aiosphere is a project to create an open architecture for Ambient Information Objects (aios).

What are Ambient Information Objects?

aios are real-world devices which manifest information in the lived environment. aios are not multi-purpose computing devices. aios may be content-specific or content-neutral, but they never do more than one or two things at a time.

aios do not move a traditional computing model into the natural environment. aios are subtle, enigmatic, experimental. aios use novel interaction means. aios use interfaces which integrate gracefully with the lived environment.

aios are strictly low-bandwidth devices. The aiosphere enforces a low-bandwidth environment. aios may do complex processing of data, but this is all device-side and does not make use of high-bandwidth networking.

aios always opt for static over active display where possible. aios use very little energy. aios provide a compelling alternative to starting up a power-hungry desktop PC to check a tiny amount of net information.

Core characteristics of the aiosphere system

The aiosphere system should be easy to use. aios should just plug in and work. Hardware should support simple scripting. Scripts should be easy to write. Permissions should be simple and transparent, yet the system should be reasonably immune to hacking and tampering.

People should be able to write new scripts for existing aios. People should be able to create new hardware and easily make it work on the system. People should be able to connect two aios in their home, or two aios across the globe. Communication between aios should be reasonably low-latency.

aios should be infrastructure-independent.  In other words, they can be used with the aiosphere gateway and the aiosphere server system, or a user can set up their own network (local or global).