Under Review Experiential Computing

We need to find unique and creative solutions to the emerging technological challenges that are paradoxically the result of tremendous progress in Information and Communication Technology (ICT), sensors, embedded computing, and related areas. Computing began with a focus on data, and in the last two decades has shifted to a focus on information and communication. We believe that to address the requirements of emerging applications of this century, the focus must shift to experience. We are developing a body of computing approaches with this focus, which we call experiential computing, for emerging applications. The time is ripe for experiential computing. Decision makers at all levels now routinely use computers, and they need insights—insights that come from experience and experimentation. To develop relevant insight into situations, people must be able to explore and experience an event from multiple perspectives, and they should be able to revisit that event as many times as they need to obtain the desired insight. In an experiential computing environment, users directly apply all their senses to observe data and information of interest related to an event. Further, each user can explore the data according to his particular interests in the context of that event. Experiential environments free people from the tedium of managing enormous volumes of disparate heterogeneous data. The systems don’t try to interpret the experience; they just provide an environment that people can use to understand an event easily and naturally, somewhat the way computer-aided design systems provide designers with an environment in which to design.