barnet14 - Designing for Usability 2: 2008

Definitions

• Computing that will appear in many different contexts and take a wide variety of forms

• Will affect almost every one of us, whether we’re aware of it or not

• Computing that has insinuated itself into everyday life

• Post-PC world

• Invisible Computing

• Intertwined with the stuff of everyday life

• In every place, but also in every thing

• People would interact with these systems fluently and naturally, barely noticing the powerful informatics they were engaging

• Bridges between the physical and virtual worlds

• Invisible but everywhere

• The rapidly approaching obsolescence of the desktop mode, the coming hegemony of networked devices, and the reconfiguration of everyday life around them

• A language of interaction suited to a world where information processing would be everywhere in the human environment

• Computing that is mobile or wearable or connected or situated

• A distributed phenomenon

• Paradigm shifts

• A new state of being

• Information processing embedded in the objects and surfaces of everyday life

• Dispersed into both the built environment and the wide variety of everyday objects we typically use there

• Computing that cannot interact directly with a human user.

• Incorporating digital intelligence into objects with an everyday form factor

• Getting people out from behind their screens

Examples

• Mobile phones

• Mobile Phones that offer services beyond communication

• Extending computation out into the walls and doorways of everyday experience

• Smart objects, embedded sensors and the always on networks that connected them.

• A range of wireless-enabled, embedded sensors and microcontrollers known generically as motes, as well as an operating system for them to run on.

• Radio-frequency identification tags and two-dimensional barcodes

• Gesture recognition and voice recognition

• Wearable computing, augmented reality, locative media, near-field communication, body-area networking

• Calm technology

• Interactive surfaces

• Ambients, which used phenomena such as sound, light and air currents as peripheral channels to the user

• Tangibles

• Coordinated suite of devices and user interfaces, sensor grids, software architecture, and ad hoc and mesh-network strategies

• Camera’s, watches and phones

• Microcontrollers

• Embedded microprocessors we encounter elsewhere in our lives, generally without being aware of them.

• They pump the brakes in our cars, cycle the compressors in our refrigerators, and adjust the water temperature in our washing machines

• Clothing, furniture, walls and doorways.

• Active badges – grant access to rooms, track people, cn be used to spy on people. Easy to forget about.

• Can be used in items that are universally familiar to anyone who’s ever worked in an office

• A beer mat that summons the bartender when an empty mug is placed upon it

• A bathtub that sounds tone in another room when the desired water temperature has been reached

• Wearable electronics

• Sensors

Pervasive Computing - Definitions

1. The trend towards an information environment in which users have access to ICTs throughout the environment. ...
www.parliament.vic.gov.au/SARC/E-Democracy/Final_Report/Glossary.htm

2. An emerging trend in which computing devices are increasingly ubiquitous, numerous and mobile. [NIST "Pervasive Computing 2001" May 1-2 ...
www.bioon.com/book/biology/genomicglossaries/computers.asp.htm

3. An environment in which computers are taken out of stand-alone boxes to which we are tied and put into ordinary things, in everyday objects around ...
www.telecombooksblog.com/telecom-glossary/

Similarities
1 and 3 both associated with environment
1 and 2 both linked with more devices being used and becoming more common
Differences
2 associated with devices being mobile

Ubiquitous Computing – Definitions

1. New types of computers invisibly embedded into our everyday environment. Rather than explicitly being the "user" of a computer a human ...
www.ortlos.org/code

2. computers everywhere. Making many computers available throughout the physical environment, while making them effectively invisible to the user.
mobileman.projects.supsi.ch/glossary.html

3. computing that is omnipresent and is, or appears to be, everywhere all the time; may involve many different computing devices that are embedded in ...
www.mansfieldct.org/Schools/MMS/Palms/Meet_the_Team/Glossary.htm

4. Ubiquitous computing (or "ubicomp") is a post-desktop model of human-computer interaction in which information processing has been thoroughly ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubiquitous computing

Similarities
1, 2 and 3 all relate to computers being everywhere and being part of the environment
1 and 2 both talk about computers being invisible to the user
Differences
1 talks specifically about it being used in an everyday environment
4 only talks about it being post-desktop. This means that computers will be used in more places, but doesn’t suggest that they would be as common as in 1, 2 and 3

Ambient Computing – Definitions

1. a vision of the future where we are surrounded by electronic environments, sensitive and responsive to people.
mobileman.projects.supsi.ch/glossary.html

2. In computing, ambient intelligence (AmI) refers to electronic environments that are sensitive and responsive to the presence of people. ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambient intelligence

Similarities
Both refer to being surrounded by electronics or computers, with them being part of the environment.
Both talk about computers in the environment, being sensitive and responsive to people and the presence of people.
Differences
None

Disappearing Computing – Definitions

1. To see how information technology can be diffused into everyday objects and settings, and to see how this can lead to new ways of supporting and enhancing people's lives that go above and beyond what is possible with the computer today.

http://www.disappearing-computer.net/

Similarities and Differences between all

Similarities - Pervasive and Ubiquitous

Computers are more common
Computers become part of the environment

Similarities - Pervasive and Ambient

Both associated with being part of the environment
Computers are open and accessible to everyone

Similarities - Pervasive and Disappearing

Computers being used in new ways

Similarities - Ubiquitous and Ambient

Both associated with being part of the environment
Computers are more common and they are everywhere

Similarities - Ubiquitous and Disappearing

Computer are invisible to the user or diffused into everyday objects

Similarities - Ambient and Disappearing

Computers that are interacting with people in new ways

Differences - Pervasive and Ubiquitous

Ubiquitous Computing talks more about computers being part of the everyday environment and being invisible

Differences - Pervasive and Ambient

Ambient Computing talks more about the computers being more sensitive and responsive to people or it's users

Differences - Pervasive and Disappearing

Disappearing Computing talks more about computer's being invisible to the user

Differences - Ubiquitous and Ambient

Ambient Computing talks more about the computers being more sensitive and responsive to people

Differences - Ubiquitous and Disappearing

Disappearing Computing focuses more on computing being used in everything without people realising as much
Ubiquitous Computing focuses more on computers surrounding everyone

Differences - Ambient and Disappearing

Ambient Computing focuses mostly on computers being sensitive and responsive to it's users
Disappearing Computing focuses on the users not knowing if something is really there

Pervasive Computing

These show that the technology is being used all around us and that they are creating new types of computing devices.

Ubiquitous Computing

These show that computers are everywhere and that some will be invisible to the user, or they wouldn’t be aware of them being there.