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September 24, 2005
More and more great ambient devices
So over the past few weeks, I've been thinking more and more about "Ambient Intelligence." Specifically Ambient Display Devices. I had thought that the domain had already been viewed and discarded by the side of the road, however since I've started looking for examples, I'm finding them all over. I found "Ambient Devices" a spinoff company from the MIT media lab. They had some fairly interesting devices like the Stock Orb, the Weather Forecast Beacon, and the Executive Dashboard. I think all of these are excellent examples of glanceable interfaces. Another company I recently discovered is called Violet. It's a French company, and you can see how the difference in culture from MIT really affects the design of their products. My favorite is probably the Nabaztag, a weird little rabbit looking device that can be set up to react in different ways depending on the information it receives.
So, what I'm learning is that there are a few different categories to consider when thinking about Ambient Intelligence. The products at AmbientDevices are pure ambient display devices. That means they are meant to blend into the environment they are placed in, and are not really designed to grab your attention. I think this is the essence of a glanceable interface.
The other category is "Smart Objects," like what we see from the products at Violet. These devices are meant to be able to grab a user's attention on various events, and to be interacted with directly if the occasion calls for it.
I would be very interested to see any comments from you guys on interesting ideas you may have for uses of the products at these two sites. Or any ideas on Ambient Intelligence in general. This is an official call for comments :-)
P.s. I think we should talk Tim Tucker into starting a blog, that guy is nuts.
Posted by whazlewo at September 24, 2005 11:15 AM