This thesis focuses on the technological trends in smart products, and analyzes their conformity to the user expectations. The advances in computation technologies have totally revolutionized the product concept, and with the integration of microchips, software and sensors into the classical everyday objects, smart products, able to sense the context, reason about the sensed data and act according to the situation, have emerged. This new way of computing basing on the ubiquitous and calm computing visions, has distributed the digital information into the surrounding environment, and once freed from the limited resources provided by the classical desktop based computing, attempted to enhance user product communication and collaboration in everyday environments. Via their sensing - decision making - acting process and advanced interaction capabilities, smart products have gained the ability to better interpret user needs and intuitively communicate with users through simplified interfaces involving the majority of the senses without even disturbing or overburdening their users. The study first, throughout a literature review, examines these improvements in computation technologies and determines the trends related to smart products. An empirical research is then conducted to find out to what extend user expectations from smart products overlap with the ongoing researches in this area. The findings including users&rsquo / conception about smartness and expectations from different types of smart products are analyzed regarding to the technological trends to deduce the coherence between literature&rsquo / s orientation and user preferences. The study considered the technological trends as a database and takes the user expectations as the design motivation.

With the growth of ubiquitous computing, people are getting familiar and receptive to the idea of using non personal devices in public spaces. An example of such a possible device are the large ambient displays which can be found in airports, subway stations, malls, and bus stops. While most of these devices are not interactive, some offer interaction through touchscreen. This study explored the impact of body-movement-based interaction on engagement of a peripheral information display. We developed and exhibited two versions of the same peripheral information display in a public space. The first version offered interactivity while no interaction was available in the second version. We counted the number of people who watched/interacted with the displays and timed how long they spent doing so. Qualitative data was also gathered through semi structured interviews and non-participant observations. The statistical analysis provide evidences that the mean time spent watching/interacting with the peripheral information display is higher when there is interaction. We are 95% confident that the interval from 0.25 to 13.71 seconds contains the difierence of mean time spent watching/interacting with the display between the two versions. The interviews and observations indicated that the interaction implemented is easily understandable by the public in few seconds without the need of instructions. / Med framväxten av ubik datateknik blir människor allt mer bekanta och mottagliga för att använda allmänt tillgängliga enheter i det offentliga rum. Ett exempel på en sådan enhet är dom stora bildskärmar som placerats på flygplatser, tunnelbanestationer, köpcenter och busshållplatser. Dom flesta av dessa är inte interaktiva, men några är interaktiva genom touch. Denna studie utforskar effekten av kroppsrörelse-baserat interaktion på människors engagemang med perifera informationsskärmar. Vi utvecklade och ställde ut två versioner av en informationsskärm i ett offentligt rum. Den första versionen var interaktiv medans den andra var statisk. Vi räknade antalet människor som uppmärksammade/interagerade med informationsskärmen och tog tiden på hur länge dom eventuellt stannade. Kvalitativ data samlades genom intervjuer genom semistrukturerade intervjuer och icke-deltagande observationer. Statistisk analys av data ger underlag för att säga att medelvärdet för tid spenderat framför informationsskärmen var högre när den var interaktiv. Med ett konfidensintervall på 95% slår vi fast att skillnaden i medelvärde för tid spenderat engagerad med informationsskärmen ligger mellan 0,25 och 13,71 sekunder för dom två versionerna. Intervjuer och observationer pekar mot att den implementerade interaktionen är lätt att förstå inom loppet av några få sekunder utan behov av instruktioner.