62 5 BridgingContextual Gaps withBlended Reality Spaces of the physical with selected possibilities from the digital. The challenge is to arrive at something coherent and that makes sense in the situations in which people wish to function. Aunitarysenseofpresence,mediatedbybothtechnologyandthephysicalworld, is a defining feature of blended reality spaces and affords an intimate linking of intentions with actions (Riva et al. 2011). As long as we can act in the physical world, we can enact intentions related to the virtual – if the blended space is successfully designed. In most current mixed realities our sense of presence, of being somewhere, is split between the physical world and the virtual environments created by technology, as we discussed in Chap. 1. But when tangibility is incorporated in the right way as an element of interaction, a more integrated sense of mediated presence – tangible presence – in what is effectively a blended reality space becomes possible. Such a space supports shareable presence in a physical- digital reality. In the remainder of this chapter we discuss the importance of context in understanding communications and outline the potential of blended reality spaces to bridge contextual reality gaps. From this we go on to suggest that the blended reality approach can be extended to a range of application areas, including health care and rehabilitation. In the next chapter (Chap. 6), we present examples of the approachapplied to the design of a variety of illustrative everyday life contexts. TheImportanceofContext Contemporary information and communication technology has broken through many boundaries between cultures, societies and even political systems, but has not yet overcome the communicational boundaries that arise from a lack of shared understanding, a contextual reality gap. Understanding how people really are is difficult in cross-cultural communication. We unfortunately tend to blame ‘people of different cultures’, for their apparent “stupidity, deceit, or craziness” (Hall 1969, ix), when it is actually obvious that we often just don’t understand people from different contexts than our own. How can interactive systems effectively help with bridging the reality gap generated between different users’ perceptions in different contexts? In order to explorewherethesharingofrealityisrestrictedorconcealed,weneedtoinvestigate more closely everyday life communication that creatively and effectively enables mutual understandings between people. Everyday communication contains hidden resources for creating harmonious accord of people and things that can be applied in interaction design. Communication is commonly assumed to involve a meaningful linguistic exchange. However, when we look carefully at everyday communication between families, close friends and loved ones, they communicate rather like a synchronized instrument, each anticipating the wishes of the other, making communication without or with little explicit information. Imagine, for example, when a child comes home from her/his school, sits on a sofa, has a soft drink with gulping,