The Fifth ACM International Symposium on Pervasive Displays took place from 20th to 22nd of June 2016 in Oulu, Finland. The event brought together researchers from various disciplines with a common interest on the opportunities and challenges raised by the emergence of pervasive display systems. Investigating how pervasive displays can be used to provide memory cues has been one of the research focuses for RECALL from the beginning. Hence, our team — just like the year before —  had a significant presence with a full paper and 2 poster presentations.

The first RECALL contribution comprised a study on using displays for peripheral learning. The paper entitled “Memory displays: investigating the effects of learning in the periphery” [2] describes the effects of using peripheral displays in people’s homes to show content for knowledge acquisition. Here, we explored different aspects about display placement, content, and application scenarios. In a user study with 15 university students preparing for an  exam across 3 weeks we compared the effects of an active learning platform with passive learning through peripheral displays. Our main findings were of qualitative nature and allowed us to map out a series of design and usage implications for using peripheral displays to help users commit content to long-term memory.

The full paper can be found here.

 

We also presented and discussed 2 posters that emanated from RECALL. “Transitioning from a research deployment to a service” [1]  reflects, updates and expands on  13 lessons reported in a previous paper on display deployments on campuses [3]. In it we offer new insights gained from the long-running duration of the system and its evolution into a core university service. We believe these lessons continue to be key areas for concern when deploying long-term ubiquitous computing deployments

The second poster entitled “Assessment of an unobtrusive persuasive system for behavior change in home environments” [4] reports on a study in which we investigated unobtrusive persuasive behavior change system by displaying motivating pictures on a central display. We conducted an in-situ study with 6 participants over the course of three weeks. Participants placed a tablet computer in their homes. On the always-on display, motivating pictures of the categories sports, reading and drinking were shown for one week each. Participants found the system useful to drink more and preferred personalized pictures.

Next year’s 6th ACM International Symposium on Pervasive Displays will take place in Lugano hosted by our RECALL project partners at Università della Svizzera italiana (USI).

References

[1] Clinch, Sarah, Mateusz Mikusz, and Adrian Friday. “Transitioning from a research deployment to a service.” Proceedings of the 5th ACM International Symposium on Pervasive Displays. ACM, 2016.

[2] Dingler, Tilman, et al. “Memory displays: investigating the effects of learning in the periphery.” Proceedings of the 5th ACM International Symposium on Pervasive Displays. ACM, 2016.

[3] Storz, Oliver, et al. “Public ubiquitous computing systems: Lessons from the e-campus display deployments.” IEEE Pervasive Computing 5.3 (2006): 40-47.

[4] Weber, Dominik, et al. “Assessment of an unobtrusive persuasive system for behavior change in home environments.” Proceedings of the 5th ACM International Symposium on Pervasive Displays. ACM, 2016.