Abstract
Indoor location tracking systems have been a major focus of ubiquitous computing research, and they have much promise to help in collecting objective, real time data for applications and supporting studies. However, due to their typically difficult and time consuming installation process, few have explored the extent to which they can be used by non-experts. In this research, we studied how one location tracking system, PowerLine Positioning, could be used by non-technology expert rehabilitation researchers to study the mobility patterns of wheelchair users in their homes. We determined that indoor location tracking systems are not only usable by non-experts, but they can also be useful in allowing them to achieve their own research goals of obtaining objective mobility data. Based on the results, we provide areas for future exploration and implications for designers of location-based and other types of sensing systems which aim to be end-user deployable.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abowd, G.D., Mynatt, E.D.: Charting Past, Present, and Future Research in Ubiquitous Computing. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction 7(1), 29–58 (2002)
Active Bat. The BAT Ultrasonic Location System (2010), http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/research/dtg/attarchive/bat/
Aipperspach, R., Rattenbury, T., Woodruff, A.: A Quantitative Method for Revealing and Comparing. In: Dourish, P., Friday, A. (eds.) UbiComp 2006. LNCS, vol. 4206, pp. 1–18. Springer, Heidelberg (2006)
Aipperspach, R.J., Woodruff, A., Anderson, K., Hooker, B.: Maps of Our Lives: Sensing People and Objects Together in the Home. EECS Department, University of California, Berkeley. TR-UCB/EECS-2005-22 (November 2005)
Americans with Disabilities Act. (2010), http://www.ada.gov
Bahl, P., Padmanabhan, V.: RADAR: An In-Building RF-Based User Location and Tracking System. In: The Proceedings of IEEE Infocom., pp. 775–784 (2000)
Beckmann, C., Consolvo, S., LaMarca, A.: Some Assembly Required: Supporting End-User Sensor Installation in Domestic Ubiquitous Computing Environments. In: Davies, N., Mynatt, E.D., Siio, I. (eds.) UbiComp 2004. LNCS, vol. 3205, pp. 107–124. Springer, Heidelberg (2004)
Castro, P., Chiu, P., Kremenek, T., Muntz, R.R.: A Probabilistic Room Location Service for Wireless Networked Environments. In: Abowd, G.D., Brumitt, B., Shafer, S. (eds.) UbiComp 2001. LNCS, vol. 2201, pp. 18–34. Springer, Heidelberg (2001)
Crabtree, A., Rodden, T., Hemmings, T., Benford, S.: Finding a Place for UbiComp in the Home. In: Dey, A.K., Schmidt, A., McCarthy, J.F. (eds.) UbiComp 2003. LNCS, vol. 2864, pp. 208–226. Springer, Heidelberg (2003)
Cricket Series Mote. Crossbow Technologies, Inc. (2010), http://www.xbow.com
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)
Ekahau (2010), http://www.ekahau.com
Gray, D.: Mobility Impaired Individuals with Secondary Conditions: Health, Participation and Environments. In: The Final Report Submitted to Office of Disability and Health. CDC, Washington (2003)
Hazas, M., Ward, A.: A Novel Broadband Ultrasonic Location System. In: Borriello, G., Holmquist, L.E. (eds.) UbiComp 2002. LNCS, vol. 2498, pp. 264–280. Springer, Heidelberg (2002)
Hirsch, T., Forlizzi, J., Hyder, E., Goetz, J., Kurtz, C., Stroback, J.: The ELDer Project: Social, Emotional, and Environmental Factors in the Design of Eldercare Technologies. In: Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Universal Usability, pp. 72–79 (2000)
Indoor GPS (2010), http://www.indoorgps.com
Intille, S.S., Tapia, E.M., Rondoni, J., Beaudin, J.S., Kukla, C., Agarwal, S., Bao, L.: Tools for studying behavior and technology in natural settings. In: Dey, A.K., Schmidt, A., McCarthy, J.F. (eds.) UbiComp 2003. LNCS, vol. 2864, pp. 157–174. Springer, Heidelberg (2003)
Krumm, J., Cermak, G., Horvitz, E.: RightSPOT: A Novel Sense of Location for a Smart Personal Object. In: Dey, A.K., Schmidt, A., McCarthy, J.F. (eds.) UbiComp 2003. LNCS, vol. 2864, pp. 36–43. Springer, Heidelberg (2003)
LaMarca, A., Chawathe, Y., Consolvo, S., Hightower, J., Smith, I., Scott, I., Sohn, T., Howard, J., Hughes, J., Potter, F., Tabert, J., Powledge, R., Borriello, G., Schilit, B.: Place Lab: Device Positioning Using Radio Beacons in the Wild. In: Gellersen, H.-W., Want, R., Schmidt, A. (eds.) PERVASIVE 2005. LNCS, vol. 3468, pp. 116–133. Springer, Heidelberg (2005)
Madhavapeddy, A., Tse, T.: Study of Bluetooth Propagation Using Accurate Indoor Location Mapping. In: Beigl, M., Intille, S.S., Rekimoto, J., Tokuda, H. (eds.) UbiComp 2005. LNCS, vol. 3660, pp. 105–122. Springer, Heidelberg (2005)
New Freedom Initiative. Executive Order 13217 (2010), http://www.cms.hhs.gov/NewFreedomInitiative/
O’Connell, T., Jensen, P., Dey, A.K., Abowd, G.D.: Location in the Aware Home. In: Workshop on Location Modeling for Ubiquitous Computing at Ubicomp 2001 (2001)
Otsason, V., Varshavsky, A., LaMarca, A., de Lara, E.: Accurate GSM Indoor Localization. In: Beigl, M., Intille, S.S., Rekimoto, J., Tokuda, H. (eds.) UbiComp 2005. LNCS, vol. 3660, pp. 141–158. Springer, Heidelberg (2005)
Patel, S.N., Kientz, J.A., Hayes, G.R., Bhat, S., Abowd, G.D.: Farther Than You May Think: An Empirical Investigation of the Proximity of Users to their Mobile Phones. In: Dourish, P., Friday, A. (eds.) UbiComp 2006. LNCS, vol. 4206, pp. 169–181. Springer, Heidelberg (2006)
Patel, S.N., Truong, K.N., Abowd, G.D.: PowerLine Positioning: A Practical Sub-Room-Level Indoor Location System for Domestic Use. In: Dourish, P., Friday, A. (eds.) UbiComp 2006. LNCS, vol. 4206, pp. 94–103. Springer, Heidelberg (2006)
Philipose, M., Fishkin, K.P., Perkowitz, M., Patterson, D.J., Fox, D., Kautz, H., Hahnel, D.: Inferring Activities from Interactions with Objects. IEEE Pervasive Computing 3(4), 50–57 (2004)
Priyantha, N.B., Chakraborty, A., Balakrishnan, H.: The Cricket Location-Support System. In: The Proceedings of The International Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking (Mobicom 2000), August 2000, pp. 32–43 (2000)
Rowan, J., Mynatt, E.D.: Digital Family Portrait Field Trial: Support for Aging in Place. In: The Proceedings of CHI 2005, pp. 521–530 (2005)
Tapia, E.M., Intille, S.S., Lopez, L., Larson, K.: The design of a portable kit of wireless sensors for naturalistic data collection. In: Fishkin, K.P., Schiele, B., Nixon, P., Quigley, A. (eds.) PERVASIVE 2006. LNCS, vol. 3968, pp. 117–134. Springer, Heidelberg (2006)
Ubisense (2010), http://www.ubisense.net
Varshavsky, A., Patel, S.N.: Location Systems. In: Krumm, J. (ed.) Ubiquitous Computing Fundamentals, pp. 286–319. CRC Press, Boca Raton (2009)
Vicon MX (2010), http://www.vicon.com/products/system.html
Want, R., Hopper, A., Falcao, V., Gibbons, J.: The active badge location system. ACM Transactions on Information Systems 10, 91–102 (1992)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Patel, S.N., Kientz, J.A., Gupta, S. (2010). Studying the Use and Utility of an Indoor Location Tracking System for Non-experts. In: Floréen, P., Krüger, A., Spasojevic, M. (eds) Pervasive Computing. Pervasive 2010. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 6030. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-12654-3_14
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-12654-3_14
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-12653-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-12654-3
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)