Developing HMI of the iMOD Sensing and Consulting System for Indoor Environment Health Nien-Tsu Chen1*, Ying-Sheng Chen2, Jui-Yen Lin2, Kuang-Sheng Liu1, Yaw-Shyan Tsay2, Yang-Rong Dong1 1 2
*
Department of Interior Design, Tungfang Design Institute, Kaohsiung, Taiwan Department of Architecture, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan Corresponding email:
[email protected]
SUMMARY Considering the future lifestyle trend, this project aims to integrate the concepts of “health”, “intelligent” and “digital”, in order develop a home management system for healthy environment, call iMOD (integrated Multi-media On Demand). It is expected to ensure the indoor environment health (IEH) of users, as well as enhance the quality of life and work efficiency. In this study, the smart film technology is integrated into glass door to build indoor health environment sensing consulting system (iMOD) extended multi-screen user interface, and the construction process are recorded and reviewed and the user experience is evaluated. Staged research findings: 1. The problems in the existing space and system construction are solved. 2. The system of iMOD system smart film user interface is built preliminarily. 3. The questionnaire survey of iMOD system multi-screen interface is designed preliminarily. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS The smart film technology is integrated into glass door to extended multi-screen user interface of iMOD, and the construction process are recorded and reviewed and the user experience is evaluated. KEYWORDS HMI (Human Machine Interface), iMOD (integrated Multi-media On Demand), IEH (Indoor Environment Health), smart film INTRODUCTION According to the findings in 2003, 2005 and 2006, more than 30% of indoor persons doubt the indoor environmental quality, including temperature, CO2, relative humidity, illumination and noise (Chen, 2007). At present, the information technology develops progressively, and our people pays increasing attention to indoor health, the cases of installing indoor environment quality sensing device or real-time information display system in living space increase continuously. Wang (2010) laid multiple temperature and humidity sensors with ZigBee around the indoor space to collect the temperature and humidity data of various corners, so as to adjust the operation of air conditioning to enhance the comfort and reduce energy loss. Chen et al. (2012) built an energy-saving environmental monitoring system based on ZigBee, the ventilation tower and air-conditioning equipment were controlled by web server display mode. Bai (2012) used Cyber Physical Systems for different communication protocols, such
as Bluetooth, ZigBee, RF and infrared, to implement a smart control box to convert different signals. Kastner (2010) used pyroelectric infrared sensor-based Indoor Location Aware System (PILAS) to detect the occupant's activity, location, action pattern or health status to provide the optimum living conditions. Fu (2010) developed an intelligent photovoltaic lighting system according to the rhythm of human physiological clock for the human physiological needs in different periods, which provided different colors of lighting to enhance the safety and comfort of daily life. According to the research reports of Google and Ipsos, the users spend 4.4 hours in average on these screens daily. In addition, according to Google Taiwan's survey, the product information searched by users daily accounts for 55%, and the probability of buying computer is 41% after query on smart phone. This is a three-year project. In the first year, the architecture and logic of the sensing and consulting system will be constructed by using the feedback of the users’ questionnaires. In the second year, the App interface will be constructed and the human-computer interaction model for the iMOD system will be established by using the hand-held mobile devices and platforms. In the third year, the results from the second year will be used to develop a display system using the smart film technology, and conduct the augmentation of human-machine interface and user testing. The system development was based on Android in early stage of this study, the indoor healthy environment sensing consulting system (iMOD) is built, its content is divided into three parts, setting, consulting and sensing (Figure 1) (Chen et al., 2014). The setting items include environmental quality value setting and sensing device management setting. The consulting is based on environmental health database, including health consultation content of basic indoor environment problems, health risk and assessment criteria. The sensing is divided into four major fields of physical environment of building, sound, light, thermal and air. In terms of hardware, the web server (File Transfer Protocol, FTP) shall be created, connected to various sensor devices via inhouse network. The APP software architecture is shown in Figure 2. Environmental Dose Response Settings
Settings Environmental Device Management Settings Common Indoor Environment Problems Health Impacts
Home
Assessment Criteria
Consulting
Health Knowledge Base Acoustic Environment Interface
Measuring Methods Simple Improvements
Light Environment
Sensing
Thermail Environment Interface
Maintenance
Air Environment
Figure 1 iMOD system framework
Figure 2 iMOD system APP software architecture When the iMOD system detects environmental quality abnormity, the mobile device displays a warning menu to remind the user of the environmental conditions (Figure 3), and the warning pattern can be changed by the user. The operation interface is transplanted from PC to the mobile device (tablet PC) in early stage (Figure 4). The interface is extended to the spatial wall surface, the user experience in different interfaces is discussed by practical experience and user questionnaire survey.
Warning! Temp is not good (33.9℃)
Figure 3 Reminding picture of environmental abnormity (picture changeable)
Figure 4 User operation interface on traditional PC and tablet PC
METHODS The "multi-screen" is one of development trends of the future information technology, common people have diversified requirements for information operation interface. Therefore, this study plans to use smart film (S-film) technology to extend the tablet PC user interface of iMOD system into spatial wall surface, the location is shown in Figure 5. The S-film is also known as liquid crystal dimming film, using the optical characteristics of liquid crystal, the internal polymer liquid crystal material is arranged randomly in off-state, so it is vaporous non-transparent. On the contrary, in on-state, it is in vitreous state, the light can penetrate through the film (Figures 6 and 7). At present, it is usually used for the external glass curtain walls of buildings, and it can be used for indoor compartment or demonstration.
Projector
PC
Figure5 Schematic plan of smart film system location
Figure 6 Smart film of working process
Figure7 Smart film sample (by Chiefway co.)
The user experience in different operation interfaces is fed back by practical experience and questionnaire survey. The questionnaire survey uses Likert scale, also known as summative scale, it is general assessment method for perception, attitude or satisfaction. This assessment method is divided into 9 scales, this study uses Likert 5-point scale. The questionnaires are sent to experts and common people, containing open-ended questionnaire questions. RESULTS & DISCUSSION Smart film system framework. The multi-screen architecture is extended from the iMOD system. As the sensor and S-film are in different positions, the hardware includes PC1 and PC2. PC1 creates the basic database of overall system, connected to Get-Way and sensors via cable, and the FTP is combined with Wi-fi as the transmission medium for environment sensing device signal, so as to connect tablet PC. The wired network is connected to PC2, the Android emulator is combined with projector output to project the image on the glass door. The touch control device and infrared sensing enable the user to interact with the intelligent information wall (Figure 8). Whether there is network IP conflict, whether the location of FTP extracted file is correct, whether the Wi-fi connection is normal and whether the Get-way battery is exhausted shall be paid attention to in the course of construction.
iMOD System frame PC1
Smart Film PAD
+
Phone
android emulator
FTP Service
Wi‐fi
Get‐Way
Smart Film
Sensor
Sound
Temp
Illumination
Figure 8 Frame of integrate iMOD system on smart film. Practical experience in iMod system and questionnaire survey process The user experience is clarified by practical experience in iMod system and questionnaire survey, so as to feed back and review the system development. The questionnaire survey process is shown in Figure 9. The system operation mode is introduced briefly, and then the user operation is implemented. The subjects are divided into two groups randomly. One group uses mobile device before operating the S-film interface. The other group is on the contrary, the purpose is to avoid misrecognition of service experience resulted from using familiar or experienced interface for the second time. The questionnaire is filled and follow-up analysis is implemented after use.
Figure 9 Research design process. iMOD use questionnaire content design The questionnaire subjects are divided into experts and common people. The questionnaire design content is divided into five major aspects: basic data, requirement, convenience, satisfaction and improvement. The details of the first four items are shown in Table 1. The Likert 5-point scale is provided for the users to choose, and the improvement advice adopts open-ended questions and answers as reference for iMOD multi-screen interface system development and improvement.
Table 1. Questionnaire survey directions object Basic data Requirement 1. Gender Owned device type 2. 3. 4. 5.
Convenience Data value assistance Operation efficiency
Education level
Long used device
Occupation
Joint service time of device
S-Film size
Monthly income
Service time
S-film located properly
Residence area
Purpose
Satisfaction System adjustment setting System touch control response iMOD information clarity iMOD interaction
CONCLUSION With the coming of multi-screen era, the problems in the existing space and system construction are solved, and the S-film technology is integrated, multivariate iMOD system user interface is extended and provided, the information display on spatial wall surface is expected to generate more interactive modes and experiences between environmental information and people. The planning of system construction and user questionnaire survey is completed preliminarily at the present stage. The overall hardware construction and user experience survey will be completed gradually, so as to review and remedy the system deficiencies to provide the optimum operation scenario for the users. ACKNOWLEDGMENT Thanks for Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) sponsored funds and Chan-Wrong co. and Chiefway co. supported on technology. REFERENCES Chen, N.T. 2007. A Study on Natural Ventilation Efficacy of Wind Deflector. PhD thesis of Dept.of Architecture, National Cheng Kung University Wang, T.M.; Lin, P.C.; Chan, H.L.; Liao, J.C.; Sun, T.W.; and Wu, T.Y. 2010. Energy saving of air condition using fuzzy control system over ZigBee temperature sensor, 24th IEEE International Conference on Advanced Information Networking and Applications Workshops, WAINA Chen, N.T., Chiang, C.M., Liu, K.S., Chen, S.Y. and Chiang, Y.C. 2012. Designs of Intelligent Environ-Control System Based on Energy Saving and IEH- Study on S House. Applied Mechanics and Materials. Vol.121-126, pp.2653-2660. Bai, Z.Y.; and Huang, X.Y. 2012. Design and implementation of a cyber physical system for building smart living spaces, International Journal of Distributed Sensor Networks, Vol. 2012 Kastner, W.; Kofler, M.J.; and Reinisch, C. 2010. Using AI to realize energy efficient yet comfortable smart homes, IEEE International Workshop on Factory Communication Systems Proceedings, WFCS, pp.169-172 Fu, S.; He, Y.; Zha, D.; and Fang, Y. 2010. Intelligent three-dimensional health heating system, 2010 IEEE 11th International Conference on Computer-Aided Industrial Design and Conceptual Design, CAID and CD'2010, Vol. 2, pp.1532-1536 Chen, N.T., Liu, K.S., Tsay, Y.S. and Sun, B.L. 2014. Study on the Establishment of Indoor Environmental Health Housekeeper System--Using Environmental Sensing and Consultation as an Example. World Sustainable Building Conference 2014. Barcelona, Spain: Green Building Council España.
