Mobile Life VINN Excellence Centre

Mobile Life was a research centre in Stockholm Sweden, focusing on human computer interaction in the mobile domain. The Mobile Life VINN Excellence Centre that ran from 2007 to 2017, which established itself as an internationally recognized research locus in the area of mobile services. The centre was a joint venture between three research partners and nine industrial partners and with funding the Swedish governmental funding agency VINNOVA. The Mobile Life Centre provided 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. During its peek the Mobile Life Centre had grown to be about 40 researchers, exploring experiential, leisure and playful mobile and ubiquitous interactions. The research conducted was 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 industry partners Ericsson, Nokia, Microsoft Research, IKEA, ABB TeliaSonera, P, Movinto Fun and Stockholm City. The centre was 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. Results are demonstrated in the form of scientific results, as well as new playful activities and applications such as sensorbased prototypes and social media on the road, and through developing tools and methods for design. The centre was actively pursuing commercialisation of its research results, with several successful patents and spin-off projects.