Sentient Computing For Innovation

Mobisys Seminar 02.12.08

Sentient Computing for Innovation
Understanding Organisational Behaviour through Pervasive Technology

Irene Lopez de Vallejo, PhD Candidate
i.vallejo@ucl.ac.uk
The Bartlett, Faculty of the Built Environment
UCL University College London


Initial considerations

• Sentient computing is the proposition that applications can
be made more responsive and useful by observing and
reacting to the physical world Andy Hopper, The Royal Society Clifford Paterson Lecture,1999
– Built Environment
– Inhabitants
• Innovation key form of organisational knowledge creation,
organisations create and define problems and actively
develop new knowledge to solve them Nonaka 1994
– Individual and collective employees expertise
– Building design


Key question

• How can location tracking systems contribute to
the understanding of informal face-to-face
interaction in the workplace?


Interaction, Knowledge Management and
Innovation

• Physical interaction key issues for
today’s firms
• To create and transfer knowledge
individuals need to interact
• Informal face-to-face interactions
essential for
– Trust building
– Flow of ideas
– Social relationships original context on the page: www.ikiw.org/category/interdisciplinary/


The other side of the coin: Solo work

• Get work done!
• Concentration vs communication
– Fluctuating desired levels of privacy and interaction
– Individual creativity
• Interruptions
– Stress levels
– Time famine
• Paradox of knowledge management
– Best transfers serendipitous, personal and private
– Best insights need periods of intense reflection combined exposure


Organisational and Design considerations

• Work context intense, fast, novel and collaborative
• Create processes, structures and environments that allow
and encourage individuals to interact to promote informal
knowledge transfer
• Face-to-face interaction is a mechanism
• Design a strategic tool to support emergent organisational
forms
– Adequate time and space for interaction
– Open spaces are more favourable


Pervasive technologies to measure interaction

• Current methods
– Static picture
– Self assesment and observations
• A new tool
– Indoor location tracking technologies
– Dynamic and long term view
• A real life deployment:
– Ultra-wideband RF technology: Nationwide pilot
project


Pervasive technologies to measure interaction

If you cannot measure it, you cannot manage it

• Current methods
– Static picture
– Self assessments and observations
• A new tool
– Indoor location tracking technologies
– Dynamic and long term view
• A real life deployment:
– Ultra-wideband RF technology
– Nationwide pilot project


A New Method to study interaction:
background

• L-T system calculate position
accuracy 15 cm, 48% time
• Spatial and social challenges
• Raw location dataset
– Noise
– Assumptions
– Definitions
– Mathematical Manipulation


A New Method to study interaction:
background
Can interaction be measured, understood and managed?

• L-T system calculate position
accuracy 15 cm, 48% time
• Spatial and social challenges
• Raw location dataset
– Noise
– Assumptions
– Definitions
– Mathematical Manipulation


Dealing with noise

• No noise free location technology
• Kalman filter
• Delete all XYZ = 0
• Delete entries Z < 0.5, > 2 metres
• Delete entries negative X and Y data points


Preliminary assumptions

• Set of events that exclude each other
• Each event has two states: ON and OFF
• Time line
– Organisation
• Spatial setting
– Deployment area


Definitions: events

• Solo
• Interaction
• Other
• Threshold value


Definitions: temporal factors

• Occurrence
• Recurrence
• Duration
• Interval

• Cycle
• Rhythms


Definitions: Spatial factors

• Cartesian coordinates
• Pre-allocarted zones
• Configuration of office space


Summary defintions and unit of analysis

Behaviour
Measures SOLO INTERACTION OTHER
PERSONAL  1 individual  2,3,4,5 and 6 individuals  Outside
SPACE  Aggregation of workforce  Aggregation of workforce deployment
 No trespassing personal  Overlapping of personal  Aggregation
bubble of 1.5 feet radius or bubbles for a minimum of workforce
overlapping of personal duration threshold value
bubbles of under 30 seconds of 30 seconds
TEMPORAL  Occurrence, recurrence, duration, period or cycle, interval and rhythm.
FACTORS
LOCATION  Cartesian coordinates (XYZ)
FACTORS  Pre-allocated zones1
 Configuration of office space


Mathematical manipulation
• Raw XYZ coordinates
NAME TIME AVERAGE_X AVERAGE_Y AVERAGE_Z DISTANCE SAMPLES
125 01-Jul-05 08:03:20 23.82 12.87 -0.11 1.26 1
Tag 016-000-002-125 01-Jul-05 08:03:20 23.87 12.85 1.39 1.31 1
Tag 016-000-002-125 01-Jul-05 08:03:21 24.50 12.89 1.54 1.24 2
125 01-Jul-05 08:03:22 24.55 12.86 -0.01 1.43 4
Tag 016-000-002-125 01-Jul-05 08:03:22 24.68 12.71 1.65 1.15 2
Tag 016-000-002-125 01-Jul-05 08:03:23 24.68 12.63 1.62 1.39 2

• Meaningful/relevant data

X Y Z No. people No. Seconds Minutes spent in interaction 2people 3people 4people
10.835 8.15 1.5 2 11 1 <=60 67 72 75
10.90667 9.066667 1.5 3 11 2 <=120 15 13 12
7.411667 9.245 0 6 11 3 <=180 6 5 4
11.34571 9.342857 0 7 11 4 <=240 3 2 2
11.596 9.726 0 5 11 5 <=300 2 1 1
11.51333 9.825556 0 9 11 6 <=360 1 1 1
10.675 10.205 1.5 2 11 7 <=420 1 1 1
10.44857 10.72714 1.5 7 11 8 <=480 1 1 0
13.54333 11.97 0 3 11 9 <=540 0 0 0
10 <=600 0 0 0
11 <=660 0 0 0
12 <=720 0 0 0
13 <=780 0 0 0


Visualisations


Q& perhaps some A

• Dynamic visualization of human behaviour in organisations
• Predictive model
• Location systems not the drivers
• Design and organisation studies

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