Reactive Environment:
In the reactive environment, the systems are watching the users closely to find implicit and explicit cues to perform the appropriate actions. The initial benefit is obvious. However, once we get to the more complicated actions, the systems become harder to implement. Even with the adaptive method, the system is still making assumptions based on the limited knowledge about the user and the environment. Fundamentally, this method is heavily based on how well the system can induct or deduct the user intention. In human-human communication, the amount of common knowledge between the two parties can increase the efficiency. For example, one can say: let’s eat at the place we went yesterday. Ambiguous statements like this can be understood as long as the common knowledge exists. Nowadays, many people are described as being “married” to their blackberries due to the long hours they spend together. I think if the mobile devices we carry everyday can truly build a reliable input output model of our brain, then the device can “tell” the other devices what is the right thing to do.
Proxemic Interaction:
The system demonstrated that based on the understanding of the space, a system can interpret the meaning of distance, orientation, and identity. I like the part explaining the project from the perspective of attentive user interfaces. Distance and orientation can be a good indication of how the direct attention is allocated. In Till’s project, the attention is used to determine the user’s availability to receive information. In Roel’s attentive office cubicle, such information is used to control the need of privacy by adjusting the transparency of the cubicle walls. Understanding of the context and space plays an important role here. I wonder if there is any good method in environmental psychology can help us to evaluate a given space and context.
Tat Mobile UI:
When the screen technology becomes flexible, a display can be installed everywhere we need them. This presents more opportunities for us to access and interact with information. I like the mirror screen example because it is invisible unless when being used. I saw a similar idea from a waterloo undergrad project (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahN-YVQ_oEs).
Living in Augmented Reality: Response is in an earlier post.
