On the 9th May I presented my paper “Countermeasures: Learning to Lie to Objects” at CHI 2019, as part of the Alt.CHI series – the part of the conference for critical, artistic, and avant garde approaches to Human Computer Interaction.

The abstract for the paper is: 

Ubiquitous computing is leading to ubiquitous sensing. Sensor components such as motion, proximity, and biometric sensors are increasingly common features in everyday objects. However, the presence and full capabilities of these components are often not clear to users. Sensor-enhanced objects have the ability to perceive without being perceived. This reduces the ability of users to control how and when they are being sensed. To address this imbalance, this project identifies the need to be able to deceive ‘smart’ objects, and proposes a number of practical interventions to increase user awareness of sensors, and encourage agency over digital sensing through acts of dishonesty to objects.

The paper can be viewed at the ACM website here. You can also view a video of the presentation.