Ambient interfaces: Use of technology can become second nature

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  Quantumrun Foresight
• August 12, 2022

Insight summary

Technology is blending with the natural world, aiming to make digital interaction feel more innate and less intrusive in our daily lives. Ambient interfaces offer subtle, context-aware assistance that aligns with users' surroundings and habits, easing the integration of technology into homes and workplaces. These interfaces face challenges in balancing noticeable notifications with non-intrusiveness, and in harmoniously integrating with existing systems and devices.

Ambient interfaces context

Technology and the natural world are becoming more intertwined as researchers focus on creating technologies that seamlessly fuse into human’s perception of the world. Screens and buttons are distinctly technological, but advances in ambient interfaces may make technologies innate to human experiences. For example, smart tools and appliances are becoming more common in homes. However, they can often disrupt a home’s visual space and aesthetics.

There is, therefore, a desire to create connected ambient computing devices that can preserve the preferred aesthetics while still providing on-demand access to interaction and digital displays. As a solution, ambient interfaces are emerging technologies that intuitively connect smart systems with human users. By seamlessly integrating into our everyday environment, these interfaces can provide context-aware assistance while preserving the aesthetics of a given home. In particular, ambient interfaces are designed to be unobtrusive devices that sense the users’ focus of attention and goals, adapt to users’ needs and habits, and then provide context-aware service. These interfaces may also use novel ways of interaction, such as tangible user interfaces, gestures, or physical contact.

One of the first examples of an ambient interface is the smartwatch. The smartwatch was designed to be an extension of a user’s smartphone, providing them with information and notifications without being disruptive. Most ambient interface technologies are currently used in the health and wellness industries. For example, Muse 2 is a brain-sensing headband that assists in meditation by measuring brain activity and is available as a domestic consumer device.

Disruptive impact

Ambient interfaces are growing in popularity due to their ability to create a more seamless and natural interaction between humans and technology in commercial and consumer applications. In particular, these interfaces can make it easier for people to use technology, as they do not have to learn how to use a new interface, e.g., new buttons, screens, dashboards, etc. In essence, ambient technologies learn and adapt to the user instead of the other way around. 

This subtlety in design means that people can receive important information and feedback in a way that respects their attention and cognitive load. Instead of being forcefully pulled away from their current task or thought process, users are gently nudged with notifications that harmonize with their surroundings, creating a more balanced and less stressful interaction with technology. This approach is particularly beneficial in environments where constant alerts can be disruptive, such as in workplaces or during personal relaxation times, allowing for a continuous flow of information without the negative impact of sensory overload.

However, one of the challenges of ambient interfaces is that they can be difficult to design notifications that are both noticeable and not intrusive. It is also essential to ensure that the notifications are easy to understand so that people can use them without difficulty. Another challenge of ambient interfaces is that they can be difficult to implement due to the difficulty of integrating them into existing systems and with other devices.

Applications for ambient interfaces

Wider implications of ambient interfaces may include: 

• Wearables (using ambient technology) discreetly collecting user medical information and alerting users about any health abnormalities in a non-intrusive manner.
• Communication platforms becoming more effective and subliminal as new notifications and messages are seamlessly integrated into their users’ consciousness.
• Sound technologies in homes optimizing sonification and allowing humans to recreate different natural environments.
• Items of furniture embedded with ambient interfaces can perceive their use and react to sustained sitting without movement by creating subtle auditory cues to stimulate breaks.
• New social norms and gestures emerging organically as ambient technologies become increasingly integrated into the physical world.
• Legal liabilities emerging in public or work spaces where unnoticeable ambient technologies collect data of surrounding individuals without their consent.

Questions to consider

• Have you interacted with ambient tech? If so, did you feel like it seamlessly integrated into your background/life?
• Can users who want to decrease their use of technology do so when ambient interfaces make it harder for humans to become conscious of the technologies around them?