Instrumented People, Places and Things
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The Iota team, a research group at the agency SapientNitro in Chicago, put sensors in rooms, on objects and on people to study everyday behaviour. TJ, one of the team, also holds datasets of their own. These pages replay a selection in the browser.
In TJ's words:
“We were thinking about understanding the world and building computational models of behaviors to provide richer context for design.”
“A framework for doing so was anchoring the activity from the perspective of the person, place, or thing.”
“In exploring hypotheses METIS and other techniques were used to bridge and map evidence of activities to sensing.”
A 2013 methods document calls METIS “a tool for defining measurable components of a high level, abstract concept”.
Open now
- 2012Iota open house. A lab full of visitors, for an hour, in a 3D model.
- 2014Measuring Engagement. A walk to a coffee shop, through Google Glass.
- 2014Instrumented Homes ↗ TJ's kitchen, and the models of object use built from it.
Each page credits its own study. Most of the sensing and instruments were the Iota team's, at SapientNitro. The object-use models on the kitchen page are TJ's, from 2026. Client studies appear without their clients' names.
Anchors
| People | a person over time | 2 |
|---|---|---|
| Places | the sensors stay put; the people and stuff in view change | 7 |
| Things | the object itself is the focus | 5 |
A filled dot is what a study is mainly about; a hollow one is what it also touches. A faint bar on the timeline means only the year is known.
Activity runs through all three. TJ: “Activity is not a 4th idea, it is what is common across all three. Models of activity.” So each study is listed with its model of activity.
Studies
| Study | When | Anchors | Instruments | Model of activity | State |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| People | |||||
| Measuring Engagement: the walk to Intelligentsia | 3 Apr and 15 May 2014 | Google Glass worn by TJ: camera, sound, light, orientation, acceleration; a follow-along camera | A provocation: what might engagement look like? Head turns, steps and light along the path | open | |
| Pockets | Dec 2013 – Jul 2014 | RescueTime on TJ's phone and computers, Moves, Fitbit steps, Basis | Days as patterns of place, movement and screen time (to build) | sketch, not public | |
| Places | |||||
| Iota open house | 24 Oct 2012, 16:00–17:00 | 4 Kinects, 3 Grid-EYEs, 4 spiders | People, movement, hot spots and sound over an hour | open | |
| Instrumented Homes (TJ's kitchen) ↗ | Jul 2014 – Apr 2015 | SmartThings sensors on kitchen objects; surveys sent when activity stopped | Object-use models: drink, cleaning, someone else, other | open | |
| UIC Innovation Lab | 16–23 Jul 2012 | Kinect: room depth snapshots, tracked positions | A room as a point cloud, and the positions tracked in it | data in hand, not built | |
| Office day | 17 Aug 2012 | Bluetooth loggers around the Iota office space | Device-level tracks through one working day | data in hand, not built | |
| Office beacons | 2014 | iBeacons on two floors of the office | Device-level tracks and dwell across the two floors | data in hand, not built | |
| Gum in the office | 24 Sep – 14 Nov 2012 | Instruments under 24 gum containers across a company's offices: weight, temperature, pressure, sound | Socialization, with gum-taking as its trace: who stops, when, alone or together | tools and plots found; raw data missing | |
| Home study: aging in place | 2013, and Aug 2014 | Six instrument packages of 8 sensors: Kinect, Grid-EYE, spiders, scales | Daily living patterns, with weight, sleep and well-being | 2013 readings missing | |
| Things | |||||
| Napkin dispenser | Dec 2010 – May 2011 | Wireless modules on the napkin and paper-towel dispensers of a small independent coffee shop; a webcam | When napkins are taken, and how many | first look; data held back | |
| Candy bag | May – Jul 2011 | Loggers on candy bags, with GPS, participant video and in-home interviews | How a bag is eaten: in one sitting or not, at home or not, poured or picked | data in hand, not built | |
| Device ecosystem pilot | Jun – Sep 2011 | Bluetooth beacons on each participant's laptop and phone, Bluetooth loggers, GPS | Where a person's devices go, and which travel together | data in hand, not built | |
| Device ecosystems | Dec 2011 – Mar 2012 | Accelerometer loggers and activity logging on laptops, phones and tablets; GPS; interviews and a diary app | Which devices and accessories are called into action for a goal, in a context | data in hand, not built | |
| Bottle cams | 2012–13 | Cameras with sound and accelerometers on household cleaning products, recording when they moved | The product's journey: out of storage, used, kept out or put back | data in hand, not built | |