Feburary 2005 The Aware Home Research Initiative Bi-Annual Newsletter In this Newsletter: The Aware Home Gets a Facelift ASSETS 2004 Attendees Visit Visit by Executives from TTI Vanguard Group New Faculty Members! Recent News Partnerships Contact Molly Stevens, mollymel@cc.gatech.edu, 404-786-8119 if you have any questions about the contents of this newsletter. The Aware Home Gets a Facelift After two years of faculty, graduate students, visitors and participants, the Aware Home was ready for a change. The growth in both research and reputation was the catalyst for the transformation from graduate student lab to a true home lab. The house now tells the story of two families: Grandma Sue, who lives alone on the first floor; and the Burdell Family, her son and his wife and daughter, who live on the second floor. With these overlapping, yet distinct stories the researchers at the Aware Home can envision everyday life in their research and show this to visitors. We hope that you take some time to visit the house for a tour and learn more about our current projects! The Aware Home Living Room after the facelift. ASSETS Conference Visit The 2004 SIGCAPPH Conference, titled ASSETS, was held at the Georgia Tech Conference Center from October 18-20, 2004. The Aware Home was delighted to invite all attendees over to our newly refreshed home. Approximately 70 researchers, students and practitioners from the USA and international locations were able to tour the house and view a variety of demonstrations. Projects demonstrated that evening included, BlinkI, Digital Family Portrait, the Aware Chair, American Sign Language Tutor and the Memory Mirror, just to mention a few. Check out the photos below to see some of the visitors from ASSETS.

Visitors talk with Thad Starner, AHRI faculty member.

A demonstration of the American Sign Language Tutor is shown and described to a group of ASSETS visitors.

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TTI Vanguard
On December 1st the Aware Home was included in a special visit by senior business executives from the group TTI Vanguard. Members of this group included executives from the USA and international groups who typically meet 5 times a year to stimulate ideas and generate breakthough thinking on technology issues.

The Aware Home had several goals in mind as we welcomed these visitors. First we wanted to illustrate the research goals of the Aware Home, our focus on “How can your home help?” and secondarily on “Aging In Place.” Secondly, we sought questions and feedback about our projects from the diverse perspectives of the participants. Finally, we just wanted to show off all the hard work that our faculty and students have done in the recent past.

The Aware Home gave tours to nearly 75 visitors with diverse interests and backgrounds. The questions were stimulating and the energy was electric. Success!

TTI Vanguard executives listen to Dr. Elizabeth Mynatt's demonstration of the Digital Family Portrait.

Dr. Gregory Abowd demonstrates the system to monitor
therapy for children with autism.

TTI Vanguard visitors get comfortable to hear the demonstration of the Blood Glucose Monitor system.

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New Faculty Members!
The Aware Home has been very fortunate to welcome Keith Edwards and Rebecca Grinter as the newest faculty members from the College of Computing to join the Aware Home team. Keith and Rebecca were transplanted from the Palo Alto Research Center (formerly Xerox PARC) in late 2004.

Keith brings a passion for ubiquitous computing, multi-modal interfaces and human centric technology systems, to name a few. To read more about him, go to : http://www.cc.gatech.edu/~keith/.

Rebecca has focused on “the application of empirical methods to broaden understanding of human action and interaction with and through computer systems. ” To read more about her, go to: http://www.cc.gatech.edu/~beki/.

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Recent News
• The Aware Home is featured in GEMC Georgia magazine, January 2005 issue, "Aging in Place: Georgia Tech's Aware Home helps keep elderly in touch, " on p. 34.

• Dr. Rebecca Grinter published an article on usability and security in the Journal of Personal and Ubiquitous Computing.
Dourish, P., Grinter, R. E., Delgado de la Flor, J. and M. Joseph (2004) "Security in the Wild: User Strategies for Managing Security as an Everyday, Practical Problem." Journal of Personal and Ubiquitous Computing. 8(6) 391-401.

• Jessica Paradise presented the paper, "Designing a cognitive aid for the home: a case-study approach," co-authored with Aware Home Director Associate Professor Elizabeth D. Mynatt, Cliff Williams and John Goldthwaite, Georgia Tech senior research scientist at ASSETS '04.

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Partnerships
The Aware Home is seeking industrial partners in our expanding research endeavors. If you would like to hear more about any of these projects, visit the Aware Home or speak directly with someone about the home, please contact Molly M. Stevens, mollymel@cc.gatech.edu or 404-786-8119.