2012 IEEE International Conference on Multimedia and Expo
Expert Talk for Time Machine Session: Designing Calm Technology “…as Refreshing as Taking a Walk in the Woods” John N. A. Brown Erasmus Mundus Joint Doctoral Programme in Interactive and Cognitive Environments Alpen-Adria Universität Klagenfurt & Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya Klagenfurt, Austria & Vilanova i la Geltrú, Spain
[email protected] phone would subtly let you know who is trying to reach you without pulling your attention away from the task at hand. It could be as gentle as the sound of familiar footsteps drawing close or the semi-transparent hint of a familiar smile on your touchscreen. Hardware and software are now more than good enough, and rich multimedia can be customized, stored, accessed and processed quickly and cheaply. It is time for Human Computer Interaction based on rich and textured interfaces; interaction that is less like dealing with a series of screaming emergencies fighting for our attention, and more like taking a walk in the woods. It is time for Calm Technology.
Abstract—Weiser and Brown predicted the era of Ubiquitous Computing but what they called the most profound change has been almost completely abandoned, overlooked or misrepresented. Designing calm technology requires a deeper understanding of how we multi-task, but it has the potential to becalm human computer interaction; decreasing stress, and mitigating human error as a cause of accidents. Keywords-ubiquitous computing; calm technology; humancomputer interaction; design; human factors
I.
SUMMARY
In 1995, Mark Weiser and John Seeley Brown said that computers would enter society in 3 stages. The Mainframe Era was followed by the Personal Computer Era. They predicted that the internet and distributed computing would lead to an era of Ubiquitous Computing. Some say that it has, but what we now call UC is not what Weiser and Brown described. It is true that each person now uses many computers, instead of the other way around, but they did not just define UC by the human:computer ratio. “The most potentially interesting, challenging and profound change implied by the ubiquitous computing era is a focus on calm.” Calm Technology is based on the two ways that humans process information. Trying to focus on more than one thing at once is stressful, but humans can take in much more information if it is presented peripherally; in a way that allows the individual to judge whether or not to give it more attention. Basic physiology and neuroanatomy show that we naturally examine things closely while at the same time using other senses to keep track of subtle changes in our environment, warning us when the peripheral becomes important. What’s more, the process of plucking things from the periphery, examining them and then deciding how to resort them is a comforting activity. It makes us feel at home and in control. Ubiquitous Computing is everywhere now (if you’ll pardon the pun) but Calm Technology has been all but abandoned because it is harder to design and implement than traditional multi-media interaction. So, instead of deliberate calm, we have constant text message alerts, ring tones and email pop-ups demanding the immediate attention of everyone within earshot. Imagine instead that your cell 978-0-7695-4711-4/12 $26.00 © 2012 IEEE DOI 10.1109/ICME.2012.24
REFERENCES [1]
M. Weiser and J. S. Brown, “Designing calm technology”, Xerox PARC, December 21, 1995. Available at: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.135.9788& rep=rep1&type=pdfdf [2] M.Weiser and J. S. Brown, “Designing calm technology,” Powergrid J., vol. 1, no. 1, July, 1996. [3] J. 58. M. Weiser and J. S. Brown, “The Coming Age of Calm Technology”, October 5, 1996. Available at: http://www.cs.ucsb.edu/~ebelding/courses/284/papers/calm.pdf [4] M. Weiser, "Hot Topics: Ubiquitous Computing," Computer, Oct. 1993, pp. 71-72. [5] Davies, N.; Gellersen, H.-W.; , "Beyond prototypes: challenges in deploying ubiquitous systems," Pervasive Computing, IEEE , vol.1, no.1, Jan-Mar 2002, pp. 26- 35 [6] G. D. Abowd, E. D. Mynatt, “Charting past, present, and future research in ubiquitous computing”, ACM Transactions on ComputerHuman Interaction 7(1), 2000, pp. 29–58. [7] Y. Rogers, “Moving on from Weiser's vision of calm computing: engaging UbiComp experiences”. In Ubicomp 2006 Proceedings, LNCS 4206, Dourish P, Friday A (eds). Springer-Verlag: Heidelberg; 2006, pp. 404–421 [8] G. D. Abowd, E. D. Mynatt, and T. Rodden, "The human experience [of ubiquitous computing]," Pervasive Computing, IEEE , vol.1, no.1, Jan-Mar 2002, pp. 48- 57. [9] A. Tugui, “Calm technologies in a multimedia world”, in Ubiquity, ACM, vol. 5, no. 4, 2004. [10] A. Tugui, “Calm technologies: A new trend for educational technologies”, World Future Review, Spring 2011, pp. 64-73. [11] J. Fiaidhi, “Towards Developing Installable e-Learning Objects utilizing the Emerging Technologies in Calm Computing and Ubiquitous Learning”, International Journal of u- and e- Service, Science and Technology, vol. 4, no. 1, 2011, pp. 1-12.
423
