Typical undergraduate and masters projects in FIT Lab

The Future Interaction Technology Lab (www.fitlab.eu) has a series of ongoing projects relating to mobile and ubiquitous computing. Example project ideas listed below and we are especially interested in supervising anyone who has programming skills, and a desire to work through interesting human-centred issues relating to visions of the future.

Harold's (HT) projects | Matt's (MJ) projects | Max's (MW) projects | Parisa's (PE) projects

Matt's Projects

MJ1 StoryBank

This project is for someone interested in systems for developing world contexts (places like India). You'll work on a project related to our global digital divide work (see: http://www.cs.swan.ac.uk/storybank). For example, you might research and implement a novel way of browsing and searching story content; or, consider how to combine paper based versions of stories with the digital content.

MJ2 Running

This project is for someone interested in sport. I'll provide you with a device that can monitor heart rate and running speed and your job is to consider the ways in which such real-time data can be used to adapt/select music to help someone improve their running performances. There's been work done in this area already and some commercial implementations but let us see if we can do something novel.

MJ3 Large scale gestures

This one is for someone who wants to explore the how people might interact with the physical world in a digital way. The question we will consider is: can we use GPS technology to leave meaningful digital trails in the environment? So, what might 'circling' a location mean? How about rapidly moving towards and away from a location? I'm only just beginning to think about this topic but there should be plenty of scope for fun and intrigue.

MJ4. Mobile search

This is for someone who is interested in defining approaches that will challenge Google in the mobile information seeking context! On mobile phones and other handhelds, what are the most effective ways for people to search and be presented with 'results'. We've some starting ideas but there is lots of scope for imaginative innovation.

Max's Projects

MW1 - Science and Social Media

Social search and real-time search are becoming key issues in information seeking. Google is trialling a 'social circle' experiment, where you get blog/news/twitters from your circle within your google results. In Feb, the 3rd annual Science and Social Media workshop will take place, emphasising the importance of this type of research. Some of our previous work has investigated information needs by analysing twitter comments. What else can we learn about design, beauty, usefulness, affective devices, etc from such resources? We might also ask how much we can trust from tweets, when the majority have been classified as 'pointless babble'?

MW2 - Sustainability in the workplace

Following the 7-day stats of british energy consumption from the National Grid (http://www.nationalgrid.com/uk/Electricity/Data/Realtime/) we can see that significantly less energy is used during the weekends - when people are not at work. How can we tackle energy consumption in the workplace? Especially when many businesses depend on computing and technology. Working groups also make for interesting localised communities of colleagues and friends. This project will investigate how to encourage sustainable energy usage in the workplace, considering both social and organisational factors. This project, in part, will investigate the use of the open government data that is becoming available.

MW3 - Making sustainability in the home more transparent

While we know that social motivators are often key in helping people reduce their unnecessary energy consumption, it can be hard for people to understand which appliances are consuming electricity, and how much they are using. Many people still do not realise the amount of power systems use in standby mode, or that phone chargers use power even when not connected to a phone. This project will investigate ways in which we can make energy usage within the home more transparent to people, helping them to help the planet.

MW4 - Multi-screen devices

We are beginning to see more multi-screen devices becoming available. The Nintendo DS allows users to interact with 2 screens on a folding device, which enables more gameplay. Samsung have produced a camera with a screen on the front, so you can more easily take pictures of yourself. Mobile phones that close often have a screen inside and outside. What if an iPhone had screens on both sides? What would be the affordances and social issues? What if the DS has screens on all 4 sides - could it act more like a book or a CD case? This project will investigate the potential for multiscreen devices considering social interaction.

MW5 - Perception in Collaborative Search

When people search together for a shared need, such as a good place to go on a family or group holiday, or a new family car, or information about a family-members illness, perception plays a large role in the group resolving their need. One person may think that, using the holiday example, that local attractions might be more important, while another thinks that a place with a pool is more important. How can we understand peoples perceptions of other peoples information needs, and better support such collaborative search?

The idea that helping people search for information with new tools and more information and better feedback might actually overload, confuse, or impede them, is a serious one. We need to get a balance of support and clarity. The aim of this project is to study specific examples to see how we can set a boundary and avoid 'too much information'.

Parisa's Projects

Future Interaction Technology Lab
Swansea University
SWANSEA
Wales, SA2 8PP

Email FIT Lab