Mixed Reality Human Media for Social and Physical Interaction

This paper outlines new facilities within ubiquitous human media spaces supporting embodied interaction between humans and computation both socially and physically. We believe that the current approach to developing electronic based design environments is lacking with regard to support for multi-person multi-modal design interactions. In this paper, we present an alternative ubiquitous computing environment based on an integrated design of real and virtual worlds. We implement three different research prototype systems: the Virtual Kyoto Garden, Touchy Internet, and the Human Pacman. The functional capabilities implemented in these systems include spatially-aware 3D navigation, tangible interaction, and ubiquitous human media spaces. Some of its details, benefits, and issues regarding design support are discussed.