Presence in blended spaces

Mixed reality technologies have been around for over ten years but it is only with the proliferation of smart phones and tablet (computers) that mixed and augmented reality interaction is reaching the mass market. There are now enough examples of mixed reality interactions that we can begin to abstract principles of design and principles of user experience (UX) for these new spaces of interaction. In this paper I develop the notion of mixed reality as a blended space. Mixed reality is a blend of a physical space and a digital space. The term 'blend' here is borrowed from blending theory which is a theory of cognition that highlights the importance of cross domain mappings and conceptual integration to our thought process that are grounded in physically-based spatial schemas. The concept of a blended space is developed by recognizing that physical space and digital space can both be described in terms of the objects and agents who inhabit the space, the structure of the objects' relationships (the topology of the space) and the changes that take place in the space (the volatility, or dynamics of the space). The blended space will be more effective if the physical and digital spaces have some recognizable and understandable correspondences. The issue of presence in this blended space is then discussed and it is suggested that traditional definitions of presence are inadequate to describe the experiences that blended spaces offer. More recent definitions of presence that foreground presence as the relationship between the self and the other seem to offer greater explanatory power.