Connecting Families by Sharing the Minutiae of their Lives

Presented By: Poornima Hanumara

Supervisor: Dr. Lorcan Coyle

( www.NearDear.org )

• Typical family is geographically distributed.

• Parents want to keep in touch.

• Children want to ensure older parents are safe and healthy.

• Social networking tools are locked behind complex web interfaces.

• Not everyone in the family has familiarity and availability of these tools.

• Children always online.

• Elder parents rarely, if ever, online.

• Display information at a glance.

• Unobtrusive.

• Easy to use (mostly, just glancing at or hearing them!)

Chumby

Whereabouts Clock Digital Photo-frame

Two steps

• Parents get Twitter updates from children on Chumby.

• Parents update Twitter through Chumby without having to log onto the internet.

Poornima is having fun cliffwalking in Bray.

Other Sensors-

• Pressure pads.

• Sensors in AC ducts to detect movement.

• Bluetooth sensors.

(http://crypt.ucd.ie/poornima/mypage.php)

(http://.crypt.ucd.ie/poornima/odysseus/grouphome.php)

• Uploading widgets to chumby.com.

• User ratings, comments and feedback on chumby.com for the widget.

• Pilot user survey with six Chumby users in UCD.

• Facebook group advertising the chumby widget.

• Sending out user surveys to facebook group members.

• Other sensors in homes to send updates to social networking sites.

• Home security alarm to send alerts in case of emergency.

• Whereabouts clock on Chumby.

• (Your suggestions go here!!)

• E-mail your suggestions to poornimah2000@gmail.com.