Interacting with Interaction Histories in a History-Enriched Environment

Abstract

A ubiquitous computing environment would capture a large amount of interaction histories of objects in the environment over a long period of time. Such interaction histories serve as valuable sources of information for people to solve problems and make decisions in the present time. Our approach is to enrich the space by providing interaction history information through noticeable wear expressed within a physical environment. A history-enriched environment (HEE) allows people to use interaction histories of people, things, and places on demand, and to obtain relevant information by tracing links among objects. We argue that taking into account two aspects of people’s cognitive activities—situated encountering and information-triggered information needs—is key to building an HEE. This chapter describes how to design an HEE through the Optical Stain environment, which we designed as an HEE.