The spirit of Ubiquitous Media (with questions to discuss)

The spirit of Ubiquitous Media is to unify the physical and virtual presence of individuals as well as relationships between people. For example, if I am to meet my supervisor this morning, it does not matter whether he is in his office or at home. Nor does it matter that whether I am in his office or at my seat in the lab. Wherever we are, our meeting is enabled. We can make casual conversation, discuss our work, reviewing papers or even he can sign some forms for me. Whatever we want to do in a meeting, we can do it. And we simply do not ask questions like "are you really in the office?".

In such spirit, we can perceive the merge of two technologies: UbiComp and UbiVid. The paper mentions an equation - Ubiquitous Media = UbiComp + UbiVid. In my opinion, UbiComp is more like a catalyst, rather than an addend. The idea of UbiVid is quite close to Ubiquitous Media. It aims at eliminate the effect of physical distance between people, e.g. have a video conference. However, there is certain difference when people try to use UbiVid, compared to the real world that they are already accustomed to. "I am going to my computer to meet my supervisor with Netmeeting" - the idea implies using certain devices and moreover implies the requisite that I need to contact my supervisor, set up a time and also get him to a computer to do the meeting. Furthermore, we can predict that during your meeting, you two can only speak or listen to the other. However, with the help of UbiComp, a meeting is a meeting, simple and sufficient. You do not have to go to a computer; it is in your hand or just on the wall in front of you. If you choose not using computer and going to the office, maybe certain sensor device will tell your supervisor that you are coming and he will react accordingly. Facing your supervisor in the screen, not only can you do the talking, you can exchange third-party information as the interface enable simultaneous viewing of documents.

The idea of UbiComp upgrades UbiVid to Ubiquitous Media by overcoming impossibilities in a virtual environment, making it mostly similar to real world setting.

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Questions to discuss:

* What is your understanding about the spirit of Ubiquitous Media and its relations between 1) UbiVid and 2) UbiComp?

* How can UbiComp be "everywhere" yet "invisible"?

* How do we understand the five design principles? Can we give real design examples for each principle?

* "Rather than adding complexity, technology should be reducing it, and enhancing our ability to function in the emerging world of the future" - nowadays, which technologies are adding complexity and which are reducing it?