When computers fade: Pervasive computing and situationallyinduced impairments and disabilities

Abstract

Since Weiser introduced his vision of ubiquitous computing, computingdevices have becomelighter, smaller, cheaper, and more powerful. At the same time, pervasivecomputing and theconcept of context have attracted significant attention, with thegoal of supporting the use ofcomputing devices anywhere, anytime, as computers fade into the environment.While there hasbeen some success inferring the users� intensions, reliably understandingusers� general goalremains a significant challenge. Using limited context information,such as location, can be useful,but the benefits are limited. Context is more than location. As computersare embedded intoeveryday things, the situations users encounter become more variable.As a result, situationally inducedimpairment and disabilities (SIID) will become more common and userinterfaces willplay an even more important role. Recent understandings on contextsuggested the importance ofapplications themselves as parts of the whole context space. Thisarticle will explain and discussthe characteristics of SIID under a three-dimension (human, environment,and applications)context model. We suggest integrating information from all dimensionsto have a whole picture ofcontext. More studies are needed to understand the relationship amongdifferent dimensions, andto help design effective context-aware applications overcoming SIID.