1. Background and Motivation - Semantic Scholar
Network Alarm Clock (The 3AD International Design Competition) ALBRECHT SCHMIDT Embedded Interaction Research Group, Media Informatics, University of Munich, Germany [email protected] Tel: +49 179 10 89 684 The network alarm clock is a novel design for an appliance that provides alarm clock functionality. Network alarm clocks are connected over a wireless network to other network alarm clocks of people in the social network of a user. The wake-up time of the alarm is related to presence information (e.g. who is up already, who is still asleep) from other users. A typical wake-up setting is: wake me between 7am and 10am when more than half of my family are already up. With a tangible interface the alarm can be enabled or disabled. When enabled this assumes the user went to bed; when disabled after ringing it is assumed the user is up. This information is used a presence information for others.
Keywords: alarm clock appliance, social communication, implicit communication.
1. Background and Motivation Alarm clocks are a ubiquitous technology used by nearly everyone and they are included in many other devices ranging from mobile phones to TVs.. The prime functionality of an alarm clock it to wake up a person a time set by this person. In many ways the accuracy of the clock has improved as have the means to wake people (audio, radio, sounds, lights, etc.). This prime function has not been changed with improvements in technologies. Our prototypical design of a networked alarm clock questions the basic prime functionality. When people organize their life time plays an important role but over recent years a lot of people have gained flexibility in how they organize their time (e.g. flexi time at work). Is the prime function to be woken a user defined time still a good approach? Or is it not rather interesting to have an appliance that can wake one at an appropriate time? The time before going to bed or when getting up is used for communication between people that are in a special relationship (e.g. family, partners, and friends). In an environment where people are mobile and often do not share the same place to life on several days during the week mobile communication is used to keep this dialog going. People use mobile phones to 1
stay in touch, e.g. communicating by SMS “good night” or “how are you this morning?” to their partner.
2. Usage Concept The network alarm clock (and network refers to the technical network as well as to the social network) provides presence information of the user’s social contacts and utilizes this information to determine the wake-up time. The presence information used in our prototype is whether the user is sleeping or not. For very close relationships this is concrete information (e.g. the other one is asleep or not). For loose connections between people this information is only abstract based on a group the relationship belongs to (e.g. the percentage of people already awake). Besides displaying the presence information this is also used as a information source for setting the alarm. In general the user specifies an interval in which she or he wants to get up, e.g. wake me between 7am and 9am, this specifies the earliest and latest time for the alarm to start. Additionally the user specifies other conditions that then trigger the actual alarm during the interval, e.g. wake me when my partner gets up or wake me when more than half of the people I work with are up. The exact time when the alarm is waking the user is left open and depended on what other people in the social network of the person are doing. By these means of communicating very little information (when one goes to bed and when one gets up) it creates a social bound that makes people feel more connected. By presenting data with regard to a group and with groups having different number of members (e.g. one person as the partner, a handful close friends or family, a larger number of people one works with) the information is abstracted to reflect a level of trust within the group. For a group with one person in, e.g. the partner, there is no abstraction as it shows the other persons state directly. For groups with larger number of members, e.g. a course at university with 50 people, the information what percentage is already up does not allow to figure out who is up and who is not up.
3. Technology Brief The alarm clock in our design has the following components: a display, a mobile communication unit, sensor for tangible interaction, and a speaker. The network 2
alarm clock is connected to a data network (e.g. GPRS, UMTS) and by these means via a server to other alarm clocks. The display can be used to present generic information. Its main functions are to be a communication end-point and display for presence information of family, partner, and friends. A central function of the display is to show presence information of people closely connected. In our concept prototype the presence information is always visible on the display. We imagine that the specific information is only shared with a small number of people – often probably only one. However the presence information of less closely connected people (e.g. friends, colleagues, or people sharing same interest) is available on a statistical basis. This information is available in the display and can also be used for setting the alarm function. See figure 1 for a screen sketch.
Figure 1: This figure shows a screen design for a network alarm clock. It shows presence information for partner, family, and colleagues. Wake up is between 7am to 10am when my more than half of my family is up. There is a picture pushed onto the display from a friend who is on a trip in Italy.
The network alarm is a communication end-point it which offers others (and we imagine a group of people pre-selected by the user) the chance to push 3
information onto this display (the picture frame in the screen sketch). The push function is available from a variety of other devices such other networked alarm clocks, mobile phones, and web browsers. Using the tangible user interface of the network alarm clock simple inputs can be made. A sensor measures on which side is up and by turning the device inputs are made. The expected interaction after an initial setup is to put the alarm clock to the mode in which it will ring and to turn off the alarm. In our concept we assume if the alarm is on the person has gone to bed and if the alarm function is off the person got up and is awake. Technically each network alarm clock is communicating with a server that exchanges the presence information for all people in a network. The presence information is always symmetric. It is provided as a percentage of people in that group who are already awake.
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Keywords: alarm clock appliance, social communication, implicit communication.
1. Background and Motivation Alarm clocks are a ubiquitous technology used by nearly everyone and they are included in many other devices ranging from mobile phones to TVs.. The prime functionality of an alarm clock it to wake up a person a time set by this person. In many ways the accuracy of the clock has improved as have the means to wake people (audio, radio, sounds, lights, etc.). This prime function has not been changed with improvements in technologies. Our prototypical design of a networked alarm clock questions the basic prime functionality. When people organize their life time plays an important role but over recent years a lot of people have gained flexibility in how they organize their time (e.g. flexi time at work). Is the prime function to be woken a user defined time still a good approach? Or is it not rather interesting to have an appliance that can wake one at an appropriate time? The time before going to bed or when getting up is used for communication between people that are in a special relationship (e.g. family, partners, and friends). In an environment where people are mobile and often do not share the same place to life on several days during the week mobile communication is used to keep this dialog going. People use mobile phones to 1
stay in touch, e.g. communicating by SMS “good night” or “how are you this morning?” to their partner.
2. Usage Concept The network alarm clock (and network refers to the technical network as well as to the social network) provides presence information of the user’s social contacts and utilizes this information to determine the wake-up time. The presence information used in our prototype is whether the user is sleeping or not. For very close relationships this is concrete information (e.g. the other one is asleep or not). For loose connections between people this information is only abstract based on a group the relationship belongs to (e.g. the percentage of people already awake). Besides displaying the presence information this is also used as a information source for setting the alarm. In general the user specifies an interval in which she or he wants to get up, e.g. wake me between 7am and 9am, this specifies the earliest and latest time for the alarm to start. Additionally the user specifies other conditions that then trigger the actual alarm during the interval, e.g. wake me when my partner gets up or wake me when more than half of the people I work with are up. The exact time when the alarm is waking the user is left open and depended on what other people in the social network of the person are doing. By these means of communicating very little information (when one goes to bed and when one gets up) it creates a social bound that makes people feel more connected. By presenting data with regard to a group and with groups having different number of members (e.g. one person as the partner, a handful close friends or family, a larger number of people one works with) the information is abstracted to reflect a level of trust within the group. For a group with one person in, e.g. the partner, there is no abstraction as it shows the other persons state directly. For groups with larger number of members, e.g. a course at university with 50 people, the information what percentage is already up does not allow to figure out who is up and who is not up.
3. Technology Brief The alarm clock in our design has the following components: a display, a mobile communication unit, sensor for tangible interaction, and a speaker. The network 2
alarm clock is connected to a data network (e.g. GPRS, UMTS) and by these means via a server to other alarm clocks. The display can be used to present generic information. Its main functions are to be a communication end-point and display for presence information of family, partner, and friends. A central function of the display is to show presence information of people closely connected. In our concept prototype the presence information is always visible on the display. We imagine that the specific information is only shared with a small number of people – often probably only one. However the presence information of less closely connected people (e.g. friends, colleagues, or people sharing same interest) is available on a statistical basis. This information is available in the display and can also be used for setting the alarm function. See figure 1 for a screen sketch.
Figure 1: This figure shows a screen design for a network alarm clock. It shows presence information for partner, family, and colleagues. Wake up is between 7am to 10am when my more than half of my family is up. There is a picture pushed onto the display from a friend who is on a trip in Italy.
The network alarm is a communication end-point it which offers others (and we imagine a group of people pre-selected by the user) the chance to push 3
information onto this display (the picture frame in the screen sketch). The push function is available from a variety of other devices such other networked alarm clocks, mobile phones, and web browsers. Using the tangible user interface of the network alarm clock simple inputs can be made. A sensor measures on which side is up and by turning the device inputs are made. The expected interaction after an initial setup is to put the alarm clock to the mode in which it will ring and to turn off the alarm. In our concept we assume if the alarm is on the person has gone to bed and if the alarm function is off the person got up and is awake. Technically each network alarm clock is communicating with a server that exchanges the presence information for all people in a network. The presence information is always symmetric. It is provided as a percentage of people in that group who are already awake.
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