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

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!
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http://www.flickr.com/photos/pdourish/3103575261/sizes/o/ http://mitpress.mit.edu/images/products/books/0262041960-f30.jpg

Presentation Content
Background Framework
Embodiment
Towards Design
Reflections
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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
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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
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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?
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http://www.ijdesign.org/ojs/public/journals/1/214/web/Figure2.jpg

HCI History
• HCI and interaction paradigms
electronic symbolic textual graphical
• More symbolic … less physical
• Flexibility vs. Affordance / Usability
• Information appliances (later)
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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
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http://profissaoempreendedor.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/siftables.jpg

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
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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)
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Embodiment
• Theory of interaction
• Presence & Practice
– About engaged participation
– Pre-ontological
• Relation to Phenomenology (Philosophy)
– Study of phenomena of experience &
perception
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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
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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
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Embodiment & Meaning
• Because interaction is about
conveying meaning…
• Three aspects of meaning:
– Ontology (entities, concepts,
objects)
– Intersubjectivity (how to share
meaning)
– Intentionality (directedness ->
semiotics)
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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
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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)
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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
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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…
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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
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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
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That’s it!
?
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Sources & References
• Paul Dourish @ ICS
• http://www.ics.uci.edu/~jpd/embodie
d/
• Please also refer to the links on the
slides…
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