Drink Smart and Keep Calm: Technology that Stays in the Background – Part I

While looking for an idea for my physical prototyping class, I came across a problem that I often encounter: I get myself a glass of water or a cup of tea and forget to drink it. So I designed a smart water glass, that reminds me to drink — but only when I actually forget to drink.

It was only in class that I realized I had subconsciously applied the principles of Calm Technology, enhancing my surroundings with computing in a subtle way. In doing so, I had also created a Tangible User Interface that supports the broader vision of Ubiquitous Computing.

This is a perfect example to dive deeper into my topic and take a closer look at the different concepts and how they come together in my smart water glass to create this type of interaction.

Ubiquitous Computing

Let’s start with the concept of Ubiquitous Computing, a vision first introduced by Mark Weiser.  Its main idea is to embed computation into the environment so seamlessly that computers become “invisible” to users. This vision emerged with the advancement of microelectronics and their widespread availability. Technology should move out of the direct focus and into the background. Instead of interacting with a single desktop device, interaction with technology happens everywhere — in everyday objects and the environment itself. (Weiser 1991)

Mark Weiser (1991, p. 2) describes ubiquitous computing as the opposite of virtual reality: “Virtual reality puts people inside a computer-generated world, ubiquitous computing forces the computer to live out here in the world with people.”

If we look back at the example from the beginning, this concept can be easily transferred. Instead of setting a drinking reminder on my cell phone or smartwatch, I can set the timer directly by interacting with the glass in my environment. This interaction can be designed to reflect the natural ways we as humans handle physical objects. And rather than being interrupted by a sound or vibration, the water glass responds to my interaction, subtly directing my peripheral attention to where it matters — the glass itself — rather than my smartphone.

Tangible User Interface

A concept closely related to ubiquitous computing—and one that fits the type of user interface used in our water glass example — is the tangible user interface, or TUI. While ubiquitous computing provides the guiding vision, TUIs represent a concrete implementation of that vision. In this sense, they can be seen as a subfield or application area of ubiquitous computing.

Inspired by the idea of embedding computation seamlessly into everyday life, TUIs aim to give digital information a physical form. They enable interaction through the real world and draw on modes of engagement that humans naturally use in their physical environments. These interactions are diverse and can involve multiple senses. TUIs are designed to enable the direct perception and physical manipulation of digital information. Their goal is to make computation both graspable and embodied. (Ishii and Ullmer 1997; Ullmer and Ishii 2000; Ishii 2008)

A TUI is a user interface in which the interaction elements are primarily haptic rather than graphical. TUIs link physical representations with digital information, allowing users to manipulate digital data by interacting with the corresponding physical object (Ullmer and Ishii 2000).

Tangible user interfaces enable users to interact through alternative input media, such as speech, gestures, or spatial position or movement. The system can provide feedback in various forms, including text, sound, vibration, or visual cues (Hornecker and Buur 2006).

TUI’s interaction model can be summarized in four key characteristics (Ullmer and Ishii 2000):

• Physical representations are linked to digital information
• Physical representations have mechanisms for interactive control.
• The physical representation is perceptibly linked to the conveyed digital information.
• The state of physical representation embodies key states of the digital system.

In the case of our smart water glass, the digital information being manipulated is the drinking-reminder timer, which automatically resets when the glass is lifted. By interacting with the glass as our physical object, I simultaneously interact with the digital layer connected to it — perfectly illustrating the essence of a tangible user interface.

This example shows how seamlessly the physical and digital worlds can merge when everyday objects become interactive. Yet as our surroundings grow smarter, an important question emerges: How can these technologies support us without demanding our constant attention?

In the next blog entry, we’ll take a closer look at the principles of Calm Technology and explore how our smart water glass applies them to create a quieter, less obtrusive interaction experience.

References:

• Hornecker, Eva; Buur, Jacob (2006): Getting a grip on tangible interaction: a framework on physical space and social interaction.
• Ishii, H., & Ullmer, B. (1997): “Tangible Bits: Towards Seamless Interfaces between People, Bits and Atoms“
• Ishii, H. (2008): “Tangible Bits: Beyond Pixels“, New York, NY: ACM.
• Ullmer, B.; Ishii, H. (2000): Emerging frameworks for tangible user interfaces. In IBM Syst. J. 39 (3.4), pp. 915–931.
• Weiser, M. (1991): “The Computer for the 21st Century”, Scientific American.