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 Computingvs.

Virtual Reality

Ubiquitous Computingvs.

Virtual Reality

“In virtual reality, the computer

interface is erased, and all we see is

what the computer places before our

eyes.”

Ubiquitous Computingvs.

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 Computingvs.

Virtual Reality

So, while virtual reality refashions

the immersive qualities of

Hollywood film…

Ubiquitous Computingvs.

Virtual Reality

…ubiquitous computing appeals to us as a kind of

interactive television that monitors and

rearranges our physical world.”

Virtual Realityvs.

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 Realityvs.

Augmented Reality/Telepresence

Predator drones have been in the news a lot lately—this is a kind of “telepresence” technology.

Virtual Realityvs.

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 Realityvs.

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 Realityvs.

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?