Most current interface designs require that the user focus their attention on them in order to be of value. However, as the price of computation falls, and computational capabilities make their way into many everyday objects, the demand for attention from many different directions may begin to seriously reduce the usefulness of these computational objects. Ambient information displays are intended to fit in a part of the interface design space that does not have this property. They are designed to convey background or context information that the user may or may not wish to attend to at any given time. Ambient Displays are designed to work primarily in the periphery of a user’s awareness, moving to the center of attention only when appropriate and desirable. This paper describes a new ambient information display that is designed to give a rich medium of expression placed within an aesthetically pleasing decorative object. This display – the Information Percolator – is formed by air bubbles rising up tubes of water. By properly controlling the release of air, a set of pixels which scroll up the display is created. This allows a rendition of any (small, black and white) image to be displayed. The detailed design and construction of this display device will be considered, along with several applications.

We develop design principles and an interaction framework for sharable, interactive public ambient displays that support the transition from implicit to explicit interaction with both public and personal information. A prototype system implementation that embodies these design principles is described. We use novel display and interaction techniques such as simple hand gestures and touch screen input for explicit interaction and contextual body orientation and position cues for implicit interaction. Techniques are presented for subtle notification, self-revealing help, privacy controls, and shared use by multiple people each in their own context. Initial user feedback is also presented, and future directions discussed.

In this study, we investigated people's relationships with AIBO, a robotic pet, through 6,438 spontaneous postings in online AIBO discussion forums. Results showed that AIBO psychologically engaged this group of participants, particularly by drawing forth conceptions of technological essences (75%), life-like essences (49%), mental states (60%), and social rapport (59%). However, participants seldom attributed moral standing to AIBO (e.g., that AIBO deserves respect, has rights, or can be held morally accountable for action). Our discussion focuses on how robotic pets (now and in the future) may (a) challenge traditional boundaries (e.g. between who or what can possess feelings), (b) extend our conceptions of self, companionship, and community, and (c) begin to replace interactions with live pets. We also discuss a concern that people in general, and children in particular, may fall prey to accepting robotic pets without the moral responsibilities (and moral developmental outcomes) that real, reciprocal companionship and cooperation involves. This research contributes to a growing literature on the human-robotic relationship.

Researchers have explored the design of ambient information systems across a wide range of physical and screen-based media. This work has yielded rich examples of design approaches to the problem of presenting information about a user’s world in a way that is not distracting, but is aesthetically pleasing, and tangible to varying degrees. Despite these successes, accumulating theoretical and craft knowledge has been stymied by the lack of a unified vocabulary to describe these systems and a consequent lack of a framework for understanding their design attributes. We argue that this area would significantly benefit from consensus about the design space of ambient information systems and the design attributes that define and distinguish existing approaches. We present a definition of ambient information systems and a taxonomy across four design dimensions: Information Capacity, Notification Level, Representational Fidelity, and Aesthetic Emphasis. Our analysis has uncovered four patterns of system design and points to unexplored regions of the design space, which may motivate future work in the field.

This article provides a first look at an extensible philosophy for studying other instances of multitasking or collaborative performance. We argue that the models and framework presented here will improve the HCI community's ability to classify and evaluate existing and emerging notification systems, as well as to catalog information and interaction design guidelines and lessons learned in a cohesive, collective manner. In the next section, we present a more thorough overview of notification systems appearing in recent literature and itemize general user goals, providing motivation and background material for the model we present in Section 3

We present TouchCounters, an integrated system of electronic modules, physical storage containers, and shelving surfaces for the support of collaborative physical work. Through physical sensors and local displays, TouchCounters record and display usage history information upon physical storage containers, thus allowing access to this information during the performance of real-world tasks. A distributed communications network allows this data to be exchanged with a server, such that users can access this information from remote locations as well. Based upon prior work in ubiquitous computing and tangible interfaces, TouchCounters incorporate new techniques, including usage history tracking for physical objects and multi-display visualization. This paper describes the components, interactions, implementation, and conceptual approach of the TouchCounters system. Keywords Tangible interfaces, ubiquitous computing, distributed sensing, visualization INTRODUCTION For decades, research i...

We envision that the architectural spaces we inhabit will become an interface between humans and online digital information. We have been designing ambient information displays to explore the use of kinetic physical objects to present information at the periphery of human perception. This paper reports the design of a large-scale Pinwheels installation made of 40 computer-controlled pinwheel units in a museum context. The Pinwheels spin in a “wind of bits ” that blows from cyberspace. The array of spinning pinwheels presents information within an architectural space through subtle changes in movement and sound. We describe the iterative design and implementation of the Pinwheels, and discuss design issues. Keywords ambient media display, tangible user interface, peripheral

How can we design displays that foster a sense of presence and awareness... that enhance a sense of community and togetherness... that enable human bonds to grow and flourish? Using five prototypes from the Human Connectedness research group at Media Lab Europe as a context for reflection, this chapter attempts to assemble a framework of questions and strategies for designers to consider when working to achieve these kinds of effects. The prototypes discussed include a media space that connects several physical locations in our organization, a video conference system based on the metaphor of a magic mirror, a video installation that displays layers of recorded social interaction, an ambient display for hospital patients in isolation wards, and a "sports over a distance" application with an "exertion" interface.

this article, we survey the progress toward Weiser's vision from a hardware viewpoint. Where In Mark Weiser's vision of ubiquitous computing, computers disappear from conscious thought. From a hardware perspective, the authors examine how far we've succeeded in implementing this vision and how far we have to go

Maintaining an awareness of information about one's own community and its members is viewed as being important, but is becoming more challenging today as people are overwhelmed by so many different forms of information. This paper describes the "What's Happening" suite of tools for helping convey relevant and interesting community information to people in a manner that is minimally distracting and disruptive, with little or no user set-up and interaction. The tools are more lightweight than e-mail and Usenet news, and opportunistic in providing information to people when they are not deeply focused on some other task.