| 1. Setting the scene (2008) | |||||||||||||||
Abstract | |||||||||||||||
| This paper is about our experiences of space in the Equator project (www.equator.ac.uk), in particular, the way in which multiple spaces, both virtual and physical, can co-exist. By this we mean that people and objects may have locations in and relationships to both physical space and one or more virtual spaces, and that these different spaces together interact to give an overall system behaviour and user experience. The concepts we develop in this chapter are driven partly by practical experience, and partly by previous theoretical work such as the models and taxonomies of spatial context in (Dix et al., 2000), the models for mixed reality boundaries (Koleva et al., 1999) and capturing human spatial understanding exposed in sources such maps, myths and mathematics (Dix, 2000). We are also building on established work on informal reasoning about space from the AI and GIS communities (Grigni et al, 1995; Papadias et al., 1996) similar to Allen’s well known temporal relations (Allen, 1991). We start by looking at some of the practical experiences in a number of Equator ‘experience’ projects and how these have each required several kinds of interacting spaces: real and virtual. We then use this as a means to look more abstractly at different kinds of space and the way these overlap and relate to one another. In order to examine some aspects in greater detail we | |||||||||||||||
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