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A prototype of interactive data visualization is proposed for Building Management Systems (BMS). The aim is to enhance traditional data presentation format such as graphs and tables to support expert users in early open-ended exploration of building data. Based on data recorded over 3 years in a real office building in Switzerland, a case study is conducted involving 12 practicing expert users with engineering background. Both exploratory and qualitative in nature, this evaluation allows to : (1) show the ability of expert users to use advanced visualization tools to derive meaningful conclusions in limited time, (2) demonstrate the relevance of visual analytics results for the building physics field.

The advent of back-lit screens in contemporary offices has profoundly impacted the field of visual comfort. Screen users typically fail to adapt to changing environments and often require an individual light quality. To this end, the new approach of human-building interaction in computer science would consider the context of occupants interacting with lights. Within this framework, the proposed study complements existing studies on reactions to light dimming with a more tightly controlled environment and the task difficulty adapted individually. To evaluate the impact of back-lit screens on participants reaction to light dimming, two sets of participants were assigned either to adaptive or fixed screen back-light. All participants undergo three different naturalistic light dimming speeds typically happening at sunset (0.5–2 lux/s). This study uncovers the potential for physiological measurements to indicate visual discomfort and participants' proclivity to react as a function of personal psychological traits. Importantly, results reveal two behaviour categories: reactive and non-reactive, which are related to participant-specific psychological traits and perceptions. Regardless of the group, eye movements convey early indication of discomfort: participants’ reactions happen below standard light levels (300 lux) while fixation number shift state above. Together, eye-movements features and visual comfort questionnaires recordings during the initial steady light period predict ramp behaviour category. Physiological and psychological measurements thus appear as candidates for adaptive light control according to idiosyncratic characteristics, displaying opportunities for increased acceptance of energy-efficient automation strategies.

Interaction design is increasingly about embedding interactive technologies in our built environment; architecture is increasingly about the use of interactive technologies to reimagine and dynamically repurpose our built environment. This forum focuses on this intersection of interaction and architecture. --- Mikael Wiberg, Editor

Acknowledging the current digitalizing of buildings and their existence as interactive objects, this article sets out to consolidate Human-Building Interaction (HBI) as a new research domain within HCI. It exposes fundamental characteristics of HBI such as user immersion in the “machine” and extensive space and time scales, and proposes an operational definition of the domain. Building upon a comprehensive survey of relevant cross-disciplinary research, HBI is characterized in terms of dimensions representing the interaction space and modalities that can be invoked to enhance interactions. Specific methodological challenges are discussed, and illustrative research projects are presented demonstrating the relevance of the domain. New directions for future research are proposed, pointing out the domain’s potentially significant impact on society.

In 2030, we will have a different interactive experience with our built environments, at home, at work, and even in public urban spaces. This is attributed to advancements in sensing and actuation systems that can integrate into the building infrastructures, in symbiosis with the new environmental concerns that call for new life, work, and mobility styles. This change, whether gradual or sudden, evident or seamless, can have a remarkable impact on our everyday experiences, and thus entails efforts to envision possible scenarios and plan for them. We believe that buildings, as they would embody our digital and physical interactive daily experiences, should be designed and nurtured in a dialogue with their users at the individual as well as social levels. This implies a responsibility of the HCI community to intervene and involve the user in the Human-Building Interaction (HBI) design practice. We propose bringing together expertise from the fields of human-computer interaction, building and urban architecture, and social sciences, and provide them with an occasion for collaboratively creating and sharing ``images' of HBI by 2030. The goal is to uncover research opportunities and challenges that will emerge through discussions and multi-faceted debates about the topics proposed.

It is a characteristic of swarm robotics that modelling the overall swarm behaviour in terms of the low-level behaviours of individual robots is very difficult. Yet if swarm robotics is to make the transition from the laboratory to real-world engineering realisation such models would be critical for both overall validation of algorithm correctness and detailed parameter optimisation. We seek models with predictive power: models that allow us to determine the effect of modifying parameters in individual robots on the overall swarm behaviour. This paper presents results from a study to apply the probabilistic modelling approach to a class of wireless connected swarms operating in unbounded environments. The paper proposes a probabilistic finite state machine (PFSM) that describes the network connectivity and overall macroscopic behaviour of the swarm, then develops a novel robot-centric approach to the estimation of the state transition probabilities within the PFSM. Using measured data from simulation the paper then carefully validates the PFSM model step by step, allowing us to assess the accuracy and hence the utility of the model.

Recognized as a powerful methodology for the evaluation of environmental burdens, life cycle assessment (LCA) must be performed with close-to-reality inputs to be robust and accurate. However, the necessary real-world data is hardly available at the design stage, resulting in current LCA practice being mainly based on standards and norms as hypothesis of building contexts, therefore inducing uncertainties in results. The current paper presents a methodology to collect a subset of such input data in a function of the context more accurately than the standards. It then studies the impact of such uncertainties in the LCA results. Through an academic building case study that measured data concerning the building occupancy (A), i.e. the hourly occupancy rate and density, the hourly appliance consumption rate (B), and the hourly conversion factors of environmental impact of the electricity mix (C), the LCA results for the GHG emissions and primary energy consumption are compared between normative- and measurements-based input parameters. The measured occupancy rate (A) is shown to impact the LCA results the most, especially the embedded impacts, by implying a new occupancy density: the building population increase of +32% leads to a significant increase of the embedded impacts related to furniture. The variability in appliance usage (B) is marginal between measures and standards and therefore does not lead to a significant change in LCA results. The use of hourly conversion factors (C) indicates an underestimation of the GHG emissions and, at the same time, an overestimation of the primary energy when assessed with mean annual values. The combined effect of simultaneously using the three reality-based input parameters (A, B, C) mostly affects the non-renewable part of the cumulative energy demand indicator (-9% reduction of the operational part), followed by the cumulative energy demand (-7%) and GHG emissions indicators (-3%). The research findings affect not only LCA research but also practitioners such as architects or building contractors who need to respect ambitious environmental targets.