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3
Pilot Studies: Lessons Learned
from Early Projects
We have conducted two pilot studies before the X’treme Prototype approach (see
Chapter 4) was shaped. The first study, the proactive furniture project, was mainly
technology-driven, whereas the second study, the wearable assistant for doctors,
was more user-centered. This chapter describes both studies in detail, highlights
the lessons learned of each study, and shows how these findings have impacted the
design of the X’treme Prototype approach.
3.1 Proactive Furniture
The starting point for this project was the quest for a driving application that could
illustrate the vision of ubiquitous computing and particularly the features of the
Smart-Its platform
[
Holmquist et al. 2004
]
. The Smart-Its platform is a micro-
processor based computing platform with various sensing capabilities and wireless
communication. The purpose of the proactive furniture project was the development
of a graspable showcase that makes use of the capabilities of the Smart-Its platform.
That is to say that right from the beginning, the project was clearly technology-
driven: Its goal was to find a problem where Smart-Its technology could provide a
clear benefit to the user. Furthermore, along with the vision of ubiquitous computing
[
Weiser 1991
]
the application should take place in an everyday environment.
The following sections show how the vision of integrating instructions into the ac-
tual furniture parts was addressed. This required a system with two capabilities:
Observing and guiding the user. Within the project, the feasibility of this approach
was shown by means of an ordinary flat-pack wardrobe. In Section 3.1.2 we show
how di erent states of the assembly can be sensed using integrated sensors. By
knowing the state of the assembly, instructions can be given to the user at any time.
In Section 3.1.3 we propose how these instructions can be presented to the user in
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