Liselott Brunnberg, Experience Designer and researcher at the Interactive Institutes Mobility Studio has been granted a two year fellowship from The Swedish Research Council for Postdoctoral research at Tongji University, The College of Architecture and Urban Planning. The research will be design-oriented and focus on interactive media in a city like Shanghai, which is in a strong growth. A ...
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Liselott Brunnberg, Experience Designer and researcher at the Interactive Institutes Mobility Studio has been granted a two year fellowship from The Swedish Research Council for Postdoctoral research at Tongji University, The College of Architecture and Urban Planning. The research will be design-oriented and focus on interactive media in a city like Shanghai, which is in a strong growth. A short description of the project is available on The Swedish Research Council´s website. For more information about Tongji University please klick here.

Fil Dr Alexandra Weilenmann has been awarded with a three year post doc grant in the VinnMer program. The post doc is a collaboration between the Interactive Institute, the Mobile Life Centre and the Lincs program at Göteborg University. Alexandra will start to work in Studio and in the Centre the 1st of January 2010.

Liselott Brunnberg was invited to speak about Backseat Playground at the European Location Based Entertainment Summit, May 18th at Malmö Exhibition & Convention Center. She also presented her dissertation at the Department of Media studies and Communication at Karlstad University in May.

During 150 years, the western world has been occupied with an artificial division of work and leisure. This division worked in the old industry society, where work was situated in dedicated work space and the home was reserved for family and leisure. However, due to modern mobile and internet technology this becomes less and less true; work mixe...
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Written by Annika Waern in Mobile Life

During 150 years, the western world has been occupied with an artificial division of work and leisure. This division worked in the old industry society, where work was situated in dedicated work space and the home was reserved for family and leisure. However, due to modern mobile and internet technology this becomes less and less true; work mixes with leisure, private with public. This is not inherently bad, but it becomes problematic when we adopt a ‘work’ lifestyle throughout all aspects of life, when every part of private and leisure life needs to be as polished and efficient as your work performance. The counterreaction is the rise of the ludic society – a society where enjoyment, experience and play are adopted into all aspects of life. Again, modern mobile and internet technology supports also this. The pictures from the company karaoke session are shared over facebook, an edited Obama video spurs instantaneous followups, reality soaps become the normative form of TV entertainment.

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Swedish Radio (SR). Maria Håkansson talks about the Push!Music system and music sharing on mobile phones in the weekly music documentary "Mitt i musiken", broadcasted on April 3 in P2:

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http://www.sr.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=1012&artikel=2745547

Digital products that attempt to set the scene for emotional experiences, bodily interactions, persuasive processes, aesthetic experiences and other experiential qualities, are gaining grounds both in the commercial world and in the so-called “third-wave of HCI”-movement w...
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Kristina Höök talks at the 16th annual Cognitive Science Symposium

Abstract

Digital products that attempt to set the scene for emotional experiences, bodily interactions, persuasive processes, aesthetic experiences and other experiential qualities, are gaining grounds both in the commercial world and in the so-called “third-wave of HCI”-movement within academia. While a typical HCI-goals used to be ease of use or learnability, we now discuss design qualities such as suppleness, game play, embodiment, reflection, affective loops or pliability. In this talk, I will discuss these new design qualities and the kinds of challenges we meet when designing for physical, emotional, and bodily involvement. I will examplify with systems that we have built (or are building) in my lab, such as eMoto, mobile emotional messaging using gesture, Affective Diary, a way to remember your bodily and social experiences, and Affective Health, a mobile service empowering users to deal with stress.

We are pleased to announce the availability of a number of postdoctoral positions at the Interaction Design and Innovation Lab at SICS, the Swedish Institute of Computer Science. The lab is closely associated with Mobile Life, a research centre at Stockholm University in cooperation with the telecom industry.

We are looking for recent Ph.D. graduates from all over the world with a...
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We are pleased to announce the availability of a number of postdoctoral positions at the Interaction Design and Innovation Lab at SICS, the Swedish Institute of Computer Science. The lab is closely associated with Mobile Life, a research centre at Stockholm University in cooperation with the telecom industry.

We are looking for recent Ph.D. graduates from all over the world with a strong interest in mobile technology and interaction design, who want to work in a dynamic research environment in Sweden. You can contribute in many different ways: by inventing and implementing new and exciting technologies and interfaces; by performing user tests and ethnographic studies; by running design workshops and creating novel concepts for mobile interaction; and much more. The lab is organized in two groups: the Future Applications Lab, led by Professor Lars Erik Holmquist; and Involve, led Professor Kristina Höök. In the Future Applications Lab, we use an approach called grounded innovation to invent and test new technology that could become products in 5-10 years time, including context-aware mobile services and social robots. In Involve, we are interested in exploring affective and bodily interaction, and involving users both physically and cognitively in what we call an affective loop.

The positions are offered through the European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics (ERCIM) Fellowship Programme. Positions are typically for 12 months, or 18 months when the fellowship is split between two of the ERCIM institutes. The fellow at SICS will receive a monthly allowance of 2 580 Euro. Costs for travelling to and from the institutes will be paid.

To apply, you need to go through the ERCIM application page:
http://www.ercim.org/activity/fellows

This page also contains detailed application requirements. Make sure to mark your field of interest as "E-Mobility -> Mobile Applications and Human-Computer Interaction for mobile devices" and your desired host institute as SICS. In addition to applying through the ERCIM web page, you should also inform us of your application by e-mailing your CV and a cover letter stating your research interests to Lars Erik Holmquist (see below).

The deadline for applications is April 30; successful applicants should be able to start in the summer of 2009.

MORE INFORMATION

The Interaction Design and Innovation lab at SICS is located in Kista, Sweden, about 20 minutes by subway from the centre of Stockholm. For more information about us, please refer to:
http://www.sics.se/groups/interaction

The Mobile Life Centre is also located in Kista. For more information, please refer to:
http://www.mobilelifecentre.org

ERCIM aims to foster collaborative work within the European research community and to increase co-operation with European industry; c.f.
http://www.ercim.org/

For questions, please contact:
Lars Erik Holmquist, lab manager
Interaction Design and Innovation, SICS
leh@sics.se -- +46 703 55 85 00

Mobile Life will have a strong presence at the ACM Computer-Human Interaction conference in Boston, with many papers, posters and other presentations. We will also have an exclusive party - talk to one of us and you will get an invitation...

Below is the complete list of Mobile Life presentations at CHI 2009.

Tuesday, April 7
11:3...
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Mobile Life will have a strong presence at the ACM Computer-Human Interaction conference in Boston, with many papers, posters and other presentations. We will also have an exclusive party - talk to one of us and you will get an invitation...

Below is the complete list of Mobile Life presentations at CHI 2009.

Tuesday, April 7
11:30 AM–1:00 PM: Passive Photography from a Creative Perspective: “If I would just shoot the same thing for seven days: it’s like... What’s the point?” Full paper presentation by Sara Ljungblad. Session: Art Creation.

Wednesday, April 8
10:30 AM–11:30 AM: See You on the Subway: Exploring Mobile Social Software. Work-in-progress by Nicolas Belloni, Lars Erik Holmquist, and Jakob Tholander.

10:30 AM–11:30 AM: Mirroring bodily experiences over time. Work-in-progress by Elsa Kosmack Vaara, Kristina Höök and Jakob Tholander.

11.30 AM–1.00 PM: The three-sixty illusion: Designing for Immersion in Pervasive Games. Full paper presentation by Annika Waern, Markus Montola och Jaakko Stenros. Session: New Gaming Experiences.

2:30 PM–4:00 PM: At Home and with Computer Access – Why and Where People Use Cell Phones to Access the Internet. Note presentation by Stina Nylander, Terés Lundquist and Andreas Brännström. Session: Studying Cell Phone Use.

Thursday, April 9
11:30 AM–1:00 PM: On Being Supple: In Search of Rigor without Rigidity in Meeting New Design and Evaluation Challenges for HCI Practitioners. Full paper presentation by Katherine Isbister and Kristina Höök. Session: Reflecting on Design.

2.30 PM–4.00 PM. Lean Collaboration Through Video Gestures: Co-ordinating the Production of Live Televised Sport. Mark Perry, Oskar Juhlin, Mattias Esbjörnsson and Arvid Engström. Session: Gesture UIs. Best of CHI nominee.

Workshop presentations

Fragments of Companionship – design insights from a blog study by Mattias Jacobsson at the Reign of Catz & Dogz.

Engaging the whole body in mobile interaction by Jakob Tholander, Jarmo Laaksolahti, Elsa Kosmack-Vaara, Pedro Ferreira, Tove Jaensson and Ylva Fernaeus at the Whole Body Interaction.

Studying A Novel Mobile Music Sharing System by Maria Håkansson at the Mobile User Experience Research: Challenges, Methods & Tools.

Mirror bodily experiences over time by Elsa Vaara, Kristina Höök and Jakob Tholander at the Interacting with Temporal Data.

The Mobile Life VINN Excellence centre’s Open House was a success. 300 visitors from industry, government and academia gathered to take part of what has happened since the centre started two years ago.
Kristina Höök held an introductory presentation followed by a panel discussion with representatives from Ericsson, TeliaSonera and Sony Ericsson, on the theme Mobile Glas...
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The Mobile Life VINN Excellence centre’s Open House was a success. 300 visitors from industry, government and academia gathered to take part of what has happened since the centre started two years ago.
Kristina Höök held an introductory presentation followed by a panel discussion with representatives from Ericsson, TeliaSonera and Sony Ericsson, on the theme Mobile Glasnost. "Our goal is to shape and be a part of the mobile revolution" said Kristina Höök. Keynote speaker was William Gaver from Goldsmith University of London. After the presentations the crowd moved to Mobile Life's and the Interactive Institute's premises to see the demonstrators and, eat from the well-stocked buffet and mingle.

Maria Håkansson successfully defended her Ph.D. thesis Playing with Context - Explicit and Implicit Interaction in Mobile Media Applications on February 26. The thesis contributes with insights into how aspects of the surrounding physical and social context can be exploited in the design of mobile media applications for playful use. The opponent was Eric Paulos of Carnegie Mello...
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Maria Håkansson successfully defended her Ph.D. thesis Playing with Context - Explicit and Implicit Interaction in Mobile Media Applications on February 26. The thesis contributes with insights into how aspects of the surrounding physical and social context can be exploited in the design of mobile media applications for playful use. The opponent was Eric Paulos of Carnegie Mellon University. You can download the thesis here.

We are looking for a young and talented media engineer or interaction designer with an interest in research and development of new mobile applications. You should have an experience of interaction design and/or application development...
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We are looking for a researcher in Media Technology or Interaction Design to the Mobile Life VinnEcxellence Center!

We are looking for a young and talented media engineer or interaction designer with an interest in research and development of new mobile applications. You should have an experience of interaction design and/or application development within the media sector or the telecoms sector, and master some programming (e.g. C++, Symbian). You should have relevant academic exams on a master level and be motivated to continue doing research.

Our research take as a starting point people’s increasing mobility and the continuously improving means for mobile computing. This technology can be used to make mobile life more meaningful and interesting. Our current area of interest, investigated within the morevideo!-project, concerns the possibility to collaboratively produce and edit live video from mobile phones. We envision a type of applications that squeezes some of the functionality of an entire professional TV-bus for live broadcasts into a mobile platform.

You will be employed by Interactive Institute in Stockholm. It is a Swedish experimental it-research institute that combines expertise in art, design and information technology to perform world leading applied research. We develop new research areas and new experience oriented products and services.

You will work within the Mobile Life VinnExcellence Centre where several academic partners (also including Swedish Institute of Computer Science and Stockholm University) collaborate with industrial partners such as Ericsson Research, SonyEricsson, Microsoft Research and TeliaSonera.

Application deadline: 31st of March

Appointment: April 2009

More info on our research group

More info on the morevideo!

More info on the Mobile Life VinnExcellence Centre

Contact person: Åsa Enger, asae@sics.se

Two years ago, the Mobile Life Centre opened its doors in Kista. At the time, we talked about a coming second IT revolution, made possible by a new generation of mobile services and ubiquitous technology. The first IT-revolution, the intro­duction and deployment of the internet and the World Wide Web during the 1990’s, had a major impact on all parts of our society. We postulated t...
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Two years ago, the Mobile Life Centre opened its doors in Kista. At the time, we talked about a coming second IT revolution, made possible by a new generation of mobile services and ubiquitous technology. The first IT-revolution, the intro­duction and deployment of the internet and the World Wide Web during the 1990’s, had a major impact on all parts of our society. We postulated that as mobile, ubiquitous technology was becoming widespread, the design and evalua­tion of mobile services – i.e. information technology that can be accessed and used in virtually any setting – should represent a vital area for every aspect of the IT- and telecom industry. We wanted to help the industry to design services for the sustainable web of work, leisure and ubiquitous technology we call the mobile life.
Today, the landscape is already vastly different. For instance, when we wrote the first research plan for Mobile Life, neither Google nor Apple were in the mobile phone business. We have also seen the marketplace become more dominated by high-end phones and advanced user interfaces such as touch-screens. But two other recent developments may well have more importance for the long-term development of mobile services. First, the increased availability of flat-rate data plans will lead to users adopting mobile services much like they have already got used to having the stationary internet as an essential part of their lives. Second, the new openness for external application development, exemplified both by successful applications stores and the open-sourcing of several major operating systems, means that there is potential for a slew of new and innovative mobile services to appear. In fact, many of the applications that have recently been launched by start-ups are very similar to projects we were working on at the start of the Centre – location-based, social, high-bandwidth, media-rich and user-friendly mobile services available at the click of a button (or touch of a screen!)
This does not mean our work is done – it has only started! Most of the new services we have seen so far are technically innovative, but designed based on stationary computing as the dominating interaction paradigm. In a truly mobile life, we not only need access to people and activities in other locations – we must also always consider the things at hand. We believe that next generation of mobile services should provide better means for exploring and engaging with unplanned activities, unfamiliar places, and brief encounters – in other words the world as it is right here and right now. As work, leisure and social activities blend together, this shift to services that provide both global and local access become important both to support work-oriented tasks and to emerging leisure-oriented activities. This requires a new approach to how mobile services are designed and evaluated – not remote and disconnected, but right here, right now.
As you will see at this Open House, The Mobile Life VINN Excellence Centre has, together with our partners, already become a hotbed for research and development of this next generation of mobile services. Welcome to the mobile revolution!