Understanding interaction in hybrid ubiquitous computing environments

Different kinds of computing environment effect human interaction in different kinds of ways and understanding how different environments ‘work’, as it were, is important to their evaluation and ongoing design. Ethnographic studies of media spaces and CVEs, for example, showed that these kinds of environment introduce asymmetry and fragment the reciprocity of perspectives that is essential to human interaction. Users are therefore obliged to engage in ‘compensation work’ if interaction is to proceed. However, asymmetry and fragmentation are intentional features of the hybrid ubiquitous computing environments that have emerged over recent years, which is to say that they are deliberately ‘built in’ to the environment through the design of heterogeneous interaction mechanisms. Interaction in hybrid ubicomp environments therefore relies upon a different order of interactional work, namely ‘reconciliation work’. Author Keywords Hybrid ubiquitous computing environments, asy...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2009
• Where: MUM
• Authors: Andy Crabtree, Tom Rodden
• Keywords: Computing Environments, Hybrid Ubiquitous Computing, Multimedia, MUM 2009, Ubiquitous Computing Environments