Norbert Streitz

Towards the City of the Future: The role of innovative human-computer interaction paradigms

A series of colorful images flashed across the screen at the start of Dr. Dr. Norbert Streitz’s lecture to a mixed audience of designers, scientists, engineers and business people in the Namahn design studio.

These visions of a brave new world, where superhighways perch above skyscrapers, have permeated the arts and occupied scientists, writers, designers and politicians since the early 20th century. Surprisingly, many of these fantasies find real echoes in today’s world (household robots, for example) the hope being, then as now, that 'technology' and machines should relieve humans of tiresome everyday tasks.

But one striking aspect of these and today’s 'futuristic' images is that humans are often missing from the picture. Streitz, scientific director of the Smart Future Initiative (SFI), argued that keeping the 'human in the loop' is essential to ensure that the future design of all information, interaction and experiences is people-centered, and this includes the cities in which we live.

While already 50% of the world population is living in urban areas, it is predicted that this will rise to 70% by 2050. What will these cities look and feel like? How will they function and be managed? What role will computers and humans play in this urban age? And most importantly, what kind of a city do we actually want to live in?

There are different models of future cities, the earliest notion being the Digital City (from the 1980s). This was followed by the Ubiquitous City (technology driven), the Smart City (ICT and eGovernment driven), and the Hybrid City (where the real world and the virtual world have equal significance). These are not the stuff of science fiction. Many projects are already happening in Asia, for example, iN-2015 Master plan (Intelligent Nation Singapore), while in Korea it is planned to turn 14 already existing cities into Ubiquitous Cities (u-Cities) and eight new ones are planned.

Streitz argued that we should be aiming for what he described as the Humane City where people are empowered and supported by the technology surrounding them. This implies new values (creative and inclusive society, mutual cooperation, responsible citizenship, health and well-being, sustainability, etc.), with an appropriate work-life balance despite unplanned interruptions due to poly-phasic activities and multi-tasking, and a world where technology becomes a mediator of these values and a new economy arises: the experience economy.

Computers 'as-we-know-them-today' will play no or only a minor role for certain dedicated tasks in back offices. In our everyday life, computing technology will increasingly blend into the environment, become invisible, and disappear. The Humane City will be a people-friendly environment, where smart artefacts with sensors will collect information from the environment, devices and humans to support our communities based on ambient intelligence. There will no longer be any need to carry devices; the very fabric of buildings will become smart and used as a display to pass information and by appealing to all our sensory capabilities, providing a comprehensive experience. Therefore, information design will have to evolve into experience design. These ideas have already been applied in projects like Roomware®, Ambient Agoras, Ambient Displays, Personal Auras and Informative Art.

For Streitz, the ultimate goal is human-human interaction and cooperation, going beyond human-computer interaction in a technology-dominated environment. Designing these environments will require even more interdisciplinary teams and approaches, as we know them already today. But how do people fit in? How are we served and what rights and tools can be set in place to protect our privacy in this 'smart' new world full of sensors monitoring and tracking us? In Streitz's opinion, guaranteeing a 'humane' city as described above requires that designers should already be occupied with privacy issues from the outset of any project, and Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs) should be used from the start and not as an element added at the end.

Ironically, many of us may be unaware of just how much we are already monitored, for example, via shop loyalty cards: because we perceive the card as (financially) beneficial, we are willing to trade privacy for increased purchasing power. Will life in the Humane City offering better health, interaction and collaboration experiences, sustainability, fun, well-being and citizenship be as tempting a prospect as a loyalty card? He hopes so, but only the future will tell.

An audio interview with Norbert Streitz on "Cities Of The Future" is available in the Namahn Interviews podcast section.

About the Speaker

Dr. Dr. Norbert Streitz (Ph.D. in physics, Ph.D. in psychology) is a Senior Scientist and Strategic Advisor with 30 years of experience in information and communication technology. He is the founder and scientific director of the Smart Future Initiative (SFI) which was launched in January 2009. From 1987 – 2008, he was at the Fraunhofer Institute IPSI (previously GMD-IPSI) in Darmstadt, Germany, where he held different positions as Division Manager and Deputy Director. At IPSI, he initiated and managed research efforts in multiple areas (see research topics). A prominent example is the research division "AMBIENTE – Smart Environments of the Future" founded by him in 1997 developing the Roomware® components. He also taught at the Department of Computer Science of the Technical University Darmstadt for more than 15 years. Before joining IPSI in Darmstadt, he was an Assistant Professor at the Technical University Aachen (RWTH), Germany, teaching and doing research in cognitive science and human-computer interaction and founding the ACCEPT-Group (AaChen Cognitive Ergonomics ProjecT). This was preceded by his work in theoretical physics at the University of Kiel, Germany. Furthermore, he was a post-doc research fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, USA, a visiting scholar at Xerox PARC, USA, and at the Intelligent Systems Lab of MITI, Tsukuba Science City, Japan.

Norbert Streitz has published/edited 17 books and (co)authored around 120 technical papers. His research activities cover a wide range of areas: Cognitive Science, Ergonomics, Human-Computer Interaction, Hypertext/ Hypermedia, Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), Ubiquitous Computing and Ambient Intelligence, Interaction and Experience Design in the context of Hybrid (real and virtual) Worlds and more recently Smart Cities.

He was/is involved in many EU-funded projects and efforts as well as in activities funded by industry. Examples: 2006 – 2009, Chair of the Working Group on "Ambient Computing and Communication Environments". From 2001– 2004, he was the Chair of the Steering Group of the EU-funded proactive research initiative "The Disappearing Computer" with 17 projects. He serves regularly on the program committees of national and international conferences and on international editorial boards. He is regularly asked to present tutorials and keynote speeches to scientific as well as commercial events in Europe, USA, South America and Asia (Malaysia, Singapore, Hong-Kong, China, Korea and Japan).