Application Design for Wearable Computing
Team members:
Yih-Kuang Lu
Hieu Nguyen
Wearable Computers – Where’s all started!
Outlines
• Multimodal interaction, software/application, electronics,
design methodology in user-centered design, and rapid
prototyping – Wearable computers.
• Designers should consider when designing wearable
computing devices – Lesson learned & Useful guidelines.
• Computer’s closeness to the body and its use while
performing other tasks – UCAMP framework.
• Areas of user interface, modalities of interaction, and
wearable cognitive augmentation – Challenges and trends.
Wearable computers
• Seek to merge the user’s information space with his or her
workspace – make information available at any place, any time.
• Application domains range:
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Inspection procedures
Maintenance and manufacturing (vehicle & aircraft)
Navigation to on-the-move collaboration and position sensing
Real-time speech recognition and language translation
And more …
Wearable computers (cont.)
• Advantages:
– Body-worn computers that provide hands-free operation offering
compelling advantages in many applications
– Deal in information rather than programs
– Tools in the user’s environment
– Portable access to information
– Eliminating cost of transferring information
– Specialized and modular and easily be reconfigured to meet specific
needs of applications
Wearable computers (cont.)
• Wearable system designers’ challenges:
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Identifying effective interaction modalities
Accurately modeling user tasks
New paradigm in computing
No consensus on the mechanical/software HMI
Remodel the current computer interface – shift user’s focus
to the environments instead of the computing devices
Handle real-world interactions distractions like walking,
driving, etc…
Wearable computers (cont.)
• Every wearable computer system must be viewed from three
different axes.
1.
The Human – interaction between the human body and the wearable
object
2.
The Computer – size, power consumption, and UI software
3.
The Application – design challenges and problem-solving capabilities
Wearable computers (cont.)
• Key research groups:
– Carnegie Mellon, Columbia University, Georgia Tech, MIT, Bremen
University, Darmstadt University, ETH Zurich, Lancaster University,
University of South Australia, and NARA in Japan
• WearIt@Work
– Large wearable computing consortium of companies and universities
in Europe (36 partners), focusing on four application areas: mobile
maintenance, emergency rescue, health care, and production.
• Commercial companies/products (with limited success)
– Xybernaut, CDI, and VIA Inc.
– Seiko’s Rupiter wristwatch computer
– Panasonic’s wearable brick computer coupled with handheld or armworn touch screen
– Sony and OQO wearable PCs
EXAMPLE: VuMan 3
• Initiated by Carnegie
Mellon University
• Designed to streamlining
Limited Technical
Inspections (LTI) of
amphibious tractors for the
US Marines at Camp
Pendleton, CA.
• LTI – 600-item, 50 pages
checklist, takes 4 to 6 hours
to complete.
Very Rapid Prototyping of Wearable Computers: A Case Study of VuMan 3 Custom versus Offthe-Shelf Design Methodologies (1997) Journal on Design Automation for Embedded Systems.
Lessons Learned From Usage
• Maximum Size, weight, energy consumption before change
user behavior
• No fixed relationship between input/output/display
• User less patient, expect instant response
• Intuitive to use, no user’s manual
• Information overload, user may focus on computer rather
than physical world
• Potential to lose initiative, user does exactly what the
computer tells them to do
Design Guidelines for Wearable Computing
• Three areas be considered:
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Device  Keep user at the center of the design
Interface  Simple and clear interface for navigation
User environment  Readily viewable with limited shift of attention /
Accommodate the cultural and esthetic standards
• Questions designers should ask when beginning a project:
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Does the mental model match the application physical workflow?
Are the user interactions with the application simple and intuitive?
Are the input and output devices and modalities appropriate for the set
of projected applications?
Does the system have enough resources (processor, memory, network)
to be responsive to the user’s interactions without excess?
Will the form and shape of the wearable computer be comfortable with
the movement of the human body?
Where will the computer be placed on the body? What are the size,
weight, and power consumption?
Is the device's thermal management and heat dissipation appropriate
for the intended physical environment?
UCAMP framework
• User: The user is at the center of the wearable-computer
design process.
• Corporal: Wearables should be designed to interface
physically with the user without discomfort or distraction.
• Attention: Interfaces should be designed for the user’s
divided attention between the physical and virtual worlds.
• Manipulation: When mobile, users lose some of the dexterity
assumed by desktop interfaces. Thus, controls should be quick
to find and simple to manipulate.
• Perception: A user’s ability to perceive displays, both visual
and audio, is also reduced when using a mobile device.
Displays should be simple, distinct, and quick to navigate.
User
• User needs and interactions – mobile users are more
impatient…Speed is the key!
• Applied user-centered design via User-Centered
Interdisciplinary Concurrent System Design Methodology
(UICSM)
Corporal
• Use of the human body as a support environment
• User’s physical context may be constantly changing and not fixed
between user and device
• Symbol Technologies – barcode technology.
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Design for wearability considers the physical shape of objects and their
active relationship with the human forms
Testing help resolved other needs and minimized health risk concern.
• Wearability Design Criteria
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Placement
Humanistic form language
Human movement
Human perception of size
Size variations
Attachment
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Contents
Weight
Accessibility
Interaction
Thermal
Aesthetics
Attention
• The challenge for human–computer interaction design is to
use advances in technology to preserve human attention and
to avoid information saturation
– Humans have a finite capacity that limits the number of concurrent
activities they can perform
– Human effectiveness is reduced as a person tries to multiplex more
activities
– After each refocus of attention, a period of time is required to
reestablish the context before the interruption
– Human short-term memory can hold seven plus or minus two chunks
of information
Attention (cont.)
• Mobile context – user’s attention is divided between
computing task and activities in the physical environments.
• Resource Competition Framework, based on the multiple
resource theory of attention to relate mobile task demands to
the user’s cognitive resources
• “Task Guidance and Procedure Context: Aiding Workers in
Appropriate Procedure Following” warns that mobile
interfaces may hinder the user’s primary task if they are not
properly designed
• The Attention Matrix
– Categorizes activities (information, communication, and creation) by
the amount of attention they require
Attention (cont.)
Manipulation
• Wearable-computer design offers simple manipulation within
a complex set of information
• A number of other manipulation devices have been
developed and tested for wearable computing
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Wheel-pointer
Small keypad or keyboard
Speech Interfaces
Speech Translation
Dual-Purpose Speech
Perception
• When a user is on the go, the user’s ability to perceive a wearable
computer’s interface is lessened
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The vibration and visual interference from a moving background
interferes with visual tasks
Background noise and the noise from the body itself affect hearing
• How to design interfaces to least interfere with the user’s primary
tasks while providing the most value in terms of augmentation
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A Proactive Assistant (context-aware computing)
Research Directions
• Three basic functions related to ease of use: Input, Output,
and Information representation.
Figure: User interface performance thresholds
Research Directions (cont.)
Figure: Kiviat graphs for wearable computer use modalities
Research Directions (cont.)
• Wearable Cognitive Augmentation
– Knowing the user’s cognitive state would enable development of
proactive cognitive assistants that anticipate user needs much like a
human assistant does.
– What makes this attempt possible is an unprecedented advance in
measuring and understanding brain activity during complex tasks using
functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).
Figure: fMRI experiment configuration
Research Directions (cont.)
Expected
Actual
Figure: Activation volume in dual task compared to single task
Conclusions and Future Challenges
• User interface models: What is the appropriate set of
metaphors for providing mobile access to information
• Input/output modalities
• Quick interface evaluation methodology: These evaluation
techniques should especially focus on decreasing human
errors and frustration
• Matched capability with applications: the most effective
means for information access and resist the temptation to
provide extra capabilities
• Context-aware applications
• Proactive assistant
The Past…
The Present…
The Future…
References
• Application Design for Wearable Computing
– Dan Siewiorek, Asim Smailagic, and Thad Starner 2008
• http://seikodivers.info/scwf/index.php?mod=103&action=0&id=1021052963
• http://alexandria.tue.nl/openaccess/Metis235319.pdf
• http://5election.com/2012/09/03/a-short-history-of-wearablecomputers/
• http://blog.allstream.com/five-weird-but-wearable-computers/