Ubiquitous Computing November 1, 2011

Ubiquitous Computing “Ubiquitous computing offers the user a world in which everything is a medium, because everything is or contains a computing device.”

Ubiquitous Computing vs. Virtual Reality

“In virtual reality, the computer interface is erased, and all we see is what the computer places before our eyes.”

Ubiquitous Computing vs. Virtual Reality “In virtual reality, the computer interface is erased, and all we see is what the computer places before our eyes.” “Ubiquitous computing, on the other hand, turns our whole world into a computer interface.”

Ubiquitous Computing vs. Virtual Reality So, while virtual reality refashions the immersive qualities of Hollywood film…

Ubiquitous Computing vs. Virtual Reality …ubiquitous computing appeals to us as a kind of interactive television that monitors and rearranges our physical world.”

Virtual Reality vs. Augmented Reality/Telepresence  Instead of “opaque” systems of virtual reality, these “hybrid technologies” use both computer graphics and video signals to place the user at a “real” location.

Virtual Reality vs. Augmented Reality/Telepresence Predator drones have been in the news a lot lately—this is a kind of “telepresence” technology.

Virtual Reality vs. Augmented Reality/Telepresence “Telepresence can thus define a relationship between the medium and the physical world different from that of virtual reality. While virtual reality would replace the physical world with a simulacrum, telepresence brings the physical world into the virtual environment (and vice versa).”

Virtual Reality vs. Augmented Reality/Telepresence “In many hybrid systems for augmented reality, the user may wear special glasses or a headset that is not entirely opaque to the world of light. The user can see the physical world, but the headset can also display computer graphics over part or all of the field of view. Instead of blocking out the world, the computer writes over the world...”

Virtual Reality vs. Augmented Reality/Telepresence “Neither augmented reality nor telepresence can make the same claim to transparency as the claim made by complete, and therefore opaque, virtual reality. Augmented reality remediates not perspective painting, but rather the windowed style of the desktop interface.”

Questions of Surveillance “Systems for ubiquitous computing also carry with them the possibility of total surveillance: the computers track us and each other...”

Project Two Test Run OK, you’ve now read a chapter in the “Media” section of Remediation. How might your remediate this chapter in a way that might be rhetorically effective?