Talk slides from UbiComp 2008 (Seoul, SK). Presented by Zachary Pousman and Mario Romero. The slides gives a brief technical overview of Tableau Machine, a curious mirror of domestic life and then details the results of three eight-week deployments of TM into homes in Atlanta, GA (USA). The householders found TM curious at first, but began to appreciate its strange and abstract statements and to form intimate attachments to the system over time.

1. Living with Tableau
Machine: A longitudinal
investigation of a curious
domestic intelligence
Zachary Pousman, Georgia Tech
Mario Romero, Georgia Tech
Adam Smith, UC Santa Cruz
Michael Mateas, UC Santa Cruz

2. Living with Tableau
Machine: A longitudinal
investigation of a curious
domestic intelligence
Zachary Pousman, Georgia Tech
Mario Romero, Georgia Tech
Adam Smith, UC Santa Cruz
Michael Mateas, UC Santa Cruz

3. Everyday domestic life
Capture it (Computer vision)
Interpret it (Artificial Intelligence)
Represent it (Generative Graphic Design, HCI)

4. Conversation, reflection

5. A mirror of life
&
A social ‘actor’

6. Say hello to Tableau Machine

7. Tableau Machine
System Implementation Overview

8. Tableau Machine
System Implementation Overview
Energy
Density
Flow

9. Tableau Machine
System Implementation Overview

10. Quiet times
(watching TV, reading...)

11. Active times alone
(vacuuming, exercising...)

12. Social times
(family meals, homework, games...)

13. Wild times
(play, fighting, parties...)

14. Investigating

15. Tableau Machine
Longitudinal Investigation
Household A
• Three households in Atlanta GA
• 6-8 weeks
• Elicitation techniques:
• Interviews
• Feltboard Household B
• Wordgame
• Print outs
• Broken (misconfigured) TM
Household C

16. The Broken TM Household A

17. The Broken TM Household A
Trajectory of Appreciation, Gaver et al. 2005

18. The Broken TM Household A
Trajectory of Appreciation, Gaver et al. 2005
“Natural Experiment”

19. Experiments
Andrew: No pictures are ever two the Household A
same. I’ve already tried to do that.
Waving at the cameras (kids)
Interviewer: Is that right? You tried to do
that? How did that work? Turning off and on lights
Andrew: ... So yeah, no, there was no one
else in the house. So I just sat right here
and I was just [he mimes holding still],
and I was looking at it and looking at it
and... Household C
But I could never get it, the same exact
image. ... Well that’s what I’m trying to Waving at the cameras (kids)
figure out, if it’s taking numbers, images, Wailing on the floor while mom
from [the cameras], then why is it not the watched from the dining room
same picture every time? You know?
Household A

20. Household C
‘NIKO’

21. Printing
Household B

22. Printing
Household A Average 1.46 / day
Household B Average 3.16 / day
Household C Average 12.64 / day

23. Deepening of
Reflection
Household C

24. (Hints of) Personality
Household C

25. Feelings of being watched
- All 3 Mothers changed behaviors
- Aloneness as privacy
Household A
Household B
Charlie: [pointing up] his spies...
Household C
Carla: Yeah, he calls it Niko and his spies.
Interviewer: Really, ‘Niko and his spies’?
Carla: Yeah.
Household C

26. Implications for Ubicomp design
Co-interpretation

27. Implications for Ubicomp design
Activity Recognition + Activity Characterization
Household Management Household life
Indoor Activities Outdoor Activities
Attribute you care about
Cleaning Yard work
Cooking Exterior maintenance
Attribute you care about

28. Implications for Ubicomp design
Activity Recognition + Activity Characterization
Household Management Household life
Indoor Activities Outdoor Activities
Attribute you care about
Cleaning Yard work
Cooking Exterior maintenance


Attribute you care about

29. Implications for Ubicomp design
Cameras in the home

30. Thanks! Questions?
We acknowledge the support of NSF
IIS-0752684. We also want to thank our
participant families, our advisors (John
Stasko and Gregory Abowd), draft readers,
reviewers and shepherd.
Zach Pousman : zach@cc.gatech.edu
Mario Romero : mromero@cc.gatech.edu