UBICOMP/ISWC ’16 ADJUNCT, SEPTEMBER 12-16, 2016, HEIDELBERG, GERMANY

Run With Me – Designing StorytellingTools for Runners
Albara Alohali
Keio Media Design
albara@kmd.keio.ac.jp

Robert Earle
University of Southern Denmark
roear12@student.sdu.dk

Kai Kunze
Keio Media Design
kai@kmd.keio.ac.jp

Abstract
In this paper we explore storytelling tools for runners. We
believe sharing third person 360-degree live-streams andstories while running can be a motivational factor to getpeople more active. To this end, we conducted a couple ofinitial user tests, exploring if live-streaming runs on popular streaming sites can be engaging for the audience. To
make the streams more immersive, we experiment with 360
degree and third person view. We present and evaluate an
initial hardware setup for 360-degree video streaming running stories.

Author Keywords
Storytelling, Running, 360 Degree Video, Immersion.

ACM Classification Keywords
H.5.m [Information interfaces and presentation (e.g., HCI)]:
Miscellaneous

Introduction
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UbiComp/ISWC’16 Adjunct, September 12-16, 2016, Heidelberg, Germany.
ACM 978-1-4503-4462-3/16/09.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2968219.2971452

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Many people find it hard to get out of their comfort zones,
up from their bed, or off their couch to go out for a refreshing sports activity such as running. Moreover, many of
those occasional runners find it difficult to incorporate suchactivities into a habit. This paper explores new ways to utilize existing tools to tell and experience stories differently
in the context of performing sports, primarily running. Tar-UBICOMP/ISWC ’16 ADJUNCT, SEPTEMBER 12-16, 2016, HEIDELBERG, GERMANY

geted towards storytellers who would like to become fit andactive, exploring new places, acquiring new information,
while telling compelling stories for themselves to keep orshare them with friends and family and inspire the world.
Our research goal is to help people engage and enjoy running and similar activities with each run while telling compelling stories for others to enjoy or for themselves to remember. We especially want to explore if live-streaming
while running can motivate people and create communities. We have a particular interest in 360-degree and third
person view which we will explain in detail later.
This paper is an initial step towards this direction. Our contributions are as follows (1) we present our approach tostorytelling while running for motivation, (2) we show for a
first use case how running- storytelling might work as anengagement tool, (3) we describe and evaluate an initialhardware prototype for 360-degrees, third person view livestreaming.

Related Work
There are a lot of technologies and research that focus
on making running more enjoyable. Most notable may be
Graether et al.’s efforts using drones as a motivational
tool [2].
On the commercial side, there are step counters like Fitbit
or other life-logging technologies, yet they usually focus on
self-reflection (with only limited community involvement).

Figure 1: Pictures from the initial
prototype for 360 degree, third
person video streaming

The closest to our approach might be "Zombies, Run!",A game involving storytelling to motivate an individual toworkout while immersing them into the running activity.
However, they apply storytelling as a one-way individual
consumption, not in a live and community context.

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There are, of course, many efforts using 360-degree cameras and also third person videos for a whole variety of activities, also including sports
Mostly for experience sharing; Usually without intention
for engaging motivational storytelling. This is strange, asindications are showing that third person view logging could
increase the memorability of events. [1].

Approach
Performing an activity such as running should not be alonely or an isolated act. There is much more potential thatcan be utilized by both performers and active audiences
consuming these stories to become motivated for running.
Video sharing and live-streaming can be a very engaging
means of storytelling and helps to form communities, asseen by popular sites e.g. Snapchat, Periscope.
Can we use live-streams to motivate users to run more andbe more active?
We focus on running, as it’s a sport that can be performed
anywhere and also invites for exploration. It can be donewith minimum gear and could be done in different places
making regular live-streams more interesting.
Regarding recordings, there are only a few papers assessing camera-placement for life-logging [3]. Here, life-loggers
seem to prefer the 3rd person view if it is available. Interestingly, also memorability and immersion are quite high forthird person view [1].

Initial Explorations
We want to know if people can be motivated to move morewhen watching running through live-streams. However,for initial explorations, we just focused on whether a live-SESSION: POSTERS

streamed run can be engaging to the audience. We performed two use tests on a popular live-streaming service.
Our second hypothesis is that third person video will be
more engaging for the audience, especially if they havethe possibility to experience as 360 degrees (preferablyin virtual reality). Towards this end, we present an initialhardware setup.
Live-Streaming Test Case
We recruited a runner with a considerable following on alive streaming service, namely Periscope. He wore a go-pro
strapped to his chest for analysis afterward, whilst streaming his mobile phone while running, holding the phone inhis hand using a gimbal. The runner picked two popularrunning trails in Tokyo that take him around 45 minutes tocomplete for the live-stream.
We recorded the run from the go-pro and the periscope
stream with audience comments and feedback.
Around 600 users joined each of the two live streams forthe two runs and stayed until the end. We concluded thatthe initial test was successful as there was no drop of watchers during the two runs. However, we believe this is highly
due to the runner engaging with the audience.
Periscope offers an easy way to show positive feedback byjust touching the display while watching a live stream. Theaudience seemed more engaged every time the runner addressed them directly (turning the camera towards him), especially when he offered them options to pick, e.g. "Should
I go left or right?", "Should I stay longer in the forest?". Hewould like to get some statistics about this feedback (howmany users said "right" over "left" etc.).

were so successful. The performer did not expected people
to watch until the end. He wants to continue runs exploring different areas of Japan and thinks it is an interesting
new way to tell stories to his audience. However, he raised
frustration over the streaming application, as it is not fit forrunning. Holding the smartphone in his hand the hold time
is tiring. Additionally the viewing angle and direction of thecamera are not optimal and sometimes difficult to adjust.
Run With Me: Hardware Setup
The other key question, we want to explore centers around360-degree third person view and its relation to immersion,motivation, and memorability.
To this end, we have built our third person view for the 360degree stream. The first two prototypes can be seen in Figure 1. It consists of a backstrap and PVC pipes to be able
to mount a 360-degree camera.
Between the prototypes, we iterated to improve camera
angle and wearing comfort. The hardware design will be
open-sourced.
For a 360-degree camera, we use the Theta S, as it canstream live video.
We had 3 runners with live-streaming experience try thecurrent setup for short runs (between 10-45 min). A sample
from the live stream can be seen in Figure 2.
The feedback was encouraging, as the setup seems torecord decent video. On the downside, the performers
mentioned that the device is still a bit cumbersome andclunky. It is acceptable for them regarding the storytelling
live-streaming aspect, as the picture quality seems acceptable.

In the interview, the runner was surprised that the first trials
One runner mentioned it would be nice to see the current

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UBICOMP/ISWC ’16 ADJUNCT, SEPTEMBER 12-16, 2016, HEIDELBERG, GERMANY

The users will use one of the four randomized ways to participate in the live-streams: fixed view first person, fixedview third person, 360-degree video ( the view is alterable),
360-degree video in virtual reality (cardboard).
We are aiming at a time interval for 2-3 weeks for the interventions (2-3 runs per week) and will follow-up on the users
after the intervention.

Conclusions
Figure 2: Sample image from the 360-degree video stream.

image quality and maybe user feedback visualized on asmart watch or as audio cues. This is considered for future
exploration.

Future Experiments
Encouraged by the initial feedback, we will further enhance
our prototype. First, we aim to implement some interactions between runner and audience ( better feedback, livevoting). Next, we will work on our hardware setup, making
the device lighter and less obtrusive to wear. Then, we willconduct further user tests.
We are also preparing a large-scale data recording to explore the motivational aspects. We started recruit around30 users that want to change their lifestyle, become fitterand have the interest in running (even started it from time totime) but could not keep up with it.
We also recruited two regular runners (3-4 times a week
5-12 km) with experience in live-streaming (Snapchat,Periscope).

8To our knowledge, we are the first to explore third personview recordings and streaming for storytelling while running.

REFERENCES
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2. Eberhard Graether and Florian Mueller. 2012.
Joggobot: a flying robot as jogging companion. In
CHI’12 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors inComputing Systems. ACM, 1063–1066.
3. Katrin Wolf, Yomna Abdelrahman, David Schmid,Tilman Dingier, and Albrecht Schmidt. 2015. Effects ofcamera position and media type on lifelogging images.
In Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on
Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia. ACM, 234–244.