Chris Elsmore

Chris Elsmore: an MRes student in the Future Interaction Technology Lab in the Computer Science Department of Swansea University. When I'm not working towards my masters, I enjoy mountain biking, photography, drumming, music and films. I also enjoy working on electronics and software projects, some of which are documented on this site.

Academic

My research interests include environmental and energy saving technology and designing, prototyping and developing new interfaces, interactions, and experiences with new technology.

Publications

Papers:

C. Elsmore, M. L. Wilson, P. Eslambolchilar, M. Jones, Neighbourhood Wattch – Community Based Energy Visualisation For The Home. Conditionally accepted for NIMD’10 (Nudge & Influence Through Mobile Devices) workshop at MobileHCI2010, Lisbon, Portugal, Sept. 2010.

Theses:

C. Elsmore, Neighbourhood Wattch: Social Resource Monitoring. MRes Thesis, Computer Science Department, Swansea University, Swansea, June. 2010. Currently in assessment.

C. Elsmore, Domestic Automation using a web-based interface. BEng Thesis, School Of Engineering, Swansea University, Swansea, April 2008. Won R.J. Isaacs prize for best ECS project.

Some projects

As part of my CS-M79 course at university, we had to design two uses for two different types of hardware - the SHAKE devices, and a Phidgets kit. For both of the hardware systems, I chose to make a simple synthesiser for both interfaces.

The software used for both projects was coded in the Processing language. In the case of the SHAKE, communication is done over a virtual bluetooth serial port, and in the case of the Phidgets, the java class for communication was imported into the processing file.

The Phidget system used a multitude of different sensors to control 4 waves at the same time, with the volume and panning of each sound controllable on a main console. Sensors such as magnetic, touch, pressure, light, and a directional joystick were used for pitch and expression control. The LCD screens report the current volume and pan amounts.

The SHAKE device is a package of accelerometers, a digital compass, capacitive sensors and vibration motor, communicated to via Bluetooth. It was custom made by SNMH for universities, and is a bit like a wii-mote on steroids, without the motion tracking. The devices accelerometer was used to control the panning left and right by tilting the device to the left or right. Pitch of the sound was controlled by tilting the device up and down, and turning the device over completely resulted in muting the sound. The up and down navigation switch on the side was used to cycle between triangle, square, sawtooth and sine waves. The code for this can be found on Github, here.

A system I created as part of a user study for my postgraduate masters course, using a web application coded using the Django web framework. The visualisation involved a dynamic representation of a community of households, designed by the children residing in these households. It also made use of the Google Charts API to create an interactive system to query how one household compares with another.

The web app was displayed using a tablet computer, and pico-projector, and controlled using a motion detector interfaced to the computer via an Arduino. A Python program controlled the computer based on input from the arduino, and displayed the visualisation whenever a member of the family moved past.

Coming Soon!

The Carbon Kettle project was my entry into the 2010 James Dyson Award, you can see the project page here. Unfortunately I did not get into any of the rounds, but it was fun to construct the project!

UPDATE: ( I also got some press coverage!! )

Climate change and ‘greener living’ in general have caught the public eye as an increasing number of reports and investigations into the causes and effects of green-house gases, peak oil, recycling and other environmental issues are released and conducted. The benefits of saving energy domestically have also gathered attention from households, as the cost savings reported can be significant. Having just completed a MRes project into motivating domestic energy saving, and having a keen interest in the environment and our current use of non-renewable energy sources, I feel strongly that devices which educate or enable people to save energy are important and have key roles to play in the future of how we use the energy avalible to us, especially in a domestic environment. The methods and efficiency of energy production and delivery have large parts to play- efforts for a smarter grid are important as we evolve our energy infrastructure. However, I believe increased education and visibility of energy information in the home are also important in developing the energy efficiency of how we live.

The Carbon Kettle is a project to use a simple visualisation of the current status of the national grid to inform the user whenever they use the appliance. At various times throughout the day the grid is either over-producing resulting in excess power, or under-producing and struggling to keep up with demand. In order to keep up with sudden demand for power, the grid often uses more inefficent means of generation, which produce more green house gases per KWh of power.

The Carbon Kettle glows green to indicate an excess of power generation, red for a power generation deficiency and blue for a perfect balance. This allows the user to decide if they can wait till a period of excess generation for a cup of tea, not add to the strain the grid is currently under and conceivably increase the efficiency of the grid. The visualisation also acts as a permanent reminder of the cost of the electricty consumed in the home.

The state of the grid can be monitored by calculating the current electricity grid frequency. The data for this prototype comes from http://caniturniton.com, though the completed design could measure this frequency internally itself.

The initial idea came from having carried out a previous project, that found that such energy visualisations need to be integrated in the home, but also interacted with frequently. Whilst round a friends house, I noticed he had one of the now common light-up kettles, which feature lights inside the water chamber to glow through the side of the kettle used for meausring how much water is in the appliance, instead of older designs using external seperate neon style indicators. The idea came to me that if you used a multi-coloured light source, you could use it to convey information each time the appliance was used.

A proof on concept was created by first purchasing a cheap illuminating kettle, and opening it to identify how it worked. The particular model I have used a simple resistor and diode circuit to reduce and rectify the voltage for a pair of blue LEDs. These were removed, and the LED from a colour changing lamp was used to identify if such a multicoloured light source would show through the water. After this successful test, a microcontroller circuit was designed, making use of the online frequency counter available at caniturniton.com. This site provides an API which returns a XML document which contains the frequency information. The circuit was contructed using an Arduino microcontroller board, an ethernet shield which was connected to the internet and a RGB LED for the light source. Code was created for the microcontroller which would repeatedly fetch the XML document, and adjust the colour of the LED depending on the reported frequency; red for lower than 50Hz, green for greater than 50Hz, and blue for 50Hz exactly.

In future revisions of the prototype, it is expected that the microcontroller circuitry will be shrunk down, and used to also measure the frequency of the mains supply directly, removing the need for having an internet connection. In future situations, it is possible that a smart electricity meter would be able to measure this itself, along with other energy data, and brodcast it throughout the home for appliances to visualise and indicate it, or to act on it automatically.

For a full copy of my CV please contact me.

Profile

A keen problem solver with practical hardware and software experience on a wide variety of platforms and languages. Knowledge and experience of administration and use of all major operating systems, network configuration, website design and implementation, HCI, interaction and user interface design, embedded and mobile devices, microcontrollers, and electronics design.

Skills

Competent Linux, Mac OS X and Windows use and administration.

Programming languages: Python, Java, PHP, Processing, Actionscript. Knowledge of C and Objective-C.

Web Development: XHTML, CSS, Javascript, Django and Pinax, web standards.

Network Management: DHCP, DNS, Firewalls, Wifi setup and security.

Embedded Hardware: Embedded Linux, Arduino, Freescale HC08 series micro-controllers. Knowledge of PLD and FPGA development.

LaTex for technical documentation, including theses and conference papers.

Version control systems, such as SVN or Git.

Problem solving and communication skills as an individual or as part of a team.

Mobile interface and user experience design, low fidelity prototyping, and HCI design.

Research Experience

I obtained research experience working for 2 years in the field of persuasive technology for my postgraduate project, which involved displaying a graphical representation of a communities’ energy usage and waste production to each member of the community, with the goal of starting debate, competition, raising awareness and ultimately using less energy. I also gained knowledge of HCI design, prototyping and analysis, as well as running user studies. My postgraduate work was also use for a paper conditionally accepted into the Nudge and Influence through Mobile Devices workshop at MobileHCI2010. (C. Elsmore, M. L. Wilson, P. Eslambolchilar, M. Jones, Neighbourhood Wattch – Community Based Energy Visualisation For The Home)

Other Experience

Personal Projects

I have a personal interest in music, hardware and software, and have undertaken projects in my own time, such as constructing my own HiFi speakers and audio equipment from scratch, and designing a National Grid feedback system, called the Carbon Kettle, which notifies the user of the current state of the grid by changing the internal colour of the kettle whilst it is in use. The Carbon Kettle project was entered into the James Dyson Award 2010,