Abstract. This work reports on the findings of a field study examining the current use practices of large ambient information displays in public settings. Such displays are often assumed to be inherently eye-catching and appealing to people nearby, but our research shows that glancing and attention at large displays is complex and dependent on many factors. By understanding how such displays are being used in current, public, non-research settings and the factors that impact usage, we offer concrete, ecologically valid knowledge and design implications about these technologies to researchers and designers who are employing large ambient displays in their work.

Commercial home automation systems are becoming increasingly common, affording the opportunity to study technology-augmented homes in real world contexts. In order to understand how these technologies are being integrated into homes and their effects on inhabitants, we conducted a qualitative study involving smart home professionals who provide such technology, people currently in the process of planning or building smart homes, and people currently living in smart homes. We identified motivations for bringing smart technology into homes, and the phases involved in making a home smart. We also explored the varied roles of the smart home inhabitants that emerged during these phases, and several of the challenges and benefits that arise while living in a smart home. Based on these findings we propose open areas and new directions for smart home research. Abstract. Commercial home automation systems are becoming increasingly common, affording the opportunity to study technology-augmented homes in real world contexts. In order to understand how these technologies are being integrated into homes and their effects on inhabitants, we conducted a qualitative study involving smart home professionals who provide such technology, people currently in the process of planning or building smart homes, and people currently living in smart homes. We identified motivations for bringing smart technology into homes, and the phases involved in making a home smart. We also explored the varied roles of the smart home inhabitants that emerged during these phases, and several of the challenges and benefits that arise while living in a smart home. Based on these findings we propose open areas and new directions for smart home research.

Background Effective treatments for various conditions such as obesity, cardiac heart diseases, or low back pain require not only personal on-site coaching sessions by health care experts but also a significant amount of home exercises. However, nonadherence to home exercises is still a serious problem as it leads to increased costs due to prolonged treatments. Objective To improve adherence to home exercises, we propose, implement, and assess the novel coaching concept of hybrid ubiquitous coaching (HUC). In HUC, health care experts are complemented by a conversational agent (CA) that delivers psychoeducation and personalized motivational messages via a smartphone, as well as real-time exercise support, monitoring, and feedback in a hands-free augmented reality environment. Methods We applied HUC to the field of physiotherapy and conducted 4 design-and-evaluate loops with an interdisciplinary team to assess how HUC is perceived by patients and physiotherapists and whether HUC leads to treatment adherence. A first version of HUC was evaluated by 35 physiotherapy patients in a lab setting to identify patients’ perceptions of HUC. In addition, 11 physiotherapists were interviewed about HUC and assessed whether the CA could help them build up a working alliance with their patients. A second version was then tested by 15 patients in a within-subject experiment to identify the ability of HUC to address adherence and to build a working alliance between the patient and the CA. Finally, a 4-week n-of-1 trial was conducted with 1 patient to show one experience with HUC in depth and thereby potentially reveal real-world benefits and challenges. Results Patients perceived HUC to be useful, easy to use, and enjoyable, preferred it to state-of-the-art approaches, and expressed their intentions to use it. Moreover, patients built a working alliance with the CA. Physiotherapists saw a relative advantage of HUC compared to current approaches but initially did not see the potential in terms of a working alliance, which changed after seeing the results of HUC in the field. Qualitative feedback from patients indicated that they enjoyed doing the exercise with an augmented reality–based CA and understood better how to do the exercise correctly with HUC. Moreover, physiotherapists highlighted that HUC would be helpful to use in the therapy process. The longitudinal field study resulted in an adherence rate of 92% (11/12 sessions; 330/360 repetitions; 33/36 sets) and a substantial increase in exercise accuracy during the 4 weeks. Conclusions The overall positive assessments from both patients and health care experts suggest that HUC is a promising tool to be applied in various disorders with a relevant set of home exercises. Future research, however, must implement a variety of exercises and test HUC with patients suffering from different disorders.

A considerable amount of research has been carried out towards making long-standing smart home visions technically feasible. The technologically augmented homes made possible by this work are starting to become reality, but thus far living in and interacting with such homes has introduced significant complexity while offering limited benefit. As these technologies are increasingly adopted, the knowledge we gain from their use suggests a need to revisit the opportunities and challenges they pose. Synthesizing a broad body of research on smart homes with observations of industry and experiences from our own empirical work, we provide a discussion of ongoing and emerging challenges, namely challenges for meaningful technologies, complex domestic spaces, and human-home collaboration. Within each of these three challenges we discuss our visions for future smart homes and identify promising directions for the field.