Instrumented People, Places and Things

Iota Partners was a research firm in Chicago, from 2010, that helped clients understand products and services in use. It built sensors and other instruments to understand behavior in the contexts of everyday life and to model it, for the development and evaluation of products, services and communications. The agency SapientNitro acquired it in 2012, and the work continued there.

This is a collection of case studies from that work. A selection replays in the browser.

In TJ's words:

“We were thinking about understanding the world and building computational models of behaviors to provide richer context for design.”

“A framework for doing so was anchoring the activity from the perspective of the person, place, or thing.”

“In exploring hypotheses METIS and other techniques were used to bridge and map evidence of activities to sensing.”

A 2013 methods document calls METIS “a tool for defining measurable components of a high level, abstract concept”.

Start with

1. 2012Iota open house. A lab full of visitors, for an hour, in a 3D model.
2. 2014Measuring Engagement. A walk to a coffee shop, through Google Glass.
3. 2014Instrumented Homes ↗ TJ's kitchen, and the models of object use built from it.
4. 2026Modeling Activity. Slides from a talk on computational design and AI applications.

More studies

1. 2011Napkin dispenser. When a dispenser's module was touched, in a small coffee shop, and the shop as a model.
2. 2011Candy bag. How a bag of candy is eaten, followed by a sensor pack on the bag, as a proof of concept.
3. 2011–12Device ecosystems. Which devices people called into action, and how their attention moved.
4. 2012Bottle cams. Four spray bottles in three homes: one bottle's journey by room, and how a use looks.
5. 2012UIC Innovation Lab. A demo built for the Lab, replaying a meeting in the Iota office.
6. 2012Office day. 21 sensors around the Iota office through one working day, replayed as the team's viewer drew them.
7. 2012Office socialization. Containers of candy across a company's offices, and the team's tool running on the readings that survive.
8. 2012–13Aging in place. One home, its instruments, and what each was meant to read.
9. 2013–14Measuring collaboration. An instrumented office, and the one day of its readings that survives.
10. 2013–14Pockets. Days in the life of a person, behind a sign-in.
11. 2014Office beacons. iBeacons on two floors of the office: every track under a label, TJ's as TJ's.

Each page credits its own study. Most of the sensing and instruments were the Iota team's, at SapientNitro. The object-use models on the kitchen page are TJ's, from 2026. Client studies appear without their clients' names.

People	a person over time	2
Places	the sensors stay put; the people and stuff in view change	8
Things	the object itself is the focus	5

A filled dot is what a study is mainly about; a hollow one is what it also touches. A faint bar on the timeline means only the year is known.

Activity runs through all three. TJ: “Activity is not a 4th idea, it is what is common across all three. Models of activity.” So each study is listed with its model of activity.