Tatsuo Nakajima presents research on designing ambient persuasive expressions to motivate desirable lifestyles. The research aims to change behaviors through subtle feedback displayed on ambient displays, like aquariums or pictures, based on passive observation of behaviors through smart objects. Case studies include a virtual aquarium that provides positive feedback like dancing fish when toothbrushing well, and negative feedback like a dirty aquarium for poor brushing. A second case uses a Mona Lisa bookshelf that remains beautiful and whole for cleaning public spaces and deteriorates without such actions. User studies found these ambient displays successfully motivated sustained behaviors.

1. Designing Ambient Persuasive Expressions
to Mo6vate Desirable Lifestyle
Tatsuo Nakajima
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Waseda University
Distributed and Ubiquitous Compu3ng Lab.
• Sen6ent Ar6facts
– Embedding intelligence in daily objects.
• AwareMirror(Pervasive 2005), FedNet(Ubicomp 2008)
• Persuasive Technologies
– How to change human behavior to change the user’s undesirable
habits ?
• Virtual Aquarium, Mona Liza Bookshelf(DIS 2008), EcoIsland
• Mobile Interac6on
– How to interact on mobile devices ?
• Vidgets(ICMI 2005), UbiPay
• Mobility‐oriented pedestrian naviga6on(Mobiquitous 2008)
• SoYware Infrastructure for Complex Embedded Systems
– How to build complex smart appliances ?
• Mul6 personali6es/Real‐6me/Parallelism/Reliability/Dynamic Quality Control)
2

2. Distributed and Ubiquitous Compu3ng Lab.
3
Research Mo3va3on
• Our daily lives become more complex and stressful, and we
like to use our 6me for more exi6ng ac6vi6es because our
daily lives become busier every year!!
– Commu6ng, Working, Finding something, Paper work, Many boring
mee6ng
• Some ac6vi6es do not return appropriate feedback quickly to
mo6vate to do the ac6vi6es!! It is not easy to mo6vate these
ac6vi6es.
– Health, Sustainability, Cleaning in public spaces
• Public spaces and facili6es tend
to deteriorate quickly in a process
called the tragedy of the common.
– Garrea Hardin, Science, 1968
• Our approach mo6vates to do
these daily ac6vi6es by reflec6ng
a user’s current behavior
on ambient displays.

3. Recent Lifestyle in Urban Areas
In the morning and evening of Tokyo
Ambient Lifestyle Feedback System
for BeDer Lifestyle
Daily Ac6vi6es
Aquarium, Picture, Foliage
plant
Beaer Lifestyle

4. Basic Framework
• Interac(on Management
(Passive observa(on)
– Smart daily objects
• Persuasive Expression
(Ambient Feedback)
– Aquarium, Picture,
Foliage plant
• Feedback Control(Emo(onal Engagement)
– Posi(ve reinforcement: encouraging a user’s behavior by providing a
favourable s6mulus in response to it
– Nega(ve reinforcement: encouraging a user’s behavior by removing an averse
s6mulus in response to it
– Posi(ve punishment: disencouraging a user’s behavior by providing an averse
s6mulus in response to it
– Nega(ve punishment: disencouraging a user’s behavior by removing a
favourable s6mulus in response to it
Case Study 1: Virtual Aquarium
Personal Well‐being
• Toothbrushing…
– It is important for our health lives.
• In the morning and evening
• Everyday
• Sufficient amount of 6me
– But, brushing is not usually fun
• Give up to brush a sufficient amount of 6me.
• Skipping to brush a user’s tooth
• The advantage of our approach
– The 6me for tooth brushing will be more pleasurable
– It support to con6nue to brush a user’s tooth.

5. Immediate Feedback
Accumulated Feedback
Basic Design Decisions
• Persuasive Expressions
– Metaphor
• Cleanness: Aquarium and Teeth
– Psychological Incen6ves
• Dancing fishes, Glowing fishes.
• Feedback Control
– Immediate feedback
• Posi6ve: Dancing, Nega6ve: Dirty Aquarium
– Accumulated feedback
• Posi6ve: Growing, Nega6ve: Sickness
• Interac6on Management
– Automa6c Sensing(Wireless sensors)

6. Virtual Aquarium: User Study
• Some comments from users
– It is natural to put a virtual aquarium in a lavatory.
– The miss of sensors frustrate players. Players feel disgust at
no response even though they are doing tooth brushing well.
– When a user could not brush his teeth at home, he was
frustrated by having to neglect the system.
– Families became interested to see the status of the aquarium
and this mo6vate to con6nue to play
the game.
– For almost of users, the existence of
the aquarium becomes unconscious.
– Users feel that their tooth become
clean if the aquarium is clean up
Case Study 2: Mona Lisa Bookshelf
Well‐Organized Public Space
Public bookshelf or toilet tend
to deteriorate quickly in a process
called the tragedy of the common
Garrea Hardin, Science, 1968
Public space management:
Cleaning, Energy Saving

7. Immediate Feedback
Accumulated Feedback
Basic Design Decision
• Persuasive Expressions
– Metaphor
• Beauty: Bookshelf and Mona Lisa
– Psychological Incen6ves
• Young/old Mona Lisa, Broken pictures
• Feedback Control
– Immediate feedback
• Nega6ve: Missing pieces, Unordered Picture
– Accumulated feedback
• Posi6ve: Young, Nega6ve: Old
• Interac6on Management
– Automa6c Sensing(Visual Tags)

8. Case Study 4: EcoIsland
Social Collabora3on for Sustainability
• Sustainability is important in our current daily life.
• EcoIsland encourages users to save our environments
by less energy consuming ac6vi6es.
• Using economical and social concepts as incen6ve.

9. Basic Design Decision
• Persuasive Expression
– Metaphor: Sinking a user’s family’s island.
• Feedback Control
– Social incen6ves
• Coopera6on with a family and compe66on with other families
– Economical incen6ves
• EcoPoint: Decora6ng island with virtual goods
– Acquiring EcoPoint by desirable sustainable behavior.
– Acquiring EcoPoint by emission trading.
• Interac6on Management
– Need to Monitor Various ac6vi6es
– User repor6ng
EcoIsland: User Study
• Six Japanese families: 20 persons, age 15‐58, male 12, female 8.
– First week: only one member uses EcoIsland.
– Second week: all members use EcoIsland.
• Surveying ques6onnaire asking behavior modifica6on.
• Some User’s Comments
– Sinking island contributes to change their behavior.
– EcoPoint encourages a user to decorate his/her island.
• Does not encourage intrinsic mo6va6on.
– Emission trading is not effec6ve in a short‐term study.
– 5 out of 6 families reported more ac6ons in the second week.
– Speech bubbles are not useful because texts in the bubbles are too
small to read.
– A list used for repor6ng is useful to know which ac6vi6es are effec6ve
for reducing CO2 emission.

10. Making the Meaning of
Ambient Persuasive Expression
• Choosing a presenta6on metaphor is important.
– Does a user need to learn the meaning of metaphors ?
• The meaning should be understood easily.
– Clean aquarium and teeth
– Well‐organized Mona Lisa and bookshelf
• Incen6ves sa6sfying human needs.
– Shapes that come with pre‐aaached meanings are more capable
of evoking emo6onal engagement.
Physical incen6ves
•
Psychological Incen6ves
•
Social Incen6ves
•
Economical Incen6ves
•
• Ambient or Remarkable
– Need to be ambient, but persuasive
Feedback Control
• Balancing posi6ve and nega6ve feedback
– Boring and Helplessness
• Two levels of Feedback Control
– Short‐term feedback
• Using various incen6ves
– Long‐term feedback
• Showing short‐term and long‐term goals.
• Showing the effec6veness of behavior modifica6on
• Changing feedback strategies according to each
phases on behavior modifica6on.
– Changing the balance of posi6ve and nega6ve feedbacks.
– Developing Intrinsic and extrinsic mo6va6on.

11. Interac3on Management
• Explicit interac6on to specify a user’s ac6vi6es by her.
– High value incen6ves are necessary to let a user to no6fy which
ac6vity she is doing now.
– A user needs to concentrate to no6fy her ac6vi6es.
• Lightweight interac6on is necessary.
– It is not easy to analyze human behavior implicitly
and completely.
• How to balance between implicit and explicit interac6on ?
– We need to consider the balance between implicit and explicit
interac6on.
• How to avoid a user’s chea6ng sensors ?
– It is also important to give incen6ves not cheat sensors.
• Explaining the Important to achieve the goal and to change
undesirable habits.
Adding End‐User Configurability
• Persuasive systems will be used in different situa6ons and
cultures.
– Sensing and presenta6ons can be changed by end‐users without knowing
technical issues and long 6me learning.
• A common infrastructure is necessary to develop configurable
persuasive systems easily.
– A feeling to use the system easily is more important than actual usability.
– Document‐based configurable middleware(Ubicomp 2008).
– Social networks are also important infrastructures for suppor6ng co‐
crea6on.
• The persuasiveness will become more strong if a user has
empathy on persuasive expressions.
– Virtual Pets, Friends and families’ photos.
– A user defined persuasive expressions.

12. Other Ongoing Ac3vi3es
• Pervasive Deployment
– Using pervasive displays in public spaces to show
feedback informa6on and integra6ng with
adver6sements.
– Using the systems without learning how to use them.
• Moral/Cultural Effects
– Is it acceptable to change a user’s behavior ?
Thank you!!
Ta suo Nakajjima
tatsuo@dcl.info.waseda.ac.jp