Interfacing with the invisible computer

  • Authors:
  • Kasim Rehman;Frank Stajano;George Coulouris

  • Affiliations:
  • Laboratory for Communications Engineering Cambridge University Engineering Department Trumpington Street Cambridge CB2 1PZ, United Kingdom;Laboratory for Communications Engineering Cambridge University Engineering Department Trumpington Street Cambridge CB2 1PZ, United Kingdom;Laboratory for Communications Engineering Cambridge University Engineering Department Trumpington Street Cambridge CB2 1PZ, United Kingdom

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the second Nordic conference on Human-computer interaction
  • Year:
  • 2002

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Abstract

The Ubicomp scenario of wirelessly networked processors embedded in everyday objects has been dubbed "the invisible computer". Users no longer interact with a computer but with familiar objects whose functionality is transparently enhanced by computing features.Using the results of an extensive survey of past and current Ubicomp research (Rehman 2001), we highlight the major problem of this new style of interaction: because the computer is invisible, the user lacks an appropriate cognitive mod el for it, and cannot predict the behaviour or even the available features of the system. We argue that effective and usable Ubicomp systems will have to make the invisible computer visible.