copyright dhn 030299

Be careful. The following is a very rough draft full of big leaps and large steps. Comments, thoughts, and ideas are all welcomed. -David <dnguyen@cc.gatech.edu> March 2, 1999

While computing technology has helped us to achieve many great things, there still exist many steps we have not taken to enable that technology to further enrich our lives. Computing technology is a great tool, but at the current time, only for the very few. For everyone except those elite few, computing technology is more a hurdle than a facilitating tool.

The design and usage of technology today tends to hinder if not disrupt human activities. Usage of many of today's technology is akin to using a sledgehammer to fix a watch or using a screwdriver to build a bridge. Perhaps I exaggerate, but still, technology should not be a barrier to human activities, be it communication, entertainment, or work. Rather, if technology were to be present, it should be a conduit, a scaffold, a catalyst for everyday human activities. And it should do so with grace and tact.

Technology shouldn't disrupt people's activities like a new baby, rather new technology should be as polished and subtle as an English butler. Technology should help and allow people to reach a little beyond their limits, much like a professor encouraging her students. Technology shouldn't alienate; it should not place the focus on itself, but rather those around it.

Let's take for example the television. In the current American culture, the usual practice is to put the TV as the focal point of a living or family room. Shouldn't people and their endeavors be the focal point of a living or family room? The TV should not be the center of attention; it should only help to accentuate the focus of the room.

Let's take another old technology as an example -- the telephone. The telephone interrupts everything. It even interrupts the TV! New technology should not be a distinct singular abruptive tool, but rather a supportive part of our activities and surroundings. New technology should smoothly enter and leave our lives and activities like a good assistant.

Computing technology is more than spreadsheets and tax preparation software, more than streaming video and hard drives, more than a mouse and keyboard. Computing technology should strive to bring people together, to hold people up, and to allow people to do what we believe to be important.

<Ready for the Big Leap?>

There exists a step that will seamlessly integrate technology into our everyday lives; I call that step Retinue.

What is it?

At the moment, Retinue is a combination of many subsystems -- three main level systems with a number of infrastructure components to support the main level systems. The three main systems are the designed ambient/everyday objects, the Serendipity Finder, and MINE. Please note that these three systems are so highly integrated that at times, it will be difficult to differentiate between the three.

1. MINE (Mobile Interfaces in a Networked Environment)
1. Access everywhere - This is the system that will allow the user access to every resource around him. Not only will the resources be available to the user, the resources will also customize and personalize themselves to the user.
2. Information aura - An information aura will travel with the user. This aura will consist of information the user deems necessary and important enough to have immediate access. For example, the user might include in her information aura her schedule, contacts, to-do lists, memos, bookmarks, contact information/business card, favorite quotes and poems, etc...
3. Rapid personalization - As the user comes in contact with a resource or device, that resource will customize and personalize itself to the current user. For example, after picking up a Palm device, the user will automatically have access to his schedule, memos, phone numbers, etc. When interacting with a web browser at any computer, the user will always be able to access and modify his own bookmarks.
4. Context aware - As services, resources, and people come in and out of the user's environment, MINE will keep track of this. So for example, ad hoc meetings will be easy to facilitate. Action items can be easily emailed out to the present group, information present at the ad hoc meeting will be accessible to the group. If a needed service is not present, MINE will actively look for the closest one.
5. Shared frame of reference - Because MINE is the environment, everyone present will share a single frame of reference. Everyone starts out on the same page.
6. Coordination of private and public - Because everyone does share the environment, MINE will have to deal with the coordination of the public and the private.
1. Spaces - what will be considered personal space and what will be considered public space? A monitor sitting in the common/public area is sharable among everyone.
2. Information - personal information can be presented through the environment, but what if there are others around? What information can be presented? What semi private information might even be beneficial to others if presented?
2. Serendipity Finder
1. Memory aid - People and technology have their own strengths and weaknesses. One strength of computers is their exact storage of information. So let's use Retinue as a memory aid and have it keep our lists, notes, novels...
2. Keep and present associations (right time, right place) - Making lists is convenient. However, utilizing the underlying infrastructure, these lists will be presented at the right time and at the right place.
3. Shared mental model - Retinue should have some sort of understanding of the user's activities and tasks. With this shared model, Retinue will be better able to present the user with needed or serendipitous information.
4. Remind the mind - Using a strength of people, Retinue does not need to solve every problem. It can simply bring up the information to the user and the user will resolve it accordingly.
5. Understand notion of group - No man is an island. To help you with your work and play, you will need to know who is around, what they are working on, if they are busy, what expertise they may bring, what hobbies they have.
3. Designed ambient and everyday objects
1. Making information perceptible - Not only is it important to find and bring up the right information at the right time, it is important to properly present that information. Your friend Elaine entering the building to go to lunch with you should not interrupt the last few minutes of your meeting with your boss. A note telling you that your child is in the hospital should definitely interrupt that meeting.
2. Because the technology is no longer centralized to one monitor, keyboard, mouse, and CPU, it will be necessary to design objects to allow computing technology to be a part of our everyday lives in subtle and seamless ways.

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4. Resource discovery infrastructure
1. Should not only report on the resources around, but also actively search for needed resources
5. Input infrastructure
1. Easy input anytime, anywhere
6. Monitoring infrastructure
1. Monitoring and reporting of resources
7. Notification infrastructure
1. Graceful notification
2. Uses ambient displays where possible
8. Association infrastructure
1. Events with other events
2. Events with time
3. Action with time
4. Space/location with notes, events, time
5. Etc.
9. Rapport infrastructure
1. Allows us to build rapport with the use of everyday objects
10. Preferences infrastructure
11. Time infrastructure
1. Has notion of time
2. Current time
3. History
1. Past events
12. Group/Community infrastructure
1. Has notion of groups
2. Aware of others in proximity
3. Aware of group/family/friends

Scenarios

Though it's becoming less and less frequent (wishful thinking really), my professor has a reference to related research I have not seen. She simply has her information aura relate that reference to my information aura. And now that information is a part of me as I wander the environment.

Gregory is reading a book to his son Aidan. Because they are in the family room and there's a television nearby, the environment makes use of that TV -- enhancements of that book can be seen through the TV and background music for the book can be heard on the stereo. However, later that night, as Gregory is reading Aidan a bedtime story, the environment configures itself to Gregory's preferences and only use soothing background music to help Aidan fall asleep.

Joe is sleeping. At 3:40AM, a stranger mistakenly calls his home. The phone reads Joe's preferences and diverts the call to voicemail instead. Joe is still sleeping.

Spring is approaching. The days are getting longer and warmer. In a brief moment of free time, the environment knows that I have some free time, that I have my rollerblades in my car, and that it's warm enough to blade around the park. So the environment unobtrusively suggests that instead of surfing the web, I might want to go rollerblading.

Johnny is walking to his 3:00 appointment with his professor. Her office is just on the second floor. As he walks towards the professor's office, he's gently reminded that the usual meeting the professor's office has been moved today to another building. He remembers. Because he is not rushed, Johnny enjoys the scenic route to the new meeting place.

Suzanne walks by and sees Johnny meeting with his professor. Suzanne wants to say hello, but does not want to disrupt Johnny's meeting. So with an easy swift motion, Suzanne sends a hello to Johnny. If Johnny is too engaged in the meeting with his professor, he will not notice the hello till later.

Tom has a book to return to a colleague in another building. He puts the book in his bag, so next time he's over in the other building, he won't forget the book in his office. However, when he returns to his office, it's then that Tom remembers the book. With Retinue, Tom will be reminded as he walked to the building. And if he sways the reminder off, he'll have a "louder" reminder as he leaves the building.

Sam hurries to finish her presentation before she flies out to a conference the next day. Retinue, like a good assistant, will conveniently place her out of contact except for emergencies. When the lunch crowd asks the building for people in the office at the time, Sam's name will not be reported. At every step, Retinue will let Sam know who has what information about her.

<TDB - Seamless scenario>

<TBD - Rapport scenario>

• Mark Weiser and John Seally Brown's Calm Technology
• Hiroshi Ishii and the Tangible Media research group
• Jun Rekimoto's pick and drop
• Sun's JINI
• Brad Rhode's Remembrance Agent
• John Thomas' Remind the Mind

• What happens if all this proposed technology breaks or disappears?
• What are the social reaction and interaction in a seamless, shared environment?
• How do we humanize technology in a semi public environment?
• How do we coordinate public and private displays?
• How can we fully exploit the utility of a shared frame of reference?
• What will it take to remind the mind?
• How will we personalize serendipity?
• What does it take to take out the "mystery" of the technology and have technology simply be a part of our everyday lives?