86 6 DesigningBlended Reality Spaces of a peaceful curtain-wave may make people feel placid, or people may foresee a storm when they see their curtain waving in the dim light of the window, with no explicit information or conscious effort. Wind has physical force. As Johnson (1987) mentioned, the meaning of force relies on commonly shared structures that come out from our bodily experience of forces. We grasp the world around us, namely the meaning of ‘wind force’ from everydaylife experiences. Our bodies interact with wind forces that are made up of variousnaturalconditionssuchashumidity,temperature,darkness/brightness,wind directions,smellsandsoon.Suchinteractionsbetweenhumansandtheenvironment exposerecurrentpatterns. Meaning structures grow out of such patterns. The AGNES system can provide a variety of ambient media presenting aspects such as sound, light, airflow, and colour as background interfaces (at the periphery of humansensory perception)in blended reality space (Fig. 6.6). The elderly person connected to others through social networking technology receives information about messages or stories from family members and others transformedinto a varietyof ambientforms.Forexample,thecombinationofsubtle windandagreenlightimpliesnotificationscomingfromfamilymembers,mid-level breeze and an orange light means important information has arrived, and strong windandavividredlightindicatesan urgentmessage for them. The ambient display is built on the basis of the blending framework previously discussed (see Fig. 6.7). First, there is a cross-space mapping consisting of two conceptual inputs: input space 1 is explicit information with current technology- based information displays such as voice/text messages, state-activity reports and notifications. The other, input space 2, comprises natural sources in everyday life with their sounds, light, airflow, breeze and shadow. Second, the generic space implies some more abstract structure shared by the inputs. Third, blended reality space, a fourth space, is a new emergent structure that provides tangible presence with no conscious effort of access to information. Now imagine a situation in the physical world, where an elderly person needs to ask questions of his or her relatives or neighbours. The elderly person may lay a hand on the relative’s shoulder, or may knock on a neighbour’s door. The tapping and knocking have various meanings, derived from experiences with forces. If it is an emergency situation, they may strongly tap relatives or may knock on the doorseverely.Themeaningofforcesincludespatternsofembodiedexperiencethat obtain through such sensual experiences as the way of our perception, the act of orienting, the interaction with objects, events, and people. We sense, interpret and codify various patterns, and understand the meaning of forces in a particular situation. The embodied patterns become shared cultural modesinaparticularculture(Johnson1987).The contextualcues on the surface of theAGNEStangibleobjectprovideaccesstoimplicitmemory(Fig.6.8).Theobject affords tapping to contact a loved one. We need to carefully choose contextual cues suited to various situations, wood texture to afford knocking, boa material to afford stroking and knit material to afford tapping, based on everyday life objects. Thetangibleobjectsarealso built on the basis of the blending design framework (see Fig. 6.9). Input space 1 is that of sensor-based information input techniques