Embodiment

TEI, the conference on tangible, embedded, and embodied interaction, is about HCI, design, interactive art, user experience, tools and technologies, with a strong focus on how computing can bridge atoms and bits into cohesive interactive systems.

The influential critique of the ontological assumptions of computationalist and representationalist cognitive science, as well as artificial intelligence, made by philosopher Hubert Dreyfus has marked new directions for integration of neurosciences with an embodied ontology. The work of Dreyfus has influenced cognitive scientists and neuroscientists to study phenomenology and embodied cognitive science and/or enactivism. One of such cases is neuroscientist Walter Freeman, whose neurodynamical analysis has a marked Merleau-Pontyian approach. However, recent trends on the matter appear to reject Dreyfus' interpretation of Husserl while at the same time maintaining a high interest in the integration of Husserlian phenomenology into the sciences of mind, as demonstrated by Evan Thompson's recent work.

Embodied Cognitive Science is an interdisciplinary field of research, the aim of which is to explain the mechanisms underlying intelligent behavior. It comprises three main methodologies: 1) the modeling of psychological and biological systems in a holistic manner that considers the mind and body as a single entity, 2) the formation of a common set of general principles of intelligent behavior, and 3) The experimental use of robotic agents in controlled environments.

The embodied mind thesis is opposed to other theories of cognition, such as cognitivism, computationalism and Cartesian dualism. The idea has roots in Kant and 20th century continental philosophy (such as Merleau-Ponty). The modern version depends on insights drawn from recent research in linguistics, cognitive science, artificial intelligence, robotics and neurobiology.

Shared visual workspaces afford collaboration by providing a medium that grounds workspace activity, conversation, and gestures. If distributed groupware systems designed as shared visual workspaces are to replace or augment the physical workspaces of today, they need to naturally support these affordances. VideoArms is an embodiment technique for distributed groupware that captures body images of collaborators as they work, and transmits them to remote workspaces.