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

Jogging over a Distance between Europe and Australia

By:
Florian Mueller, Frank Vetere, Martin Gibbs, Darren Edge, Stefan Agamanolis, Jennifer Sheridan.

Presented at UIST 2010.

• Florian Mueller has a Bachelor of Multimedia from Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia. He has a Digital Media Degree from Furtwangen University, Germany. He also has a PhD in Interaction Design from The University of Melbourne, Australia. He is currently a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at Stanford University.
• Frank Vetere is currently a senior Lecturer at the University of Melbourne in the department of Information Systems. His interests lie in HCI.
• Martin Gibbs is currently a Lecturer at the University of Melbourne in the department of Information Systems.
• Darren Edge hold an undergraduate and a PhD from Cambridge University. He is currently an HCI researcher at Microsoft Research.
• Stefan Agamanolis has a Bachelor of Arts in computer science from Oberlin College along with an MS and a PhD in Media Arts and Science from MIT. He is currently an Associate Director of a research institute at Akron Children's Hospital.
• Jennifer Sheridan is currently the Senior User Experience.

Summary
Hypothesis
The authors state that Jogging over Distances is made for runners that believe running to be a social activity and require more than one runner to make the act of running a success. They hypothesise the the use of spatial communication channel and thus allowing runners to co locate with another runner at a different geographic location will result in better runs for users.

Methods
The study's test results are based upon the report of 17 participants over a period of 14 runs of varying lengths. Considering the objective nature of this study, all results were gathered based on a qualitative interview with the runners immediately following their run in which they had used Jogging over Distances.

Results
Their testing showed that using Jogging over Distances did allow for better social experience when it came to running. The participants felt that the system did a great job of simulating a legitimate two person run. The runners were also given a new perspective and a better understanding of their running abilities due to the hear sensing ability and the co-location capability.

Contents
The authors of this paper have attempted to build a product that would tie into a users exertions and allow social interaction over a distance through them. To successfully implement this the authors have combined pre-existing technology with new internet based technology so as to create a more realistic experience for the users. The use of co-location allows users to know precisely where they are in terms of the other runners pace and performance.

Discussion
While from a technological aspect this paper was highly intriguing, I wasn't personally too fond of the concept. While the ability to run with someone a few continents over is highly intriguing and has a rather serious "cool factor", I just find there to be no practical application for this project. Running is plenty challenging and difficult without having to add bulky equipment just to make it possible to have a virtual runner with you. There are plenty of products out there that for all purposes and intents replace a running partner. However, from a purely technical perspective, I am highly intrigued. It's a use of the technology available is fantastic, and it does serve a pretty decent purpose if some really is that lonely.