Abstract:The central theme in Ambient Intelligence is that powerful computation, communication and storage facilities are available, but are invisible. We believe that objects will play an important role as mediators. In order to make models of mediation and to study the mediation of behaviour, traditional modelling techniques, such as foam models, rendering etc. fall short. Although it is easy to make two-dimensional models of screens and front-panels and connect actions to the corresponding buttons, this approach is inadequate for new types of interfaces and behaviouts which are not screen-based. Therefore we have experimented with an approach which we call 4D Sketching. The term 4D refers to the fact that it includes sketching in 3D space with the active behaviour adding a fourth, temporal dimension. We use foam, cardboard, a glue-gun, and other easy-to-use materials for the spatial sketching. We use a microprocessor, servo-motors and sensors to sketch active behaviour. The article describes the underlying philosophy, the technical aspects and a number of experiences gathered so-far, including student work from a project called Semotion.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.