Wall_Fold: The Space Between 0 and 1 Ruth Ron archi-TECH-ture

The installation analyzes the personal space in the contemporary reality of portable computing and wireless communication. It conveys a more sensitive and complex environment than the typical modernist white cube. The physical sculpture tries to generate an ambiguous spatial condition: smooth and flexible folds between inside and outside, open and close. The space thus becomes continuous and dynamic. I use six pairs of servomotors connected by flexible bands to create a smooth surface. The motors alternate between two positions (0°, 180°), stretching the binary ON/ OFF positions into a continuous transition, a whole grayscale or gradient between 1 and 0.

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Fluidtime: Developing a Ubiquitous Real-time Information System Michael Kieslinger Interaction Design Institute Ivrea

Increasingly, people live and work with a new set of habits regarding time, such as the increased use of the mobile phone to quickly schedule or change appointments. However, aside from the phone, few tools or services exist that support this new way of life, especially when people interact with public or private services. We present the Fluidtime interface objects that support flexible planning by providing people with personalized, accurate time-based information directly from the real-time databases of the services they are seeking. UbiComp attendees will see a collection of both physical and screen-based interfaces that are connected to the real-time information server. Visitors will be able to interact with the applications running on the mobile phone as well as the physical interfaces.

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Living Sculpture Yves Amu Klein and Michael Hudson Lorax Works

The eight-legged Octofungi, a 12-inch-tall sculpture of colored polyurethane, micro glass beads, and natural fibers. Driven by a neural network, Octofungi moves its legs in graceful patterns somewhat resembling the movements of a sea anemone. Octofungi has eight legs and eight eyes and lives on a pedestal in a museum’s gallery or collectors favorite spot. Viewers interact with Octofungi by waving their hands over its eyes. Octofungi reacts to viewers by moving its body based on its interpretation of the viewer's actions. Octofungi is a reactive piece, which uses a neural network to exhibit different behavioral patterns. It is sensitive to changes in light and reacts upon these changes. To interact with the sculpture, a person only needs to move his hands above the eight light sensors placed around the brain frame. Depending on the interaction of the participant, Octofungi will manifest different behaviors.

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AuraLamp: Contextual Speech Recognition in an Eye Contact Sensing Light Appliance Aadil Mamuji, Roel Vertegaal, Jeffrey S. Shell, Thanh Pham and Changuk Sohn Human Media Lab, Queen’s University

AuraLamp illustrates gaze and speech enabled EyePliances. More importantly, it demonstrates how contextual speech recognition can be achieved through the use of eye contact sensing technology. By augmenting ubiquitous devices with eye contact sensors, EyePliances can detect and respond to human attention. Such information not only aids the use of deictic references in speech interfaces, but it also provides a significant source of information for determining when devices should communicate with their user. We focus on a prototype light fixture called AuraLamp, which listens and reacts to voice commands only if a person is looking at it. As such, users will be able experience AuraLamp by giving it voice commands, such as “Turn On” and “Turn Off”. The reaction of the AuraLamp to spoken commands will be executed if the user is looking at the EyePliance.

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Networking Pets and People Dan Mikesell Interactive Telecommunications Program, New York University

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Picture of Health: Photography Use in Diabetes Self-Care Jeana Frost1 and Brian K Smith2 1The Media Laboratory, MIT, 2School of Information Sciences and Technology, College of Education, The Pennsylvania State University

Physicians and nutritionists often prescribe behavioral change such as healthy eating and regular exercise to patients with diabetes without an understanding of the reality of the individual's life. As a window into the patient's experience, we propose a new type of health record, photography. Diabetics shoot pictures of their daily actions such as eating, exercise, and socializing. Software tools synchronize the images with concurrent blood sugar data. Diabetics review and critique their health practices by examining these records in diabetes education settings or with health care providers. In this demonstration we present results from previous studies and the interaction envisioned. Interested conferences attendees will be asked to make a photo record of health related activity. Participants will shoot pictures of meals, meal companions, moments before big talks, social events etc. The images will be used to create personalized timelines of the conference for review.

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Squeeze Me: A Portable Biofeedback Device for Children Amy Parness, Ed Guttman and Christine Brumback Interactive Telecommunications Program, New York University

Children undergoing extended medical treatment for chronic or other conditions often experience stress prior to or during the treatment. SqueezeMe is a therapeutic toy that uses biofeedback techniques to aid in stress reduction and body-awareness. Children touch SqueezeMe to get an initial indication of their skin temperature, displayed using colored LEDs according to the sensor's reading: red = high, yellow = a little high, green = normal, blue = below normal. The child can then squeeze the starfish-shaped squishy toy to see light patterns that guide them through breathing and relaxation exercises. A gentle squeeze of one of the starfish legs starts a sequence of dimming and brightening of the LEDs that corresponds to sixty seconds of normal breathing. If the child's squeeze gets harder, the LEDs shift to a starburst pattern to remind the user to relax and concentrate on the breathing. Other LED pattern breathing exercises could potentially be found in the other starfish legs, and the LEDs in the legs could guide the child through a series of exercises.

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Platypus Amoeba Ariel Churi and Vivian Lin Interactive Telecommunications Program, New York University

As users approach the Platypus Amoeba they see a strange glowing creature. A translucent white blob with two glowing eyes, the Platy looks like the helpless baby of an alien creature. Platypus Amoeba emits small noises and a faint glow until a hand is moved over the soft skin and Platy gives a pleasant coo. Petting Platy has made it happy. What will more petting do? Perhaps you excite Platy and are rewarded with a display of colors or maybe it is displeased and truculent. Platy's reactions give you information as you use petting to interface with Platy and understand how Platy wants to be petted.

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Mobile Capture and Access for Assessing Language and Social Development in Children with Autism David Randall White 1, José Antonio Camacho-Guerrero2, Khai N. Truong1, Gregory D. Abowd1, Michael J. Morrier3, Pooja C. Vekaria3, and Diana Gromala1 1GVU Center, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2Instituto de Ciencias Matematicas e de Computacao, Universidade de Sao Paulo, 3Emory Autism Center, Emory University School of Medicine

We present a mobile device that allows researchers to record video of children with autism in preschool classrooms. While capturing the video with a head-mounted bullet camera, researchers also enter behavioral data on a Tablet PC–based application that synchronizes those data and the video for later access by teachers, parents, and research administrators. This application is intended to facilitate the assessment of how the children’s language and social skills are developing. Attendees will see the presenter wearing the harness that houses our system: the Tablet PC, camera and headphone, and the camera’s external controller and battery. The presenter will explain the system’s use and demonstrate it by observing the audience and recording simulated behavioral data. The audience can see the interaction on an external display. After the data are captured, the presenter will demonstrate the access interface, which shows both the video and visualizations of the synchronized data.

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Wishing Well Demonstration Tim Brooke and Margaret Morris Intel Corporation

The "wishing well" concept described in this paper is one component of a larger life-span mapping concept that encourages ideation about the future. Users select images that they find appealing and associate them with "wishing stones". Through a sequence of selections, the user develops a collection of images that represent the mood or spirit of particular desires and aspirations. These stones can then be used to discuss and reflect on desires, dreams and wishes for the future.

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The Narrator: A Daily Activity Summarizer Using Simple Sensors in an Instrumented Environment Daniel Wilson1 and Christopher Atkeson1,2 1Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, 2Human Computer Interaction, Carnegie Mellon University

Ever felt as though you were living in a movie? The Narrator system uses information provided by an underlying tracker to generate English summaries of daily movement activity in the home. This service, called automatic monitoring, can help people with disabilities or the elderly to live independently by providing day-to-day activity summaries to physicians and family. As participants wander through a series of instrumented spaces they can listen as a text-to-speech (TTS) software narrates their progress out loud, in real-time. The tracker consists of a discrete state Bayes filter and associated models that use information gathered from binary sensors, such as motion detectors and presure mats, to provide low-cost automatic tracking.

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The Location Stack: Multi-sensor Fusion in Action Jeffrey Hightower and Gaetano Borriello Dep’t of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Washington and Intel Research Seattle

This Location Stack demonstration gives participants the opportunity to experience multisensor location sensing. Participants are invited to don tracking badges and watch a projected visualization of the real-time probabilistic estimates of all participants’ locations. For this demonstration, the sensors in use are RFID detectors and ultrasonic ranging badges. The Location Stack uses Bayesian filtering estimation techniques such as adaptive particle filtering to fuse measurements from multiple sensor technologies. Our implementation is publicly available and supports many common sensor technologies.

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WiFisense™: The Wearable Wireless Network Detector Milena Iossifova and Ahmi Wolf Interactive Telecommunications Program, New York University

WiFisense is a wearable scanner for 802.11 wireless networks (WiFi) embedded in a handbag. Using emerging technology, in an everyday functional object, we create a device that helps people discover and qualify the wireless networks through which they pass. On a regular walk through the city you pass through many wireless networks. Some of these networks are open and available for anyone to use. As someone on the go, with a mobile lifestyle and a laptop, it could be useful to know when you are in the presence of such networks. WiFisense scans for WiFi networks wherever you go. It detects their signal strength, and whether they are password protected or not. Upon discovery, WiFisense uses patterns of 64 embedded LEDs to announce their availability, quality and accessibility.

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M-Views: A System for Location-Based Storytelling David Crow, Pengkai Pan, Lilly Kam and Glorianna Davenport Media Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

M-Views immerses users in a narrative experience by employing location awareness to control the flow of the story. The system delivers different media clips to a handheld device depending on user location and context. UbiComp attendees will be allowed to borrow a PocketPC in order to experience our latest location-based movie, 15 Minutes. Attendees may also elect to collaborate/IM with each other or even play through the story again to get a different ending. The whole experience should, in fact, take about 15 minutes.

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Place Lab’s First Step: A Location-Enhanced Conference Guide Anthony LaMarca1, Bill N. Schilit1, David McDonald3,William G. Griswold4, Gaetano Borriello1,2 1Intel Research Seattle, 2Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Washington, 3Information School, University of Washington, 4Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering, UC San Diego

This demonstration explores how people’s existing notebook computers, the WiFi access points in a city, a carefully selected cache of web pages (in this case interesting photos, factoids, and opinions) and some software glue can be combined to provide a location-enhanced conference companion. We imagine an interaction experience similar to web browsing on WiFi equipped notebook computers. When the user points their browser at the local conference companion home page, a process detects nearby WiFi APs, calculates a rough estimate of the user’s position, and creates a page with proximate content – all locally without communicating with infrastructure services. A sample page from the Conference companion with a map showing hotspot positions along with a grid of nearby sights is shown above. Each of these cells is active and leads to more information. This application demonstrates the first version of Place Lab’s client-based positioning software that makes a private and global location-enhanced overlay for the web accessible from any WiFi computer.

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Tejp: Ubiquitous Computing as Expressive Means of Personalising Public Space Margot Jacobs1, Lalya Gaye2, Lars Erik Holmquist2 1Play Studio, Interactive Institute, 2Future Applications Lab, Viktoria Institute

Tejp is Swedish for tape and is pronounced [tape]. This project explores the potential of ubiquitous computing as an expressive means of personalising public space. It consists of a series of experiments in which users deploy open low-tech prototypes in urban settings. The prototypes allow people to layer personal information and meaning in public space by parasiting the physical environment. Focusing the experiments on the aspect of physical interaction, we observe how emerging information content and user behaviours are influenced by the characeristics of the prototypes. We will illustrate the concepts of the project with audio-visual materials and present our first two prototypes: {Audio Tags}, which allow for the overlaying of personal audio on located physical structures, and {Glitch}, which reveals invisible networks of mobile phone communication by re-situating a familiar electro-acoustic phenomena into unusual settings.

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AURA: A Mobile Platform for Object and Location Annotation Marc Smith, Duncan Davenport, Howard Hwa Microsoft Research

AURA (the Advanced User Resource Annotation System) enables access to the digital aura that surrounds every machine readable tagged object. By scanning the bar code on any object with a wireless PocketPC, AURA offers access to metadata and by searching on that metadata access to related web content and processes. Users can also author annotations that laminate the object and can be accessed by others using AURA. AURA can be used to browse a bookstore or to catalog your own book collection. AURA supports retail sales and can anchor conversations to location and people.

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UCSD ActiveCampus – Mobile Wireless Technology for Community-Centered Ubiquitous Computing William G. Griswold1, Neil G. Alldrin1, Robert Boyer1, Steven W. Brown1, Timothy J. Foley1, Charles P. Lucas1, Neil J. McCurdy1 and R. Benjamin Shapiro2 1Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of California San Diego, 2Department of Learning Sciences, Northwestern University

The hotel and its vicinity will be “Activated” for the conference, enabling a first-hand demonstration - both at the demo session and throughout the conference - of the potential for mobile wireless computing to “knit together” proximate communities. Attendees will be able to build buddy lists with other attendees, thereafter being able to message them, become aware of their proximity, post and browse graffiti, and see other opportunities emerging at the conference.

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Pulp Computing Tim Kindberg, Rakhi Rajani, Mirjana Spasojevic, Ella Tallyn Mobile and Media Systems Lab, Hewlett-Packard Labs

The Pulp Computing project at HP Labs is investigating the integration of paper artifacts into personal and inter-personal computing environments. We will demonstrate portable paper interfaces to media collections, and active photos that allow users to add and see/hear electronic annotations made to objects in printed photos. We will invite visitors to the demonstration to create their own active photos as a record of the conference.

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Facilitating Argument in Physical Space Mark Stringer, Jennifer A. Rhode, Alan F. Blackwell and Eleanor F. Toye Computer Laboratory, University of Cambridge

Webkit is an application which uses a combination of tangible and graphical user interfaces to facilitate the construction of persuasive and discursive arguments. Participants will be asked to participate in a debate on a topic of interest to ubiquitous computing research – “Will Ubiquitous Computing Replace Paper?” Participants will either be asked to support the idea that UbiComp will replace paper, to attack the idea that UbiComp will replace paper or to provide a balanced argument taking into account arguments from both sides. To speed things up in a demonstration setting all the reading and research will already have been done for the participants (although they can still use their specialist knowledge). Participants will then order and arrange this research to construct their argument with the help of the tangible user interface. Participants will then deliver a speech based on the argument structure that they have created.

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Palimpsests on Public View: Annotating Community Content with Personal Devices Scott Carter, Elizabeth Churchill, Laurent Denoue, Jonathan Helfman, Paul Murphy, Les Nelson FX Palo Alto Laboratory

The system we will demonstrate allows people to annotate content on interactive, digital bulletin boards located in public places using PDAs. We will select a few UbiComp attendees beforehand to receive a PDA to use while at the conference. When an attendee approaches a display and sees something on the display that interests her, she can use her PDA to access the content on the display and sketch, type or audio record an annotation. Upon submitting the annotation, the system adds it to the others attached to that posting. She can then review other annotations attached to the same posting on her desktop or any other web-enabled device.

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The Proactive Displays & The Experience UbiComp Project Joseph F. McCarthy, David H. Nguyen, Al Mamunur Rashid, Suzanne Soroczak Intel Research Seattle

The proliferation of sensing and display technologies creates opportunities for proactive displays that can sense and respond appropriately to the people and activities taking place in their vicinity. A conference provides an ideal context in which to explore the use of proactive displays, as attendees come together for the purpose of mutual revelation, eager both to learn more about others and what others are doing and to tell others about themselves and what they are doing. We will deploy a suite of proactive display applications that can aid and abet this desire for mutual revelation in the context of a paper presentation session, a demonstration and poster session, and informal break areas (for which a sequence of two images is shown in the picture above) at the conference. Conference attendees will be encouraged to participate by wearing RFID tags in their badge holders throughout the conference and providing information about themselves before and/or during the conference via a special registration page (http://www.proactivedisplays.org/UbiComp/).

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The Personal Server: Personal Content for Situated Displays Trevor Pering, John Light, Murali Sundar, Gillian Hayes, Vijay Raghunathan, Eric Pattison, and Roy Want Intel Research

The Personal Server is a mobile device that allows access to personal digital content through any convenient nearby display. It is designed to overcome the limitations of present-day mobile devices and ubiquitous computing systems, which include difficult to use small-screen displays and network configuration problems. The current research prototype is a small device that easily fits in a pocket; eventually, the Personal Server concept and technology will be incorporated into standard mobile devices, such as cell phones, PDAs, laptops, etc. Applications demonstrated include access to personal content, musical customization and personalization of the surrounding environment, and automatic context gathering. Participants will be able to witness first-hand how possessing a Personal Server device allows them to interact with the environment around them without having to tolerate the inconvenience of a small-screen display. In summary, this prototype system utilizes advances in storage, processing, and communication technologies to develop a vision for the future of ubiquitous computing.

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Anatomy of a Museum Interactive: “Exploring Picasso's 'La Vie' ” Leonard Steinbach and Holly R. Witchey Cleveland Museum of Art

Attendees will be able to use the interactive and discuss it with presenters; a complementary videotape will show the interactive in use in the gallery in which it was placed.

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Ambient Wood: Demonstration of a Digitally Enhanced Field Trip for Schoolchildren Cliff Randell1, Ted Phelps2, Yvonne Rogers2 1Department of Computer Science, University of Bristol, 2School of Cognitive and Computer Science, University of Sussex

If you go down to the woods today ... you may find probing devices, PDAs and a WiFi network to help you understand the ecology of the woodland. This playful learning experience was designed to aid interactive exploration in a natural setting as part of the UK Equator Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration. The Ambient Wood project provided a range of innovative devices and a wireless infrastructure for groups of schoolchildren in Sussex, England, and is being recreated for conference attendees. In this demonstration it will be possible to collect and listen to imaginative sounds representing, for instance, photosynthesis and plant respiration; to probe and automatically log environmental conditions; and use the WiFi network to interact using virtual cards and sounds.

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A Novel Interaction Style for Handheld Devices James Hudson and Alan Parkes Computing Department, Lancaster University

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Extended Sensor Mote Interfaces for Ubiquitous Computing Waylon Brunette1, Adam Rea1, and Gaetano Borriello1,2 1Dep’t of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Washington, 2Intel Research Seattle

As part of our effort to develop a toolkit of personal-area network I/O devices, we created a collection of devices built around UC Berkeley motes. By creating a system of fully reprogrammable I/O devices that share a common programming language and low power communication protocol, developers should be able focus on implementing the desired functionality of the device without having to divert energies to develop the base hardware components. We created an I/O mote (DisplayMote) by adding a 64x128 LCD screen, buttons, buzzer, and an accelerometer. An RFID mote (Mite) was created by adding an RFID reader and antenna. To facilitate connections to the laptops, PDAs, and servers that populate ubiquitous computing environments we created motes with USB and PCMCIA interfaces so the connections could be more plug and play. Conference attendees will be able to experiment with examples of the DisplayMote, Mite, and various other mote interfaces.

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The Ubiquitous Computing Resource Page (ucrp.org) Joseph F. McCarthy1, J.R. Jenkins2 and Dave Hendry2 1Intel Research, 2University of Washington

Ubiquitous Computing is a field of research that is attracting increasing attention in academia, business and the general population. The International Conference on Ubiquitous Computing is an annual event that brings together members of the ubiquitous computing community to exchange ideas and share recent results. However, aside from the conference, and its archival proceedings, there are few dedicated resources that are available for learning more about the history, current state and future prospects for this exciting new field. We are building the Ubiquitous Computing Resource Page (http://www.ucrp.org), which contains a collection of content from a wide variety of online sources, and organizes it along the dimensions of people, projects and organizations involved in this field. The web site will also provide mechanisms for the community to share information about news, events and other activities related to ubiquitous computing. We will be demonstrating this web site to raise awareness about this resource and to collect content and feedback from members of the community during the Demonstration Session at UbiComp 2003.

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Stanford Interactive Workspaces Project Armando Fox Computer Science Department, Stanford University

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Telemurals: Catalytic Connections for Remote Spaces Karrie Karahalios and Judith Donath MIT Media Lab

Telemurals connects two spaces with audio and video. Catalysts are integrated into the communication link to encourage social interaction within and between two public or semi-public places. The video is rendered such that people are seen abstractly. The more they talk, the more photo-realistic the video. Full-duplex audio provides an audio link between the spaces. Another catalyst is a graffiti system that pastes words onto the Telemural through a speech recognizer. We are augmenting the appearance of the familiar audio-video wall interface with stimuli that are initiated at either end of the connection. The wall is intended to be not only a display, but an event in itself.

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Responsive Doors Greg Niemeyer University of California Berkeley

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The Verse-O-Matic James G. Robinson Interactive Telecommunications Program New York University

The Verse-O-Matic is an otherwise ordinary printing calculator designed to solve poetic equations rather than mathematical ones. Instead of a numbered keypad, the device’s keys represent poetic themes, which can be combined to select and print snippets of great poetry. Just as the invention of the electronic calculator made relatively complex mathematics accessible to the masses, a poetry calculator elevates everyday discourse by making verse more easily accessible to all.

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Digital Poetry Modules James G. Robinson Interactive Telecommunications Program, New York University

The social awkwardness that pervades elevators is evident to anyone who has ever shared a ride with an unfamiliar person. The Digital Elevator Poetry project is a system of digital word modules, based on the popular phenomenon of refrigerator magnet poetry, that lessen this discomfort by providing a subtle means of interactive play.

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Box: Open System to Design Your Own Network Victor Vina Interaction Design Institute Ivrea

Box is a modular architecture that supports distributed, self-regulated networks of information products. The system combines a server application, an on-line visual language and a collection of wireless devices to provide an environment where networks combining these devices and digital information can be easily created and maintained. The system allows real-time, collaborative construction of networks of information products across remote locations. The Box system aims to offer an insight into the basic elements that configure information networks, analyzing the implications of using ubiquitous wireless products as nodes of these networks. UbiComp attendees will be able to log on to the system and create wireless networks with the collection of objects provided, interconnecting input and output modules, routing data from external sources like e-mail accounts and web databases, and interacting with input modules, in a real-time, collaborative environment.

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Context Nuggets: A Smart-Its Game Michael Beigl1, Albert Krohn1, Christian Decker1, Philip Robinson1, Tobias Zimmer1, Hans Gellersen2, Albrecht Schmidt3 1TecO, University Karlsruhe, 2Lancaster University, 3Universität München

Small, embedded, sensing and communicating computer systems continue to show their applicability in various settings. The Smart-Its platform, which we present, testifies to this. We have developed a game called "Context-Nuggets", in order to test and demonstrate the extremities of this platform when subjected to a setting with multiple, ad-hoc users, discovering each other and exchanging context data. Attendees simply attach a Smart-It to their body and they can join in. The gaming strategy entails collecting as much "context" as possible, through altering interactive behavior with other players. Context sources include light, audio and movement sensors. Context is traded via short-range wireless communications. A tool that manages the on-site gaming statistics is also used for analyzing run-time behavior and system status of the Smart-Its. Attendees will receive insights into the technical details of the platform, including the communications protocol, sensor hardware and software library used for application development.

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Noderunner Yury Gitman and Carlos Gomez

Noderunner is in itself an exemplar of an emerging culture – a culture where smart and wireless environments are as much an object of play as is an open grass field or an open lake. Two teams running against time must log into as many nodes as they can and submit photographic proof to a weblog which acts as a document of their score. UbiComp attendees will get a chance to play Noderunner and see a game played. At the exhibition area, attendees can watch a live game being played on monitors at a Noderunner table and talk to one of the artists about how Noderunner works. Others will be in the field and around the conference center looking for open nodes to score points in a game of Noderunner in Seattle. An entire game of Noderunner will be played during the exhibition time.

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Expressive Softwear for Responsive Playspaces Joey Berzowska1, Arek Basirisk1, Jill Fantauzza2, Yvonne Caravia2, Sha Xin Wei2 1Faculty of Fine Arts, Concordia University, 2GVU, School of LCC, Georgia Institute of Technology

Greeting Dynamics Using Expressive Softwear Jill Fantauzza1, Joey Berzowska2, Steven Dow3, Giovanni Iachello3, Sha Xin Wei1 1GVU, School of LCC, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2Faculty of Fine Arts, Concordia University, 3GVU, College of Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology

Soft Architecture: Ambient Responsive Media for Collective and Parallel Play Yoichiro Serita1, Pegah Zamani2, Delphine Nain1, Sha Xin Wei3 1GVU, College of Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2College of Architecture, Georgia Institute of Technology, 3GVU, School of LCC, Georgia Institute of Technology

Gestural Audio Softwear Instruments Sha Xin Wei1, Yoichiro Serita2, Steven Dow2, Giovanni Iachello2, Julien Fistre3 1GVU, School of LCC, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2GVU, College of Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology, 3Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology

We demonstrate multiple uses of “softwear” ™: clothing augmented with sensors and gesturally controlled realtime media. Some performers with softwear instruments will improvise variable musical sound textures from gestures of varying intention and virtuosity. Other performers wearing softwear instruments will act as social probes into the dynamics of greeting, engagement and disengagement in the semi-public setting of the conference. These performers may move through any part of the public space. If logistics permit, we will demonstrate how with these softwear instruments people’s gestures can generate multiple media responses as people walk from one prepared region to another. As people pass through our prepared spaces, their gestures and movement will be amplified via elements of the TGarden ambient media choreography system. We encourage playful (non-game) exploration of the prepared public space.

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LEMUR: League of Electronic Musical Urban Robots Eric Singer, Jeff Feddersen and Chad Redmon LEMUR

LEMUR - League of Electronic Musical Urban Robots - will present four musical robots which will perform for and interact with UbiComp participants via a variety of methods, including keyboards, sensors and video tracking. GuitarBot, a robotic slide guitar-like instrument, extends the capabilities of a human guitarist. !rBot, inspired by the human mouth, opens its cavity to expose and play Peruvian goat-hoof rattles. TibetBot, designed around Tibetan singing bowls, creates atonal rhythms and droning soundscapes. ForestBot is a magnificent installation piece with 25 egg rattles sprouting from 10-foot rods that quiver and sway.

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Eos Pods: Wireless Devices for Interactive Musical Performance David Bianciardi1, Tom Igoe2 and Eric Singer3 1Audio, Video, & Controls, 2Interactive Telecommunications Program, 3LEMUR

The Eos pods are a set of musical controllers designed to enable non-musicians to participate in a performance of Terry Riley’s minimalist work “In C”. Participants gather around an array of glowing domes, twelve inches in diameter, arrayed across a row of tables. Initially, the pods’ colors move through the spectrum randomly. Tapping the domes causes them to flash briefly to white. When the demonstration begins, the domes change color to red. When each dome changes color to green, the person standing by that dome may tap the dome, and will hear a musical phrase played from the composition. At the same time, the done blinks blue on the eighth notes of the music. As more domes are brought to life and played, the composition gains in depth and complexity, moving through the movements of the composition. The entire piece lasts 5 – 10 minutes.