Embodiment Mark W. Newman SI 688 Fall 2010

Transcription

1 Embodiment Mark W. Newman SI 688 Fall 2010

2 Where the Action Is The cogni<ve approach has struggled to provide insight into ubiquitous and social compu<ng The Human Informa<on Processor can t explain what seems compelling about Tangible Compu<ng Phenomenology provides a less reduc<onist view of our basic interac<on with the world Focus on experience Focus on meaning Focus on the situa/on

3 Ubiquitous Computing Trillons

4 Ubiquitous Computing Mark Weiser (1991) The Computer for the 21 st Century (in Scien<fic American) The most profound technologies are those that disappear. Hundreds of computers in a room in furniture, clothing, building, objects Analogy: the electric motor Input and output are integrated with the environment (not via dedicated devices) Context- awareness: embedded and wearable sensors detect environmental condi<ons, user behavior, and explicit commands Ambient informa<on: architectural surfaces are used for informa<on display Examples: smart alarm clock, augmented living room window, beaconing book, foreview mirror, video porthole

5 From Virtual Reality to Embodied Virtuality

6 PARCTab Inch (Tabs) Foot (Pads) Yard (Boards)

7 Dourish s Examples PARCTab Digital Desk Reac<ve Room social context Ambient/physical compu<ng: Marble answering machine, Live Wire, Feather/ Scent/Shaker Tangible compu<ng: bits and atoms may be informa<onally equivalent, they are not interac<onally equivalent metadesk Ambient Room Implica<ons: No single point of control No assump<on of sequence Apply constraints of physical world

8 Building the Vision Digital Desk (Wellner, et al. 1992) Tangible Bits (Ishii, et al now) Marble Answering Machine (Bishop 1992) Reac<ve Room (Cooperstock, et al. 1995)

9 Questions Raised Why is this compelling? Is a marble answering machine beber than a normal one? A digital desk beber than a digital desktop? If the informa<on processing pipeline is no longer narrow, how do we think about interac<on? Tangible/Embedded/Situated compu<ng seems natural, intui<ve, familiar, but why?

10 Embodiment Changes Our Perspective Experience cannot be separated into separate components for analysis Cogni<on is not separable from ac<on Meanings (and goals, schema, associa<ons, etc.) are pre- ontological Importance of tacit knowledge The World as Metaphor vs. the World as Medium Huge amount of richness is lost Note: There is no such thing as disembodied interac<on There is no dualism

11 The situated perspec<ve Foregrounding the Background: The Importance of Context You can t usefully describe ac<on or cogni<on devoid of context Body- mind- world- ac<on- social factors cannot be analyzed separately New methods: Ethnomethodology (Garfinkel) More descrip<ve accounts of how members of a social seeng create and sustain meaning Suchman (1992, Plans and Situated Ac<ons): demonsrates that this is important for understanding Human- Computer Interac<on Contextual Inquiry is derived from this viewpoint

12 Social Construction of Meaning & Action We live in a world that is already full of meaning (The Life- world) Meaning is not (en<rely) in the head: Schemas, associa<ons Meaning is socially constructed Intersubjec<vity: achieving a common experience of the world Communica<on requires placing yourself in another s shoes Much learning occurs through observing others ac<ons (consider 688 lectures vs. exercises) Crea<on of meaning (associa<on between phenomena and their labels) is con<nually nego<ated through social processes

13 Equipment Our equipment dictates the ac<ons we can take Physical characteris<cs Tools that augment our physical characteris<cs Equipment: a tool as a tool for some task A hammer isn t equipment un<l you use it to pound a nail Ready- to- hand An extension of the self that is not consciously abended to E.g., mouse when an expert is drawing in Photoshop Allows us to manipluate distal phenomena as if they were proximal Present- at- hand The tool becomes the object of aben<on E.g., mouse reaches the edge of the mousepad

14 Affordances, revisited J. J. Gibson s Ecological Psychology Cogni<on is not purely neural, but lives in a complex involving the organism and environment Affordance: a property of the environment that affords ac<on to appropriately equipped organisms Requires considera<on of organism- environment- ac<vity Norman: opportunity for ac<on can be embedded in virtual interfaces

15 Norman s Correction POET was about perceived affordance. When I get around to revising POET, I will make a global change, replacing all instances of the word affordance with the phrase perceived affordance. The designer cares more about what ac<ons the user perceives to be possible than what is true. Moreover, affordances, both real and perceived, play very different roles in physical products than they do in the world of screen- based products. In the laber case, affordances play a rela<vely minor role: cultural conven<ons are much more important. More on that in a moment. interac<ons, 1999 My view: I disagree with Norman s correc<on, but agree with his earlier formula<on

16 How Bodies Matter: 5 Themes for IxD Thinking through Doing Learning through doing Physical interac<on facilitates cogni<ve development Physical/Spa<al reasoning is important to all kinds of cogni<on Role of gesture Helps people communicate Helps them thinking Epistemic ac<on Doing things to understand the context, not just to get things done Prototyping as a broad- stroke example Representa<on is important They dictate interac<ons which impact cogni/ons

17 How Bodies Matter: 5 Themes for IxD Performance Ac<ng through rather than on Ready- to- hand vs. Present- at- hand We have a rich set of equipment already at our disposal Ac<on- centered skills We have lots of embodied tacit knowledge Reflec<on is too slow for many ac<vi<es Hands/Motor memory as cogni<ve sites Bimanual skill, fine motor manipula<on Can we use kinesthe<c memory for learning how to do things

18 How Bodies Matter: 5 Themes for IxD Visibility Risk Situated learning/peripheral par<cipa<on Coordina<on Trust, commitment, aben<on, responsibility Thick Prac<ce Embed interac<on in context Take advantage of rich proper<es of objects

19 Three Paradigms of HCI Human Factors The machine is central Just make it work no theory required (behaviorism) The Cogni<ve Revolu<on The human informa<on processor Develop predic<ve theories about human- machine communica<on The Phenomenological Matrix Holis<c view Experience rather than efficiency Consider context rather than isolate variables Harrison, Tatar, Sengers, alt.chi 2007.

20 How Interaction is Viewed

21 Epistemology of Each Paradigm

22 Videos You Watched (right?) Digital Desk (1991) hbp:// metadesk (1997) hbp://tangible.media.mit.edu/projects/metadesk/ Augmented Surfaces (1998) hbp:// Sirables (2008) hbp:// Microsor Surface (2007) hbp:// Microsor Surface Parody (2007) hbp://

23 To Discuss Further Percep<ve Pixel (2006) hbp:// Sixth Sense (2009) hbp:// Talking Points (2008 present) hbp:// Ctools