Sensors and actuators are crucial components of a do-it-yourself (DIY) smart home system that enables users to construct smart home features successfully. In addition, machine learning (ML) (e.g., ML-intensive camera sensors) can be applied to sensor technology to increase its accuracy. Although camera sensors are often utilized in homes, research on user experiences with DIY smart home systems employing camera sensors is still in its infancy. This research investigates novel user experiences while constructing DIY smart home features using an ML-intensive camera sensor in contrast to commonly used internet-of-things (IoT) sensors. Thus, we conducted a seven-day field diary study with 12 families who were given a DIY smart home kit. Here, we assess the five characteristics of the camera sensor as well as the potential and challenges of utilizing the camera sensor in the DIY smart home and discuss the opportunities to address existing DIY smart home issues.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3544548.3581462
Laser-cutting is a promising fabrication method that empowers makers, including blind or visually-impaired (BVI) creators, to create technologies that fit their needs. Existing work on laser-cut accessibility has facilitated easier assembly as a workaround for existing models. However, laser-cut models are still not designed to accommodate the needs of BVI users. Integrating BVI needs can enrich the greater maker community by enabling cross-group discourse on laser-cut making. To investigate how laser-cut model design can be more accessible overall, we study laser-cut assembly as a process deeply intertwined with the fundamental design of laser-cut models. We present a study with seven sighted and seven BVI participants to compare their usage of laser-cut model affordances during assembly. Data for the BVI participants in this study originate from a previous work. We identify assembly cues common or unique to sighted and BVI users, and discuss implications to improve general accessibility in laser-cut design.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3544548.3580684
Over the last decade, smart home technology (SHT) has become an integral part of modern households. As a result, smart home ecosystems blend with daily social life, appropriated and integrated into personalised domestic environments. The lived experience of inhabiting smart home ecosystems, however, is not yet understood, resulting in a mismatch between ecosystem design and inhabitants' needs. Drawing on contextual inquiry methods, we conducted an explorative interview study (N=20) with SHT users in their homes. Our thematic analysis reveals how users shape their smart home ecosystems (SHEs), considering social relationships at home, perceived ownership of SHTs, and expected key benefits. Notably, our analysis shows that household members consciously choose `their' level of SHT interconnectedness, reflecting social, spatial and functional affinities between systems. Following our findings, we formulate five implications for designing future SHTs. Our work contributes insights on the dynamics and appropriation of smart home ecosystems by their inhabitants.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3544548.3581497
Digital technologies can conduct an important role in preserving intangible cultural heritage (ICH). Nonetheless, existing work tends to be limited to digital storage, presentation, dissemination, and education, with comparatively little concentrating on production and reproduction of the craft, the key to revitalizing ICH. In this paper, we explore digital making as an approach for both the inheritance and innovation of ICH handicrafts. Taking Hairy Monkey craftsmanship as an instance, we conducted a workshop with 15 groups of makers, teaching them the traditional Hairy Monkey craft and subsequently enabling them to create innovative works with digital technologies in their own time. As revealed by our interviews with these participants, ICH brings cultural inspiration to digital making, and digital making rejuvenates ICH through innovative art forms and its positive influence on participants. As demonstrated in this paper, digital technologies can be deeply integrated with ICH through making to revitalize ICH from the core through living transmission.
The number of hackathon events worldwide has nearly quadrupled in the last five years. Despite exponential growth across diverse industries and increasing interest across academic disciplines, our integrated understanding of the phenomena of hackathons is limited. We conduct the first multidisciplinary literature review of publications from 1999 to 2022 to understand the conceptualization of the phenomena over time. We find that hackathon research can be categorized into 4 core areas (purpose, format, processes, and outcomes). Research was first driven by a purpose (innovation, learning, and collaboration), followed by an examination of how formats adjust to purpose to influence what happens (processes) and what is produced (outcomes), and critical reviews of the hackathon phenomena. We contribute a unifying framework with these four core areas to inform future directions of hackathon research and practice, as well as a discussion of the need for longitudinal and multidisciplinary research of hackathons.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3544548.3581234
Quantified smart buildings increasingly utilise data-rich technologies (such as embedded sensors and personal wearables). Research and development however, rarely addresses occupants’ experiences and expectations in such environments, which is critical for designing ethical and occupant-centred workspaces. To support the design of human-centred smart buildings, a series of 4 workshops was conducted with a total of 27 participants, over 2 months, with occupants of a smart office building. Workshops used discursive (focus group) and projective (design fiction) techniques to qualitatively explore occupants’ perceptions of and concerns around the collection, processing and use of data within the building. Workshop data was thematically analysed, resulting in design implications for improving occupant experience in current smart workplaces, while also contributing implications for increasing the perceivability, accessibility and usability of data in such buildings. Contributing to discourses around Human-Building Interaction the paper concludes with discussion of future research challenges for occupant-centred development of quantified buildings.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3544548.3581256