SwisTrack: A Tracking Tool for Multi-Unit Robotic and Biological Systems

The EPFL Swarm-Intelligent Systems Group have released a video of their SwisTrack that I already mentioned in Collaborative, GPS-free Techniques for Localization in Miniature Robots.

Tracking of miniature robotic platforms involves major challenges in image recognition and data association. We present our 2.5 years effort into developing a platform-independent, easy to use, and robust tracking software SwisTrack, which is tailored to research in swarm robotics and behavioral biology. We demonstrate the software and algorithm abilities using two case studies, tracking of a swarm of cockroaches, and a swarm-robotic inspection task, while outlining hard problems in tracking and data-association of marker-less objects.

Relation to my thesis: I am interested in different approaches to analyze activities in space. SwisTrack is an excellent example of the challenges and what can be done in a miniature controlled environment.

Mobile Phone Based Radio Meter

i-Quest/Media Audit/IPSOS are working together to design a solution based on smartphones to measure exposure to radio. They aim at near real-time monitoring of the stations listened. Technologies used are GPS for positioning, GPRS for data transmission and encoded signals (inserted in the radio chain of radio station) for channel detection.

More in Media Audit Smart Phone Passes Lab Test and Mobile phone based radio meter receives vote of confidence in latest Rajar test

Relation to my thesis: This project aims at monitoring at near real-time a specific user activity in an uncontrolled environment (the world…).

Field Trial of a Spatial Annotation System in Switzerland

My former EPFL colleague Mauro Cherubini is looking for participants for the field trial of STAMPS in Switzerland. STAMPS is a little application that allows you to leave notes on a map using your mobile phone. Email to shoutspace[at]gmail.com when interested.

STAMPS: Share your experience of the city

What is it?
This is an academic research project of the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. STAMPS is a little application that allows you to leave notes on a map using your mobile phone. You can see a map of the place where you are, visualised on the screen of your mobile. There, you can write a kind of SMS and attach it to the map so that other friends can see your message appearing on their map. You can write for instance: “this is my favorite pizzeria!”, to offer advice to your buddies. All the messages left in the system say something about the city where you live: what are the sport locations, the place to eat, the meeting spots. After a while, we want to use all these information to help the users to ‘navigate’ the city. You can ask the system, for instance: “where is a pizzeria nearby?”, and the system will search for other people’s messages which refer to the term pizzeria to give you an advice.

What are we looking for?
We are looking for a group of ‘activists’, friends, who like to walk the city and annotate the spots they like the most, the places they hate. If you want to participate in this trial you need to be passionate about your city, informed on the activities running in the surroundings and ready to share this information with your friends. We expect from you to participate intensively for the next few months leaving notes of your activities in the urban area.

What is it for you?
If you will be selected for the first trial all the connection costs that you will have to use the system will be reimbursed. If your telephone is not compatible with our software, we will give you a new one for the period of the trial. The most creative and active participants will be awarded with a monetary prize.

How can I apply for participating?
Please send an email to shoutspace[at]gmail.com with your coordinates, your telephone model and your operator. If you apply with your friends you will have more chances to be selected. Please add the coordinates of your friends to the message.

En Suisse

Wayfinding

Wayfinding supported by fixed and mobile means

Technological Heterogeneity

Informal Literature Review on Collaboration, Context-awareness and Uncertainty in Ubicomp

After 5 months, I started to divide and conquer my literature review. The split is in 4 parts from (general to specific): “Ubiquitous computing“, “HCI/CSCW in ubiquitous computing” (in progress), “Context awareness“, and “Uncertainty in ubiquitous computing“. The goal is to make me write a first context of my research, analyze and criticize, and try to scope it and build a specific framework for the next step, the research topic. I try to specify some clues about it at the end of Uncertainty in ubiquitous computing.

It is for my own and my supervisor purposes, therefore currently quite informal, sometimes a bit patchy and scattered. Well, the normal features of ever-evolving documents.

Ubiquitous computing
Covers the different approaches in integrating computer technologies with the everyday physical world, as well as the research, technical, human and social challenges.

HCI/CSCW in ubiquitous computing
(In progress, … hard to get a coherent structure…)

Context-awareness
Covers the switch of perspective from representational to interactional problems, the need of context dynamism and system improvisation, the inherent technical-social gap that divides what we know we must support socially and what we can support technically, and how to bridge the gap with accommodation and appropriation.

Uncertainty in ubiquitous computing
Based on the reemergence of uncertainty in high level of representation, it covers, the sources of uncertainty, how HCI studies the impacts, the phenomenological analysis and positivist strategies to deal with uncertainty, the pervasive games approach to study uncertainty in real-world settings, as well as how dealing with uncertainty fits with the design for appropriation.

Elevator Interface

An escalation of inputs. The interface shows its history. 7 buttons and 1 external phone for a 2-story building.

Historical elevator of Barcelona Media Foundation

Interphone Mockup

In BCN

L'Internet Post-Webique, Résidence et Mobilité dans le Réseau Pervasif

Suite au podcast de Rafi Haladjian, je me suis plongé dans son excellent “De l’Inéluctabilité du réseau pervasif“. Un article dans lequel il se livre à l’excercise de la prospective sur le futur des réseaux, leurs usages, les systèmes d’information et la mobilité. Aucune prévision n’est possible et valable dans l’écosystème du Pervasif aux interdépendances complexes. Tel un système complexe, un moindre détails pour tout changer. Par contre, les indices montrent bien que l’informatique Pervasif est dans le sens de l’histoire.

La prospective est un exercice dangereux, puisqu’il faut cesser de considérer nos habitudes actuelles comme éternelles et garder un vison d’ensemble de l’écosystème sans envisager l’avenir de chacun de ses composants indépendamment des forces en jeux.

Actuellement l’homme n’interagit qu’avec un archipel d’objets (belle expression) alors qu’il va être appeler à être entouré d’un réseau d’objets. Comme l’utilisateur devient central, donc c’est à la communauté des machines (objets) de s’organiser autour de l’Homme. Cette noble vision de Rafi sous-estime le fossé sociale-technique mentionné par Ackerman [1]. Un prémisse fondamental (et presque maladif) de l’Interaction Hommme-Machine est que l’utilisateur ne doit jamais être forcé de s’adapter. C’est sans tenir compte la co-évolution sociale et technologique dans laquelle nous adaptons plus ou moins avec succès les ressources dans l’environnement à nos besoins. L’adaptation technologique ayant ses limites (technique, physique, économique, humaine, sociale), l’utilisateur ne va pas perdre contrôle des son environnement pour rendre le Pervasive “habitable”. Les concepteurs de systèmes omniprésents devront orchestrer l’explicite, l’implicite, l’appropriation et le détournement.

Actuellement le débits de transmission du réseau pensé pour aller du réseau à l’utilisateur (penser pour l’accès au contenu, gros downlink, petit uplink). Nous allons passer au “Post-Webique” (excellent terme) avec des communications C to C.

J’ai apprécié la référence que nous ne somme plus des touristes sur l’Internet, mais des résident. L’utilisateur a même propension maintenant à rendre mobile sa sédentarité. De même manière que Julian Bleecker mentionne dans son manifesto que nous ne somme plus “on the Internet” mais “in the Internet”.

Rafi Haladjian s’approprie en partie la vision humaniste à l’a Weiser des technologies douces (l’utilisateur au centre de toutes les préoccupations), ce qui peut irriter certains.. Par contre il ne mentionne pas d’objects communs (c’est plutôt basé sur le possessif individuel). Le scenario du pèse-personne n’est pas très convaincant.

1. Ackerman, M. 2000. The Intellectual Challenge of CSCW: The Gap Between Social Requirements and Technical Feasibility. Human-Computer Interaction, 15, 179-203

Relation to my thesis: Rafi Haladjian describes very well the complex ecosystem formed by the networks, uses, information systems, sensors and mobility composing pervasive computing. He describes the major components of pervasive computing (emphasising on his company business model). Including bottom-up economical challenges like getting rid of walled gardens with open source. Mesh and ad-hoc networking should not be underestimated. He advocates for seamless technologies (for business reasons?), by also mentioning that we are still at a prehistorical age of pervasive computing.