Tangible Bits
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Tangible Bits Beyond Ubiquitous GUIs 2004 Tokyo Hiroshi Ishii Tangible Media Group MIT Media Laboratory © 2004 MIT Media Laboratory, Hiroshi Ishii 1 Tangible Bits Designing the Seamless Interface between People, Bits, and Atoms February 2004 Hiroshi Ishii Tangible Media Group Things That Think MIT Media Laboratory © 2004 MIT Media Laboratory, Hiroshi Ishii 2 Ubiquitous Computing Mark Weiser, Xerox PARC, 1991 • Computers should be "transparent." • Computational services are delivered through a variety of computational devices such as Tabs, Pads, and Boards, with the infrastructure to allow these devices to talk with each other. © 2004 MIT Media Laboratory, Hiroshi Ishii Mark Weiser at Xerox PARC presented his vision of “Ubiquitous Computing” in 1991. He claimed computers should be transparent and invisible. He claimed that the most profound technologies are invisible. They weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life until they are indistinguishable from it. His team designed a variety of computational devices including Tabs, Pads, and Boards along with the infrastructure to allow these devices to talk with each other. Recently, he is introducing a concept of “calm technology” citing the LIVE WIRE by Natalie Jeremijenko as an example. 3 Misunderstood Ubiquitous • Anytime & Anyplace • Mobile, wireless, broadband, RFID, …. • Multiple Computational Devices / User – c.f. Mainframe (TSS) computing: one computer / many users Personal computing: one computer / user © 2004 MIT Media Laboratory, Hiroshi Ishii Mark Weiser at Xerox PARC presented his vision of “Ubiquitous Computing” in 1991. He claimed computers should be transparent and invisible. He claimed that the most profound technologies are invisible. They weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life until they are indistinguishable from it. His team designed a variety of computational devices including Tabs, Pads, and Boards along with the infrastructure to allow these devices to talk with each other. Recently, he is introducing a concept of “calm technology” citing the LIVE WIRE by Natalie Jeremijenko as an example. 4 Wieser wrote to me in 1997… Date: Sun, 26 Jan 1997 23:34:10 PST Subject: "Tangible Bits" Dear Hiroshi and Brygg, I recently had a chance to read your CHI 97 paper "Tangible Bits"! Great work! In my opinion thisi s the k i nd of work that will characterize the technological landscape in the twenty-first century. .......... My request is that you help me stop the spread of misunderstanding of ubiquitous computing based si mply on its name. Ubicomp was never just about making "computers" ubiquitous. It was always, like your work, about awakening computation mediation into the environment. .......... I tried to stop using ubiquitous computing because of its misleading implication, but it keeps cropping up again, so I keep returning to it as my umbrella name for lots of work, including Things That Think. Augmented reality was in use for awhile, but again got balkanized in meaning. I have started to talk about Calm Technology as a theme, but it better names a goal than a research project. "Tangible Bits" is very ni ce, and maybe could serve as an overall umbrella, but then you might lose it as the name of your research project! .......... -mark (Dr.) Mark Wei ser Chief Technologist, Xerox PARC © 2004 MIT Media Laboratory, Hiroshi Ishii 5 LIVE WIRE Natalie Jeremijenko, 1995 • 8 foot piece of plastic rope that hangs from a small electric motor mounted in the ceiling. The motor is linked to a nearby LAN, so that passing bits cause twitching of the motor. • Bits flowing through the wires of a computer network become tangible through motion, sound, and touch. • Mark Wieser called “Calm Technology” © 2004 MIT Media Laboratory, Hiroshi Ishii Natalie Jeremijenko designed a beautiful instrument called Live Wire while an artist in residence at Xerox PARC. It is a piece of plastic cord that hangs from a small electric motor mounted on the ceiling. The motor is linked to the Ethernet, and each passing digital packet causes a tiny twitch of the motor. Bits flowing through the wires of a computer network become tangible through motion, sound without being obtrusive, taking advantage of peripheral cues. This work encouraged us to think about ambient media as a general mechanism for displaying activities in cyberspace. 6 “The Computer for the 21st Century” “The most profound technologies are those that disappear. They weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life until they are indistinguishable from it.” Mark Weiser July 23, 1952 - April 27, 1999 © 2004 MIT Media Laboratory, Hiroshi Ishii Mark Weiser wrote as follows in the 1st paragraph of his landmark paper on Ubiquitous Computing published in 1991 Scientific America . “The most profound technologies are those that disappear. They weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life until they are indistinguishable from it.” If you learn the task quite well using the right tools, and become the master, the tools cease to be a center of users’ attention. �Tools disappear into the background and you can concentrate on the tasks themselves. This is the definition of transparent or invisible computers by Mark. Invisible does not mean you can not see with your eyes. It is the matter of user’s focus of attention and consciousness. It is the state in which tools do not get in your way and you can concentrate on the task. Mark showed a series of ubiquitous computers including Live Board, Pads, and Badges. All of them come with screens and GUIs. But I do not feel Ubiquitous GUI is the path to achieve invisible interface. Today, I would like to show my approach: Tangible Interfaces. 7 At the Border Where the land meets the sea, there is a border. © 2004 MIT Media Laboratory, Hiroshi Ishii Where the land meets the sea, there is a border. This borderline is constantly moving and changing the shape of the shore. However, it is not only a simple line of a landscape, but also a critical biological locale. 8 Living at the Border Harsh, but also fertile environment. © 2004 MIT Media Laboratory, Hiroshi Ishii Whenever the tides go in and out, the inhabitants in the intertidal zone experience harsh environmental changes. When the tidal animals are exposed, they must withstand the heat and drying. When they are submerged, they must face constant pounding of waves. Living at this border is hard, but it is also a fertile environment for many kinds of life and activity. Where the land meets the sea, countless creatures have evolved diverse and creative approaches for flourishing among the turbulence and constant changes of these competing worlds. Our ancestors came from the sea and landed crossing this border a million years ago. 9 At the Border between Physical and Digital We live on the border where bits meet atoms. In the flood of pixels from the ubiquitous GUI screens, we are losing our sense of body and places. Pixels impoverish human senses. © 2004 MIT Media Laboratory, Hiroshi Ishii We are now crossing another border. Where bits meet atoms, there is another shoreline. Today, we live on the boundary between physical space and cyberspace. The constant pounding by waves of bits from screens distorts our experience of space. People are losing their sense of body and places in the flood of pixels from the ubiquitous rectangular screens. Living on this border is hard because our bodies remain in the physical world, even while we are immersed within digital information. It is also hard because current interfaces are not designed for amphibians. We are half drowning in the sea of bits, squeezing plastic mice instead of breathing and swimming. People are standing at the water's edge at a loss. 10 At the Boundary Where the sea meets the land, life has blossomed into a myriad of unique forms in the turbulence of water, sand, and wind. At another seashore between the land of atoms and the sea of bits, we are now facing the challenge of reconciling our dual citizenships in the physical and digital worlds. Windows to the digital world are confined to flat square screens and pixels, or "painted bits." Unfortunately, one can not feel and confirm the virtual existence of this digital information through one's body. Tangible Bits seeks to realize seamless interfaces between humans, digital information, and the physical environment by giving physical form to digital information and computation, making bits directly manipulable and perceptible. Hiroshi Ishii | Tangible Media Group | MIT Media Lab © 2004 MIT Media Laboratory, Hiroshi Ishii 11 • Seamless Interfaces for the Boundaries • Seamless Collaboration Media (88-94) at NTT Human Interface Laboratories • Beyond “Being There” • CSCW (Computer-Supported Cooperative Work) communities: ACM SIGOIS, SIGCHI, IFIP • Tangible User Interfaces (96-00) at Tangible Media Group, MIT Media Laboratory • Beyond “Painted Bits” • HCI (Human-Computer Interactions) communities: ACM SIGCHI and SIGGRAPH © 2004 MIT Media Laboratory, Hiroshi Ishii 12 My Art Work in 1959 © 2004 MIT Media Laboratory, Hiroshi Ishii Let me show another art work. This is my drawing on a fridge door in 1959. I loved drawing. Since then, drawing has been a very important medium in which I think, express myself and communicate with my mother. 13 Goal of ClearBoard Design • Seamless Integration of Shared Workspace and Interpersonal Space • Natural and smooth transition between them using everyday cues Shared Workspace Interpersonal Space © 2004 MIT Media Laboratory, Hiroshi Ishii ClearBord, the shared drawing media I designed, is deeply rooted in my drawing practices and my liking for the whiteboard. Our goal was to create a collaboration medium that seamlessly integrated the IPS and the SWS. We designed ClearBoard to allow users to shift easily between these spaces by using familiar everyday cues such as the partner's gestures, head movements, eye contact, and gaze direction. 14 Beyond “Being There” Beyond “Talking Heads” • Tacit Goal of Telecommunication: Imitation of "Being There" over distance – But this goal is a mirage.