Dear All,
Terry Love sent an interesting off-list note to Joël Gähwiler and to me in which he addressed some of the issues in Joël’s query, and the replies that came from Birger Sevaldson, from me, and from others. Terry points to an important stream of research and practice from the fields of engineering and engineering design. I had been thinking on the human factors side, and Terry’s comments point to a major and well-understood area. I am posting Terry’s thoughts with his permission:
“Many of the design issues presented by the Internet of Things networks are well known in industrial process fields. These include instrumentation, for example instrumentation in oil and gas, or in aerospace; packaging systems; automated process and manufacturing control; large scale environmental engineering — the original meaning of the term referring to supply of prepared water, clean air, air conditioning and heating in buildings; security and OHS networks and control systems. As well, there are the main theoretical foundation of non-linear control systems and non-linear control theory, but this only becomes accessible to those who have really good maths.
“Fundamentally the network issues in Internet of Things are technical relationships and networked systems. We sometime give these issues simplified meanings to make them easier to discuss in a generalist context. This also makes it possible for people without a technical background to engaged in the discussion without needing to understand the real technical depth and complication that these forms of design require.
“The serious question is whether designers involved with the Internet of Things can operate only with the superficial meanings and without understanding the real technical depth and complication of the problems.”
Yours,
Ken
Ken Friedman, PhD, DSc (hc), FDRS | Editor-in-Chief | 设计 She Ji. The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation | Published by Elsevier in Cooperation with Tongji University | URL: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/she-ji-the-journal-of-design-economics-and-innovation/
Chair Professor of Design Innovation Studies | College of Design and Innovation | Tongji University | Shanghai, China ||| University Distinguished Professor | Centre for Design Innovation | Swinburne University of Technology | Melbourne, Australia
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Joël Gähwiler wrote:
—snip—
I'm currently starting with a research project that looks at everyday objects (things) and their interconnections. As more and more of these things are digitally connected, they begin to form invisible networks, for example in a smart home. Our goal is to find a model which designers can use to design these hidden connections, similar to have the ability to design the form of an object and steer its affordance.
—snip—
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