Small Surfaces » awareness

Context Aware vs Location Based

Gabriel White — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 23:56:20 +0000

“I must say that it’s been surprisingly difficult, in various conversations with folks not immersed in the IxD space, to get across the essential distinction between context-aware applications and location-based services (LBS)...Mac Funamizu has actually nailed two separate things here. The first demonstrates precisely what I, at least, mean when I use the words “context aware”: but for some residual core of basic functionality, the device’s capabilities and available interface modalities at any given moment are largely if not entirely determined by the other networked objects around it. If you pair the device with a text, it’s a reader; at the checkstand, it provides a friendly POS interface; aimed at the skyline, it augments reality.”

Link: Worth a thousand words, etc. (speedbird.wordpress.com)

Related:

Share on Facebook | Save to del.icio.us | Small Surfaces is published by Gabriel White.

Staying loosely connected

Gabriel White — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 22:44:28 +0000

“However, the real reason in my mind that the iPhone wins is it’s ability to “stay in social touch”. The email, the SMS, the browsing experience has enabled much of the behavior that social networkers have mastered already on the laptop or desktop. It’s not about the technology, it is about how the device helps you socialize.

“So the iPhone wins because it both keeps us in the flow and keeps us loosely connected. Perhaps a little like adding a “lurking” factor…. iPhone in hand I have a better sense of what my friends and colleagues are doing.. I am more connected without actually thinking about it or working at it. As someone who’s never used a Blackberry and yet observed the “connected” behavior that creates around email (like IM) it’s been a revelation.”

Link: The Mobile Social World of Presence (henshall.com), via)

Related:

Share on Facebook | Save to del.icio.us | Small Surfaces is published by Gabriel White.

Is presence good?

Gabriel White — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 11:49:56 +0000

Some questions about whether sharing presence information is just a ‘cheap’ form of social interaction.

“”But some say the flood of information becoming available through mobile phones and other means is not always such a good thing. “I worry that people attribute too deep a meaning to raw information,” said Danah Boyd, who researches social media at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. “An increased flow of information should not be confused with a deeper bond.””

Link: Wireless: Can mobile phones give you ‘presence?’ (iht.com)

Related:

Share on Facebook | Save to del.icio.us | Small Surfaces is published by Gabriel White.

Ambient sound awareness

Gabriel White — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 04:48:10 +0000

Google’s developed a system for listening to your television and serving up relevant content. What if my mobile devices had the capability to listen in on what was happening around me?

“A team from Google Research has developed a prototype system that uses a home computer�s internal microphone to listen to the ambient audio in a room, determine what is being watched on TV and offer web-based supplemental information, services and shopping contextual to each program being watched. It�s strange, but it sounds like it works and people might really like it. There�s no indication yet whether or when this could be available as a service.”

Link: Google Research prototypes ambient audio contextual content (techcrunch.com)

Related:

Share on Facebook | Save to del.icio.us | Small Surfaces is published by Gabriel White.