Information Holodeck: Thinking in Technology Ecologies

Abstract

Abstract. Information can be persistently represented on a multitude of devices beyond a single screen and session. This paper explores how technological display and device ecosystems (DDEs) may support human thinking, learning and sensemaking. We propose a theoretical foundation that extends Vygotsky's sign mediation triangle to include digital information. Through a process we call objectification, perceivable objects, e.g. interface objects, tangible technologies, can be associated with signs to support thinking. We present a qualitative study of learning in a testbed DDE with 12 graduate students. We developed a method that traces digital objects within 'thinking episodes' to help us evaluate how technology configurations support objectification. Our findings relate two storylines of how DDE technologies may afford objectification. Our work advances a method informed by psychological theory to examine device ecologies for their potential for learning, and articulates affordances for the design of technology that can help to support higher thought.

A Brave New World: Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality in Systems Biology

“…Notable within these efforts, CAVE Automatic Virtual Environments (CAVEs) were introduced in the 90s (Cruz-Neira et al, 1992) by projecting stereoscopic images on walls and floor of a room-sized cube. A CAVE can be thought of like Star Trek's Holodeck (Chu and Quek, 2013), though the name refers to the metaphor of Plato's cave in the Republic (Plato and Shorey, 1930) where a philosopher contemplates perception, reality, and illusion. Inside a CAVE, users wear Liquid-Crystal Display (LCD) shutter glasses and a head-tracker and interact with objects using a wand-like device to gain immersion that utilizes a full range of human vision with much wider field-ofview (FOV) and enhanced perceptive depth and shape perception.…”