Skip to main content

Portable, But Not Mobile: A Study of Wireless Laptops in the Home

  • Conference paper

Part of the Lecture Notes in Computer Science book series (LNISA,volume 4480)

Abstract

We report a qualitative study of the use of physical space and wireless laptops by ten United States households. Although wireless laptops purportedly offer the opportunity and affordances to go “anywhere in the home,” laptops were generally used in a small set of particular places rather than moving fluidly through the home: wireless laptops were portable, but not mobile per se We present factors that influence laptop movement in the home. We also present a model of people’s use of space in the home, identifying a small set of favored places of long-term use and a larger set of kinetic places used for specific tasks. We discuss how the factors we have identified generally promote use of laptops in favored places and generally discourage use of laptops in kinetic places. We discuss how our findings are relevant to the design of technologies for the home.

Keywords

  • Desktop Computer
  • Home Network
  • Power Adapter
  • Favored Place
  • Home Office

These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.

Buying options

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • DOI: 10.1007/978-3-540-72037-9_13
  • Chapter length: 18 pages
  • Instant PDF download
  • Readable on all devices
  • Own it forever
  • Exclusive offer for individuals only
  • Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout
eBook
USD   84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • ISBN: 978-3-540-72037-9
  • Instant PDF download
  • Readable on all devices
  • Own it forever
  • Exclusive offer for individuals only
  • Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout
Softcover Book
USD   109.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Aipperspach, R.J., et al.: Ethno-Mining: Integrating Words and Numbers from the Ground Up. Technical Report No. EECS-2006-124, EECS Department, University of California, Berkeley (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Becker, F., Steele, F.: Workplace by Design: Mapping the High-Performance Workscape. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco (1995)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Brown, B., O’Hara, K.: Place as a Practical Concern of Mobile Workers. Environment and Planning A 35(9), 1565–1587 (2003)

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  4. Brush, A.J., et al.: Designs for Home Life. In: SIG at CHI (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Crabtree, A., Rodden, T.: Domestic Routines and Design for the Home. JCSCW 13(2), 191–220 (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Edwards, W.K., Grinter, R.E.: At Home with Ubiquitous Computing: Seven Challenges. In: Abowd, G.D., Brumitt, B., Shafer, S. (eds.) UbiComp 2001. LNCS, vol. 2201, pp. 256–272. Springer, Heidelberg (2001)

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  7. Elliot, K., Neustaedter, C., Greenberg, S.: Time, Ownership and Awareness: The Value of Contextual Locations in the Home. In: Beigl, M., et al. (eds.) UbiComp 2005. LNCS, vol. 3660, pp. 251–268. Springer, Heidelberg (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Fallows, D.: Growing Numbers Surf the Web Just for Fun. Pew Internet Reports (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  9. Frohlich, D.M., Dray, S., Silverman, A.: Breaking Up is Hard to Do: Family Perspectives on the Future of the Home PC. Int. J. Human-Computer Studies 54(5), 701–724 (2001)

    CrossRef  MATH  Google Scholar 

  10. Frohlich, D., Kraut, R.: The Social Context of Home Computing. In: Harper, R. (ed.) Inside the Smart Home, pp. 127–162. Springer, Heidelberg (2003)

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  11. Grinter, R.E., et al.: The Work to Make the Home Network Work. In: Proc. ECSCW (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Hanson, J.: Decoding Homes and Houses. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (1998)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Harper, R. (ed.): Inside the Smart Home. Springer, London (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  14. Kraut, R., et al.: The HomeNet Field Trial of Residential Internet Services. CACM 39(12), 55–65 (1996)

    Google Scholar 

  15. Luff, P., Heath, C.: Mobility in Collaboration. In: Proc. CSCW 1998, pp. 305–314 (1998)

    Google Scholar 

  16. Mallett, S.: Understanding Home: A Critical Review of the Literature. The Sociological Review 52(1), 62–89 (2004)

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  17. Mateas, M., et al.: Engineering Ethnography in the Home. In: Proc. CHI ’96, pp. 283–284 (1996)

    Google Scholar 

  18. McClard, A., Somers, P.: Unleashed: Web Tablet Integration Into the Home. In: Proc. CHI 2000, pp. 1–8 (2000)

    Google Scholar 

  19. Mercer, D.: Home Network Adoption: WiFi Emerges as Mass Market Phenomenon. Strategy Analytics (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  20. Nippert-Eng, C.E.: Home and Work: Negotiating Boundaries Through Everyday Life. University of Chicago Press, Chicago (1996)

    Google Scholar 

  21. O’Brien, J., et al.: At Home with the Technology: An Ethnographic Study of a Set-Top-Box Trial. ACM TOCHI 6(3), 282–308 (1999)

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  22. Oswald, F., et al.: The Role of the Home Environment in Middle and Late Adulthood. In: Wahl, H.-W., et al. (eds.) The Many Faces of Health, Competence and Well-being in Old Age: Integrating Epidemiological, Psychological and Social Perspectives, Springer, Heidelberg (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  23. Patel, S.N., et al.: Farther Than You Think: An Empirical Investigation of the Proximity of Users to Their Mobile Phones. In: Abowd, G.D., Brumitt, B., Shafer, S. (eds.) UbiComp 2001. LNCS, vol. 2201, pp. 123–140. Springer, Heidelberg (2001)

    Google Scholar 

  24. Ryan, G., Bernard, H.R.: Techniques to Identify Themes. Field Methods 15(1), 85–109 (2003)

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  25. Schadler, T.: Laptops And Home Networks Transform Behavior. Forrester (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  26. Schilit, B.N., Sengupta, U.: Device Ensembles. IEEE Computer 37(12), 56–64 (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  27. Taylor, A.S., Swan, L.: Artful Systems in the Home. In: Proc. CHI 2005, pp. 641–650 (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  28. Venkatesh, A.: Computers and New Information Technologies for the Home. CACM 39(12), 47–54 (1996)

    Google Scholar 

  29. Vitalari, N.P., Venkatesh, A., Gronhaug, K.: Computing in the Home: Shifts in the Time Allocation Patterns of Households. CACM 28(5), 512–522 (1985)

    Google Scholar 

  30. Weiser, M.: The Computer for the 21st Century. Scientific American 265(3), 94–104 (1991)

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

Copyright information

© 2007 Springer Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Woodruff, A., Anderson, K., Mainwaring, S.D., Aipperspach, R. (2007). Portable, But Not Mobile: A Study of Wireless Laptops in the Home. In: LaMarca, A., Langheinrich, M., Truong, K.N. (eds) Pervasive Computing. Pervasive 2007. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 4480. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-72037-9_13

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-72037-9_13

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-72036-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-72037-9

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)