Dr. Dr. Norbert Streitz
Title:
From Cognitive Compatibility to the Disappearing Computer: Experience Design for Smart Environments
Abstract:
“It seems like a paradox but it will soon become reality: The rate at which computers disappear will be matched by the rate at which information technology will increasingly permeate our environment and determine our lives”. This statement by Streitz & Nixon (2005) illustrates how computers are increasingly becoming an important part of our day-today activities and will determine a wide range of the physical and social contexts of our future life. The availability and ubiquity of computers is the first step we are currently witnessing. It is followed by the integration of information, communication and sensing technology into everyday objects resulting in “smart artefacts” that constitute ambient environments and make the computer disappear (Russell et al, 2005; Streitz et al, 2007, Streitz, 2008).
While the technology-oriented part of the vision is important, I emphasize a people-oriented design for smart ambient environments. Despite involving a large variety of technologies, people and their social situations, ranging from individuals to groups, be them work-groups, families or friends, communities and their corresponding environments (office buildings, homes, public spaces, etc) have to be at the centre of our design considerations. This includes also a shift from information design to experience design (Streitz et al., 2005 a).
At the same time, it raises new challenges for the design of future interactive applications being part of "smart" environments that react in an attentive, adaptive, and active (sometimes proactive) way to the presence and activities of humans and objects in order to provide smart services. In this context, the following distinction seems useful (Streitz et al., 2005b) and will be further elaborated: System-oriented, importunate smartness vs. People-oriented, empowering smartness keeping “the human in the loop”. Both types of behaviour depend on large numbers of sensors collecting data about the environment, the devices and humans in this context. User models, profiles, and preferences will be more and more based on sensor data obtained by observing and analysing users’ behaviour in the real world. It is no surprise that this results also in a discussion of privacy issues due to the comprehensive activity monitoring and recording of personal data.
Having been one of the “founding fathers” of the ECCE-Conference series – with ECCE-2008 being now its 26. instance – I will also make a connection to the notion of “cognitive compatibility” which was one of the central issues of my very early work on human-computer interaction about 25 years ago.
References:
D. Russell, N. Streitz, T. Winograd (2005). Building Disappearing Computers. Communications of the ACM, Vol. 48 (3), March 2005. pp. 42-48.
N. Streitz (2008). The Disappearing Computer. In: T. Erickson, D. McDonald (Eds.), HCI Remixed: Reflections on Works that have influenced the HCI Community, MIT Press. pp. 55-60.
N. Streitz, A. Kameas, I. Mavrommati (Eds.) (2007). The Disappearing Computer: Interaction Design, System Infrastructures and Applications for Smart Environments. Springer “State-of-the-Art” Survey, LNCS 4500.
N. Streitz, P. Nixon (2005). The Disappearing Computer. Communications of the ACM, Vol. 48 (3), March 2005. pp. 33-35.
N. Streitz, C. Magerkurth, T. Prante, C. Röcker (2005 a). From Information Design to Experience Design: Smart Artefacts and the Disappearing Computer. In: Special Issue on Ambient intelligence, ACM interactions, 12 (4) July + August 2005. pp. 21-25.
N. Streitz, C. Röcker, T. Prante, D. van Alphen, R. Stenzel, C. Magerkurth (2005 b). Designing Smart Artefacts for Smart Environments. IEEE Computer, March 2005. pp. 41-49.
Bio:
Dr. rer. nat. Dr. phil. Norbert Streitz (Ph. D. in physics and Ph.D. in psychology) is a Senior Scientist and Strategic Advisor with 25 years of experience in information and communication technology. In 1997, he initiated and then managed the research division "AMBIENTE - Smart Environments of the Future" at Fraunhofer IPSI in Darmstadt, Germany, where he also teaches at the Department of Computer Science of the Technical University. Before joining IPSI in 1987, he was an assistant professor at the Technical University (RWTH) Aachen. Other positions during his activities included a post-doc research fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, a visiting scholar at Xerox PARC and at the Intelligent Systems Lab of ETL-MITI, Tsukuba Science City, Japan.
He was the Chair of the Steering Group of the EU-funded proactive initiative "The Disappearing Computer" and is now the co-chair of the ERCIM Working Group "Smart Environments and Systems for Ambient Intelligence (SESAMI)" as well as the Leader of the Working Group "Ambient Computing and Communication Environments" of InterLink, a EU-funded Coordinated Action exploring future trends in ICT. His research interests include Ambient/Pervasive/Ubiquitous Computing, Interaction and Experience Design, Human- Computer Interaction, Hypertext/Hypermedia, CSCW, and Cognitive Science. He has published/edited 17 books and (co)authored more than 110 technical papers. His recent coedited book on "The Disappearing Computer" was published last year as a "state-of-the-art survey" by Springer. He serves regularly on the relevant program committees and on editorial boards (e.g., currently Associate Editor of ACM TOCHI). He is often invited to present keynote speeches and tutorials to scientific as well as commercial events in Europe, USA, South America, Malaysia, Singapore, Hongkong, China, Korea and Japan.