The Mobile Life VINN Excellence Centre was established in 2007, and has established itself as an internationally recognized research locus in the area of mobile services. The centre is a joint venture between three research partners and nine industrial partners, in part funded by the Swedish funding agency VINNOVA.
The Mobile Life Centre provides a view into our future life with digital technology; an enjoyment society where happiness, pleasure and play are adopted into all aspects of our lives. The unique strength of the Mobile Life Centre lies in its combination of leading edge applied research and intense collaboration with industry.
After five years, the Mobile Life Centre has grown to be about 45 researchers, exploring experiential, leisure and playful mobile and ubiquitous interactions. The research is interdisciplinary, involving researchers from computer science, interaction design, sociology, psychology but also game designers, artists, dancers, and fashion experts. The Centre’s competitive edge lies in making serious research on what we might normally portray as “unserious” activities in collaboration with our industry partners Ericsson, Nokia, Microsoft Research, IKEA, ABB TeliaSonera, P, Movinto Fun and Stockholm City. We get inspired by doing studies on people's mundane leisure and creative activities such as horseback riding, hunting, parkour, dancing or role-playing. We use those insights to spur innovative design processes, resulting in mobile applications, sensor-based applications, pervasive games, Mobile Mash-Up services, new mobile media, technical platforms and materials to support amateurs' creativity.
The centre is internationally visible: it was selected as the second lab to be featured in the international journal Interaction’s series of important HCI (Human Computer Interaction) labs around the world. The scientific productivity is high, with high visibility at international conferences, journal publications, and several books out. Results are demonstrated in the form of new playful activities and applications such as pervasive games and social media on the road, and through developing tools and methods for design. The centre is actively pursuing commercialisation of its research results, with several patents and spin-off projects in the process.
Brochure and annual reports for download
Annual report 2010-2011...the mid-life
Annual report 2009-2010 ....the next step
Annual report 2007-2008 .....the first year
Brochure from the Open House 2009
Brochure from the inauguration in 2007
Centre Director
Annika Waern, annika@mobilelifecentre.org +46 (0) 703 36 39 16
Co-Director
Barry Brown, barry@mobilelifecentre.org, +46 70-284 50 31
Project leader
Kristina Höök, kia@mobilelifecentre.org +46 (0) 705 61 70 35
Project leader
Oskar Juhlin, oskar@mobilelifecentre.org, +46 (0) 703 79 39 64
Coordinator
Maria Holm maria@mobilelifecentre.org +46 (0) 709 85 51 92
Centre Board
Chair
Niklas Björk, Ericsson
Members
Richard Harper, Microsoft research, UK
Jyri Huopaniemi, Nokia,
Roger Bengtsson, TeliaSonera
Mikael Ydholm, IKEA
Magnus Larsson, ABB
Stefan Carlson, City of Stockholm
Ulf Eriksson, SU Holding
Gudrun Dahl, Stockholm University
Christer Norström, SICS
Deputies
Mikael Anneroth, Ericsson
Alex Taylor, Microsoft research, UK,
Viljakaisa Aaltonen, Nokia
Monika Lydin, TeliaSonera
Johan Ejdemo, IKEA
Elina Vartiainen, ABB
Monica Berneström, City of Stockholm
