Galatea : personalized interaction with augmented objects

In Galatea, digitally augmented physical objects actively attract a person's attention to online information relevant to both the object and the person's interests. Galatea combines intelligent software agents and digitally augmented physical objects to uniquely bridge the gap between the two disciplines. In a unique twist on typical Ubiquitous Computing models that require intentional request for or asynchronous, periodic delivery of information, Galatea's smart objects proactively attract the attention of a nearby person by blinking a light when there is relevant information about the object. The object also sends the relevant information to the person's cell phone. We use books as our test case. Any augmented book can visually attract a user's attention when there is information it believes is relevant to the user. This information is personalized, i.e. unique to the person's interests, the current location, and the book, and when appropriate is delivered unobtrusively using the person's cell phone interface. A user can likewise request information from the books in the nearby vicinity by searching the books using their cell phone. A user study of and demonstration responses to Galatea show tradeoffs between the benefits of orienting information in objects and its usefulness as a collaborative tool, versus its potential as a distracting and invasive interface.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture. Program In Media Arts and Sciences

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2005

Author dc:creator

• Gatenby, David Arthur Gray

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Pattie Maes.

• Architecture. Program In Media Arts and Sciences

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/33897

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/33897