Presentation given at the 3rd International Conference on Ambient Systems, Networks and Technologies August 27-29, 2012, Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada. The paper is available on the PORTO open access repository: http://porto.polito.it/2496719/

1. The 3rd International Conference on
Ambient Systems, Networks and Technologies
August 27-29, 2012, Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada
dWatch:
a Personal Wrist Watch for
Smart Environments
Dario Bonino, Fulvio Corno, Luigi De Russis
Politecnico di Torino, e-Lite Research Group
http://elite.polito.it

2. Outline
 Motivations and goals
 Requirements
 Architecture
 Implementation
 Experimental results
 Conclusions
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3. Motivations
 Human-Home Interaction
◦ traditional (buttons, switches, etc.)
◦ computer-based (apps, UIs, etc.)
 Needs to find a suitable trade-off
◦ unobstrusive
◦ instantly viewed or operated
◦ feature-rich and personalizable
◦ portable
 Wearable computing could be a solution
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4. Our goals
 Present a reference architecture
◦ based on features and constraints sparsely
defined in the literature
 Provide an implemented system
◦ based on open-source and off-the-shelf
solutions
◦ cost-effective
 Use a wirst-watch as interaction means
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5. Why a wrist-watch?
 a large fraction of population is already
accustomed to wearing watches
 watches are less likely to be misplaced
with respect to phones, tablets or other
mobile platforms
 watches are more accessible than other
devices one may carry
 the wrist is ideally located for body
sensors and wearable displays
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6. Requirements
Context sensors on board Required
Body sensors on board Optional
Sound emitter and haptics Optional
Localization Optional
Wireless communication Required
Long-lasting battery life Required
Display Required
Touch-access (button) Required
Touch-access (touch screen) Optional
Aspect customization Optional, but typically wanted
Function customization Optional
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7. Reference (logical) architecture
Wrist watch
Environment
Visual Display
(alert / messages
Sound emitter Haptics Natural +
(alert / messages) (alert / feedback)
/ feedback) Interaction Users
(ubiquitous)
Body Sensors Context sensors
Communication Power
(health (gesture recognition, system system
monitoring) external conditions, ….)
Bi-directional Wireless
communication
AmI system
Communication
system
AmI
interfaces
(IHDs, etc.)
Sensors
(temperature, light,
presence, water, etc.) Home Intelligence
(learning, user profiling, reasoning, prediction,
Actuators etc.) Natural
(temperature, light, Interaction
presence, water, etc.)
(in-place)
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8. Implemented architecture
 Wrist-worn device
◦ programmable and cost-effective wrist-watch
by Texas Instruments (eZ430-Chronos)
 AmI system
◦ Domotic OSGi Gateway (Dog 2.3)
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9. eZ430-Chronos capabilities
Context sensors on board Required 3-axis accelerometer,
pressure and temperature
Body sensors on board Optional It supports external heart
rate monitors
Sound emitter and haptics Optional Buzzer
Localization Optional No
Wireless communication Required It supports the SimpliciTI
and the BlueRobin protocols
Long-lasting battery life Required Multiple days, depending on
the usage
Display Required 96-Segment LCD display
Touch-access (button) Required 4 buttons
Touch-access (touch screen) Optional No
Aspect customization Optional, but typically No
wanted
Function customization Optional Yes
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10. Wrist-watch implementation (I)
 A new firmware, in the C language, has
been developed
◦ http://elite.polito.it/files/releases/dWatch_RFB
SL.txt
 Client-server paradigm
◦ due to battery saving concerns, interactions
take place either on a sporadic basis (every
30, 60 or 180 seconds) or manually
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11. Wrist-watch implementation (II)
 New functionalities added
◦ message handling
◦ quick access command
◦ gestures (still under development!)
 Two main menus available to users
Qac
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12. Dog 2.3
 A software-based home gateway with
◦ high-level semantic device modeling
◦ driver architecture that allows to support
different technologies
 Open-source
 OSGi-compliant
 Website:
◦ http://domoticdog.sourceforge.net/
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13. TI Driver for Dog 2.3
 Added a driver for the eZ430-Chronos
watch
◦ to support the watch features (original and
implemented)
◦ to implement the server-side of the wireless
communication
◦ included in the online version of Dog
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14. Experimental results (I)
 Goal: evaluate the watch functions and
the possible adoption scenarios
 4 participants
◦ 2 females and 2 males (aged between 35-46)
◦ only one works in the computer science field
◦ all of them habitually wear a wrist watch
 During the evaluation, Dog sent to the
watch two different messages:
◦ a request to turn off a lamp
◦ a warning message
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15. Experimental results (II)
 Grade given to the watch: 3.5 (out of 5)
 Participants
◦ would use such a system both in their homes
and workplaces
◦ found the watch menus easy to navigate and
to use, but only after an initial explanation
◦ were interested in controlling their home
appliances with the watch
◦ would spend 20-40 euros to buy a watch with
such features
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16. Conclusions
 Presented requirements for a wrist-worn human-
home interface
 Proposed an initial, low-cost implementation based
on an off-the-shelf watch, and on open source
components
 Preliminary user test confirms the functionality of the
system and the viability of the approach
 Interesting aspects emerging from user testing involve
both the device price, and the wish to adopt the
watch both in the home and in the work environment
 This last observation confirms the unobtrusiveness of
the approach and fosters future investigation about
the possible uses of such a device
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17. Thank you for your attention!
Luigi De Russis
luigi.derussis@polito.it
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