A ubiquitous computing platform for virtualizing collective human eyesight and hearing capabilities

Abstract

Ubiquitous computing technologies have dramatically changed our daily lifestyles. A mobile phone that contains powerful computational and sensing capabilities allows us to access information anytime, anywhere. In the near future, we will wear mobile phones as glasses and clothing, and the wearable devices will be used to enhance our bodies’ capabilities. In particular, the camera and microphone contained in such a device can be used as alternative eyes and ears for developing novel types of services. This study investigates the feasibility of sharing other people’s body parts, particularly their eyes and ears, to build novel services. A platform that would enable a user to adopt anyone else’s seeing and hearing capabilities would offer novel sharing economy services that would go beyond the traditional services that share people’s belongings and would instead share the human body’s capabilities. We have developed a prototype implementation of the platform, and we present the results of preliminary user studies to investigate the feasibility of our approach.