Series
Doctor of Philosophy with a Major in Computer Science

Permanent Link
https://hdl.handle.net/1853/72276
Series Type
Degree Series
Description
Associated Organization(s)
Associated Organization(s)

Filters
2006 - 2009 4
4
4
4
4
Reset filters

Settings
search.filters.applied.f.advisor: Abowd, Gregory D. × Type: Text ×

Publication Search Results

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Supporting human interpretation and analysis of activity captured through overhead video
    (Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009-07-06) Romero, Mario
    Many disciplines spend considerable resources studying behavior. Tools range from pen-and-paper observation to biometric sensing. A tool's appropriateness depends on the goal and justification of the study, the observable context and feature set of target behaviors, the observers' resources, and the subjects' tolerance to intrusiveness. We present two systems: Viz-A-Vis and Tableau Machine. Viz-A-Vis is an analytical tool appropriate for onsite, continuous, wide-coverage and long-term capture, and for objective, contextual, and detailed analysis of the physical actions of subjects who consent to overhead video observation. Tableau Machine is a creative artifact for the home. It is a long-lasting, continuous, interactive, and abstract Art installation that captures overhead video and visualizes activity to open opportunities for creative interpretation. We focus on overhead video observation because it affords a near one-to-one correspondence between pixels and floor plan locations, naturally framing the activity in its spatial context. Viz-A-Vis is an information visualization interface that renders and manipulates computer vision abstractions. It visualizes the hidden structure of behavior in its spatiotemporal context. We demonstrate the practicality of this approach through two user studies. In the first user study, we show an important search performance boost when compared against standard video playback and against the video cube. Furthermore, we determine a unanimous user choice for overviewing and searching with Viz-A-Vis. In the second study, a domain expert evaluation, we validate a number of real discoveries of insightful environmental behavior patterns by a group of senior architects using Viz-A-Vis. Furthermore, we determine clear influences of Viz-A-Vis over the resulting architectural designs in the study. Tableau Machine is a sensing, interpreting, and painting artificial intelligence. It is an Art installation with a model of perception and personality that continuously and enduringly engages its co-occupants in the home, creating an aura of presence. It perceives the environment through overhead cameras, interprets its perceptions with computational models of behavior, maps its interpretations to generative abstract visual compositions, and renders its compositions through paintings. We validate the goal of opening a space for creative interpretation through a study that included three long-term deployments in real family homes.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Infrastructure mediated sensing
    (Georgia Institute of Technology, 2008-07-08) Patel, Shwetak Naran
    Ubiquitous computing application developers have limited options for a practical activity and location sensing technology that is easy-to-deploy and cost-effective. In this dissertation, I have developed a class of activity monitoring systems called infrastructure mediated sensing (IMS), which provides a whole-house solution for sensing activity and the location of people and objects. Infrastructure mediated sensing leverages existing home infrastructure (e.g, electrical systems, air conditioning systems, etc.) to mediate the transduction of events. In these systems, infrastructure activity is used as a proxy for a human activity involving the infrastructure. A primary goal of this type of system is to reduce economic, aesthetic, installation, and maintenance barriers to adoption by reducing the cost and complexity of deploying and maintaining the activity sensing hardware. I discuss the design, development, and applications of various IMS-based activity and location sensing technologies that leverage the following existing infrastructures: wireless Bluetooth signals, power lines, and central heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. In addition, I show how these technologies facilitate automatic and unobtrusive sensing and data collection for researchers or application developers interested in conducting large-scale in-situ location-based studies in the home.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Documenting and Understanding Everyday Activities through the Selective Archiving of Live Experiences
    (Georgia Institute of Technology, 2007-05-18) Hayes, Gillian Rachael
    This research focuses on the development and study of socially appropriate ways to archive data about important life experiences during unexpected and unstructured situations. This work involves three significant phases: formative studies to understand the data capture needs of particular populations of users in these situations; design and development of a technical architecture for capture and access in these settings coupled with design and development of applications for two specific domain problems; and evaluation of this solution as it pertains to these domain problems. The underlying solution presented in this dissertation is known as selective archiving, in which services are always on and available for recording but require some explicit action to archive data. If no such action is taken, recorded data is deleted automatically after a specified time. Selectively archived segments of data can provide an efficient way to recover and to analyze high quality data that traditionally available. The projects presented in this dissertation provide insight about the ways in which we can support record-keeping in informal and unstructured settings. Furthermore, when examined together, these projects provide a view into the larger generalized problem of unstructured capture and access and the acceptability of capture technologies. These considerations evolved into a set of seven tensions surrounding recording technologies that are presented in this dissertation. Furthermore, the experiences surrounding the deployment and evaluation of selective archiving technologies demonstrate the ways in which people use different types of knowledge and cues from the world to determine their reactions to and adoption of such technologies.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Privacy and Proportionality
    (Georgia Institute of Technology, 2006-04-03) Iachello, Giovanni
    Over the past several years, the press, trade publications and academic literature have reported with increasing frequency on the social concerns caused by ubiquitous computingInformation Technology (IT) embedded in artifacts, infrastructure and environments of daily life. Designers and researchers of ubiquitous computing (ubicomp) technologies have spent considerable efforts to address these concerns, which include privacy and data protection issues, information security and personal safety. Yet, designing successful ubicomp applications is still an unreliable and expensive endeavor, in part due to imperfect understanding of how technology is appropriated, the lack of effective design tools and the challenges of prototyping these applications in realistic conditions. I introduce the concept of proportionality as a principle able to guide design of ubiquitous computing applications and specifically to attack privacy and security issues. Inspired by the principle, I propose a design process framework that assists the practitioner in making reasoned and documented design choices throughout the development process. I validate the design process framework through a quantitative design experiment vis--vis other design methods. Furthermore, I present several case studies and evaluations to demonstrate the design methods effectiveness and generality. I claim that the design method helps to identify some of the obstacles to the acceptance of ubiquitous computing applications and to translate security and privacy concerns into research questions in the design process. I further discuss some of the inquiry and validation techniques that are appropriate to answer these questions.