore the idea of combining pervasive computing techniques with electronic payment systems to create activity-based micro incentives. (more details)

Interaction

Vidgets

Developing and deploying augmented reality (AR) services in pervasive computing environments is quite difficult, because almost of all current systems require heavy and bulky head-mounted displays. Moreover they are based on inflexible centralized architectures for detecting service locations and superimposing AR images. In this project, we propose a light-weight mobile AR service framework that enables developers to easily deploy mobile AR services and users to interact them in a practical and intuitive way. (more details)

UbiPay

Implementing an electronic payment system involves striking a balance between usability and security. Systems that eliminate the possibility of incorrect payments by requiring explicit approval from the consumer, such as credit cards, make the system too cumbersome for small payments. In this project, we propose a mobile payment scheme called UbiPay that attempts to push transaction cost towards zero by offering a range of user interaction modes. (more details)

Traditional Game Augmentation

While pervasive technologies explore new gaming styles, traditional games such as cards and tabletop games are still appealing and have various irreplaceable flavors. We propose the concept of augmented traditional games, which aims at extending game features without losing original look-and-feel. As a case study, we augmented Go game to support beginners' self training process. (more details)

Smart Artefacts

AwareMirror

AwareMirror presents information relevant to a person in front of it by super-imposing his/her image. A toothbrush has been chosen as an identification tool while proximity sensors have been utilized to detect a person's position (in front of the mirror). Also, three types of information that can affect a user's decision have been selected. The mirror has been constructed using an acrylic magic mirror board and ordinal computer monitor. (more details)