Photo courtesy of paulworthington

Congratulations to Vrishti Gulati on passing her Phase II exam with a paper titled, “Gift Box: Including Social Objects in Internet of Things”.

Abstract:This paper highlights a research gap in the Internet of Things, i.e., the absence of social objects that matter to non-technical everyday users. Social objects are existing physical objects that people bond with, are attached to, or that connect people to each other. We conduct a study, named Gift Box, to specifically look at the social aspects emerging within the Internet of Things (IoT). The study represents gifts, a specific category of social objects that connect people to each other, through pictures on a social media website. The study offers a first step for users to include objects that matter to them in the IoT.

This paper focuses on the person-to-person connections supported within the IoT. We address a relatively unexplored question, “In what ways does the Internet of Things affect interpersonal connections?” We provide an overview of the Internet of Things, as it currently exists, covering both academic and commercial work. This paper discusses 1) a Technology spectrum for the Internet of Things to support consideration about the kind of objects, technology within the objects, and capability of user contribution to creation of the Internet of Things and 2) Gift Box user study including objects that matter to users and exploring the social aspects to engage users in the Internet of Things. Understanding user engagement and sociality supported within the IoT can lead to a more successfully accepted Internet of Things.

This full paper is released as a LUCI tech report, here.