It's All in the (ambient) Environment: Designing Experiences in Ubiquitous Hybrid Worlds

The objective of this invited talk is to present selected visions of ubiquitous computing and ambient communication based on the notion of the disappearing computer and to reflect on the resulting challenges for designing experiences in future smart environments. Our approach places the human at the centre of our design considerations and is based on exploiting the affordances of real objects by augmenting their physical properties with the potential of computer-based support. Combining the best of both worlds requires an integration of real and virtual worlds resulting in hybrid worlds. In this approach, the computer "disappears" and is almost "invisible" but its functionality is ubiquitously available and provides new forms of interacting with information. The approach can be summarized by the statement that "the world around us is the interface to information and for conveying experiences ".