Mobile, Modal, and Ambient Health - Part 2

In the last blog entry, we began a discussion about the rise of modality as a key factor in mobile health and teased the concept of ambient healthcare.  In this entry, we take a deeper dive into the history and development of the ambient space.

The Ambient Space

“Ambient” is one of those ideas that is increasingly coming into focus after years of floating round on the edge of our awareness.  Nobody outside the science world much used the word until the mid-1970s, when prog-rock musician Brian Eno coined the term “ambient music” for a new type of atmospheric sound that he was creating.  The idea was to create music that existed in the space between “in your face” and “back of mind”: interesting enough to reward attention, but not so obtrusive as to demand it. 

The trouble is that in the intervening decades, the “ambient” space has become a lot noisier in every sense.  Ambient music is mostly drowned out by increasing volumes of ambient noise. Some of the noise is a byproduct of other activity: cars, trucks, trains, cranes, planes and cooling fans all add to the cacophony.  Some of it has been put there deliberately:  music and TVs in public places, public service announcements, billboards and, above all, more screens of every size in every space, from Times Square to back pockets.  One effect of this increased ambient noise is that people have adapted to it and learned to screen out much of what goes on around them.  They simply do not pay attention to it.  As marketing professionals know, it’s becoming much more challenging to deliver messages to people; more and more, they seek out what they want and filter out everything else.

The ability to screen out noise and unwanted information is no doubt a natural protective response to an overloaded environment; there’s no benefit to constant awareness of the traffic noise or a flashing banner ad on a favorite web page.  On the other hand, there’s always the risk that, in screening unwanted information out, people miss out on information that may be beneficial or otherwise important to them. 

Fortunately, professionals who study perception are finding ways in which useful and desirable information can break through the clutter without adding to the noise.  There is growing interest in “ambient devices” that fit discreetly into a person’s everyday environments, delivering information that they want in ways that – much like ambient music – reward their attention but don’t demand it. 

Ambient Devices meet digital

Although the “ambient” concept seems modern, it has a track record that spans centuries.  Traditional ambient information devices have long been part of mainstream life, providing real-time updates on what is happening in the immediate vicinity; everyone has clocks, and even in this gadget-crazy world, many people still have old-fashioned mercury thermometers and barometers.  What’s different now is that digital technology has opened up whole new areas of updatable content and is creating new ways in which this information can be communicated. 

This potential was made evident when a group of MIT alumni set up a business called Ambient Devices in 2002 to create ways of delivering “glanceable” information that is “neither worthy of interrupt (push), nor worthy of investing time (pull)”[1]. One of their early products, the wireless “Orb,” became an instant hit with the current Technorati, such as Seth Godin and Paul Saffo.  The Orb glows in different colors and intensity to reflect the information it receives; it can track changes in information streams such as stock indices (green for up, red for down), energy consumption or even website traffic.[2]  The company’s “Ambient Umbrella” has a wireless chip in the handle to capture weather data; the handle glows and pulses when rain is forecast, prompting the owner to remember it.  The “Energy Joule” monitor plugs into any electrical outlet and displays the current price of energy and level of consumption in the user’s home.[3]

Devices such as these are based on two crucial areas of development.  One is the sciences of perception and cognition, which maps how people become aware of relevant information and then process it.  The other is information and communication technology, which is busy determining how to categorize captured information, digitize it and communicate it to its intended audience

In the next part of this four-part blog, we will explore how ambient devices dedicated to health and wellness can make a significant contribution “in the moment” – that is, when and where it is most effective.

[1]http://www.ambientdevices.com/cat/philosophy.html

[2]http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2004/04/63093

[3]http://www.ambientdevices.com/cat/products.html