Influenced by Philosopher Martin Heidegger
Ubiquitous Computing Course Notes January 19, 2007
Influenced by Philosopher Martin Heidegger
Ready-to-hand vs. present-at-hand
Automaticity
Cultural Norms
How long did it take to become “invisible”?
Some tasks should require a level of expertise to achieve successfully, like driving cars.
One example of an interface challenging a user during technology adoption: an elderly adult found it more natural to point at the computer screen than use a mouse.
Peers may influence adoption patterns.
Use of technology is subconscious: cars and phones are unremarkable.
Ubicomp
Is technology invisible or are we just desensitized to it? What is the difference?
In what cases should technologies not become fully invisible?
Is agency a key to whether things fade into background?
Alarm clocks are incorporated into a normal routine and become cognitively invisible.
Physical scale matters: form factors into affordances
Active Badge
Identity + Room level location + Button
Label, infrared beacon, receiver in room.
The button had been an afterthought that provided additional affordances.
The technology limited access through doors.
Telecommunications forwarded to location of user.
Computer terminal adopts your settings by “teleporting.”
Instrumenting individuals rather than environments easier for infrastructure
This technology was conceived for American culture in which employees carry work around with them.
However, the America identity supports individuality and self-expression which does not support shared devices.
Developing world has examples of shares resources: Phone ladies in Bangladesh.
It takes additional work to share resources.
Security is an issue when sharing resources, and it may be better to carry around information than to access it over networks.
Reliability of access also affects the experience.
There are also issues of controlling the computing space and environment.
Under what cases do we not want to share things (especially germs) and in what cases do we want to share things?
Automatic diary
Like game of Clue: “person in the kitchen at 10 o’clock”
Characteristics of Ubicomp
Colonizing: embedding technology into physical world
Leveraging existing metaphors
Does not depend on artificial intelligence
Inexpensive displays
Sci-fi story: deconstruction of Sal Story
Alarm clock - Coffee machine only knows “yes” or “no.”
How does the device know what she is talking to, are they paired?
The reason that devices work together at Park is because they were vertically integrated. Does this require standards committees?
Kids awake
Sensors in bed, room; microphones;
Kids would inevitably try to trick the system to remain undetected.
How is the information sensed?
How is the information communicated?
What infrastructure is needed?
How do you make it integrated? Do you permit it to be subverted?
One weaknesses of the field: ubiquitous computing does not have compelling applications until more recently, like specialized help for memory-impaired.
What is the social impact?
Plausible deniability currently still exists with fallible technology.
Pen that records what it scans.
Who does it send it to? Owner of pen or user?
Does the newspaper contain technology to support task?
Manual would be web-based today.
Food shop notification during commute: Advertisement based? Configure foreview? Who does it, manually?
Graceful failure for wired world
Projection of future weather, or weather of different geography
Fresh coffee
End-user programming? How does ubicomp support this?
Informal gathering for coffee driven by notification for fresh coffee is actually a function of corporate culture; fresh-made at Park versus free old coffee at Microsoft.
Machine learning of preferences may support configurating devices
Or centralized control through a single device
Overthrowing Estrada in the Philippines through mass gathering in Manila built really quickly and with great numbers through text messages.
Easily configure sharing of material
Accidents?
Designate sharing materials?
Differentiate between multiple devices?
Joe -> document on projection
Is this IM? Videoconferencing?
How do you implement it effectively?
Successes of Ubicomp Project
Direct:
Electronic whiteboards
Cost is prohibitive for classroom use
Indirect:
PDAs
Local Area Wireless networking
Active Badges (now worn by nurses)
Solutions for traversing subnets when mobile
Not yet
Location based services in general
Scale? Commercial issues?
Scoreboards that display custom information
Location of lost objects (RFID?)
Deployment costs, robustness, economics
What developments in technology are not reflected in this vision?
No mention of internet
Original ubicomp about embedded chips in everything, webservices about mass scale
Social sciences
Privacy (an afterthought for shared systems)
Really compelling applications for technology
Do laptops still have a future in ubicomp?
Lots of devices and somehow your data gets to them.
Maybe laptops are still central, but can more easily share data.
How do cell phones fit into the picture?
Synthetic Serendipity
Another vision
With quick access to information, hospital residences do not memorize drug interactions but refer to PDAs.
How does the difference between someone who is smart and encyclopedic and someone with immediate access to information affect how people interact?