Acting and Interacting in the Here and Now 97 Fig. 7.1 Acting in the here and now in blended reality space becomesblended presence, which encompasses other people and places within the humansense of here and now. The technology has become part of the self, and the blended reality space to which we are attending has become an integrated part of the non-self, the world around the self. The general principle is that a blended reality space is designed to take account of human characteristics and the context of use to provide an integrated sense of blendedpresencein a physical/virtual environment.This sense of blended presence supportsandischaracterisedbyeffectiveactionin theblendedreality space. Acting andinteracting becomeoneandthesame.Figure7.1showsthisinsimplifiedform. In Fig. 7.1, “ambient displays” represent a range of possible display media, including augmented reality glasses, large-scale displays in public places or other physical spaces, auditory displays via headphones, tangible displays including vibrations, music, voice or other sounds emitted by physical objects. On the input side, “tangible objects” stands for the whole range of physical objects that can provide inputs by virtue of their position in space, geographical location, state or other contextualinformationand includingthe user’s bodilystate. These, combined with the surrounding physical environment and the activities being undertaken there, comprise the context. Based on inputs from sensors and the behaviours of the user, his or her relative sense of presence between virtual and physical aspects of the blend can be dynamically adjusted to achieve an appropriate balance for the individual user. Weforeseearangeofpersonalenvironmentsthatcentreonmobileandwearable technologies. Through the use of augmented reality and ambient displays, and inte- grated with carried and worn sensor-based inputs from the user, a blended personal reality space could in principle support a wide range of possible functionalities including: