During the last decades connected computers have been embedded in objects that we use every day. Most of these products lack a screen, keyboard or mice, which forces us to rethink the way we design interactions. This idea, originally coined as ‘Ubigitous Computing’, has later been relabeled to amongst others ‘Ambient Intelligence’, ‘The Internet of Things’ and ‘Everyware’. No matter how you label it: in the near future the web will be woven tightly in our everyday lives. Rather than framing this development as ‘the internet of things’ we believe it is best thought of as ‘embedded media’.
In the past couple of years we have explored this idea of embedded media in a range of student projects with external clients. For example: we explored smartphone controlled home appliances and outdoor eating with Philips Design, we explored home cooking with Siza Zorggroep, we investigated interactive clothing with the People of the Labyrinths and we looked at festival and theme park experiences with Muse.
Koen van Turnhout received his PhD from the faculty of Industrial Design, Eindhoven University of Technology on the defense of his thesis ‘Socially Aware Conversational Agents’. Currently he is teaching interaction design in the context of ambient intelligence and social computing within the Hogeschool Arnhem en Nijmegen. He also does research in the Networked Applications research group.
Sander Leer received his Bachelor degree in Computer Science from the faculty of Engineering, Hogeschool Arnhem en Nijmegen. Currently he is teaching courses on the subject of human-computer interaction, web development and embedded systems prototyping. He also works at the research unit Human-Computer Interaction and plays an active role in communities like Chi Nederland and Fronteers.
Emiel Ruis received his Bachelor degree in Digital Communications from the Hogeschool Utrecht. Currently he is teaching interaction design and user experience in the context of embedded media and internet applications. He has worked for companies like Mirabeau and Logica.
