Ubiquitous Computing: Defining an HCI Research Agenda for an Emerging Interaction Paradigm

Abstract

Ubiquitous computing (ubicomp) is an emerging paradigm for interaction between people and computers. A guiding principle of ubicomp is to break away from desktop computing to provide computational services to a user when and where required. Although there has been a lot of experimental work in ubicomp, there has been little effort to define an agenda in ubicomp for HCI researchers. In this paper, we attempt to remedy that problem by defining the space of ubicomp applications in terms of the level of user mobility and transparency of interaction. Increases in user mobility will come with technological advances, but increased interaction transparency will come only with breakthroughs in HCI research. We conclude the paper with a discussion of two functional themes that we have found important across a number of ubicomp systems -context-awareness and automated capture, integration and access. Each of these themes raises special HCI issues and, together with the taxonomy for ubicomp applications, defines a clearer agenda for HCI research in ubiquitous computing.