Sensor Networks or Smart Artifacts? - Ubicomp 2007

Sensor Networks or Smart Artifacts?
An Exploration of Organizational Issues of an
Industrial Health and Safety Monitoring System

Gerd Kortuem
David Alford
Linden Ball
Jerry Busby Computing Department
Nigel Davies Psychology Department
Christos Efstratiou Management School
Joe Finney
Marian Iszatt White
Katharina Kinder Lancaster University

What role can Ubiquitous Computing play?
Gerd Kortuem - Lancaster University - 2007 - kortuem@comp.lancs.ac.uk

Designing for People and Organizations The NEMO Project

Shareholders /
Legal & Government Agencies Society
Clients

Health & Safety Health & Safety Business Social
Regulations Compliance pressure pressure

Organization

Health and Safety System

Actors
Policies & Assessment
Rules Procedures

Management
Training Surveilance

Data
Equipment
Records Operative Supervisor

Designing for People and Organizations The NEMO Project

Technology
Design process
Challenges & lessons


NEMO Drill NEMO Dosimeter

all daily trigger tim
short-term exposu
Duration of use
exposure action).
(measured)

average daily expo
Vibration characteristics
(known for each equipment,
measured by manufacturer)

• Daily exposu
Soil condition
(assumed)

•Exposure exposu
Actual
Daily
?
A(8) is deﬁned as
Maximum Legal Exposure

Gerd Kortuem - Lancaster University - 2007 - kortuem@comp.lancs.ac.uk ahv = actual

Drill-Dosimeter pairing determined by proximity


Network node
Sensor component
Actuator component
( including displays)

Enterprise
System

In-Vehicle Intermittent
System communication

Figure 2: HAV monitoring system Figur

Gerd Kortuem - Lancaster University - 2007 - the NEMO system is to
A key issue for kortuem@comp.lancs.ac.uk ensure that vibra- on user input makes

Technology
‣ Design process
Challenges & lessons


Design process


Technology
Design process
‣ Challenges & lessons


Invisible Risks
Risk perception is poor

Lesson 1: Shift from H&S compliance to increasing awareness

Self-Image and Social Pressure
Safety equipment often not used

Lesson 2: Personal and social “invisibility” becomes key design goal

Past Experiences & Narratives
GPS had been experienced as surveillance technology

Lesson 3: Technology narrative should be part of the design

Developers’ Blind-spot

(a) Wider organizational aspects are perceived to be of low importance
(organizational culture, re-distribution of power, organizational disruption,
societal issues, privacy and security concerns)

(b) Even organizational issues that are considered to be of importance
often do not actually influence the design process

Günter, H., Grote, G. & Boos, D. (2006): Organizational issues in ubiquitous computing, Paper presented at 22nd EGOS
Colloquium, Bergen, July 06-08.
Boos, D., Günter., H., & Grote, G. (2007): Organizational issues, technological frames and the development of a new
ubiquitous computing prototype, Paper presented at 23nd EGOS Colloquium, Vienna, Austria, July 05-07.

Technology Archetypes
Developers view problem in light of well-known system models

Sensor network Smart artifacts
(sensing + data) (interaction)

Technology Archetypes
Different system models imply different H&S solutions

Enterprise
Management
System

Personal
Exception Health &
reports Safety
Record
Health &
Safety Rules

Data logs Feedback

Operative's Context-sensitive
Automatic behavior notices
data capture Operatives'
behavior

Operatives

Sensor-network Smart-artifact
inspired H&S system inspired H&S system
(top-down) (bottom-up)

Sensor Network Smart Artifact

Risk perception unchanged increased

Trust in rules unchanged increased

Intelligibility
low high
(information awareness)

Surveillance increased unchanged

Provable compliance supported not supported

Well intentioned rule
more difficult unchanged
violations

Rule formulation more rigid more rigid

Behavior-based safety not supported supported


Display Matters
Unit w/o display was perceived as surveillance technology

Sensor-network Smart-artifact
inspired H&S system inspired H&S system

Behavior-based Safety
Operatives as source of expertise and behavioral change

Personal
Personal
Health &
Health &
Safety
Safety
Record
Record

behavior notices
behavior notices

Collaborative safety


Points to Take Home

• Industrial workplace is opportunity for ubicomp
• Design process must investigate organizational context
• Architecture is not neutral


Thank You
Gerd Kortuem
kortuem@comp.lancs.ac.uk
http://www.comp.lancs.ac.uk/nemo


• James Brown, Joe Finney, Christos Efstratiou, Ben Green, Nigel Davies,
Mark Lowton and Gerd Kortuem. Network Interrupts: Supporting Delay
Sensitive Applications in Low Power Wireless Control Networks. CHANTS
2007.
• Efstratiou, C., Davies, N., Kortuem, G. Finney, J., Hooper, R., and Lowton,
M. Experiences of Designing and Deploying Intellignent Sensor Nodes to
Monitor Hand-Arm Vibrations in the Field. Proceedings of MobiSys 2007,
San Juan, Puerto Rico, June, 2007
• Iszatt White, M. Catching Them At It? An Ethnography of Rule Violation.
Symposium on Current Developments in Ethnographic Research in the
Social and Management Sciences. 13th-14th September 2006. Liverpool,
UK.
• Busby, J. and Iszatt-White, M. Pushing the Boundaries of HRO. Thinking:
Non-complex and Uncoupled but still Deadly. SRA Annual Meeting - Risk
Analysis in a Dynamic World: Making a Difference, 3rd-4th December
2006. Baltimore, Maryland
• Davies, N., Efstratiou, C., Finney, J., Hooper, R., Kortuem G., Lowton, M.
Sensing Danger – Challenges in Supporting Compliance in the Field. 8th
IEEE Workshop on Mobile Computing Systems and Applications
(HotMobile 2007), Tucson, Arizona, February, 2007
• Lowton M. and Finney, J. Finding NEMO: On the Accuracy of Inferring
Location in IEEE 802.15.4 Networks. Proceedings Workshop on Real-World
Wireless Sensor Networks (RealWSN 2006), Uppsala, Sweden June 2006.


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