Joe McCarthy, Tony Costa, Edy Liongosari

UniCast, OutCast, GroupCast:Three Steps Toward

Ubiquitous Peripheral Displays

Motivation(s)

• We often talk/hear about a world filled with displays– “Walls in our offices & homes will be reactive displays”

• Andries Van Dam, CACM, March 2001 (The Next 1000 Years)“User Interfaces: Disappearing, Dissolving, and Evolving”

– Everywhere Displays• Claudio Pinhanez, UbiComp 2001

• What will such a world be like?– What kind of content would be put on such displays?– How will the content be affected by (react to) context?

• UniCast, GroupCast & OutCast– Three steps toward ubiquitous peripheral displays

• All UbiComp applications are approximations…

Peripheral Displays in 3 Contexts

• UniCast– Inside one’s office

• Interesting, non-urgent content for yourself

• OutCast– Outside one’s office

• Content for visitors

• GroupCast– In a public space

• Conversation starters

UniCast in Context

UniCast

UniCast: Profile

UniCast in Action

UniCast Modules• Headlines: 273 channels 16 categories (www.moreover.com)• Stocks: Ticker symbols (finance.yahoo.com)• Weather: US zip codes (www.earthlink.com)• Traffic: Chicagoland Expressway Congestion map • Horoscopes: 12 signs of the zodiac (astrology.yahoo.com)• Web pages: Any URL specified by the UniCast user• InfoShare: URLs shared by other group members• Announcements: Title, body and expiration date• Reminders: Visual and aural reminders of regularly scheduled events• WebCams: 11 Axis 2100 Network Cameras throughout CSTaR• In/Out List: Based on infrared badges (ActiveMap)• Factoids: 363, organized into 8 categories (e.g., History, Science) • Flashcards: Short questions and answers (e.g., US State Capitols)• Artwork: 1000 images, organized into 10 categories• Pictures: Digital images uploaded to a shared directory

UniCast Operation

• Instances of modules– Different priority, days, times

– Any number of instances of the same type

• Semi-random content selection– 5 priority levels

• User interaction– Pause, back, resume

• Varying “peripheralness”

OutCast in Context

OutCast in Context

OutCast modules

• Biography: Information about the owner from his or her personal web page.

• Calendar: Any entries in the owner’s Microsoft Outlook Calendar that are not marked private.

• Location Information: Based on the owner’s infrared badge. • Project Information: Brief descriptions of each of the owner’s

projects.• Demonstrations: Online demonstrations of projects (where

applicable).• Favorites: A list of URLs to be shared with passersby.• Text Message: The ability to leave the owner a message

using a touch-screen virtual keypad.

OutCast: About Me

OutCast: Where Am I?

OutCast: Calendar

OutCast: Demos

GroupCast in Context

GroupCast

• A system for the public display of content that is of mutual interest to passersby– Provide opportunities for conversation

• Especially for conversationally-challenged (nerds)

– Increase sense of “community”• Location matters -- what can we do for

physically collocated workers?– Faceless names, nameless faces

• Dynamic, project-oriented teams

– Lay the groundwork for collaboration• More likely to collaborate with people I know

GroupCast Components

• Awareness system (IR badges & sensors)• Profile of inhabitant interests (UniCast)• Group Preference Arbitration algorithm• Input / Output (sense / respond)

Status

• UniCast– ~10 installations (users)

• Demand > supply• Variety of hardware configurations

• OutCast– 1 installation

• Recently integrated with UniCast/GroupCast

• GroupCast– 2 installations

• Arbitration: cycle through profiles of “locals”

Some recent developments

• Community Knowledge & Awareness– Summer 2001 intern project

• Elaine Huang & Joe Tullio (Georgia Tech)

– User study

– New modules• Awareness

• Calendar

– “Defragmenting the Organization: Disseminating Community Knowledge Through Peripheral Displays”

• ECSCW 2001 Workshop on Community Knowledge• http://ecscw2001.gmd.de/W5.html

Announcement example

Awareness example

Awareness example

http://www.acm.org/cscw2002/

Some Open Issues

• Profile integration– Sharing profile information among 3 contexts

• What distinctions are useful?

• Privacy issues

• Profile maintenance– Easier integration with browsing

• Explicit: “Add to Favorites”

• Implicit: browsing history

Some Open Issues

• GroupCast: Content selection– Intersecting / complementary interests?

• Anonymous / Random content?

– “Freshness”

• OutCast: Context awareness– Who wants to know?

• Customizing content based on visitors’ ID [badge]

• Evaluation

AcknowledgementsTony Costa Edy Liongosari Mitu Singh

Jeremy Goecks Elaine Huang Joe Tullio

For more information

• Joe McCarthy– mccarthy@cstar.accenture.com– http://www.accenture.com/cstar/xd/xd.asp?it=enWeb&xd=services\cstar\people\Joseph_F_McCarthy.xml

• Ubiquitous Peripheral Displays– http://www.accenture.com/cstar/xd/xd.asp?it=enWeb&xd=services\cstar\projects\UbiquitousPeripheralDisplays.xml

• Accenture Technology Labs - Research– http://www.accenture.com/cstar