EMBODIED TECHNOLOGY (ET)

Designing interactive technology in support of Human Embodiment

Jelle van Dijk
Eindhoven University of Technology
Utrecht University of Applied Sciences







Flux Lezing HKU 22 mei 2014
Jelle van Dijk
Utrecht, The Netherlands, 1975
MA Cognitive Science Nijmegen
Phd Industrial Design Eindhoven

Researcher-lecturer Hogeschool Utrecht, lectoraat Co-design
Post-doc University of Southern Denmark, SPIRE centre, Snderborg
www.[ellevandl[k.org
Interaction design beyond the screen
Key research papers
Ubiquitous computing (Weiser, 1988),

Tangible interaction (Hornecker & Buur, 2006)

Embodied Interaction (Dourish, 2001; book)

Interactive Materiality (Stienstra et al 2007)

The challenge:
'Pow can Lechnology conLrlbuLe Lo a world ln whlch we
are once agaln aL home ln our own bodles?'
Key words: Ubiquitous computing, Wearables, Tangible
Interaction, Embodied interaction, Natural User
Interface, Context-Aware Computing, Full Body
Interaction, Augmented reality, Rich Interaction, Social
Computing, Mobile computing, Design for skills,
Interactive Materiality, Ambient Intelligence, Human-
Brain interfacing, Neurofeedback, etc
Conference: Tangible, Embodied and Embedded Interaction (TEI)
Embodied Technology uses interactive technology to:
Augment physical objects we act on and with
Augment the space in which we are embodied
Augment the human body and its sensorimotor skills
Augment face-to-face (situated) social interaction
Is this going to be it?
(Augmenung Lhe body?)
nlke fuelband
Or this?
(Agumenung Soclal lnLeracuons?)
Coogle Class promo vldeo
Or this?
(Augmenung physlcal ob[ecLs)
hup://www.Led.com/Lalks/davld_merrlll_demos_slables_Lhe_smarL_blocks.hLml
Or this?
(Augmenung Lhe envlronmenL? 1he body? Cb[ecLs?)
SOME THEORY TO HELP US
THINK
THE INFORMATION
PROCESSING PERSPECTIVE
Interaction as information processing


Interaction as the passing of information messages from the internal digital world
of the computer, to the internal mental world of the human user
ulglLal Compuung
roducL Lnglneerlng
EMBODIED COGNITION
THEORY
1echnology becomes parL of Lhe ongolng lnLeracuve loop beLween body and world
Embodied Cognition
Cognition is:
Body skill
Cognition is:
Social coordination
Cognition is:
Distributed Information
What can EC mean for design? Three variations:
ulsLrlbuLed 8epresenLauon
Soclally slLuaLed racuces
SensorlmoLor Coupllng
ueslgn lnLeracuve Lechnology as:
Scaolds
Soclal medlaLors
Skllls
1races

Distributed Information
People offload problem solving to the body + environment in order to
reduce cognitive load. They use things to think with (Kirsh, 2010)
Examples from everyday practice
Montessori blocks (Klemmer et al, 2006)
Application in design: Tangible User Interface
Tangibles represent digital information in a body-
friendly way. This makes them more user friendly.
Ishii & Ullmer (1997) (Ishii, 2008)

Distributed Information









Design question:
How can tangible objects form a distributed, body-
friendly interface to the digital world?
Cognition is Social Coordination
Technology is part of a richer fabric of relations between people,
institutions and practices (Dourish, 2001). People make sense of
things through shared activities in a shared space.
Examples from everyday practice:
(Hughes et al)
Design example: Fireflies
(8akker, 2013)
ulglLal Lechnology medlaLes !"#$%#&' !)*"%+ *)),'"-%.)-
Cognition is social coordination














Design question:
How can interactive technology mediate
social coordination?
Cognition as bodily skill
The task of a cognitive system is to maintain a kind of co-
ordination between the inner and the outer worlds.
Cognition as skill: everyday examples
Affordances, the real ones (Gibson, 1979)
1hls rlver, for Lhese runners, aords a [ump
Enactment
According to Merleau-Ponty our skills are acquired by dealing with things and
situations, and in turn they determine how things and situations show up for us as
requiring our responses.

(Dreyfus, 1998)
Design example: Augmented Speedskate
!elle SuensLra
Cognition is bodily skill











Design question:
How can interactive technology
transform the sensorimotor loop?
TRACES
COMBINING SOCIAL + SKILL
Conclusions
How to get beyond the screen?
New technological developments: what to do with them?
Embodied Cognition is a relevant theory for interactive
systems design

EC changes the design question. It asks:
How to design systems that support:
Distributed information
Social coordination
Sensorimotor skills
Traces


Jelle van Dijk Remko van der Lugt Caroline Hummels
SDU Design Co-design group Industrial Design, DQI
Snderborg Utrecht Univ of Appl Sci. TU Eindhoven
Denmark Netherlands Netherlands

www.jellevandijk.org
[elle1973[gmall.com

roceedlngs of 1anglble, Lmbodled
and Lmbedded lnLeracuon, 2014
PAPER: EMBODIED TECHNOLOGY
DESIGNING INTERACTIVE TECHNOLOGY IN SUPPORT
OF HUMAN EMBODIMENT