1. The paper discusses a study of internet usage patterns in 86 Belgian homes to understand how device usage has evolved over time based on location and activity. 2. The study found that computing has spread beyond traditional locations like desks and is now common in new areas like kitchens and bathrooms. Usage varies by location, time of day, and activity. 3. The findings provide insights into how user preferences and context drive device selection for different activities and locations in the home. This informs the design of future home computing applications.

1. Home Computing Unplugged:
Why, Where and When People Use Different Connected Devices at Home
Fahim Kawsar A. J. Brush
Bell Labs Microsoft Research

2. Research Objective
Understanding Residential Network Activity
What devices people use to engage with what kind of Internet Activities and why?
How Location and Time influence the device use and why?
When and how frequently households engage with what kind of activities?
Can we find homophily across households based on their Internet activities?
Can we predict households Internet activities?

3. Smart Pricing with Sponsored Content

4. Collective Measure
Network Resource Planning

5. COPYRIGHT © 2012 ALCATEL-LUCENT. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Business Intelligence for Service Opportunities

6. ?? ubicomp...
Informed Design of Future Home Computing

7. What devices people use to engage with what kind of Internet Activities and why?
How Location and Time influence the device use and why?
Research Objective
Understanding Residential Network Activity

8. Kraut et. al. “The HomeNet Field Trial of Residential Internet
Services.” Communications of the ACM 1996
Brush et. al. “Yours, Mine and Ours? Sharing and Use of Technology in
Domestic Environments.” UbiComp 2007
Woodruff et. al. “Portable, but Not Mobile: A Study of Wireless
Laptops in the Home.” Pervasive 2007
What We learnt in the past...

9. Study Methodology
Online Survey
Semi-Structured
Interview
Internet Activity
Log

10. Internet Activity Log
What are the most popular internet activities in the home? Is there a temporal pattern?

11. Dataset : Project LeYLab
In-Home Internet Activity Traces
Living Lab for Fiber based Services in the City of Kortrijk, Belgium.
ALU 7750 Service Router with Report and Analysis Manager (RAM) was used in the backbone.
86 Households
75 Applications
60 Days
9288000 Data Points

12. Web Communication
Web Activity
Types
Online Gaming
Web Browsing
File Sharing
Online Shopping
Video Watching
Home Working
Semantically identical applications were grouped together into 8 distinct Activity Types and most
popular 6activities were selected for subsequent study.
This selection was based on a combination of accumulated network traffic, frequency, duration and
temporal regularity
Social Networking
Application to Activity Mapping

13. Accumulated activity footprint of a representative household, activity is spread through out
the day, with higher engagements during the later hours.
Family Activity Trajectory
Time of the Day
NoofDays
0
5
10
15
20
25
6 AM 8 AM 10 AM 12 PM 2 PM 4 PM 6 PM 8 PM 10 PM 12 AM 2 AM 4 AM
Web Communication
Soical Networking
Online Gaming
Home Working
Online Shopping
Video Watching

14. Online Survey
What devices people own, and how these devices are used for the most popular internet
activities in the home?

15. 55the number of families
189 the number of family members
53%
male
72%
19-55 Years
Gender Generation
19-55
< 18
> 55
Survey Demographics
One Survey per Family
Device Ownership
Activity - Device Dynamics
Survey Coverage

16. Response : Device Ownership
7
Laptop
89%
64%
36%
6
Tablet
67%
29%
71%
5
Smart Phone
65%
90%
10%
>
Game Console
38%
33%
67%
:
IPTV
69%
28%
72%
5
iPod Touch
35%
83%
17%
Personal
Shared
8
Desktop PC
51%
56%
44%
Penetration
Response : Activity Device Dynamics
8
7
6
5
>
:
5
0 50 100 150 200
Web Communication
Social Networking
Online Gaming
Home Working
Online Shopping
Video Watching
PC
Laptop
Tablet
Smart Phone
Game Console
IPTV
iPod Touch
Frequency Count

17. Semi-Structured Interview
What devices people use to engage with what kind of Internet Activities and why?
How Location and Time influence the device use and why?

18. 18
the number of families
62 the number of family members
55%
female
52%
19-55 Years
Gender Generation
19-55
< 18
> 55
Demographics
Interview Stages
Demographic Questionnaire
Sketching Exercise
Semi-Structured Discussion
Home Tour

19. Contextual Factors
Semi-Structured Discussion
Time
Location
Screen Size
Portability
Interaction
Always On
Usability
Application
File System
Physical Setting
Communality
Multi-Tasking
Activity Who
Which
Devices
Why
Past 30 days Activity
Trajectory of the Family
Device Context Software Context Usage Context

20. 8
7
6
5
5
0 4 8 12 16 20
Primary
Secondary
Tertiary
PC
Laptop
Tablet
Smart Phone
iPod Touch
Frequency Count
Communality
Application
Factors
Device
Context
Software
Context
Usage
Context
Laptop
Tablet
Smart Phone
iPod Touch
Desktop PC 8
7
6
5
5
0 10 20 30 40 50
Screen Size
Portability
Interaction
Always On
Usability
Application
File System
Physical Setting
Communality
Multitasking
Relationship between
Device Preference and
Selection Reasons
p < 0.001
Frequency Count
Social Network - Device Dynamics
Multitasking

21. “I do all my social networking on my iPad in the evening with my wife while she
is in the kitchen preparing dinner or watching TV in the living room. Definitely I
hear less complaints for not spending time with her (smiling...).”
- Husband, Age:33

22. 8
7
6
5
:
5
0 3 6 9 12 15
Online Video Watching - Device Dynamics
Device
Context
Software
Context
Usage
Context
Frequency Count
Communality
Multitasking
PortabilityFactors
Screen Size
Portability
Interaction
Application
Physical Setting
Communality
Multitasking
8
7
6
5
:
5
0 8 16 24 32 40
Relationship between
Device Preference and
Selection Reasons
p < 0.001
PC
Laptop
Tablet
Smart Phone
IPTV
iPod Touch
Primary
Secondary
Tertiary
PC
Laptop
Tablet
Smart Phone
IPTV
iPod Touch
Frequency Count

23. “I spent a lot of time watching recipes on YouTube, especially while cooking in
the kitchen. I usually use my Tablet, I like its size, easy to handle..”
- Wife, Age:31

24. Web Communication
Web Activity
Types
Online Gaming
Web Browsing
File Sharing
Online Shopping
Video Watching
Home Working
Social Networking
The paper discusses the dynamics between other web activities and devices.

25. How Location and Time influence the device use and why?

26. Living Room
Bedroom
Kitchen
Home Office
Bathroom
0 16 32 48 64 80
Web Communication
Social Networking
Online Gaming
Home Working
Online Shopping
Video Watching
Frequency Count
Spatial Dynamics
Kitchens and bathrooms, rare or non-existent locations for computing in the past, are now
common for several activities.
Most of the bedroom computing (gaming and video) is done by teenagers and young adults.
Bathroom is more popular than Bedroom for Social Networking.
8%
8%
9%
26% 20%
17%
12%
Living Room
Desktop PC Laptop Tablet Smart Phone Game Console IPTV iPod Touch
16%
2%
2%
36% 18%
16%
11%
BedRoom
6%
5%
2%
40% 27%
18%
2%
Kitchen
41%
18%
23%
18%
Home Office
23%
50%
27%
Bath Room

27. “I usually do my Facebooking in the Bathroom, good use of my time (smiling..)
and sometimes I watch videos there too ...”
- Only Son, Age:16

28. Online Gaming shows interesting patterns.
Social Networking was not dominant activity through out the day.
Strong Engagement with Online Shopping and Video Watching is observed during the late
part of the day.
Temporal Dynamics
Morning
Noon
After Noon
Evening
Night
Late Night
0 16 32 48 64 80
Web Communication
Social Networking
Online Gaming
Home Working
Online Shopping
Video Watching
Frequency Count
(06:00 - 11:59)
(12:00 - 13:59)
(14:00 - 16:59)
(17:00 - 19:59)
(20:00 - 22:59)
(23:00 - 12:59)

30. The Transformation of Desktop PC

31. Activity First, Device Next

32. The Role of Applications

33. Less Contention, More Personal Space

34. Summary
1
2
3
We offered a reflection on how connected devices are used in home, and how their usage dynamics has
evolved over the years based on a mixed method study on 86 Belgium homes.
We offered a set of design implications for future home computing applications by uncovering some of
the facts that drives users preference for selecting specific device.
Our findings highlight the way home computing has truly become unplugged, leaving behind the few
favoured places in the home where people used technology in the past to spread out throughout the
home into new locations.

35. Thank You
Fahim Kawsar
@raswak
eMail: fahim.kawsar@alcatel-lucent.com
A. J. Brush
eMail: ajbrush@microsoft.com