TANGERINE- A Tangible Awareness Landscape

Invisible devices supporting events that occur largely on the periphery of awareness are key features in the realisation of Weiser’s vision of a future in which computers disappear into the fabric of our homes, leisure- and workplaces. It is easy to get absorbed by the technological challenges ahead. However, it is important to remember that not all of the ubiquitous media solutions to the issues of our daily lives will be high technology solutions. Support for interpersonal communication must form a core part of any ubiquitous computing strategy and in this paper we describe the development of a light-hearted, low technology Tangible Awareness Landscape developed to support informal social interactions. Despite the light-hearted nature of this work, its underlying principles have important implications for anyone for whom maintaining an informal sense of presence in a given remote physical location is an issue