"Mobile usability lab"
A state-of-the art wearable (bearable:) video recording system, developed in the PASION project (EU FP6 Presence) to study mobile human-computer interaction. Tuomo Nyyssönen, perhaps the only expert in this field in Finland, was hired from Nokia Research Center to construct the system.
General goals:
- Rich data collection
- Easy post-trial data fusion
- Realtime quality control
- Flexibility
- Unobtrusiveness
- Longer operational duration.
Figure 1. The user (actually, Sauli). Carrying three cameras, wireless receiver, a quad, a recording device, and batteries.
Key improvements (in comparison to the previous generation system called ARMI, 2004):
- Environmental cameras can be utilized, switching takes place automatically on the fly based on signal strength
- Everything fits to a belt instead of a backpack (previously 4-5kgs)
- Longer operation (4 hours without battery change)
- Smaller cameras, better attachment mechanisms
- New industrial design for "the pole" (used to attach cameras to the mobile device), supporting different shapes and sizes
- Easier use of data (MPEG4, no digitization needed)
- More robust, may actually survive the extreme weather conditions of Finland
- Option for Bluetooth-triggered recording / shutdown events to save batterylife
- All system components fit two aluminium suitcases that can be easily carried to the site.
Figure 2. "The pole"
Figure 3. Environmental cameras. Can be static in the environment. Switching is based on signal strength, which basically means that the closest one is shooting.
Figure 4. The output data looks something like this (well, this one is blurred). Audio is included. In addition, the current version includes a frame counter.
Contact: Antti Oulasvirta, research scientist