Urban Computing - Eric Paulos Urban Computing 2007.pdfto pervasive computing. N AVITIME provides...
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18 PERVASIVE computing Published by the IEEE Computer Society ■ 1536-1268/07/$25.00 © 2007 IEEE W elcome to this special issue on urban computing—the integra- tion of computing, sensing, and actuation technologies into every- day urban settings and lifestyles. Those settings include, for example, streets, squares, pubs, shops, buses, and cafés—any space in the semi- public realms of our towns and cities. Only in the last few years have researchers paid much attention to technologies in these spaces. Pervasive comput- ing has largely been applied either in relatively homogeneous rural areas, where researchers have added sensors in places such as forests, vineyards, and glaciers or, on the other hand, in small-scale, well-defined patches of the built environment such as smart houses or rooms. Urban settings are challenging places for exper- imentation and deployment, and they remain lit- tle explored as pervasive environments for largely practical reasons. For one thing, they’re complex in terms of ownership. For example, placing sen- sors in a city will typically require permission from many stakeholders. Urban settings also tend to be far more dynamic and dense in terms of what and who would participate in an applica- tion or system. People constantly enter and leave urban spaces, occupying them with highly vari- able densities and even changing their usage pat- terns between day and night. The basis for a mass phenomenon Despite the complexities, urban computing is, in a limited sense, already a mass phenomenon. Roughly half the world’s population lives in urban environments. In addition to PDAs and laptops, most people have mobile phones, and most mobile phones have capabilities beyond simple voice calls. Connectivity is extensive. Mobile phones are increasingly equipped with Bluetooth for short-range communication, in addition to long-range cellular data connections. Wi-Fi networks are also commonplace. And the technology is put to more interesting GUEST EDITORS’ INTRODUCTION Tim Kindberg Hewlett-Packard Labs, Bristol Matthew Chalmers University of Glasgow Eric Paulos Intel Research Urban Computing Urban Computing
Transcript of Urban Computing - Eric Paulos Urban Computing 2007.pdfto pervasive computing. N AVITIME provides...
18 PERVASIVEcomputing Published by the IEEE Computer Society ■ 1536-1268/07/$25.00 © 2007 IEEE
Welcome to this special issue onurban computing—the integra-tion of computing, sensing, andactuation technologies into every-day urban settings and lifestyles.
Those settings include, for example, streets, squares,pubs, shops, buses, and cafés—any space in the semi-public realms of our towns and cities. Only in the last
few years have researchers paidmuch attention to technologies inthese spaces. Pervasive comput-ing has largely been applied eitherin relatively homogeneous ruralareas, where researchers haveadded sensors in places such asforests, vineyards, and glaciers or,on the other hand, in small-scale,well-defined patches of the built
environment such as smart houses or rooms.Urban settings are challenging places for exper-
imentation and deployment, and they remain lit-tle explored as pervasive environments for largelypractical reasons. For one thing, they’re complex
in terms of ownership. For example, placing sen-sors in a city will typically require permissionfrom many stakeholders. Urban settings also tendto be far more dynamic and dense in terms ofwhat and who would participate in an applica-tion or system. People constantly enter and leaveurban spaces, occupying them with highly vari-able densities and even changing their usage pat-terns between day and night.
The basis for a mass phenomenonDespite the complexities, urban computing is,
in a limited sense, already a mass phenomenon.Roughly half the world’s population lives inurban environments. In addition to PDAs andlaptops, most people have mobile phones, andmost mobile phones have capabilities beyondsimple voice calls. Connectivity is extensive.Mobile phones are increasingly equipped withBluetooth for short-range communication, inaddition to long-range cellular data connections.Wi-Fi networks are also commonplace.
And the technology is put to more interesting
G U E S T E D I T O R S ’ I N T R O D U C T I O N
Tim KindbergHewlett-Packard Labs, Bristol
Matthew ChalmersUniversity of Glasgow
Eric PaulosIntel Research
Urban ComputingUrban Computing
uses than you might at first think. Usershave appropriated some technologies inways that their designers didn’t necessar-ily envisage, just as they appropriated theshort-message service for text messaging.In the UK, for example, people routinelyswap content between their mobile phonesover Bluetooth in urban settings such aspubs and schools. That amounts to ahighly dynamic, socially driven, peer-to-peer network that’s pervasively embeddedin cities.
In the call for articles, we includedquestions about how to understand suchurban uses of by-now familiar techno-logies. But we mainly wanted to under-stand how to produce fully integrateddesigns specifically for urban settingsand how to overcome the deploymentchallenges. Successful integration re-quires taking several facets of the en-vironment into account at once. Urbansettings frame social behaviors. Theyencompass architectural forms and fea-tures that might not be harmonious withgiven technologies, and they’re variablypermeated by wireless networks andfixed and mobile devices.
In this issueThe articles we selected confirm that
urban computing is a practical realitybut that research is still at an early stage,with much of the subject still to bemapped out systematically. Like citiesthemselves, urban computing includes abroad range of opportunities and issues.
In the first article, “NAVITIME: Support-ing Pedestrian Navigation in the RealWorld,” Masatoshi Arikawa, Shin’ichiKonomi, and Keisuke Ohnishi describe anurban navigation application in Japanwith almost two million users. NAVITIME
runs on mobile phones, many of whichinclude integrated GPS. A minority usecase is in-car navigation. Many peopleoutside Japan are familiar with in-car nav-igation systems, but in Japan, people areusing NAVITIME mostly for personal navi-
gation as they walk or take public trans-portation—particularly in Tokyo. This isyet another example of how Japan oftenleads the rest of the world when it comesto pervasive computing. NAVITIME providescomprehensive navigation information,including maps, timetables, prices, andeven carbon footprints for various journeyoptions. It’s an impressive large-scale sys-tem. However, its deployment details revealthat its application in the city isn’t wellunderstood in all respects. The authorsdescribe their preliminary investigationsinto how the technology affects users’ be-haviors and perceptions of their city. Theyalso look at how users recognize and adaptto the loss of GPS or the wireless networkwhen they enter transportation systems orwalk beneath tall buildings.
More and more people are engaging inurban computing—from making phonecalls or exchanging files over Bluetoothto navigating across the city. One prob-lem we face is how to gather large-scaledata about these personal electronic activ-ities. We must also relate that data to whatelse we know about urban phenomenasuch as the density of commercial or res-idential properties. By making these links,
we can better understand where the tech-nology is used and what roles it plays inindividual and social behaviors. In “Cel-lular Census: Explorations in Urban DataCollection,” Jonathan Reades, FrancescoCalabrese, Andres Sevtsuk, and CarloRatti grapple with the problem of charac-terizing patterns of mobile phone traffic inRome. Using data they obtained from awireless carrier, the authors ultimately aimto match usage characteristics to urbanspace utilization. So far, they’ve only beenable to note differing patterns across spaceand time and to suggest statistical linksto, for example, residential versus com-mercial versus leisure usage. But this workpaves the way for more in-depth analy-sis. It also opens a debate on the extent towhich mobile phone data can and, givenprivacy considerations, should be used forthis purpose.
The remaining two articles address thedesign of novel urban-computing appli-cations. The first aims to enhance a par-ticular urban setting. In “UndergoundAesthetics: Rethinking Urban Comput-ing,” Arianna Bassoli, Johanna Brewer,Karen Martin, Paul Dourish, and ScottMainwaring consider the London Under-
JULY–SEPTEMBER 2007 PERVASIVEcomputing 19
the AUTHORSTim Kindberg is a senior researcher at Hewlett-Packard Labs, Bristol, and a visitingprofessor of computer science at the University of Bath. His research interests in-clude ubiquitous computing systems, distributed systems, and human factors. Hereceived his PhD in computer science from the University of Westminster. He’s anassociate EIC of IEEE Pervasive Computing. Contact him at Hewlett-Packard Labs,Filton Rd., Stoke Gifford, Bristol BS34 8QZ, UK; [email protected]; http://purl.org/net/TimKindberg.
Matthew Chalmers is a reader in computer science at the University of Glasgow.His research interests include ubiquitous computing applications for mobile multi-player games, health, fitness, leisure, and tourism and the infrastructures to supportthem. His theoretical work borrows from semiology and philosophy and treats thehistory of use as part of a system’s working context and design. He received his PhDin computer science from the University of East Anglia. He’s a member of the ACM.Contact him at Computing Science, University Ave., Univ. of Glasgow, G12 8QQ,UK; [email protected].
Eric Paulos is a senior research scientist at Intel in Berkeley, California, where he’sthe founder and director of the Urban Atmospheres research group. His researchinterests include urban computing, social telepresence, robotics, physical comput-ing, interaction design, persuasive technologies, and intimate media. He receivedhis PhD in electrical engineering and computer science from the University of Cali-fornia, Berkeley. Contact him at 2150 Shattuck Ave. #1300, Berkeley, CA 94704;[email protected].
20 PERVASIVEcomputing www.computer.org/pervasive
G U E S T E D I T O R S ’ I N T R O D U C T I O N
ground as a target application domain.They provide extracts from an ethno-graphic study of passengers and proposea design for a music-sharing application.They base their proposal on observa-tions of the roles that media such asmusic and newspapers play on under-ground journeys, together with the pos-sibilities that Bluetooth presents fortransferring content between passengers.
Finally, in “Mobile Social Software:Facilitating Serendipity or EncouragingHomogeneity?” Jennifer Thom-Santellitakes a critical view of the urban appli-cations that have been designed so far.She looks at new urban technologies’social and political implications, argu-ing that the current approach to designand deployment tends to favor only thesame privileged social group as that ofthe designers. She’s concerned that thiswill lead increasingly to a digital dividein our cities that matches the materialdivide between inner-city and suburbanareas. She proposes a different approachto design, appealing to the provocativenature of the arts as a model. Throughexamples, she argues that this approachwould more likely take account of diffi-cult inner-city problems, such as gentri-fication and disadvantage, and extendurban applications’ reach beyond privi-leged groups. As Thom-Santelli says, thevalue of a city is in its diversity.
We hope you’ll find thesearticles as thought-pro-voking as we did. It shouldbe clear by now that urban
computing research has only just begun.We’d like this special issue to spark anew generation of researchers to take upthe challenges laid down here.
For more information on this or any other comput-ing topic, please visit our Digital Library at www.computer.org/publications/dlib.
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