LUTIN

LUTIN ("Laboratoire des Usages en Technologies d'Information Numériques") resorts under the CNRS, the French council for scientific research. The LUTIN User Lab has primarily been designed as a facility for companies who wish to evaluate the usability of products, services and digital media, including PDAs, mobile phones and web sites. The lab provides both inside and outside testing through a versatile technical infrastructure solution which can be adapted to many different test requirements.

The lab has five rooms for individual or collective testing, each equipped with dome and professional video cameras, various wireless cameras, as well as systems for EEG measurement and eye tracking. Because verbal interaction between participants or comments and questions must be recorded, highly sensitive microphones have been integrated in each test room. Since many usability tests concern software or web pages, lossless digital screen capture technology is used to capture the test computer's screen and synchronize it with the audio and video signals.

	Floor plan of the LUTIN User Lab.
	A view inside the usability lab's control room, showing equipment for data collection. From left to right: computer with The Observer software, monitor displaying a screen capture of the test PC along with two camera views, microphone for the test leader, camera control unit, and monitors showing preview and recording views.
	A usability test in progress. One person is encoding the behavior of the user while the other controls the cameras.

Control of all signals recorded in the laboratory is managed through two main computers. Powered by The Observer Video-Pro software, these two stations can independently control all cameras, audio signals and test computers. Cameras, microphones and computer signals can be moved freely from a room to another to accommodate new test scenarios and measurement protocols. A technician can thus control the cameras, record the desired video signals and the communication between users in the test room, or between users and test leader. He can also preview the screen of the test computer or take control of the test computers. In each test room, loudspeakers allow the technician to interact with the users. The main advantage of having two stations with The Observer Video-Pro is the possibility to manage two different tests simultaneously. However, it also allows one to focus on a complex test through two different points of view. Besides the five fixed test rooms, a portable lab has also been included in the LUTIN environment to allow home or outdoor testing. The information gathered can then be analyzed in the main laboratory with The Observer Video-Pro.

LUTIN
Cité des sciences et de l'industrie de la Villette
30, avenue Corentin Cariou
75930 Paris cedex 19
France 
http://www.lutin-userlab.fr/accueil/