Approach

In our approach, we are combining two perspectives that can be taken towards the issue of how the computer will disappear. We propose that disappearance can happen in two ways: via the “physical disappearance” by becoming very small due to miniaturization; via the “mental disappearance” of devices by becoming "invisible" because they are integrated/embedded in the physical environment (e.g., walls, doors, tables) around us. They are not considered as computer devices anymore but as augmented elements of the environment. In the latter case, the resulting artefacts can be even quite large but their appearance is transformed so that they are perceived as everyday artefacts that are augmented for communicative and cooperative situations. Thus, people move the "computer device" character in the background and the functionality in the foreground. This approach has implications for the design of interacting with “computers”, resp. with the resulting compound artefacts. Interaction with them becomes more and more implicit and is to a large degree triggered by sensors that detect people and objects in their neighbourhood.