Fair Seed

Fair Seed is a long-term project that aims to provide a knowledge basis on human needs in ubiquitous computing for businessmen, designers and researchers eager to create ubiquitous systems useful and appropriate for the general public worldwide, based on medical and psycho-social research. This project was started in April 2003 to favor significant benefits of ubiquitous technologies for most individuals and societies, and led to the start of the 家族支援 (Family Support) project.

So far, the project has involved 6 experts, which led to 3 newspaper articles in France and Japan, to 4 seminars worldwide, to 1 scientific publication in a Japanese journal, to 10 talks at international conferences, and to 4 talks at Japanese conferences. You will find below a description of the project team, an outline of our progress, and an overview of our dissemination process.

Ubiquitous computing covers concepts such as intelligent environments and wearable computing. For an introduction about wearable computing, read the interview of 板生清 (ITAO Kiyoshi) ウェアラブル・コンピューティングの未来を研究する大学教授 (in Japanese).

 

Project Team

Current members

The current team includes two students and two full-time researchers:

Former contributors

Two additional researchers contributed to Fair Seed:

Progress

We first investigated universal human needs in ubiquitous computing to provide a strong backbone to our research, and notably considered the works of the psychologist Abraham Maslow because of his humanistic and holistic approach. In brief, Maslow showed that humans are motivated by a hierarchy of basic needs (by decreasing potency: physiological, safety, belonging, esteem, and self-actualization needs) that appear universal but are expressed differently depending on e.g. cultures and environments. We showed that this hierarchy currently matches the general public's preferences for the creation and use of enhanced clothes, based on informal interviews and self-completion questionnaires in France and Japan. For instance, health monitoring is valued but some services based on artificial intelligence and emotional mirrors are rejected because of perceived physical or social dangers. Patterns are similar in France and Japan but quantitative variations emerge. Case-studies with enhanced jackets clarified the results.

Then we investigated the human diversity to complement our model, and started with age specificities because most prototypes are being designed only for healthy young adults. We discussed the characteristics of young people and older adults, and showed that wearable computers can satisfy the needs emerging from their specific cognitive, emotional, physical, physiological, sensory and social characteristics. Besides, we showed that their wearable computers require dedicated designs.

In the coming years, we will refine our works, detail gender and cultural issues, extend our work to intelligent environments, and validate our theories with systems in several countries (possibly France, Japan, South Korea, and the United States of America).

Dissemination

Newspapers

[3] 人と出会うと画面変わる、コミュニケーションする服 (Display changes on first encounter, a garment that communicates). 日経産業新聞, Japan. 13 November 2007. p11
[2] Interview de la semaine: Sébastien Duval ex-étudiant en réalité virtuelle à Laval, docteur en informatique au Japon (Interview of the week: Sébastien Duval, former student in virtual reality in Laval, PhD in information science in Japan). Le Courrier de la Mayenne, France. 4 May 2006. p8
Read published article (HTML)
[1] Il planche sur les vêtements intelligents (He works on smart clothing). Ouest-France, Laval, France. 29-30 April 2006. p6

Seminars

[4] Needs in Wearable Computing: a User-centred Approach. , 東京 (Tokyo), Japan. October 2007.
[3] General Public's Needs in Ubiquitous Computing: Design Based on Psychology, Culture and Age. , 서울 (Seoul), South Korea. September 2007.
[2] Fundamental Needs in Wearable Computing. , Seattle, USA. August 2005.
[1] Cyber-vêtements et Réalité Virtuelle au Japon (Cyberclothes and Virtual Reality in Japan). , Angers, France. December 2004.

National Journals

[1] Duval S., 橋爪宏達 (Hashizume H.) (2005) ウェアラブル・コンピュータ受容のための基本的要件、初対面の自分紹介機能を例として (Satisfying Fundamental Needs With Wearables: Focus on Face-To-Face Communication). 日本バーチャルリアリティ学会論文誌 (Transactions of the Virtual Reality Society of Japan), 10:4, 495-504. ISSN 1344-011X,
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International Conferences

[10] Duval S., Hoareau C., 橋爪宏達 (Hashizume H.) (2008) Fundamental Needs in Intelligent Environments: Specificities for Older Adults. 22nd International Conference on Advanced Information Networking and Applications, in press.
Download available from 28 March 2008
[9] Duval S., 藤澤弘美子 (Fujisawa K.), 橋爪宏達 (Hashizume H.) (2007) Fundamental Needs in Wearable Computing: Specificities for Young People. 2nd International Conference on Convergence Information Technology, 1326-1333. ISBN 0-7695-3038-9,
Download or published version at IEEE (V1.00 as PDF)
[8] Duval S., 橋爪宏達 (Hashizume H.) (2007) Fundamental Needs in Wearable Computing: Constraints on Features & Universal Access. 10th Symposium on Analysis, Design, and Evaluation of Human-Machine Systems.
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[7] Duval S., 橋爪宏達 (Hashizume H.) (2007) Fundamental Needs in Wearable Computing: Specificities for the Third Age. 9th Virtual Reality International Conference, 155-158. ISBN 2-9515730-6-5.
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[6] Duval S., 橋爪宏達 (Hashizume H.) (2006) Questions to Improve Quality of Life with Wearables: Humans, Technology, and the World. 1st International Conference on Hybrid Information Technology, 227-236. ISBN 0-7695-2674-8,
Download or published version at IEEE (V1.00 as PDF)
[5] Duval S., 橋爪宏達 (Hashizume H.), Andrès F. (2006) First Evaluation of Enhanced Jackets' Potential to Support First Encounters with Photo Slideshows and Emotional Displays. 8th Virtual Reality International Conference (aka Laval Virtual), 75-84. ISBN 2-9515730-5-7.
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[4] Duval S., 橋爪宏達 (Hashizume H.), Richard N. (2006) Physiological, Safety, and Belonging Needs: From Wearable Computers to Intelligent Environments. 1st International Symposium on Intelligent Environments, 85-93. ISBN 1-59971-529-5.
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[3] Duval S., 橋爪宏達 (Hashizume H.)(2005) Perception of Wearable Computers for Everyday Life by the General Public: Impact of Culture and Gender on Technology. 2nd International Conference on Embedded and Ubiquitous Computing, 826-835. ISBN 3-540-30807-5,
Download or published version at Springer (V1.00 as PDF)
[2] Duval S., 橋爪宏達 (Hashizume H.) (2005) Cyberclothes: Personal Media in Everyday Life. 3rd International Conference on Active Media Technology, 44-47. ISBN 0-7803-9035-0, .
Download or published version at IEEE (V1.00 as PDF)
[1] Duval S., 橋爪宏達 (Hashizume H.) (2005) Acceptance and Expectations for Cyberclothes by the General Public in France. 7th Virtual Reality International Conference (aka Laval Virtual), 187-190. ISBN 2-9515730-3-0.
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National Conferences

[4] Duval S., 橋爪宏達 (Hashizume H.) (2007) 基本欲求を満たすウェアラブル・コンピュータ:子供と高齢者の特徴 (Fundamental Needs in Wearable Computing: Specificities for Young People and Older Adults). 日本バーチャルリアリティ学会第12回大会 (12th Virtual Reality Society of Japan Annual Conference).
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[3] Duval S., 橋爪宏達 (Hashizume H.) (2006) Satisfaire les Besoins Fondamentaux dans la Vie Quotidienne à l'Aide de Cyber-vêtements (Satisfying Fundamental Needs in Everyday Life with Cyberclothes). Journée Scientifique Francophone (Francophone Scientific Day), 46.
[2] Duval S., 橋爪宏達 (Hashizume H.) (2006) 心理学的欲求から見たウェアラブル・コンピュータ (Psychological Needs in Wearable Computing). 日本バーチャルリアリティ学会第11回大会 (11th Virtual Reality Society of Japan Annual Conference), 89-92.
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[1] Duval S., 橋爪宏達 (Hashizume H.) (2004) サイバークローズによる人の出会いの支援 (Facilitating Face-to-Face First Contacts with Cyberclothes). 日本バーチャルリアリティ学会第9回大会 (9th Virtual Reality Society of Japan Annual Conference), 87-90.
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