"We are approaching a stage in our research where we can bring those tools out of our labs into use by others" with Kristina Höök

Added value and functionality will be provided by the patterns formed by the massive amounts of data many users generate, but also through making many systems connected with new forms of social media. We already see many applications that combine sensors and actuators interacting directly with end-users, connecting to the cloud and cloud services, opening a whole space of possibilities for consumer-oriented applications: Kinect tracks your bodily movements, there are accelerometers integrating in shoes from Nike, FitBits from Philips collecting movement, pulse meters from Polar check your pulse, Runkeeper keeps track of your jogging. As these applications start thriving on the data generated by thousands of users, we truly shift into Internet of Things for consumers. This begs the question: what are the desirable consumer-oriented Internet of Things applications we should be building?

Activities in the world form a digital shadow. Sharing data in social media is a first step towards using IoT-technology. But the interaction may also go in the other direction: places we are at or artefacts we carry may now carry richer experiences and functions building on the data users have shared – either in small friendship groups or anonymously with many people: the sport-app makes us better skier based on movement patterns from elite skiers, feedback from your body can be used to meditate and relax – right here, right now. The digital will cast its shadow on things, artefacts and places. IoT creates for a two-way window between our physical world and the digital cloud media and apps.

Areas were relatively few are developing or doing research on IoT-applications is in entertainment and consumer-oriented applications: play, games, social media, entertainment, sports, or well-being applications. The funding from SRA TNG has allowed us to deep-dive into this area. We have worked on creating tools, methods and platforms that allow us to quickly mould these IoT-materials into applications that we and participants in our studies can experience, interact with and step by step bring into interactions that make sense and are fun to use. We are approaching a stage in our research where we can bring those tools out of our labs into use by others - designers and companies.