Ambient computing

Something in between push and pull: computers are pervasive in one’s environment; they present information in a manner which does not demand attention. You notice things passively, e.g. by walking around.

This term, as used in Human-computer interaction circles, is an extension of Mark Weiser’s vision of Ubiquitous computing emphasizing continuous context-aware personalization and unobtrusiveness via ideas from Calm technology. It’s not as widely used as those two other phrases, and as far as I know there isn’t a canonical paper articulating this phrase as a distinct concept.

Related:

Last updated 2023-07-13.