The Role of Perception in Ubiquitous Interactive Systems

Sensor based perception promises to be the basis for a wide array of novel interaction mechanisms, which may change the way we interact with ubiquitous computing systems. Sensors based perception however, has imperfections resulting in drawbacks such as uncertainty and latency. Consequently, the improvement of sensors and perception methods is important. In this paper we argue however that imperfections of sensing will remain and that the key to better ubiquitous interactive systems lies in taking into account those sensor drawbacks explicitly during the design of the interaction. Further, we propose a tight integration of perception and actuation mechanisms into ubiquitous interactive systems, enabling system developers to address the emerging issues more directly. In order to take a first step in this direction we analyze sensor drawbacks and their effects on interactive systems. Based on this discussion we propose example solutions and describe system challenges.