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January 17, 2006
Is Ambient Technology the Opposite of Virtual Reality?
A professor here at IU named Gregory Rawlins wrote an interesting book called “Moths to the Flame: The Seductions of Computer Technology.” The book is interesting because Rawlins is a futurist who does a very thorough job of taking into account lessons from history and current pop culture. In a section of his book called “In the Screen of the Machine,” Rawlins gives a scenario of what the working day may be like if Virtual Reality ever became… well… a reality.
I bring up Rawlin’s book because, as you probably know, I’ve been thinking a lot about the domain of Ambient Intelligence, and I found a definition idea on a site talking about Ubiquitous Computing.
From the site:
Ubiquitous computing is roughly the opposite of virtual reality. Where virtual reality puts people inside a computer-generated world, ubiquitous computing forces the computer to live out here in the world with people. Virtual reality is primarily a horsepower problem; ubiquitous computing is a very difficult integration of human factors, computer science, engineering, and social sciences.
I think this is an intriguing perspective, and it may apply to the notion of Ambient Intelligence. The advantage to virtual reality is that we don’t have to worry much about silly things like materials or physics, but since I last checked, virtual reality seems to be a lot further off than Hollywood would have us believe. Rawlin’s scenario would require us to know how to directly interface with the brain in order to make us see, feel, smell, hear, and taste, things that are not really in existence. I have not seen any new VR research in a while, so I assume that the concepts have been placed on the backburner until we figure out a little more on how the body works.
Regardless, in Rawlin’s scenario he paints a picture of the virtual office.
From Moths to the Flame:
What looks like a paper calendar is really an agenda file, and the clock is an electronic simulation that tells him about upcoming appointments. The tiny file cabinet is an enormous filing system, which contains electronic, not paper files. The health of the flower reflects the state of his business. Its color, the shape of the vase, and the amount of water in it reflect orders, contracts, and service requests. It gives him a quick way to estimate how well he's doing. Right now it is blooming in a tall thin crystal vase with plenty of water.
The thing I find most interesting is the flower vase. When you consider the definition above, you can imagine a version of this device in the physical world. Of course now we do have to worry about the materials, and stupid physics, but this seems to be to be a prime examples of an ambient display device. Consider how different this is than the Nabaztag. The vase constantly makes subtle changes but is always providing information in the peripherie. I would love to figure out a way to build a device like this vase and do a proper study, but I’m not even sure how it could be built.
Posted by whazlewo at January 17, 2006 2:45 PM
Comments
Posted by: Richie at February 13, 2006 11:13 AM
Posted by: test at October 4, 2006 3:54 PM