Mobile Life Centre - News

Annika Waern new Centre Director

"I want to increase our impact outside the academy"

Professor Annika Waern is the new director of the Mobile Life Centre from April 1. The next two years, she will head a leading research centre within mobile communications with some fifty researchers and nine strong industry partners.

Annika Waern is one of the senior researchers at the Mobile Life Centre, and has been involved since the start in 2007. Now she will take over as director. The Centre has rapidly become one of the leading centres in mobility in Europe.
“Being a director is a little like being a project manager for a large EU project. Everyone participates with their own agenda, and they are not always controllable”, says Annika with a laugh.  The role as director involves having responsibility for the overall objectives. In 2011, the centre wrote an Operational Plan managed by the former centre director Oskar Juhlin. A very ambitious plan for the continued research at the centre, and Annika hopes that her role will involve little more than just to monitor the plan.
“So I started thinking about things we are good at and things we are less good at. We are good, but there is always room for improvement. We are academically very successful, but our impact is not clear. This will be our focus the next five years”, Annika explains.  Annika expects that this will be a joint project for the researchers at the centre in the coming year. All ideas will be put on the table and will result in a "map" of everything that can be done to increase the centre's impact. The ideas will then be discussed and prioritised in an Action Plan.
“I want us to create that feeling "I was there" - even 20 years after the centre ceased its activity. I would like us to set standards and be the role model for other research centres”, says Annika.  In many ways the centre is already something of a model for its different ways to conduct research. Visiting researchers are impressed by the creative environment and the flat organisation. Everybody sit together in an open office space and take part in the social activities.  “We have an academic dialogue on a daily basis - not only within a project”, emphasises Annika. “It is appreciated - and is something that is missed when leaving the centre.”
Annika underlines that this is not just a question about academic influence. She wants the centre to have an impact on the world outside - and there is a lot to be done. This is not about communication, but about focusing on what the research actually achieves.  “Is it spin-offs and new products we should focus on? Is that the best we can achieve? Or should we be more active in undergraduate and master level education and educate the next generation of researchers?” Annika ponders.  Annika also want to see a wider internationalisation of the centre, which she feels has been too focused on Europe and the western countries. Today there are 14-15 nationalities within the centre - something that should be exploited.
“And we'll do a joint study visit to a developing country. It will probably be India, where our partners have good contacts”, Annika says.  New partners Mobile Life Centre has got three new partners this year - IKEA, ABB and Movinto Fun. Annika is very pleased with the broadening of the centre the three new partner companies will mean. IKEA is no longer just about furniture and interior design - their new venture Future Homes means also investing in consumer electronics. “It is incredibly fun with IKEA - they fit us so great”, Annika explains. “And ABB is an interesting partner for us - just because they are not consumer-oriented company. We have worked with Movinto Fun before, and they bring experience from a company in the development phase.”
Other exciting new partners are coming. But which will be revealed later.

Open Phd-doctoral position

Phd-doctoral position in Computer and Systems Sciences with specialization in “Video interaction and consumer-oriented Internet of Things services”, at the Mobile Life Centre

Topic: The PhD student will investigate a new hybrid media that combines emergent mobile technologies for video interaction with the advances in the Internet of Things in order to generate consumer-oriented applications. Combining these sources into new hybrid formats could produce more diverse ways of experiencing remote contexts. We are interested in the role of emerging enjoyment services in temporally and spatially distributed leisure and experience activities. We foresee that developing new hybrid media to broadcast the wild and nature, and its display and presentation in home environments. Building on ethnographic work studying people’s experiences of nature and the wild, as well as outdoor activities, we propose to build trial systems that support sharing nature experiences online and display them at home in urban areas. Using sensors, cameras, microphones and mobile phones we will experiment with medialising what goes on in forests and in the sea, as well as sharing it online over the web to phone and on the web.

About the doctoral position and requirements: The Department of Computer and Systems Sciences (DSV) belongs to Stockholm University and is located in one of the world's leading ICT clusters, Kista, just outside Stockholm, Sweden. The department conducts research and education in different areas of computer and systems sciences, and has about 200 employees.

More info here

Mobile Life at CHI 2012, Austin, Texas

May 7, 2012, 14:30 (GMT – 6) Privacy + Self Disclosure - The Mismeasurement of Privacy: Using Contextual Integrity to Reconsider Privacy in HCI - Louise Barkhuus - Mobile Life @ Stockholm University, Sweden. Contribution & Benefit: The paper criticizes the ways in which privacy issues have been studied within HCI and ubicomp. It provides an analysis of privacy on the basis of contextual integrity. ACM
May 8, 2012, 09:30. (GMT – 6). Games: Community + Communication - Athletes and Street Acrobats: Designing for play as a Community Value in Parkour – Paper. Annika Waern - Mobile Life Centre, Sweden, Elena Balan - Mobile Life Centre, Sweden, Kim Nevelsteen - Mobile Life Centre, Sweden. Contribution & Benefit: We developed a mobile community service for the Parkour community. We discuss how the successful design relied understanding the culture as a 'fun community', valuing play over achievement and competition. ACM
May 8, 2012, 15:50. (GMT – 6) Interactivity - Mobile ActDresses: Programming Mobile Devices by Accessorizing – Interactivity. Mattias Jacobsson - Mobile Life @ SICS, Sweden, Ylva Fernaeus - Mobile Life @ SICS, Sweden, Stina Nylander - Mobile Life @ SICS, Sweden, Contribution & Benefit: Mobile ActDresses is a design concept where existing practices of accessorizing, customization and manipulation of a physical mobile device is coupled with the behaviour of its software.
May 9, 2012, 14:30. (GMT – 6). Culture, Playfulness, and Creativity-Honorable mention. Appreciating plei-plei around mobiles: Playfulness in Rah Island – Paper Pedro Ferreira - Mobile Life, Sweden, Kristina Höök - Mobile Life @ Stockholm University, Sweden, Contribution & Benefit: Describes field work in Vanuatu around first time mobile phone adoption in an isolated community. Can assist designers and researchers involve playfulness in the design process of limited, inexpensive technologies. ACM
May 9, 2012, 09:30. (GMT – 6). Mobile Computing and Interaction - Mobile Service Distribution From the End-User Perspective - The Survey Study on Recommendation Practices - Long Case Study. Zeynep Ahmet - Mobile Life @ Interactive Institute, Sweden, Kaisa Väänänen-Vainio-Mattila - Tampere University of Technology, Finland. Contribution & Benefit: A presentation on findings from a study focused on recommendation practices of users of mobile services, including motivations, means, context and types of services recommended to others.
May 9, 2012, 09:30. (GMT – 6). Mobile Computing and Interaction - Best paper award. The Normal Natural Troubles of Driving with GPS. Barry Brown - Mobile Life Centre, Sweden, Eric Laurier - School of Geosciences, University of Edinburgh, UK. Contribution & Benefit: Presents a video analysis study of driving using GPS navigation systems in natural settings. The paper argues for a driving with GPS as an active process and not as 'docile driving'. ACM
May 9, 2012, 09:30. (GMT – 6). Mobile Computing and Interaction - Drawing the City: Differing Perceptions of the Urban Environment – Note Frank Bentley - Motorola Mobility, USA, Henriette Cramer - Mobile Life Centre at SICS, Sweden, William Hamilton - Interface Ecology Lab, Texas A&M University, USA, Santosh Basapur - Motorola Mobility, USA. Contribution & Benefit: We provide an updated study of the Milgram Mental Maps experiment, also considering demographic and tech-use attributes. Useful to those working on mobile LBS and Urban Computing services. ACM
May 9, 2012, 09:30. . (GMT – 6). Best paper award. Pasts + Futures - Revisiting the Jacquard Loom: Threads of History and Current Patterns in HCI – Paper. Ylva Fernaeus - Mobile Life, KTH, Sweden, Martin Jonsson - Södertörn University, Sweden, Jakob Tholander - Mobile Life, Stockholm University, Sweden, Contribution & Benefit: We describe and reflect on the workings of the Jacquard loom from the perspective of contemporary HCI: materiality, graspability, full body interaction, sustainability and age. ACM.
May 9, 2012, 16:30. (GMT – 6). Design Theory & Practice - Understanding Agency in Interaction Design Materials – Paper. Jakob Tholander - Mobile Life, Stockholm University, Sweden, Maria Normark - Mobile Life Centre, Sweden, Chiara Rossitto - Stockholm University, Sweden. Contribution & Benefit: The notion of agency is used to analyse materiality in interaction design. We illustrate the various levels at which agency emerge in the context of intensive short-time prototyping sessions. ACM

May: Seminars with Oskar Juhlin and Annika Waern

Kista Science City is arranging a seminar series in their Showroom in Kista Science Tower. On May 2, Oskar Juhlin will talk about a future where dogs and cats have mobile phones. On May 16, Annika Waern will talk about games. To play for real: Street play and role play with mobile technology". For more information and registration click here.

Oskar Juhlin in Nyhetsmorgon, TV4

The TV 4 program Nyhetsmorgon has picked up on the debate around the study that suggests that social media and smartphones are making us unhappy. Oskar was invited to give his view on the topic. See the interview.

Annika Waern appointed professor

She wants to take playfulness seriously

Annika Waern is newly appointed professor at DSV. In her early career, her research was "super theoretic" as she says. Outside the academic circles she is now known as Sweden’s Gaming Queen. She is one of the senior researchers at Mobile Life Centre and has worked with various types of gaming research for more than 10 years. Now she is interested in new attractive areas within playfulness.
It was somewhat by chance that Annika Waern got into computer science. She began to study physics, but dropped out. After helping her mother with Basic programming, she got a job at LM Ericsson working with high-level programming. She realized that she probably would need an education to get a better job. So she took leave to enter the completely new programme in computer science at Uppsala University in the early 80's.

“I stumbled into the area by chance, and it was great,” Annika Waern stresses. “I was early in, and I have been able to follow the entire developments within computers. The rest is history. But I never expected to become a scholar. When I started I was going to study for two years, and then go back to Ericsson!

From the analytical models to computer games Annika Waern has been a researcher at SICS during the bulk of her career. It started with a PhD position in 1986 and research in analytical models. But that was too much theory and in the end she felt that the subject was almost one of "intellectual masturbation". She wanted something more connected to reality, and her focus was more on human-machine interaction and artificial intelligence.
“I worked with intelligent interfaces and agents throughout the 90's. But in the end I felt the topic to be a bit exhausted, and I wanted to change direction,” she says.
It was now that her interest in gaming was awakened. She saw how quickly her three kids took to computer games. They had some kind of innate drive - something that adults do not really understand she explains. So Annika started to be interested in games. In the early 2000s, she worked at startup company Gamefederation.
“During this time I met all the game companies - especially on the mobile side. It was great, and it was a good way to get started,” she explains.
Pervasive games After a few years at Gamefederation the basic development work was done. Annika knew she probably was a bit "too academic" and longed to get back to research. In 2003 she came back to SICS, and eventually she became coordinator of a major EU project on pervasive gaming, IperG. Pervasive gaming is a form of mobile games that interact with the environment.
“It was a huge project with ten partners and 10 million Euros for three and a half years. We developed a method both for technology and for design solutions,” Annika Waern explains.
The visible result of the project was a book that was published 2009: Pervasive Games: Theory and Design. The book presents a method on how to work with technology and design in an integrated cycle. Annika is satisfied with the project itself, but notes that very little of the results was commercialised. Today she is a little sceptical of the existing model of EU projects.
EU requires that so-called demonstrators are created - often impressive system which doesn’t hold together after the evaluation. Give the money to small businesses instead and bring entrepreneurs into the projects, she urges.
Commercialisation Annika Waern work with research that is close to applications, but she is not quite convinced that research is the best way to commercialise technology solutions. As a researcher, you sometimes create overly complex solutions she says.
The platform she developed for pervasive games has been used commercially by a startup company, Company P, a of spin-off from research. Her research has also helped other small businesses - like Movinto Fun - to develop their products with game ideas and design solutions.
“I will finish the pervasive games project in March. Today there are so many commercial games, so it is more important to do sociological studies than design research in this field. And design research is the strength of my research group,” she stresses.
Sweden can take the lead again Annika Waern worries that Sweden has lost the leading position in the IT field that it had during the 80 - and 90's. But she sees opportunities to regain the lead in the rapidly emerging field of Internet of Things - IoT. It's about the increasing number of connected things around us.
“The technical platform for apps comes from the West Coast, USA. But now we have a chance to catch up, if we invest in the new field of Internet of Things. But we need both research and commercialisation - simultaneously! Companies must also take a commercial lead now, and develop technical solutions for the future, she says.
Annika points out that 3G will not handle the large volume of data the Internet of Things will bring. She argues that politicians must invest so that we can take the technological leap. The companies lie ahead - they are already thinking on the next move.
“Right now everyone assumes that the operators will build 4G so that everything works. But no one really knows how to make money from it, Annika underlines.
Computer games education DSV is a pioneer in computer games and was among the first to offer an academic education in game development. Annika Waern is of course one of the lecturers, and she keeps a course on game analysis. It is a rather theoretical course on how to look at games with a critical eye and analyse the game from different angles. It's hard to get all students in the course to keep up, according to Annika Waern. They are good at playing and having opinions. But they are not so good at understanding why.
“This can be a good tool for students. I think it's good that game developers are taught this analytical perspective,” says Annika Waern.

And what's next? Annika Waern will leave the area of pervasive games for research on "playfulness". What she envisions is a small lab with researchers with a background in games where the emphasis will be on play and playfulness.
“What if all people could be street performers for a little while? Can technology encourage people to be playful and spontaneous?” she wonders.
She envisions a kind of open and interactive installations where the entire emotional spectrum can be expressed in different ways - including with the body.
Annika looks back on a long research career where she has been able to follow the development in the IT field. She recognises that she probably has worked a little bit too much the last ten years - at times she has been working “infinitely much”. Now she starts to think about the balance in life.
“I am 51 years old and I think it's a wonderful age. I think better when I’m not working quite so hard. I think you can get a bit stupid if you work too much! I usually take a long summer vacation, and then I read a lot and write a little. When I come back from that, I always have new ideas, Annika Waern concludes.

"Känslor i Mobilen"

On February 22:nd Professor Kristina Höök gave a seminar i Aula Magna. See the seminar (in Swedish)

"We get both knowledge and inspiration"

Ericsson is one of the partners in the Mobile Life Centre and, Martin Körling was chair of the board until October 2011.
- There are many very important reasons for us to get involved in the Mobile Life Centre. Ericsson is a key player within mobility, and for us the centre provides important feedback in terms of our development in that area.
- This collaboration has given us both knowledge and inspiration. The collaboration also plays an important role in our development with our increased focus on end-users that are important to Ericsson, and we need to have a competent partner to discuss these issues.
Martin Körling will leave Sweden, but not Ericsson. For the next upcoming years he will be the head of Ericsson Research in Silicon Valley.
- I expect to continue to interact with Mobile Life, even when I am in Silicon Valley even though the forms of it are not yet clear. It feels natural to continue working together as a continuation of what we have already done in the field of Internet of Things.
Martin Körling also gives examples of areas where the collaboration have provided concrete results.
• Lars Erik Holmquist's development of several small apps for the web
• Oskar Juhlin’s research on video
• Kristina Höök's work in Affective Health
• Graduate students’ internships at Ericsson

Internet of Things Day

On February 9 the first big Swedish conference on the new hot area of Internet of Things will take place in Kista. The conference has created great interest, and 490 people have registered.

The SICS Internet of Things Day is arranged in collaboration with EIT ICT Labs, Wisenet, KTH and Mobile Life. Among the speakers are Professor Kristina Höök and Professor Oskar Juhlin from Mobile Life Centre.

SICS is creating a centre for Internet of Things with consumer focus in collaboration with Ericsson, Microsoft, KTH, Mobile Life Centre, Stockholm University, Wisenet, Swedish ICT and a number of small companies including Company P, Ant Micro, and Vendolocus.

Program and registration

“An international research lab with a ‘wow’ factor”

An international evaluation team has evaluated the performance of The Mobile Life VINN Excellence Centre so far in Stage 2 (April 1, 2009 – March 31, 2012). The evaluators are very positive to the performance of the Centre, but also indicate areas for improvements.

Conclusions for Scientific Quality and Productivity:

The Centre has, in a relatively short period of time, established itself as an international research lab with a ‘wow’ factor. It is to be commended for taking on board the recommendations from the last evaluation and building the foundation for a centre for excellence. It is to be congratulated on its interdisciplinary and innovative research ideas. The research environment appears to be excellent for nurturing and mentoring junior researchers and establishing senior researchers as international leaders.

General conclusions:

The evaluation team is of the opinion that the Centre has made outstanding progress since the last review and has developed a distinctive multidisciplinary Centre meeting VINN Excellence Centre guidelines.

"Right now it feels great to be director of a center that receives such recognition. It is the result of a long and hard work by many smart people,” the centre Director Oskar Juhlin underlines.

"We are now recharging for three more years, and we will have many exciting news about partners and partnerships to reveal shortly”, Oskar Juhlin concludes.

Best paper at CSCW 2012

Mark Perry, Arvid Engström and Oskar Juhlin' s paper "Amateur Vision and Recreational Orientation: creating live video together" will be awarded Best Paper this year at CSCW 2012. In total, CSCW 2012 recieved a total of 415 paper and note submissions with 4 papers receiving the "Best" paper designation.

"Bärbar bästis bekräftar identiteten"

Från samtal till sms, från e-post till appar. Nästa steg är känslostyrd kommunikation. Hur smart kan en mobiltelefon bli? The Mobile Life centre in article in DN about mobile phones and feelings.

Framgångsrik IT-forskare i skärningspunkten mellan akademi, institut och industri

Nya forskningsmedel från både SSF och Vetenskapsrådet, de positiva beskeden till SICS-forskaren och Stockholms universitets-professorn Kristina Höök ramlar in på rad. –Med grundfinansiering för fem år kan jag lyfta blicken och göra den forskning jag vill göra, säger hon.

Kristina Höök interviewed in NyTeknik

Hon ska lära mobilen visa känslor.

Mobile Innovation Alley 2011

Mobel Life demoed again this year at the annual event Mobile Future organised by the magazin Mobil. Demoes from Mobile Life were IMPACT, Jordi Solsona, the Affective Health system, Johanna Mercuri, Outfit centric accessories by Morvarid Kashanipour, Fascinate, Allan Svensson and EcoFriends demoed by Carolina Johansson.

Photo: Jannecke Schulmann

Award for best short paper!

Katja Grufberg and Lars Erik Holmquist won the Best Short Paper award at DESIRE 2011 in the Netherlands recently:

"The award for best short paper went to Katja Grufberg and Lars Holmquist, for their paper: Magical Bits: Designing Through Experiencing the Future End Product"

Kristina Höök won STIMDI price 2011

The price was announced Thursday night at the annual "Mobilgalan" in Kista Science Tower.

STIMDI has decided to award the 2011 Grand Prize to Kia Höök for the following reasons:

Kia Höök won the price because she combines a very distinguished academic career in human-computer interaction through developing and spreading knowledge and awareness of the importance of interaction, especially in mobile applications, e.g. through the Mobile Life Centre. Congratulations to Kia!

Professor Oskar Juhlin

”Att seriöst syssla med det oseriösa”
Så beskriver Oskar Juhlin sin forskning. Oskar Juhlin är nybliven professor i data- och systemvetenskap vid DSV med inriktning mot design av nya mobila medier. Han bedriver sin forskning inom Mobile Life Centre, där han för närvarande är föreståndare. För länge sen utbildade han sig som civilingenjör inom väg och vatten, men ändrade bana drastiskt och disputerade inom kunskapssociologi. Han älskar att forska och att kombinera sitt teknikintresse med ett samhällsperspektiv med ett särskilt fokus på konsumenters behov av förströelse.
Oskar Juhlin är född och uppvuxen i Norrbotten. Efter utbildningen till civilingenjör inom väg och vatten var han less på teknik och började studera idéhistoria och filosofi på Stockholms universitet. Det blev så småningom Tema T på Linköpings universitet där teknikintresset väcktes på nytt. Han disputerade inom kunskapssociologi med ett speciellt fokus på de ingenjörer som arbetade med att utveckla ITS (Intelligenta Transport system). Under avhandlingsarbetet hade han kontakt med Vägverket som sedan finansierade en en postdoc-tjänst på valfri plats. Han valde centrum för tvärvetenskap vid Göteborgs Universitet, men jobbade samtidigt också på det nyligen startade Viktoriainstitutet i Göteborg.
– Det var ett lyft att komma in i IT-forskningen, utbrister Oskar Juhlin!! Det är framförallt två saker som inspirerade mig – det kreativa skapandet och den speciella typ av samhällsvetenskaplig forskning, med fokus på detaljeradeempiriska studier av människors liv, som är så uppskattat i detta område.
Oskar Juhlin har blivit kvar i forskarvärlden allt sedan dess. Han har ett stort intresse för forskning och glad över att den möjligheten finns. Han tycker forskning passar hans läggning.  – Jag är lite krävande och ”illrig”, säger Oskar med ett skratt. Man kanske skulle kunna säga att jag överintresserad. Det var fantastiskt att hitta den här platsen för mig, och redan när jag började doktorera kände jag att nästan alla var som jag.
Mobility studion 2000 började han att bygga upp sin egen forskningsgrupp – Mobility Studio – på Interaktiva Institutet. Det första anslaget för den fem-sex personer starka gruppen kom från SITI, och gruppen har varit externfinansierad sedan dess. Numera ingår tio forskare i gruppen som är en integrerad del av Mobile Life Centre. Här finns forskare både från Stockholms universitet och Interaktiva institutet.
– Vi har ett tydligt användarorienterat perspektiv i vår forskning, betonar Oskar Juhlin. Det är ju människorna och deras behov som avgör. Folk vill ha roligt, de söker det goda livet och underhållning. Och det ska vår forskning bidra till.
I början av 2000-talet så sammanfördes Oskar Juhlin med Kia Höök och Lars-Erik Holmquist av professor Bo Dahlbom, IT-universitetet i Göteborg. Det här blev början till det som idag är Mobile Life Centre.
– Vi ville bedriva idéforskning som kanske inte är så teoretisk, förklarar Oskar Juhlin. Det handlar om att utveckla teknik som är användarnära. Vad folk håller på med och hur de gör har alltid intresserat mig nämligen.
Trion sökte och fick pengar från SSF för sin forskning, och så småningom började man kalla sin gemensamma verksamhet för Mobile Life. Och 2006 kröntes samarbetet med framgången då man utsågs till ett s k Vinnexcellence center. Oskar Juhlin är för närvarande föreståndare för centret som samlar forskare från många olika discipliner. Centret samarbetar med ledande teknikföretag för att förutse hur framtidens mobila teknik kommer att se ut, genom att redan nu uppfinna morgondagens produkter.
– Jag tycker att det är helt fantastiskt att få vara forskare inom IT. Vi gillar alla teknik, berättar Oskar. Men jag är den som mest bidrar med det samhällsvetenskapliga perspektivet.
Mobile Life centret sätter fokus på användarna och kan ge företagen strategiska kunskaper om det mobila livet. Centret ska bidra till den konkreta tekniköverföringen. Centret ha blivit ett av Europas två ledande centra inom det mobila området.
Just nu jobbar Oskar Julin med en bok tillsammans med Barry Brown, gästprofessor vid Mobile Life. Den är tänkt att bli handbok – ett metodprogram – för samhällsvetenskapliga forskare som vill ägna sig åt området med teknik i underhållande syfte. Och han ser fram emot att få lämna över ledarskapet för Mobile Life till Annika Waern – då kan hans egen forskning få mer utrymme.
– Jag har ett ansvar för att vi ska bidra till samhällsförändring. Jag har bidragit med ett samhällsperspektiv på vår verksamhet, understryker Oskar Juhlin.
Nya utmaningar En hjärtefråga för Oskar Juhlin är att verka för att Europa tar en ledande roll inom kommersialiseringen av tillämpningar inom det som kallas Internet of Things. Här behövs en kraftsamling kring konsumentorientering och nya behov.
– Vi är bra på teknik i Europa, men är vi beredda att ta den här bollen? Europa skulle kunna bli ledande, men tecknen är inte så lovande, menar Oskar.
Det finns dock positiva exempel – enligt Oskar är Nokia är en god förebild i Europa. De är verkligen intresserade och är öppna och kreativa med ett starkt fokus på konsumentbehov, även om de just nu genomgår en krävande period. Det finns också många spännande nya svenska företag inom underhållningssektorn.
Det tidigare så framångsrika svenska innovationssystemet är flaskhalsen. Oskar menar att det är olyckligt att staten i nuläget är tänkt att vara både är beställare och första köpare – det gynnar bara befintliga verksamheter som utgår från parlamentariskt formulerade ”problem”. I dessa sammanhang fokuserar man mer på miljöfrågor än på människors behov av förströelse.
– I det statliga intresserar man sig inte för ”tristessen” som ett gemensamt problem. Stress ser vi som ett problem värdigt politiska diskussioner där vi eventuellt har ett gemensamt ansvar. Men tristess ses både som privat och irrelevant. Egentligen borde jag starta det svenska Tristessforskningsinstitutet, avslutar Oskar Juhlin med ett skratt.

Professor Höök gets 2.4 MSEK from Swedish Research Council

Kristina Höök, professor at Stockholm University, has obtained a research grant from the Swedish Research Council of 2.4 MSEK in addition to the recently earned grant of 10 MSEK from SSF. The proposal is named "Designing for experience: body, emotion, sociality and empathy".

Kristina Höök writes in her proposal:

We see a highly connected future, where billions of devices in our daily lives will be connected – forming an Internet of Things (IoT). It is of key importance that we can create technology and design applications that address deeply human ways of living in this IoT-world: addressing body, emotion, sociality and empathy. To achieve this we need:

· example applications that encourage deeply meaningful, human-centered ways of communicating with ourselves and others, involving our bodies, movements, bio-data, emotions, sociality, empathy in a non-dualistic whole

· explorations of novel interaction modalities that leverage on the possibilities offered by the shift towards Internet of Things technology, sensors, actuators and connected devices, and capitalize on the massive amount of data that IoT-applications may produce

· human-centered design methods and tools making it possible to articulate experiences and rapidly design, implement, and evaluate human-centric IoT systems, without requiring the typical lengthy sketch-design-specify-implement cycle, respecting and cultivating deep knowledge of the emerging IoT technology materials

My research group has a unique interdisciplinary, design-driven research approach to this area. Our focus on a non-dualistic, empowerment perspective has rendered unique, commercially interesting applications in the research forefront.

Professor Höök granted 10 MSEK

Kristina Höök, forskningsledare på SICS & Mobile Life vid SU, har beviljats 10 milj kr i fortsatta anslag från Stiftelsen för Strategisk forskning. Kristina Höök får anslaget för sin forskning kring känslor och interaktion mellan människa och maskin, en viktig del i SICS satsning på Internet of Things.

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Kristina Höök, forskningsledare på SICS och professor på Stockholms universitet har beviljats 10 milj kr i fortsatta anslag från Stiftelsen för Strategisk Forskning för sin forskning i upplevelsebaserad design. Kristina Hööks forskning på SICS har sedan 2004 förstärkts med dessa sk Ingvar-pengar (efter Ingvar Carlsson, ordförande i SSF) och får nu en generös fortsättning i stark konkurrens med andra tidigare Ingvar-stipendiater.

Kristina Höök är jublande glad över anslaget som hon menar verkligen ger hennes forskningsgrupp chansen att utvecklas och nå betydelsefulla resultat.

- De första sex åren med ”Ingvar” är de bästa forskningsår jag haft, säger hon. Det var en fantastisk bekräftelse och ett bevis att det var värt allt slit. Att nu få fortsätta betyder att vi har resurser att ytterligare bygga upp ett viktigt forskningsområde.

Anslaget delas ut personligen till särskilt framgångsrika forskningsledare och kan disponeras relativt fritt. Kristina Höök får anslaget för sin forskning kring känslor och interaktion mellan människa och maskin, som framgent kommer att ingå i SICS stora satsning på Internet of Things. Internet of Things innebär att massor av data strömmar från människor och intelligensförsedda föremål i vår omgivning och samlas på Internet. Ur datamängderna kan mönster kan utläsas och matas tillbaka till oss i form av insikter som vi kan ha glädje och nytta av.

SICS har på senare år gjort flera tekniska genombrott inom Internet of Things. Vi har nu den teknik tillgänglig som behövs för att bygga lösningar som involverar kroppen och människors känslor. Det handlar om sensorsystem, som fångar upp vad vi känner, och sk aktuatorer, dvs små system som översätter ett emotionellt, kroppsligt uttryck till något som en maskin kan uttrycka, t ex vibrationer eller temperaturväxlingar. Hööks forskning rör den delen som involverar människan och hennes forskning fokuserar alltmer på kroppslighet eftersom ”kroppen och jaget är ett”.

- Det finns, säger Kristina, en risk att vi betraktar människan som en mekanisk docka, när vi kommer från teknikhållet. Men vi vill göra tekniska lösningar som främjar det nära, innerliga och meningsfulla i människors liv, sådant som ökar vår livsglädje och empati med andra och oss själva.

I motiveringen från SSF står bl a: ”Kristina Höök har byggt upp ett excellent nätverk både akademiskt och med representanter för industri och samhälle. Forskningsgruppen har starka band med den svenska IT-industrin, för vilka den föreslagna forskningen bör ha stor betydelse... Projektet har potential att utveckla en ny generation interaktionsmönster som kan hjälpa svenska företag att konkurrera på den globala IT-marknaden.”

Kristina Höök har framgångsrikt byggt upp forskningscentret Mobile Life på Stockholms Universitet, i samarbete med SICS och Interactive Institute. Hon leder också forskningslaboratoriet Interaction Design and Innovation på SICS och har en ledande roll i satsningen på Internet of Things på SICS.

Läs mera:
Mobile Life
Interaction Design and Innovation
Involve-gruppen i Mobile Life

Foto: Joel Höglund

Marie Denward New Ph.D.

Friday October 7th, Marie Denward successfully defended her Ph.D. thesis at Malmö Högskola. The thesis called "Pretend that it is Real! Convergence Culture in Practice" is an in-depth study of the cross-medial alternate reality game 'The Truth About Marika'. Congratulations Marie!

Abstract: "Media convergence has mainly been defined and explained as a technological and industrial phenomenon; as the process where new technologies are accommodated by existing media and communication industries and their cultures of production. One consequence of convergence in today’s hybrid media landscape is that the previously distinct borders between production and consumption have become blurred. This means that convergence also takes place as a bottom-up social process initiated by media users that move almost anywhere and everywhere in search of entertainment experiences of their liking. This thesis sheds light on the different types of media convergence that took place in the process of making the transmedia storytelling production Sanningen om Marika. The Swedish public service provider, SVT, and the pervasive games upstart company, The company P, combined their expertise in broadcasting and games development to craft this ‘participation drama’.

During five months in 2007, the production offered Swedes nationwide rich possibilities to interact and participate, or just to watch or lurk on the production’s various platforms. Using an ethnographic approach, field studies were conducted throughout the design, implementation and production phases. The analysis shows that even if instances of convergence could be identified, the collaboration did not proceed smoothly. The companies’ different media logics with their differing cultures of production created tensions and frictions. The different logics of television, internet and games - different in quality demands and with different audience participation models - made it difficult to create a hybrid production. Television genres blurred fiction and facts, and the ordinary was blurred with activities of games and play in the production, making the audience reception and interpretations differ extensively. Lastly, the designed audience participation did not remove the asymmetrical relationship between producers and users in media, but instead highlighted issues of hierarchies, lack of participant empowerment and inequality between participants."

Mobile HCI 2011

The Mobile HCI conference in Stockholm attracted 400 participants this year. The conference was organised by the Mobile Life Centre together with the support of SICS. Our sponsors played an important role in making the conference a success and we would escpecially like to mention the City of Stockholm that hosted the conference reception in the Golden hall. We would also like to thank Ericsson, Nokia and Kista Science City for their support.

Oskar Juhlin presented Mobile Life in Berlin

Oskar Juhlin was invited by the German Stifterverband and the British Embassy in Berlin to do a presentation at their joint conference on Enterprising Knowledge: Oskar shared the experience from the Mobile Life VINN Excellence Centre of working in close collaboration with industry. Companies at the conference were for example Phillips, Volkswagen and Procter & Gamble.

Interview with Oskar from the conference

Bambuser new partner in the centre

We welcome Bambuser as a new partner in the Mobile Life Centre. Bambuser is an interactive mobile video streaming platform, enabling users to quickly and easily stream and share live mobile video with all of their favorite social networks, including Facebook, Twitter and many more, through seamless integration. Used by both professional broadcasters and consumers worldwide, Bambuser is the easiest and most dynamic video streaming solution available WiFi mobile devices, webcams and DV-cameras. Featuring mobile and browser based live broadcasting, one click social sharing, platform agnostic chat, geo-location tagging and integrated web storage, Bambuser is the smart mobile video solution. Bambuser is currently available for iPhoneOS, Symbian, Android, Nokia Maemo, Symbian, and Windows Mobile platforms, supporting over 200 different mobile devices worldwide. Bambuser enables anyone to quickly and easily harness the power of live social video. For more information visit www.bambuser.com.

Living in the world of Internet of things

The Mobile Life Centre played an important role at SICS Open House on May 5. Among the introductory speakers were the Mobile Life centre board chair, Martin Körling, Director Service Layer Technology, Ericsson and Professor Kristina Höök. At the exhibition, a number of research projects from the Mobile Life Centre were demonstrated.

Martin Körling explained Ericsson’s focus on what the next thing will be after Face book and other social media. We will see more services diffused into our lives, and he is convinced that the network will become even more important. Ericsson Labs is a platform that works with openness and innovation as distinctive features. Ericsson Labs is a way to get feedback from researchers. Ericsson Application Award is another way to encourage and reward contributions from researchers. In order to create what lies beyond smart phones you have to encourage third-party suppliers. Ericsson also focuses on what the consumers want from the Internet of Things and how all the devices and things are going to communicate with each other in the future.

Professor Kristina Höök enumerated a number of applications and services we are surrounded with today. Kristina says that we are already living in the world of Internet of things – but we are not always thinking about it. We use different services from our mobile phones or other units for fun, wellness, games and much more. She also gave details for a few projects – two of which are in the semi-finals of the Ericsson Application Awards. She predicts exciting future research projects analysing the enormous amount of data created by people using these new services. This could be a perfect task for interdisciplinary research at SICS.

Two Apps in Semi-finals of the Ericsson Application Awards

Mobile Life has not one but TWO apps in the semi-finals of the Ericsson Application Awards - one in the student category and one in the company category!
Both our submissions are based on recent work on mobile image recognition in the Mobile 2.0 project.
They are:
- MobileArt - a system for getting information about the art in the subway by snapping a picture!
- Pic-In - lets you determine your location and check in to FourSquare by - you guessed it - snapping a picture!

Big congratulations to Tengjiao, Sebastian and everyone else who worked on these apps!

Commercialisation grant for Affective Health!

Commercialisation Grant to Professor Kristina Höök

Affective Health is a lifestyle-related mobile service developed by Professor Kristina Höök at the Mobile Life VINN Excellence Centre. The service has received funding of 0.5 MSEK for commercialisation from the SSF and VINNOVA pilot program Verification of Research. The service is developed to help people to better understand how they can cope with stress.

The idea of the pilot program is to promote commercialisation of research results, and give participants a deeper knowledge of the commercialisation process. Affective Health is one of the three projects that received the verifying grant in April 2011.

Take the pulse of your stress level

Affective Health is a mobile service developed by Kristina Höök at the Mobile Life Centre, Stockholm Univerity/DSV. It is a lifestyle-related service that will help people better recognize their bodily reactions to stress.

Stress is a major problem in the western world and the emerging middle classes in developing countries. Only in Sweden the estimated cost is € 1,7 billion per year. It is in the group of working professionals, aged 28-45 years who shows the highest levels of stress and the service is directed primarily towards this group.

- Affective Health allows users to follow and understand their physical reactions in the everyday life in real time (biofeedback) and over time, explains Kristina Höök. In order to make everything work, the mobile phone and the app is supplemented with biosensors on the body. The sensors register the physiological response to stressful situations as well as for the more calm periods.

The mobility and the feedback from the system facilitates a greater self-knowledge, and thus becomes a source of greater self-awareness says Kristina Höök, who also mentions the elaborated and pedagogical interface.

Affective Health was developed a few years ago as part of a research project in the Mobile Life Centre. The researchers had planned to continue with the research and leave the work with the mobile service. The system almost ended up in a drawer. There were, however, so many requests for access to the service from people who have seen it, so it felt appropriate to commercialise Affective Health.

- The journey to commercialisation is much more fun and more exciting than I thought, emphasizes Kristina Höök. I am a scientist at heart, but also a commercialisation process is an exploration of people and the tools they want to surround themselves with. I learn a lot about how the world works.

Oskar Juhlin in "Nyhetsmorgon" TV 4

It was in the corner of 56:th and Lexington in New York that the first phonecall with a handheld device was made on April 3rd, 38 years ago. The phone weighed 1 kg and the battery time was 20 minutes. In an interview at the TV 4 broad casting "Nyhetsmorgon", Oskar Juhlin comments on some of the high lights for mobile phones during the 38 years that has past, and on future challenges for the mobile phone. See the broad cast here (in Swedish)

Kristina Höök appointed advisor to the IT minister, Anna-Karin Hatt’s Digitalization Council

The Swedish government has set up a "Digitalization Council". The group is formed on initiative by the IT and Regional Minister Anna-Karin Hatt and will have an advisory role in matters relating to the digitization of Sweden. One of the 27 members is Professor Kristina Höök, DSV and Mobile Life Centre.

Digitalization Council has both an advisory role and will be a forum for strategic discussion between the government and representatives of different social sectors, both private and public. Initially, the design of the national IT strategy, A Digital Agenda for Sweden, will be the focus of the work.

- It is important that A Digital Agenda for Sweden becomes an agenda for Sweden and not just the government. In this perspective, the Digitization Council's task is even more important, both in regards to the design and realization, Anna-Karin Hatt said in a statement.

- IT should be fun, creative, and give users a voice. Professor Kristina Höök is a researcher in human-machine interaction at Stockholm University and the Mobile Life Centre. She is obviously very happy about the appointment. But she also stresses that not everything will be about IT to create efficiency - she wants to enter a user perspective where it is all about creativity and emotion.

- It will be really exciting to be involved in shaping the digital agenda for Sweden, says Kristina Höök. I note that right now all goals are about solving problems or improve efficiency within authorities, schools, health care and infrastructure. No goal is about having fun, enjoy, be creative, increase your own presence and voice in this IT world. I think that is a mistake.

- IT displace the power of old associations in interesting ways. In healthcare, patients are a completely different voice and power - they can look for information, but also support each other. In schools, students can not only provide a more effective teaching - they can be creative and create their own games, blogs, apps, websites, video productions and everything else that the digital material allows. We need to emphasize innovation and creativity much more in the Swedish digital agenda.

Mobile Life in Interactions

The Mobile Life Centre is featured in the latest issue of the journal Interactions, March-April 2011: "Day in the lab" - Mobile Life Centre: Mobile Applications for Fun and Pleasure. Read the article.

(Photo: Karl-Petter Åkesson)

Congratulations Maria!

Maria Håkansson has received a personal grant from the Hans Werthén Foundation at the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences to conduct postdoctoral studies in the Culturally Embedded Computing group, lead by Phoebe Sengers, at Cornell University, USA. The Hans Werthén Foundation supports young researchers who wants to do research abroad in areas that are relevant for Swedish industry and academia. The overall aim of Maria's funded project is to explore how ICT can support families in making their everyday lives more sustainable. Environmental sustainability is an increasingly important issue that affects people and organizations at all levels of society, from the individual to multinational corporations. While it is crucial to promote sustainable manufacturing procedures in industry, it is equally important to support individuals and families in making their everyday lives more sustainable. ICT could support this in many different ways, for instance by presenting environmental data to increase awareness and helping people network to share resources and facilities. However, fully addressing sustainability will likely require not only engineering advances but also technology design that addresses the complex cultural, social, and lifestyle factors implicated in technology use and its effects. Combining 'sustainable HCI' and 'third-wave HCI' approaches, this project will contribute to a better understanding of the sociocultural factors in family everyday life that influence environmental sustainability issues. It will also present pragmatic ICT based designs that will encourage families to choose a more sustainable lifestyle. The grant covers about one year of postdoctoral studies, with a planned start in June 2011.

Open seminar with Nathalie Peira

Emotion regulation with biofeedback: effects on regulation strategies and brain activity

Abstract: Anxiety and mood disorders may in part be related to a problem of using efficient emotion regulation strategies, and result from a dysfunction in the prefrontal-amygdala network. Individuals with
anxiety related disorders show hypervigilance towards physiological reactions, dysfunctional cognitive appraisal of these body manifestations, and a preference for regulating emotions by means of suppression, which does not decrease the physiological response. In this context, the use of biofeedback combined with fMRI brain-imaging stands as a promising approach to untangle how biofeedback contributes to regulation of physiological emotion reactions, improvement of emotion regulation strategies, and changes in the amygdala-prefrontal activity. The project includes a behavioral and an fMRI study with the specific research questions: 1-What are the effects of biofeedback on emotional experience, physiological responses to emotional stimuli, and emotion regulation strategies? 2- How does biofeedback change the
activity in the amygdala-prefrontal network? 3- What are the learning-effects of biofeedback on emotion regulation strategies, emotional experience, and physiological responses to emotional stimuli? The predicted results are that biofeedback decrease emotional experience, physiological responses, amygdala and insular activity together with an activation of the prefrontal and the anterior cingulate cortex. These effects are predicted to be learnt and remain after training.

Congratulations Sara!

Sara Ljungblad has received funding from Riksbankens Jubileumsfond RJ (an independent foundation at the Swedish central bank) to do a full-time three year project on experience centred design and related design methods. The project is done in collaboration with LOTS Design, a design firm in Gotheburg that is conducting industrial design and strategic design. The project has the title "Understanding future users: Qualities in consumer and professional context", and will investigate how qualities associated to consumer products, services and practices can be understood, described and transferred into a professional context to improve work-related design. The project starts on March 1, 2011.

Kristina Höök, powerful IT woman

Kristina Höök was once more elected as one of the most powerful IT women by the magazin Computer Sweden.

Kristina Höök speaks at Research Councils Anniversary

Kristina Höök is invited speaker when VINNOVA and the Swedish Research councils, VR, FAS and Formas, celebrates their 10 year anniversary. She will talk about her research and the Mobile Life VINN Excellence centre as a good example of research environment. The event takes place at Clarion Hotel Sign hotel in Stockholm, January 18th.

Mobile Life in Paris

Mobile Life Centre was invited as honorary guest to the Paris Region Innovation Tour meeting on December 13th. The event attracts 900 visitors from the Paris region. The centre was presented by Oskar Juhlin at the Talk & Walk together with speakers from all around Europe.

Welcome Sian!

Sian Lindley is visiting Mobile Life during this and next week, and we really look forward to share some experiences and emerging research interests!

Sian is a researcher in the field of HCI and a member of the Socio-Digital Systems (SDS) group at Microsoft Research in Cambridge since April 2007. She is interested in how technology can be designed to support, and how it influences, social behaviour. Sian has worked on a number of field studies exploring how households use various prototype technologies, including BubbleBoard, a visual answer machine, SenseCam, a wearable camera, and Wayve, a home messaging device. She is also interested in how technology can be designed to fit the needs and values of older adults, and have been exploring this area for the past three years.

Before working at Microsoft Research, Sian undertook a PhD on the effects of technology on the photo sharing behaviours of collocated groups. She continues to hold an interest in how computing can support co-present users, and was recently involved in a field study of how school children used a storytelling application called TellTable, which was run on a Microsoft Surface.

Mobile LIfe at Intel

On the 15th of November, 2010, Mobile Life research leaders and industry partners visited Intel in Sunnyvale.

Mobile Life at Yahoo!

Mobile Life is visiting San Francisco and companies in Silicon Valley. Elizabeth Churchill and her group at Yahoo! was the first stop on the tour.

John Zimmerman is visiting Mobile Life

On the 11th of November, professor John Zimmerman from CMU is visting Mobile Life. He will give a talk at Mobile Future, a conference given in Kista Science Tower.

http://blogg.mobilgalan.se/

Petra Sundström defends her PhD-thesis

On the 12th of November, at 13, Petra Sundström will defend her PhD-thesis entitled:

Designing Affective Loop Experiences

Opponent: Professor John Zimmerman, Human-Computer Interaction Institute, The School of Design, Carnegie Mellon University

Chair: Professor Kristina Höök, DSV, Stockholms universitet

Thesis committee: Professor Jonas Löwgren, Malmö University, Professor Henrik Artman, DSV, SU, and Dean Gudrun Dahl, Social Anthropology Department, SU

Room: DSV, Forum, Sal C, Isafjordsgatan 39, Kista

Abstract:

There is a lack of attention to the emotional and the physical aspects of communication in how we up to now have been approaching communication between people in the field of Human Computer Interaction (HCI). As designers of digital communication tools we need to consider altering the underlying model for communication that has been prevailing in HCI: the information transfer model. Communication is about so much more than transferring information. It is about getting to know yourself, who you are and what part you play in the communication as it unfolds. It is also about the experience of a communication process, what it feels like, how that feeling changes, when it changes, why and perhaps by whom the process is initiated, altered, disrupted. The idea of Affective Loop experiences in design aims to create new expressive and experiential media for whole users, embodied with the social and physical world they live in, and where communication not only is about getting the message across but also about living the experience of communication.

An Affective Loop experience is an emerging, in the moment, emotional experience where the inner emotional experience, the situation at hand and the social and physical context act together, to create for one complete embodied experience. The loop perspective comes from how this experience takes place in communication and how there is a rhythmic pattern in communication where those involved take turns in both expressing themselves and standing back interpreting the moment - feeling it.

To allow for Affective Loop experiences with or through a computer system, the user need to be allowed to express herself in rich personal ways involving our many ways of expressing and sensing emotions – muscles tensions, facial expressions and more. For the user to become further engaged in interaction, the computer system needs the capability to return relevant, either diminishing, enforcing or disruptive feedback to those emotions expressed by the user so that the she wants to continue express herself by either strengthening, changing or keeping her expression.

We describe how we used the idea of affective loop experiences as a conceptual tool to navigate a design space of gestural input combined with rich instant feedback. In our design journey, we created two systems, eMoto and FriendSense.

Nokia's Visiting Professor Grant

We are very happy to announce that Kaisa Väänänen-Vainio-Mattila, Professor at Tampere University of technology, will be Visiting Professor in the Mobile Life Centre during 2011. The visit is made possible through Nokia Foundation Visiting Professor Grant.

Meet us at NordiCHI 2010!

Saturday Oct 16th
The 2nd int'l workshop on Designing robotic artefacts with user- and experience centred perspectives, organized by Ylva Ferneaus, Mattias Jacobsson, Sara Ljungblad, Alex Taylor.
Monday Oct 18th
Full paper, Design Qualities for Whole Body interaction-Learning from Golf, Skateboarding and BodyBugging, Jakob Tholander and Carolina Johansson.
Full paper. Transfeering Qualities from Horseback Riding to Design. Kristina Höök.
Tuesday Oct 19th
Full paper. Temporal Relations in Affective Health. Kosmack Vaara, E. Silvăşan, I., Ståhl, A., Höök, K.
Short paper. Blue-Sky and Down-to-Earth: How analogous practices can support the user-centred design proces. Ljungblad, S. and Heyer.
Wednesday Oct 20th
Full paper. How to Stay in the Emotionall Rollercoaster: Lessons Learnt from Designing EmRoll. Farnaz Zangouei, Mohammad Ali Babazadeh Gashti, Kristina Höök, Tim Tijs.

Robots as our future companions?

32 robot researchers met up at Mobile Life Centre and SICS to discuss their current research on how people can live with robots and interactive agents in the future. The meeting is held within the EU project LIREC (Living with Robots and Interactive Companions), a collaboration between six universities, two research institutes and two companies spread across 7 European countries. The project also includes experts in etology, studying peoples relations to dogs and how this knowledge can be transferred into robot design.

LIREC EU website: http://lirec.eu/

LIREC Stockholm: http://www.sics.se/projects/lirec

Mattias Jacobsson, Ylva Fernaeus, Henriette Cramer, Lars Erik Holmquist and Sara Ljungblad (WP10 leader) from Mobile Life are contributing to the project. We are conducting studies of robots in naturalistic environments, collaborating with swedish startup robot companies, and are exploring user-centred robotic design.

I'm Your Body! A play, a game or a theatre!

Premier of I'm Your Body on Saturday the 16th in the streets of Husby and Kista. I'm Your Body is a play, a game or a stage designed for mobile phones. I'm your Body is based on the idea of the city as a single body and acts as an "open source institution" or a virtual stage for drama and interaction in the public space. I'm Your Body is developed by the Kista Theatre and Mobile Life Centre in collaboration with the Department of Computer and Systems Sciences at Stockholm University and youth in the Kista area. For more information and contact: jon@mobilelifecentre.org or rebecca.medici@kistateater.com. I'm Your Body will also be presented at the Knitting House at Husby konsthall at 12:00.

Mobile HCI 2011 Hosted by Mobile Life

In 2011, the number one forum for academics and practitioners within the area of mobile human computer interaction, will take place in Stockholm. The conference will be hosted by the Mobile Life VinnExcellence Center in partnership with Nokia, Ericsson, The City of Stockholm and Kista Science City. Read more on our website.

Mobile Life launches 'Traveur' in Uppsala

On Saturday September 11th, Mobile Life and Street Media 7 will open the public trial of their new 'Traveur' service with a demonstration at Kulturnatten in Uppsala. 'Traveur' is a mobile, location-based service and pervasive game that helps street acrobats to find each other and develop their sport. See http://www.traveur.se/ for more information on the project and the Uppsala event.

Oskar Juhlin and Mobile Life at Bokmässan

Oskar Juhlin is invited by Vinnova to present Mobile Life Centre at the annual Bok- and Biblioteksmässa in Göteborg, Friday, September 24th. Ramin Toussi will also be there and demo the Mobile Video Mixer at Forskartorget. Read more about the fair and Forskartorget.

Portrait Catalog at Ung 08

The Portrait Catalog is a mobile phone app that lets you share a picture of yourself with your friends. The twist is that you can only get a picture directly from another person via Bluetooth, so to collect pictures you have to meet people in real life! We will be giving away the Portrait Catalog at the Ung 08 festival, a 5-day event for youths between 13 and 19 organized by the City of Stockholm. Users will also have a chance to get their personal photo taken, and share this through Facebook and become the festival's Most Wanted. To encourage the use of the app we are giving away Sony Ericsson Xperia phones as the prize for the coolest photo and for the best networker - the person who has shared the most photos during the festival! You can find us at Kungsträdgården in Stockholm during August 8 to 14.

Sara Ljungblad will present at TEDxMalaren

Mobile Life researcher Sara Ljungblad gave a presentation at TEDxMälaren on June 15th. The presentation was held Hotell Hellsten, Rådmansgatan, Stockholm. Find out more about this event.

Mobile Life at LOVE 2010 Stockholm

Mobile Life has been at the the LOVE 2010 Stockholm festival and presented The Flower wall, The Lega and the Affective Health in KTH's tent at Skeppsbron. See the interview with Zeynep about the Flower wall (At 7.25 min into the video)

Blogg about The Lega at KTH Passion for Innovation web.

What's the future of your fixed phone?

Oskar Juhlin comments on the future of land line phones at SVT Rapport´s news site.

Kristina Höök at Sweden EXPO 2010

Kristina Höök presented the Affective Health project on May 24th at Expo 2010 in Shanghai. The Spirit of Innovation forum was hosted by VINNOVA . Opening speach was made by the Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf. Also present was the Swedish Deputy Prime Minister Maud Olofsson together with many high representatives from the Swedish industry as well as from Chinese industry.

The presentation can found at Sweden Expo 2010

Spotisquare released

The Mobile 2.0 group has just released Spotisquare, a mobile web app that connects Foursquare venues to Spotify playlists. In short: it adds music to places. Check out spotisquare.mobilelifecentre.org and point your mobile web browser to m.spotisquare.com. With Spotisquare we are exploring the opportunities and limitations of connecting existing mobile services and the challenges of wide distribution in research.

Research in the Large! Workshop at UbiComp 2010

Distribution of mobile applications, including research apps, has been greatly simplified by mobile app stores and markets. This means both huge opportunities and challenges. Mobile Life is organising a workshop on Research in the Large: using app stores, markets and other wide distribution channels in research at UbiComp2010, Sept 26th in Copenhagen. Participate! Submit your work to the workshop and/or the associated special issue for IJMobHCI. Check large.mobilelifecentre.org.

φ² scanner for 4sq released!

Mobile Life's Mobile 2.0 group just released φ² Scanner, an Android app to check-in using barcode stickers to foursquare. Mobile 2.0's φ² project explores different ways of physical check-ins for location-based services and the connection between ‘the visible and virtual’ as part of Mobile 2.0's focus on location-based services. Download the app & generate your own barcodes at phi2.mobilelifecentre.org.

Comments on the success of mobile phone applications in Vetandets Värld/P1

Oskar Juhlin comments on the future of mobile applications in the P1 program called "Appar vinner mark i mobilen" in Vetandets värld the 17th of May

The Annual report is now released...

The Mobile Life Centre has started the second phase of its total ten years grant from VINNOVA. The centre has been evaluated by both the funding agency (VINNOVA) and by the distinguished scientific board. This has brought many more ideas to life on how to strengthen the centre further in society, the research community and with the partners. The collaboration with our partners are strong and will be strengthened further in the upcoming period. We are also very happy that Nokia has joined the centre as a new partner. The results for the third year is collected in the Annual report for April 2009- March 2010 that we hmbly have named ....the next step.

Lars Erik on TV4's "Ekonominyheter" tonight at 18:40!

Lars Erik Holmquist has been interviewed by TV4 "Ekonominyheterna" on the mobile "apps" - services and software for mobile phones. Sweden is a leader in this development because of very good courses in programming and interaction design, mobile phone and a high degree of maturity. In the future it will be obvious that the mobile phone and the "apps" will become even more integrated with the users' social and professional life, and more and more "smart stuff" will be controlled by the mobile phone.

Open seminar: Studying games as second order design

Seminar will be held Wednesday, May 12th

Abstract: Games are usually described either as systems of rules and goals, or as competitive or playful voluntary activities. In this presentation, I will focus on games as second order design objects: designs where a designer sets a stage for an activity, but that the activity - and for that reason also the player experience - is formed by the participants. In a sense, games are always co-created by designers and players, and this makes it very hard to uncover how game design and game experience are related. In this talk, I will focus on a genre where this is particularly apparent, live role-playing games, and bring up examples both of what designers do to construct play frames, as well as of how players contribute to the actual experience.

Bio: Annika Waern is one of the research leaders in Mobile Life and studio director of the Game studio at Interactive Institute. Her research focusses on pervasive games, games that take place in the world outside of the pre-set arena or the computer screen.

Seminar: Designing Digital Artifacts

Abstract: Digital artifact are man-made object that rely on computation to perform their function. From having been expensive and limited to specific settings (like the office computer), digital artifacts are now everywhere and integrated in everyday situations. This has created a whole new class of products, which are different from traditional, non-digital products. I will present a number of digital artifacts that have been designed in my research group, going back almost 15 years, including artifacts for information visualization, personal communication, supporting creativity, and more. Through this history we can derive some important lessons about designing digital artifacts

Bio: Lars Erik Holmquist is manager of the Interaction Design and Innovation Lab at SICS, a research leader at the Mobile Life Centre, and professor in Media Technology at Södertörn University.

Seminar: Playful experiences in the design of interaction

On Wednesday March 24th at 11:00, Mobile Life organises a seminar with Ylva Fernaeus. The seminar is held in Kista Mobile Showcase and lasts approximately one hour.

Abstract: As a leader of the Playful Experiences project at Mobile Life, I will use this seminar to kick off a series of upcoming seminars in which more prominent experts will be invited to present their respective understanding of playful experiences in research and in life.
In this seminar I will start by discussing ”playfulness” as a potential design quality, e.g. in how existing play practices may be used to influence design activities, scenarios and concepts, and how it may shape the core qualities of interaction that a designer may strive for. For this I will make use of personal experiences from past and present research projects, as well as my understanding of playful experiences as a general theme at Mobile Life.

Bio: Ylva Fernaeus is a researcher at SICS and the Mobile Life Centre in Kista, with special interest in the design of casual, mobile and physical interaction. Her PhD work at Stockholm University focused on creative, bodily and social forms of computer programming with children, but after that she has worked primarily with robotic artefacts. Since beginning of 2010, Ylva is leader of the Playful Experiences project at Mobile Life.

Media Innovation Research and Information Session

Learn about Keio University Graduate School of Media Design (Keio Media Design), an epicenter of digital media technology, creative content design, and emerging business research. Keio Meida Deisgn porjects cover key areas of Creative and Cultural Industries such as entertainment computing, internet media, robotics, experience design, mobility design, pop culture, augmented reality, communication design, interacive media, digital cinema and responsive environment.

Speaker: Masa Inakage, Dean and Professor

Friday March 19, 15.30 - 16.00, Forum builiding, Isafjordsgatan 39, Sal C, 4th floor.

Social media on the road – The future of car based computing

On Wednesday February 24th at 11:00, Mobile Life organises a seminar with Oskar Juhlin. The seminar is held in Kista Mobile Showcase and lasts approximately one hour.

Title: Social media on the road – The future of car based computing

Abstract: Oskar presents his forthcoming book which summarizes 7 years of research within the Mobility studio. In the future, everyday life in traffic will be intricately meshed with city life. To-day, motorways, city streets, toll roads, country roads, etc. are places where we spend a considerable amount of time, and where a large number of everyday en-counters between people occur. Any road user’s journey coincides with several, sometimes hundreds or even thousands of other people’s journeys. But these encounters are brief and the interaction is slight. Mobile technologies and services provide us with new possibilities to support drivers and passengers beyond just helping them to reach their destination. We suggest that new
technologies and applications could enhance social interaction in traffic and make life on the road more interesting and meaningful. We provide examples of some innovative applications such as car stereos that share music among drivers; digital games that interact with the landscape passing by outside the car windows, or with passengers in surrounding cars; message systems that allow drivers to help each other; web applications that allow motorcyclists to socialize on the road and more.

Bio: Assoc. prof. Oskar Juhlin is one of four senior leaders in Mobile Life and Co-director of the Mobile Life centre. He is also Studio director for the Mobility studio at Interactive Institute.

Edinburgh Science Festival

Kristina Höök has been invited to give a talk at the Sydney Michaelson Memorial Lecture at the Edinburgh Science Festival. Her lecture is entitled Mind, Mouse and Body.

Presentations at CHI 2010!

We are very happy to have several papers, one note, one work-in-progress and many workshop contributions accepted to the CHI conference this year.

Full papers:

Engström, A, Juhlin, O, Perry, M., Broth M. (2010). Temporal hybridity: Mixing live video footage with instant replay in real time”, . In proceedings of CHI 2010: 28th ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Atlanta, USA, April 2010, ACM Press.

Sundström, P., and Höök, K. (2010). Hand in Hand with the Material: Designing for Suppleness. In proceedings of CHI 2010: 28th ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Atlanta, USA, April 2010, ACM Press.

Weilenmann, A. 2010, Learning to Text: An Interaction-Analytic Study of How Seniors Learn to Enter Text on Mobile Phones. In proceedings of CHI 2010: 28th ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Atlanta, USA, April 2010, ACM Press.

Notes:

Cramer, H., Evers, V., van Slooten, T., Ghijsen, M., an Wielinga, B. (2010) Trying Too Hard? Effects of Mobile Agents’ (Inappropriate) Social Expressiveness on Trust, Affect and Compliance, Note accepted for proceedings of CHI 2010: 28th ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Atlanta, USA, April 2010, ACM Press.

Work in progress:

Jakob Tholander & Carolina Johansson (2010). Bodies, boards, clubs and bugs: A study of bodily engaging artefacts. In CHI 2010 Extended Abstracts, Work-in-progress, 28th ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Atlanta, USA, April 2010, ACM Press.

Workshops:

Cramer, H., Belloni, N., and Rost, M. (2010) On not being a stranger. Making sense of the sociable media landscape, Accepted to the workshop Social Connectedness to be held at CHI, Atlanta, USA, April 2010.

Holmquist, L.E., Ju, W., Jonsson. M., Tholander, J., Ahmet, Z., Saiful, S.I., Acholonu, U., Winograd, T. (2010). Wii Science: Teaching the laws of nature with physically engaging video game technologies. Accepted to the workshop Video Games as Research Instruments to be held at CHI, Atlanta, USA, April 2010.

Höök, K., Sundström, P., Tholander, J., Ferreira, P., Ståhl, A., Laaksolahti, J., Kosmack Vaara, E., Karlsson, A., Sanches, P., Johansson, C., Sjölinder, M., Weymann, C., and Jaensson, T. (2010) Design Processes for Bodily Interaction? Accepted to the workshop Artifacts in Design: Representation, Ideation, and Process to be held at CHI, Atlanta, USA, April 2010.

Mentis, H. (2010) Complimenting Informatization: Engaging Socio-affective Practices in Healthcare Information Technology, Accepted to the workshop on Interactive Systems in Healthcare (WISH), held in conjunction with the CHI conference in Atlanta, USA, April 2010.

Sanches, P., Vaara, E., Sjölinder, M., Weymann, C. and Höök, K. (2010). Affective Health – designing for empowerment rather than stress diagnosis, To be presented at the Know thyself: monitoring and reflecting on facets of one's life workshop at CHI 2010, Atlanta, GA, USA.

Tholander, J and Jaensson, T, (2010). Taking an Ethnography of Bodily Experiences into Design – analytical and methodological challenges, Accepted to the workshop Artifacts in Design: Representation, Ideation, and Process to be held at CHI, Atlanta, USA, April 2010.

Tholander; J & Johansson, C., (2010). Bodies, boards, clubs and bugs: A study of bodily engaging artifacts, Accepted to the workshop Whole-Body Interaction to be held at CHI, Atlanta, USA, April 2010.

Microstudies of mobile technology in use

On Wednesday February 17th at 11:00, Mobile Life organises a seminar with Alexandra Weilenmann. The seminar is held in Kista Mobile Showcase and lasts approximately one hour.

Abstract: In this talk, I want to take the opportunity to introduce myself as a new visiting member of Mobile Life. This will be done by first drawing a background to the type of micro-oriented sociological studies of mobile-technology-in-use I’ve been doing for the past ten years. Second, I will provide a few examples of this type of research, including my work on positioning practices in mobile phone calls as well as examples of the struggles senior users face when learning to do text messaging. Third, I will end with a brief description of my current project Mobile services for interaction, communication and learning, hoping to open up for your input and collaboration possibilities.

Bio: Weilenmann holds a PhD in informatics, and is Associate Professor in Applied Information Technology. She is employed at the Department of Applied Information Technology, University of Gothenburg/Chalmers. During 2010-2013 Weilenmann is working as a VinnMer Fellow with a research grant from Vinnova (Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems). The project is titled Mobile services for interaction, communication and learning and involves partners Mobile Life VinnExellence Center and The Linnaeus Center for Research on Learning, Interaction and Mediated Communication in Contemporary Society (LinCS).

Panel at EasyFairs in Kista

”Future Watch”

On the 16th of February, Kristina Höök will participate in a panel at EasyFairs under the title ”Future Watch”. Starting from the artefacts we use to communicate - mobiles, computers, handhelds, home video stations - we discuss the next step: what will these artefacts look like in five years time? What will we want to have at home? At work? In school? How will this affect our ways of working and our social lives?

Johan Hallsenius Moderator, Computer Sweden

Panelists:

Kristina Höök, Professor in Human-Machine Interaction at Stockholms University

Marta Sandén, Editor, Sandén Publishing AB

Morris Packer, CTO, TV4, Expressen, Mobilab AB

Erik Hörnfeldt, Head of information and PR, Tre

Fredrik Bernsel, Business manager, Online, IDG

More info.

Artefacts in Design Processes for Bodily Interaction?

On Wednesday February 3rd at 11:00, Mobile Life organises a seminar with Kristina Höök. The seminar is held in Kista Mobile Showcase and lasts approximately one hour.

Title: Artefacts in Design Processes for Bodily Interaction?

Abstract: Designing interactive systems that have illusive interaction qualities, such as suppleness or pliability, is challenging. In several design projects aiming for bodily and emotional interaction, we have aimed to find concepts, methods or processes that can capture the essence of the sought experience and steer the design process in a successful and efficient direction. Our attempts include using e.g. Laban-analysis of emotionally-oriented movement, video-cards from ethnographic studies of users in movement, or simply explicitly naming and defining the sought interaction quality. Our experiences point to the importance of moving from low-fi prototyping to high-fi – no matter which artefact is used to keep the design team on track. Repeatedly exposing unfinished prototypes not only to prospective end-users, but also to the whole design team has been another important part of our process. Finally, a deeper understanding of emotional and bodily interaction processes based on non-interactive as well as interactive systems is badly needed.

Bio: Kristina Höök is a professor in Human-Machine Interaction at Stockholm University, and upholds a parttime position at SICS. She currently leads the Mobile Life centre. Her research centers around designing for social, emotional and bodily interaction.

Bluetooth as a Design Medium

On Wednesday February 27th at 11:00, Mobile Life organises a seminar with Petra Sundström. The seminar is held in Kista Mobile Showcase and lasts approximately one hour.

Abstract: In this talk I will report on a project in which we purposefully set out to investigate what exposing and experimenting with a technology’s properties might achieve. We wanted to investigate how the explicit attempt to open up a technology, exposing its properties, might shape the directions a design follows. The technology, Bluetooth, was chosen for a number of reasons. Broadly, we were attracted to the ubiquity of Bluetooth and its status as a standard for wireless, short-range data communication. We felt this status provided us with a technology that is often seen as a closed system or black box with numerous taken for granted properties. Again, the intention was not to solve a specific problem using Bluetooth or to achieve some predefined endpoint. It was rather to see whether a focused investigation into Bluetooth, as a design medium, might open us up to anything different and/or unexpected. Results from this work is a detailed description of some of the properties of Bluetooth and a number of examples and implemented sketches of inspirational design ideas.

Bio: Petra is a senior Phd student at the Mobile Life Centre and at Stockholm University and SICS. She is this coming spring about to write up her thesis on Affective Interaction, gestures and body movement with a special focus on the design process. In this talk she will present work she conducted with Alex Taylor and Kenton O'Hara during her 3 month Internship at Microsoft Research in Cambridge last Autumn.

Successful demo of the Instant Broadcasting System at Siggraph Asia

The demo at SIGGRAPH Asia in Yokohama attracted lots of attention from the visitors. There were lots of smiles and revisits to our both. For a mobile video displaying our set up please visit this site.

'Designing for Crowds’ workshop@ Pervasive 2010

The workshop "Designing for crowds" has been accepted to Pervasive 2010 in Helsinki, Finland 17th to 20th May.

Crowds often may be formed by groups of people with some level of shared sense, purpose and togetherness. In the workshop, whilst being wary of attempting to define ‘crowds’, we will seek to explore the challenges unique to crowds through examining a range of different types and forms of crowds, such as groups of sports fans, crowds gathering around performers or public displays, or crowds at festivals and musical events. We note that even with more well-researched technologies, such as large interactive screens, there remain few empirical studies of how actual user practices and interaction in such crowd settings takes place. As such the focus of our workshop will attempt to redress this lack of studies within the domain.

Submissions: Designing for crowds website

Organisers: Stuart Reeves and Scott Sherwood, Dep of Computing Science, University of Glasgow, Oskar Juhlin Mobile Life Centre Stockholm, Kenton O´Hara Microsoft Research Cambridge

Talk at Swedish Newspaper Association

Arvid Engström held a talk at the Swedish Newspaper Association’s industry days on October 2nd. The talk, titled “Creating meaningful services for a mobile life” was a part of a half day seminar on innovation, content, users and business models for mobile services for the newspaper industry.

Mobile Life at Mobilmässan November 5

Mobile Life will demo Mobile 2.0 and Affective Health during the Mobile exhibition on November 5th in Kista Science Tower.

Check out some of the demos from Mobilmässan

Professor Kristina Höök, the centre director, is a member of the jury for this year's "Guldmobiler" award that will be presented at the glittering dinner, Mobilgalan. Kristina will also talk during the day at the conference.

Design for all and design for me

Seminar with Charlotte Magnusson and Bodil Jönsson from CERTEC.

The seminar will be held on Wednesday November 4th in Kista Mobile Showcase in Kista Science City.

Abstract: Our interactions with artefacts (man-made objects) affect us in almost all situations. Distributed memory, distributed cognition and distributed reminders have become features of everyday life for most of us (even if we do not always think about it). Developers of technology for special users and special situations have to work close to reality – which means that many methods and approaches to such problems often closely resemble the ones that apply to mobile technology. We present methods and concrete examples of what one can learn by going outside of the mainstream and working with both “design for all” and “design for me”.

Bio: The seminar will be held by Charlotte Magnusson along with Bodil Jönsson, Per-Olof Hedvall, Håkan Eftring and Björn Breidegard from Certec, Department of Design Sciences, Faculty of Engineering, Lund University. Certec is the Division of Rehabilitation Engineering Research (http://www.certec.lth.se). The explicit purpose of our research and education is for people with disabilities to achieve better opportunities through useworthy technology, new design concepts and new individualized forms of learning and searching. Our efforts begin and end with the individual, while the process and results are often genuinely technical in nature.

From Malinowski to Second Life: An Introduction to Digital Anthropology

Seminar with Paula Uimonen, Thursday October 15th at 11:00, in Kista Mobile & Mulitmedia Showcase, Kista Science Tower.

Abstract: Digital anthropology focuses on the development and use of digital media and communication technologies in different social and cultural contexts. It is an emerging sub-discipline in anthropology, combining anthropological theories with ethnographic methods, based on fieldwork on- and offline. This seminar gives an introduction to digital anthropology, with examples of studies carried out in different parts of the world and in virtual environments.

Bio: Dr Paula Uimonen is specialized in digital anthropology. Her dissertation, published in 2001, was the first book to provide a comparative, empirical study
of Internet development in the developing world, based on multi-sited fieldwork in Southeast Asia and cyberspace. Her current research project focuses on Internet, culture and identity, based on fieldwork at an Arts College in Tanzania. Dr Uimonen teaches courses in digital anthropology, professional roles for anthropologists, and visual culture.

Welcome!

Annika Waern, seminar organizer

Seminar with Johan Lundin

Title of seminar: Students' digitalization of higher education

Abstract:
The seminar will build on a previous study of the inclusion of mobile phones, wikis and laptops in higher educational settings. We see a number of changes in what technology might be, and might be used for, and the effects and possible effects that this might have on higher education. In short these changes have made different kinds of computers omnipresent and networked in many higher education settings, with or without the liking of educators. Students have, and are expected to have access to computers. They are also expected to be able to use their computers in a competent way – at least relative to being a student. Hopefully I will also be able to present video data from students laptop use in classrooms, from an ongoing developement project focusing how students private technologies are integrated into higher education.

Bio: Johan Lundin's research interests focus the use and design of mobile technology and services, and learning in work and everyday practice. In particular he is interested in how mobile technology plays a part in learning in everyday life and work. His research have been conducted in close cooperations with Ericsson, Volvo IT, SAAB GM, and ADB-kontoret i Göteborg. He holds a Ph.D. in informatics (2005) from University of Gothenburg. In 2007 he was appointed as one of the senior members in LinCS excellence center financed by the Swedish Research Council. In 2008 he was asked to work as a coordinator of the new university wide initiative on interactive learning - using IT and pedagogical methods to explore and enhance the possibilities for learning at University of Gothenburg. Johan is currently employed as a guest lecturer at University of Gothenburg and as research project manager at University West.

Welcome!

Annika Waern, seminar organizer

Job opening for two researchers at the Mobile Life VinnExcellence Center in Stockholm, Sweden

We are looking for two talented researchers with an interest in interdisciplinary design oriented research. The research focus of the Mobile Life centre takes as a starting point people’s increasing mobility and the continuously improving technologies of mobile computing. These systems can be used to make mobile life more meaningful and interesting, yet present new challenges for understanding current practices. The focus for the mobility group within mobile life is currently the collaboratively producing and editing live video from mobile phones, as well as professional and amateur interfaces to interact with future immersive and ultra-high resolution video panorama. The two open positions are for a technical lead, and a social science lead:

Profile 1. Engineering and computer science background

You should have an experience of application development within the mobile sector or within media technology more broadly. You should have a high level of development skills for mobile systems (e.g. C++, Symbian or Objective C, iPhone) and have relevant academic skills to the masters level and be motivated to do academic research. Evidence in terms of existing publications and systems you have developed are key qualifications.

Profile 2. Social science background

Our design oriented research utilizes social science methods, and in particular ethnographic methods, to influence design of new applications. You will engage in studies of social properties of mobile leisure in general, and ethnographic studies of sport pub attendants; professional TV production, as well as video content analysis in particular. You should have evidence of your ability to organize, conduct and publish on your ethnographic research. Experience working in design orientated teams is particularly desirable. You should have PhD or equivalent qualification in a relevant discipline. A focus on practice orientated ethnographic work - ethnomethodological, conversational analytic or video analysis would be a plus. You will be employed by Interactive Institute in Stockholm. The interactive institute is an 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 Nokia Research, Ericsson Research, SonyEricsson, Microsoft Research, TeliaSonera and the City of Stockholm.

Application deadline and appointment: Open

More info on the research group (the Mobility studio)

More info on the morevideo!-project

Contact person: Oskar Juhlin oskarj@tii.se

Collaborative Live Streaming from UNG08 with Instant Broadcasting System

We stream mobile video from multiple sources during the UNG08 youth festival in Kungsträdgården Stockholm. A Dutch and Swedish team of young camera men and a vision mixer from Kulturskolan provides two daily live broad casts in between 12.45 and 14.30.This is the first large scale test of Instant Broadcasting System in front of a large crowd! The live broadcasts can be followed here.

Mobile Glasnost panel on YouTube

For those who missed the Mobile Life Open House, the panel on Mobile Glasnost is now available on YouTube - click here to see the first part! The panel was moderated by Lars Erik Holmquist of Mobile Life and featuring Martin Vendel (Squace), Troed Sångberg (Sony Ericsson), Martin Körling (Ericsson) and Johan Wickman (TeliaSonera). The panelists talked about the new openness in mobile services and networks, and discussed future business models and trends. The movie is split into several parts with each following segment posted as a response to the previous. Thanks to Bo Larsson for filming the panel!

Mobile Life is being refurbished

We are looking forward to lots of more space in August 2009. Until then - enter at your own risk!

Dr Liselott Brunnberg gets 2 year Post Doc from the Swedish Research Council

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.

Dr Alexandra Weilenmann gets Post Doc from Vinnova

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.

Talk at the European Location Based Entertainment Summit

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.

The Rise of a Ludic Society

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.

Maria Håkansson on Swedish Radio

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:

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

Kristina Höök at KVIT in Linköping

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.

Josefin Karlsson - a new member in the Centre

We welcome Josefin as a new member in the Mobile Life Centre. She has a recent exam from KTH in media technology, which will be useful when working in the morevideo!-project with the planning of two broad cast productions with the City of Stockholm, as well as with research in the project.

Postdoc Positions Available

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

Presentations and party at CHI 2009

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.

300 visitors at Mobile Life's Open House

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.

Succesful defence of Ph.D. thesis

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.

Open job position in the morevideo! project

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

Mobile Life Open House

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!