News Feed & Press Releases
2013-05-10
Affective Health and Metaphone in "Spanarna" P1
Affective Health and Metaphone (Vegas Simbelis and Anders Lundström in particular) were mentioned in a program named "Spanarna" on national Swedish radio, P1. Trend spotting by Per Norskin talks about the project In a positive, but slightly jokey sense. 25:13 minutes into the program.
2013-04-13
Opportunity for Master Thesis with Affective Health group
Opportunity for Master Thesis with Affective Health group at Mobile Life Centre, part of Swedish Institute of Computer Science. The Affective Health system identifies basic bodily reactions of short term stress; skin-conductance and movement, and mirrors this data back to the users on their mobile phones. This works both in real-time, enabling a biofeedback loop, and over time creating a pattern for everyday reflection. The next step in the project is to further explore the design space where wearable biofeedback system could encourage somatic awareness, non-dualism and empowerment not only for one single user but for society as a whole. We want to explore the design space and find out what is important when mirroring ones bodily experiences by testing different representations such as audio & visual applications through biosensors. The goal of the Master thesis is to develop visualization of biofeedback data on Android devices and collaborative approaches to deal with stress. Applicants should preferably demonstrate a portfolio, and will be required to perform a small design exercise to demonstrate skills in creative visualization and interaction design . Android development experience is a plus. Application Procedure: Please send in your application to Johanna (johmerc@sics.se) with subject line “Affective Health Thesis”.
2013-04-12
"This is where you want to work"
"If I was 25 again I would have been attracted to work at the Mobile Life Centre in Kista". This is what Helene Ahlbom, journalist at Ny Teknik, writes in her article about Mobile Life.
2013-04-10
Book tip of the week!
The Plei-Plei book is at display as this weeks book to read at Ziggy Creative Colony @ziggycc
2013-04-02
Swedish Fashion: the Design Heritage to New Fashion System
Celia Zhang has been selected as a contributor for one of the biggest fashion trend websites in China: Fashion trend digest. She has published an article on the website. It was written in Chinese. The abstract is as follows: This article presents the influence of industrial design to fashion in Sweden and the fashion system established to promote fashion as a nation image to outside. First, I introduce the heritage from industrial design in Sweden, such as simplicity, clean and functionality etc. and how these features are applied in fashion design. Second, I present the current situation of Swedish fashion industry, including types of companies and their business strategies. Sweden is a new place where cool and edgy fashion is generated. Last but not the least, I analyze the fashion system in Sweden, i.e. the institutions that transform clothing into fashion and promote fashion industry, such as government supported organizations, fashion weeks, prizes funded by large companies and fashion media etc.. In conclusion, modern Swedish fashion is influenced by the design heritage and promoted by certain institutions. The country has established an image of 'fashion' instead of a place for making clothes.
2013-03-23
Mobile Life in TV4 News
This is a short video from TV4 News portraying professor Kristina Höök talking about why Mobile Life is an important research centre. And why we need to focus on the "good life" when researching and designing for the future mobile life using Internet of Things technologies.
2013-03-20
Petra Sundström about the Internet of Things center
Petra Sundström and Protothon, partner in the newly established Consumer oriented Internet of Things Centre in dialogue: Sweden's land size is huge: it's length is further than London to Barcelona. It's people are few: the population is only marginally larger than that of Greater London. But for a relatively small crowd the Swedes' innovation output is extreme. H&M, IKEA are arguably the biggest exports but the entire world's engineering infrastructure is cornerstoned by Scandinavian design. Spotify, Skype, Soundcloud, Electolux and Ericsson for internet starters. So where better to take our hovercraft of Lab-based inspiration than the very heart of it's pioneering tech R&D: the spanking new Internet of Things Centre. We got together with Petra Sundström, leader of IOT Centre, to find out more. Follow the link for the complete article.
2013-03-15
Mattias Rost successfully defended his thesis
Mobility is the message At the heart of modern technology is its use for communication. One key example of this is social media sharing - on Twitter, Facebook, Youtube etc. We share media in many different ways both on the web and on mobile phones, but there are few ways of sharing media with people physically near us. Media sharing is something still tied to the way media is shared through computers. Although often mobile, they do not consider the mobile settings. The thesis explores new mobile media sharing applications by building, deploying, and studying their use.
2013-02-21
Armbandet kan känna hur uppe i varv du är
Johanna Mercurio talks about the Affective Health system in the Swedish Radio, Tekniksafari for p1. The focus of the program is what happens technology meets the body. The interview is in Swedish.
2013-02-21
Mobilelife at DAC
The "Metaphone project" (http://www.simbelis.com/project/metaphone/) is now starting: MobileLife researchers Vegas Simbelis and Elsa Kosmack Vaara at DAC (http://www.digitalartcenter.se/). During next couple of weeks, user studies, experiments and a public show will take place. Date and time is soon to be displayed.
2013-02-14
Lär dig lyssna till din kropp
Kristina Höök, Johanna Mercurio and Anna Ståhl talk about the Affective Health system in the newspapers NyTeknik and Forskning&Framsteg.
The reporter Helen Ahlbom from NyTeknik tries the app herself and also talks to the elite athlete Peter Öberg about his experiences from wearing the system. Forskning&Framsteg created their own full page image of how the system works.
Both articles are in Swedish.
2013-01-16
"We must retain the playfulness to create innovations"
So says Jin Moen, CEO of the small start-up Movinto Fun, now entering as a new partner in the Mobile Life Centre. Jin has degree in engineering from Royal Institute of Technologoy (KTH) and dance teacher from the College of Dance, and she combines the two skills in the company. During her PhD, she developed the research prototype BodyBug, which is the base of the company's product Oriboo.
- I have already collaborated with researchers at the Mobile Life Centre in a project financed by VINNOVA's program Take Time IT in spring 2010, says Jin Moen. The idea was to develop dance games based on social interactions. The collaboration also included the dance school Stepz.
Jin is now focusing on developing new games for Oriboo a patented motion-based and handheld game console with software that can be downloaded from the web. The product is expected to be in stores this summer, but can be booked online already now. Movinto Fun joines the Mobile Life Centre as a partner - something that Jin sees as a natural step from previous collaboration.
- It seems natural - we are a bit in the "same industry". We deal with both mobility and what creates joy, happiness and contentment in everyday life, says Jin.
The partnership provides an opportunity to work closely with other scientists and to work more interdisciplinary. Jin to calculates that this will bring ideas for developing new products. And she looks forward to working with both scientists and industry representatives. What Movinto Fun can bring to the Mobile Life Centre is the experience of commercialising products.
- It will be fun to be involved in developing consumer electronics that is not only "useful" but brings joy. We must retain the playfulness to create innovations, says Jin Moen.
2012-12-11
Vinnova grant to Mobile Life project
Mobile Life, Silva AB and the Swedish Federation of Orienteering have received a grant from Vinnova to work with lead users, innovation and design. Orienteering is a sport which is well ahead in using technology for training, competition, and spectators, and within the orienteering community there are a lot of user created technical solutions. In this project we will combine the expertise and engagement from the orienteering community, our lead users, with the design and innovation expertise from Mobile Life and the product development expertise of Silva AB. We will develop a prototype application for running and through that process establish structures for industry and lead users to work creatively together.
2012-12-10
Mobile Life seminar with Sara Ljungblad
TITLE: Sharing office, sharing bikes: My research experience at a design firm.
Mobile Life organises a seminar with Sara Ljungblad on Monday December 10th at 14:00. The seminar will be held at SICS, Isafjordsgatan 22/Kistagången 16, elevator B, floor 6. The seminar will last for an hour.