Glanceable information and nudgeable controls
A recent wired.com article talked about glanceable information: "you can keep abreast of it with so little mental effort you're not even aware you're paying attention".
This is implemented in many video games, as well as in combat environments, through HUDs - Heads Up Displays, - which project information on your visual field or in the periphery of your center of attention. Such information can provide a sense of context, for example giving a high-altitude map view. It can also track the status of your provisions, fuel, life force, nearby friends and enemies, and other vital info. This is technology that is useful to apply to a situation room or command center, whether that be institutional or personal. In the latter case it could be part of a mosaic view of what is currently important to me, as well as who the key people are in that context. It somewhat parallels how the visual field works, with central focus bordered by sensitive periphery.
The flip side of this is that you also want an environment, with background active agencies, that follows your subtle gestures, nudges, acks, and nacks. This is especially important in situations where you are living with software agents which follow and anticipate your intentions: you'd want these to be highly responsive to your spare gestures, ultimately tied in to your mirror neurons, and acting as your mirror neurons, much like a close pet or companion. For example, such an interface seems necessary to make active subject maps, which contextually organize information relative to you and to others' subject maps, a realistic possibility.
This is implemented in many video games, as well as in combat environments, through HUDs - Heads Up Displays, - which project information on your visual field or in the periphery of your center of attention. Such information can provide a sense of context, for example giving a high-altitude map view. It can also track the status of your provisions, fuel, life force, nearby friends and enemies, and other vital info. This is technology that is useful to apply to a situation room or command center, whether that be institutional or personal. In the latter case it could be part of a mosaic view of what is currently important to me, as well as who the key people are in that context. It somewhat parallels how the visual field works, with central focus bordered by sensitive periphery.
The flip side of this is that you also want an environment, with background active agencies, that follows your subtle gestures, nudges, acks, and nacks. This is especially important in situations where you are living with software agents which follow and anticipate your intentions: you'd want these to be highly responsive to your spare gestures, ultimately tied in to your mirror neurons, and acting as your mirror neurons, much like a close pet or companion. For example, such an interface seems necessary to make active subject maps, which contextually organize information relative to you and to others' subject maps, a realistic possibility.
Posted on Tue, 18 Apr 2006 15:32 by szpak (961 day(s) old) Comments [0] Trackbacks [0]
