Abstract
Load sensing is a mature and robust technology widely applied in process control. In this paper we consider the use of load sensing in everyday environments as an approach to acquisition of contextual information in ubiquitous computing applications. Since weight is an intrinsic property of all physical objects, load sensing is an intriguing concept on the physical-virtual boundary, enabling the inclusive use of arbitrary objects in ubiquitous applications. In this paper we aim to demonstrate that load sensing is a versatile source of contextual information. Using a series of illustrative experiments we show that using load sensing techniques we can obtain not just weight information, but object position and interaction events on a given surface. We describe the incorporation of load-sensing in the furniture and the floor of a living laboratory environment, and report on a number of applications that use context information derived from load sensing.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Addlesee, M.D., Jones, A., Livesey, F., and Samaria, F.: ORL Active Floor. IEEE Personal Communications, Vol. 4, No 5, October 1997, pp. 35–41. IEEE, Piscataway, NJ, USA.
Addlesee, M.D., Curwen, R., Hodges, S., Newman, J., Steggles, P., Ward, A., Hopper, A.: Implementing a Sentient Computing System. IEEE Computer Magazine, Vol. 34, No. 8, August 2001, pp. 50–56.
Brumitt, B., Krumm, J., Meyers, B., and Shafer, S.: Ubiquitous Computing and the Role of Geometry. IEEE Personal Communications, August 2000.
Crabtree, A., Hemmings, T. and Rodden, T.: Pattern-based Support for Interactive Design in Domestic Settings. Technical Report Equator-01-016, University of Nottingham, The School of Computer Science and IT, December 2001. http://www.equator.ac.uk/papers/Authors/crabtree.html
Dey, A.K.: Providing Architectural Support for Building Context-Aware Applications. Ph.D. thesis, December 2000, Dr. Gregory D. Abowd (advisor), College of Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology
Georgia Institut of Technology. The Aware Home Research Initiative. http://www.cc.gatech.edu/fce/ahri/
Headon, R. and Curwen R.: Ubiquitous Game Control. UBICOMP 2001 Workshop on Designing Ubiquitous Computing Games. Atlanta, 2001.
Kidd, C., Orr, R., Abowd, G.D., Atkeson, C.G., Essa, I.A., MacIntyre, B., Mynatt, E., Starner, T.E., and Newstetter, W.: The Aware Home: A Living Laboratory for Ubiquitous Computing Research. Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Cooperative Buildings-CoBuild’99. Position paper, October 1999.
Kistler force plate. http://www.kistler.com/
Konomi, S., Müller-Tomfelde, C., Streitz, N.: Passage: Physical Transportation of Digital Information in Cooperative Buildings. In: Streitz, N., Siegel, J., Hartkopf, V., Konomi, S. (Eds.), Cooperative Buildings-Integrating Information, Organizations, and Architecture. Proceedings of the Second International Workshop (CoBuild’99). LNCS 1670. Springer: Heidelberg. pp. 45–54.
Krumm, J., Harris, S., Meyers, B., Brumitt, B., Hale, M., and Shafer S.: Multi-Camera Multi-Person Tracking for EasyLiving. IEEE Workshop on Visual Surveillance, July 2000.
Lancaster University, Embedded load sensing project, http://www.comp.lancs.ac.uk/~albrecht/load/
Orr, R. J. and Abowd, G. D.: The Smart Floor: A Mechanism for Natural User Identification and Tracking. Proceedings of CHI 2000 Human Factors in Computing Systems (April 1–6, 2000, The Hague, Netherlands, ACM/SIGCHI.
Paradiso, J, Abler, C., Hsiao, K., Reynolds, M.: The Magic Carpet: Physical Sensing for Immersive Environments. In Late-Breaking/Short Demonstrations of CHI’97, pp. 277–278. ACM, USA.
Schilit, B.N., Adams, N.I., Want, R.: Context-Aware Computing Applications. Proceedings of the Workshop on Mobile Computing Systems and Applications, Santa Cruz, CA, December 1994. Pages 85–90. IEEE Computer Society.
Schmidt A., Laerhoven, K., Strohbach, M., Gellersen, H.: Ubiquitous Interaction-Using Surfaces in Everyday Environments as Pointing Devices. Paper submitted to 7th ERCIM Workshop “User Interfaces For All”, 2002.
Ward, A. J., Hopper, A.: A New Location Technique for the Active Office, IEEE Personal Communications, vol. 4, pp. 42–47, 1997.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2002 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Schmidt, A., Strohbach, M., van Laerhoven, K., Friday, A., Gellersen, HW. (2002). Context Acquisition Based on Load Sensing. In: Borriello, G., Holmquist, L.E. (eds) UbiComp 2002: Ubiquitous Computing. UbiComp 2002. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 2498. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-45809-3_26
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-45809-3_26
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-44267-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-45809-8
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive