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TangibleAndEmbodiedComputing

Assigned Reading

• Paul Dourish, Getting in Touch (Chapter 2, 25-53), from Where the Action Is, MIT Press, 2001 [29]
• Hubert Dreyfus, Disembodied Telepresence and the Remoteness of the Real, from Hubert Dreyfus, On the Internet, London: Routledge, 2001, 50-72.

Additional Resources and Readings

• E.M. Forster, The Machine Stops (referenced by Dreyfus)
• Sherry Turkle, Life on the Screen
• Lindsy Van Gelder The Strange Case of the Electronic Lover See comment below.
• Robert D. Putnam Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000)
• Philip Auslander, Liveness (from Erica)
• Tools Are Body Parts to Brain. Scientific American. June 23, 2009.
• S.R. Klemmer, B. Hartmann, and L. Takayama, How bodies matter: five themes for interaction design. Proceedings of the 6th conference on Designing Interactive systems, University Park, PA, USA: ACM, 2006, pp. 140-149.
• On the potential advantages of telepresence and virtual reality:
  • J. Hollan and S. Stornetta, Beyond being there, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems, Monterey, California, United States: ACM, 1992, pp. 119-125.
  • J.N. Bailenson, N. Yee, J. Blascovich, A.C. Beall, N. Lundblad, and M. Jin, The use of immersive virtual reality in the learning sciences: Digital transformations of teachers, students, and social context, Journal of the Learning Sciences, vol. 17, 2008, pp. 102–141.

Term paper

• Monday, October 26, by email to cs378-aut0910-staff@lists.stanford.edu : A one page description of a proposed topic. More information

Embodied Trust - Mark Schar

Comments

Both readings are concerned with fields in computing that are getting more and more visibility outside the tech industry. Reading about the embodied interaction and augmented reality reminded me of Microsoft Surface and related products. Over the last year I have come across a whole range of implementations that explored use cases in different industries. Specifically in Engineering, there are some obvious and apparent advantages in interacting with 3d models more intuitively when compared with keyboard and mouse. Using the table approach it also opens a completely new field of collaboration with different project members working in parallel on completing and annotating a design. The problem of parallelism pointed out in the reading is very relevant here.

An interesting use of augmented reality was recently showcased in the field of wearable technology. Check out this presentation at TED: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZ-VjUKAsao

I also concur with Dreyfus’s observations and reasoning about telepresence and remoteness. Current technology creates a sense of detachment that ultimately makes us react differently to our remote surroundings. I have not yet had a chance to see it, but there is currently a movie running in the cinemas that makes some assumptions about overcoming the sense of remoteness (Surrogate Movie). If we follow Dreyfus then we would not even overcome this sense of remoteness with fully immersive technology unless we share the ultimate risk (injury/death).

-- Robert Graebert

Disembodied Telepresence on the Wiki

I find it interesting to think about how our in-class discussions compare to class comments on the Wiki. It is certainly interesting to read the comments, and the act of writing comments makes me think harder about the ideas presented in the readings. However, there seems to be something lost online. When one of us poses a question in the physical class, we can all sense whether that question is posed in a pondering manner, indicating grappling with an idea, or perhaps it is posing a challenge. Without the same context online, it is difficult to understand such subtleties.

I agree with the readings that telepresence cannot be a complete substitute for presence. But we also take naturally to emoticons and other digital expressions that attempt to reintroduce context and emotion into forms of communication. By analogy, it seems we shouldn't throw the idea of distance learning or conferencing out, but rather find ways to make it as useful as possible.

-- Matt Garr