Mobile HCI 2007 | Keynote Talks

Abstract
While “mobile computing” is viewed as a first step in the direction of freeing users from being tied to technology, “ambient computing” constitutes the next phase of creating environments where the “the world around us” is the “interface” to information and for communication and cooperation. A major aspect is the rapidly increasing trend of embedding computation in everyday objects creating "smart artefacts" and the notion of the "disappearing computer". At the same time, this raises new challenges for the design of future interactive applications being part of "smart" environments that react in an attentive, adaptive, and active (sometimes proactive) way to the presence and activities of humans and objects in order to provide smart services.

The notion of “ambient computing” is becoming a de facto key dimension of the emerging information, media and knowledge society because next generation industrial digital media products and services are clearly shifted towards an overall ambient, smart computing environment. Adopting the notion of the “disappearing computer”, the goal is to hide the presence of technology from users, by providing implicit, unobtrusive interaction paradigms. Despite involving a large variety of technologies, people and their social situations, ranging from individuals to groups, be them work-groups, families or friends and their corresponding environments (office buildings, homes, public spaces, etc) should be at the centre of the design considerations. This keynote talk will present and discuss different design dimensions and examples of corresponding smart environments.

About the Speaker
Dr. rer. nat. Dr. phil. Norbert Streitz (Ph. D. in physics and Ph.D. in psychology) is a Senior Scientist and Strategic Advisor with more than 20 years of experience in information and communication technology. In 1997, he initiated and then managed the research division "AMBIENTE - Smart Environments of the Future" at Fraunhofer IPSI in Darmstadt, Germany, where he also teaches at the Department of Computer Science of the Technical University. Before joining IPSI in 1987, he was an assistant professor at the Technical University (RWTH) Aachen. He was a post-doc fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, a visiting scholar at Xerox PARC and at the Intelligent Systems Lab of ETL-MITI, Tsukuba Science City, Japan.

He was the Chair of the Steering Group of the EU-funded initiative "The Disappearing Computer" and is now the co-chair of the ERCIM Working Group "Smart Environments and Systems for Ambient Intelligence (SESAMI)" as well as the Leader of the Working Group "Ambient Computing and Communication Environments" of the EU-funded Coordinated Action InterLink exploring future trends in ICT. His research interests include Ambient/Pervasive/Ubiquitous Computing, Interaction and Experience Design, Human-Computer Interaction, Hypertext/Hypermedia, CSCW, and Cognitive Science. He has published/edited 17 books and (co)authored more than 110 technical papers. His co-edited book on "The Disappearing Computer" was published in May this year as a "state-of-the-art survey" by Springer. He serves regularly on the relevant program committees and on editorial boards (e.g., currently Associate Editor of ACM TOCHI). He is often invited to present keynote speeches and tutorials to scientific as well as commercial events in Europe, USA, South America, Malaysia, Singapore, and Japan.

Selected References

Russell, Streitz, Winograd (2005). Building Disappearing Computers.
Communications of the ACM, Vol. 48 (3), March 2005. pp. 42-48.

Streitz, Kameas, Mavrommati (Eds.) (2007)
The Disappearing Computer, Springer “State-of-the-Art” Survey, LNCS 4500.

Streitz and Nixon (2005). The Disappearing Computer.
Communications of the ACM, Vol. 48 (3), March 2005. pp. 33-35.

Streitz, Magerkurth, Prante, Röcker (2005 a). From Information Design to Experience Design: Smart Artefacts and the Disappearing Computer. In: Special Issue on Ambient intelligence, ACM interactions, 12 (4) July + August 2005. pp. 21-25.

Streitz, Röcker, Prante, van Alphen, Stenzel, Magerkurth (2005 b). Designing Smart Artefacts for Smart Environments. In: IEEE Computer, March 2005. pp. 41-49.