Paper Reading #9: Jogging over a Distance between Europe and Australia

References
Florian Mueller, et al.  "Jogging over a Distance between Europe and Australia". UIST '10 Proceedings of the 23rd annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology.  ACM New York, NY, USA ©2010.


Author Bios
Florian Mueller is an avid athlete and advocator of sports. His main work focuses on the social and physical effects of integrating technology and exercise. He has researched with many institutions including Stanford University, MIT Media Lab, Media Lab Europe, Microsoft Research and many others.


Frank Vetere has several degrees, among them a bachelor's in science and a doctorate in philosophy, both from the University of Melbourne. His research interests are in Human Computer Interaction and Interaction Design. He is currently a professor at the University of Melbourne and works with the Interaction Design Group.


Martin R. Gibbs has a Ph. D. in sociology and is currently a lecturer at the University of Melbourne. His main research interests are in design space and intergenerational play.


Darren Edge received his bachelor's and Ph. D. in Computer Science from the University of Cambridge. He is currently a researcher at Microsoft Research based in Beijing. His main interests lie in how to combine abstract analysis, user research, and design thinking in order to further HCI.


Stefan Agamanolis holds a master's and a doctorate in Media Arts and Sciences from MIT. He is currently the Associate Director of the Rebecca D. Considine Research Institute at Akron Children's Hospital. His research interests revolve around experience design for healthcare scenarios.


Jennifer Sheridan has a Ph.D. in Computer Science and a Master's in Human Computer Interaction. She is currently the Senior User Experience Consultant and Director of User Experience at BigDog Interactive.

Summary

• Hypothesis - Focusing on the user experience of engaging systems that integrate technology and social exertion will contribute to the knowledge of the underlying elements involved.
• Method - In this experiment, two people plan to jog at the same time (GMT). Both of them are wearing a headset, a heart monitor, a mini computer and a mobile phone. Based upon a set goal heart rate (chosen before the running begins), the audio from the other person is projected to the user from a different virtual location. For example, if they are both running at the same percentage of the targeted heart rate, they will both hear each other as if they were running side by side. However, if one person's heart rate goes beyond their goal and the other's stays at it, the sound from the first person will be coming from in front of the second (as if the first were running faster and was getting ahead). On the first person's end, it would appear to them that the second person is behind them; thus the users are able to judge how much effort they are putting in compared to their running partner. 
• Their results were successful; the technology turned the exercise into a social activity, thus increasing user engagement. They conclude that their hypothesis was correct, that they did indeed come out of this with a better understanding of what may go into social exercise. 

Discussion
This article didn't really reach me personally. I do agree that exercise is better and more immersive when done socially, but don't we already have sports for that? I can't stand running, mostly because I find it intensely boring. Perhaps this may help develop something that would make running more fun for me, but in order to get proper exercise, I can just as easily turn to soccer or fencing or some other group sport (it would be a lot cheaper, too). To be frank, I think this is a study more suited for people fighting obesity and less for people aiming to create future human computer interaction; this, in my opinion, was entirely human-human even though it used technology to bridge a distance.