A presentation on "Where The Action Is" Foundations of Embodiment by Paul Dourish with some reflection and current media.

1. Where The Action Is
On Embodied Interaction &
Psychology
Jan Smeddinck (#1976868)
jan83 # tzi.de
Psychological Foundations of
Embodiment, Marion Wittstock
Uni Bremen, Germany (2009)
http://synthese.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/intelligent-agent.jpg

2. The Book
• Where The Action Is:
The Foundations of Embodied
Interaction
– 2001, Cambridge, MIT Press
• Paul Dourish:
– Prof. of Informatics @ Univ. of
California
– Glasgow > Uni. Edinburgh >
Cambridge (EuroPARC) >
London (UCL, PhD) > Palo Alto
(Xerox) > Cupertino (Apple) >
Los Angeles (UCI)
(http://www.dourish.com/)
• Underline the big picture!
10/6/2009 Where The Action Is 2
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pdourish/3103575261/sizes/o/ http://mitpress.mit.edu/images/products/books/0262041960-f30.jpg

3. Presentation Content
Background Framework
Embodiment
Towards Design
Reflections
10/6/2009 Where The Action Is 3

4. Approaching Embodiment
• TED Talk:
– Michael Merzenich:
Exploring the
rewiring of the brain
– Neuroscience (@
11:02 – 14:07)
– http://www.ted.com/index.ph
p/talks/michael_merzenich_o
n_the_elastic_brain.html
10/6/2009 Where The Action Is 4

5. Dourish‘s Foundations of
Embodiment
• Observations in:
– Tangible computing
• physical, distributed interaction
• augmented reality (vs. VR)
• computation in the physical world (ref. ubiq.
comp.), non-sequencial
– Social Computing
• human interaction has social factors
• observe real social behavior to create
beneficial designs
10/6/2009 Where The Action Is 5

6. Tangible Computing
• Dourish gives many examples from the
80s and 90s
– Wellner’s Digital Desk
– Jeremijenko’s Live Wire
– Bishop’s Marble Answering Machine
• Great concept, everybody loved it, but it never
kicked off … why?
10/6/2009 Where The Action Is 6
http://www.ijdesign.org/ojs/public/journals/1/214/web/Figure2.jpg

7. HCI History
• HCI and interaction paradigms
electronic symbolic textual graphical
• More symbolic … less physical
• Flexibility vs. Affordance / Usability
• Information appliances (later)
10/6/2009 Where The Action Is 7

8. Tangible Computing Today
• TED Talk:
– David Merrill: Siftables: The Toy Blocks
That Think
– http://www.ted.com/talks/david_merrill_demos_siftables
_the_smart_blocks.html
10/6/2009 Where The Action Is 8
http://profissaoempreendedor.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/siftables.jpg

9. Social Computing
social behavior ethnography computer systems
• != James Surowiecki's “The Wisdom of Crowds”
• Examples: Air Traffic Control, Printshop
• Cultural, social, organizational context
• Focus on setting & practices
• Accountability
10/6/2009 Where The Action Is 9

10. Drawn Together
• Focus on human skills & activities
• Participation in the world (physical and
social reality)
• Spread in space & time (not system
time)
• -> Context (actions <-> settings)
10/6/2009 Where The Action Is 10

11. Embodiment
• Theory of interaction
• Presence & Practice
– About engaged participation
– Pre-ontological
• Relation to Phenomenology (Philosophy)
– Study of phenomena of experience &
perception
10/6/2009 Where The Action Is 11

12. Biologically Inspired Robotics
Auke Ijspeert, EPFL Lausanne, Switzerland
• Extensive experiments with segmented,
amphibian robots
• Animal locomotion:
– Movement is fundamental to animals
– They coordinate motion towards and end-point
trajectory
– Rhythms for locomotion are due to central pattern
generators
– General Model:
– CPGs (central pattern generators) can also produce
fictive locomotion
• In segmented amphibian robots, multiple
oscillator networks (one per segment, all
identical) generate complex motion patterns
• Animals can run / walk / fly
with most of their brains Cerebal Cerebellum Brain Stem Spinal Cord
Cortex
removed (via electrical •timing, •selection of •CPGs and
spinal chord stimulation) •define motor coordination, motor program reflexes
plan learning
• CPGs can be activated /
entrained by sensory signals
10/6/2009 IK 2009 Report 12

13. Phenomenology
• Away from Cartesian dualism
Maurice Merleau- Ludwig
Edmund Husserl Martin Heidegger Alfred Schutz Ponty Wittgenstein
•Founder of •Ending •The •The •Semiotician
Phenomenology Cartesianism Phenomenology Phenomenology •„The meaning of
•From abstract (separation of of the Social of Perception a word is how
Galilean science inner mental life World •Body + phisical we use it.“
to things that and outside •Life-world & & social skills •There is no
matter world) intersubjectivity •Embodiment truth
•Questions of •Dasein (being- •language games
experience, in-the-world)
memory, mind, •No theory prior
cognition to praxis
10/6/2009 Where The Action Is 13

14. Embodiment & Meaning
• Because interaction is about
conveying meaning…
• Three aspects of meaning:
– Ontology (entities, concepts,
objects)
– Intersubjectivity (how to share
meaning)
– Intentionality (directedness ->
semiotics)
10/6/2009 Where The Action Is 14
http://www.sciencedaily.com/images/2007/11/071106123725-large.jpg

15. Embodied Interaction in
Practice
• Media Space
– Awareness & hybrid spaces
• Document Management
– The HOW of structures is
important
• Today we have much more:
– Social networks
– Agile management
– Embodied agents
– Touch / Multitouch
10/6/2009 Where The Action Is 15
http://www.billbuxton.com/BG_FGfig2.gif

16. Design Principles
1. Computation is a medium
(communication)
2. Meaning arises on multiple levels
(objects, signs, metaphors)
3. Users, not designers, create and
communicate meaning
– Now: User generated context (UGX)
10/6/2009 Where The Action Is 16

17. Design Principles
4. Users, not designers, manage coupling
– relating entities for the purpose of action
5. Embodied technologies participate in
the world they represent
– artifacts-in-use vs. separation of object
and representation
6. Embodied interaction turns action into
meaning
– no meaning in the system itself, but in the
way it is used
10/6/2009 Where The Action Is 17

18. Conclusions & Directions
After Dourish
• Information appliances vs.
convergence
– No conflict, really…
• Invisible interfaces
– Not a good idea in terms of embodiment
– Maybe just a bad term…
• System design – psychology – HCI –
CSCW – social sciences
• Persistence of symbolic interaction…
10/6/2009 Where The Action Is 18

19. Reflections
• Missing reference to emotions and emphasis
on learning…
• Won’t embodiment limit the power of
software?
– Well, we can increase the bandwidth of
embodied interfaces… (6th sense)
• Embodiment is popular and
many more pieces are added
to the big puzzle…
• Huge impact on modern
Psychology (Biopsychology)
– Richard David Precht
10/6/2009 Where The Action Is 19
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9b/Mad_scientist_transparent_background.svg/641px-Mad_scientist_transparent_background.svg.png

20. Pushing the Boundaries of
Embodiment
• TED Talk:
– Pattie Maes: Sixth Sense (@ 02:10 - …)
– http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/pattie_maes_demos
_the_sixth_sense.html
10/6/2009 Where The Action Is 20
http://www.geek.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/wuw.jpg

21. That’s it!
?
10/6/2009 Where The Action Is 21

22. Sources & References
• Paul Dourish @ ICS
• http://www.ics.uci.edu/~jpd/embodie
d/
• Please also refer to the links on the
slides…
10/6/2009 Where The Action Is 22