Ubiquitous Media for Collocated Interaction

Ubiquitous media – the digital, multimodal content available to users through ubiquitous computing devices – holds out the promise of contextualising media objects better by making them closer to and integrating them with real-world situations. In this chapter, we present two systems that exemplify the opportunities of ubiquitous media in collocated user interaction. CityWall is a public multitouch display that took the form of as a shop-front installation. MapLens is a mobile application that augments paper maps with digital content when viewed via a mobile screen. In user studies, we observed the importance of public availability in supporting users' engagement in the interpretation and utilisation of digital media. Two concepts in particular prove important: the notions of a common stage and performative interaction. Through a more extended analysis, we describe how these concepts are able to support the future design of ubiquitous media and provide challenges, particularly with regard to effortful configuration and immediate but superficial use.