D A p i p u a w i u d p e c m i r w c c t p a w f _a on’t Reinvent the Wheel lthough the ubiquitous com-uting industry is new, the field tself is close to 20 years old; it redates the Web. It’s relatively nusual that a technology takes s long to leave the research orld and enter the market, and t’s a situation that provides an nusually rich backlog of aca-emic and corporate research rojects to learn from. Virtually very idea appearing commer-ially has been tried and docu-ented in conference proceed-ngs. When doing background esearch for a museum project, e discovered more than 20 losely related academic and ommercial projects. Reading hose gave us important guide-osts that let us focus on cre-tive solutions that improved on hat had come before, without irst having to recreate it. It took couple of days of reading and

cialized devices.

Mixing the two philosophies can create confusion. Your doorknob doesn’t double as a volume control for your stereo, though in today’s fly-by-wire world, it can. For example, when BM W developed its iDrive system, which mapped a large number of different functions to a single input device, the mismatch in expectations created interface havoc that took the company many revisions to correct.