Human eye, human ear and human hand are more mobile - the movements that the arms, hands, eyes, ears are much more fluid than holding a mobile device / wearing mobile sensors ? Eyes are the best cameras (e.g. uni of washington - bionic eye with augmented reality) so if a human is going to interact with a machine interface (whether RFID, NFC, bluetooth) will need to use arm+hand+eyes/ears. Why ? You could pick up a signal on your hand and arm which initiates a connection with an interface (e.g below Otto with a billboard wandering around a city) However that connection is fairly meaningless unless you can see the resulting information so maybe - augmented reality using the power of the human eye (or could be ear if vision not an option). arm+hand+eyes+ears all controlled by brain, brain = mobility (organiser?), brain controls the fluidity of the motions / movements from each ?

Imagine you are walking through a metro / underground - how do you want to swipe - using a mobile, a card or how about your hand - which provides the most useful movement....is blinking your eyes so different to a camera button...

Three phases of using technologies whilst being mobile - we are in phases A & B

A = Devices - holding mobile devices and related headsets

B = Rings on hands (link to being human below), watches (Nokia Morph) sensors in clothes, glasses/contact lens etc

C = Embedded connectivity enablers e.g RFID implants, eye implants (risks and can we grow these - do they have to be silicon, glass chips....cells etc)

The brilliant HCI2020 beinghuman paper from Microsoft Research Labs ,  this provides an amazing clear overview of human - technology relationships but in relation to mobile technologies is it right / wrong?  Does this mean that in 2020 we will still be needing and using mobile phones / devices - is the future of mobile phones, no mobile phones? How to get from human holding mobile to human wearing mobile to human is mobile...

What does an extended mind in an environment mean in relation to the brain and mobile devices?

"Our mind is a network…an ecology.  It adapts to the environment. Knowledge may reside in non-human appliances , and learning is enabled/ facilitated by technology. Our technology mediated spaces are becoming adaptive (speech recognition software, or smart agents that "learn" from our activities). The environment in which we function learns from our activity (strengths/weaknesses, test results, interactions). After the environment "knows us" as learners, it adapts to respond to our actions. Instead of one-way, same content for all, the system provides personalized content reflective of our true learning needs" 1 

 The Extended Mind, Ipod and Extended Mind

I believe this is related to the extended mind concept too. I recently read the Andy Clark and David Chalmers extended mind essay which looks at the extension of cognitive processes into the environment and how the mind could exist in an external environment. The Guardian has also recently asked if an iPod is part of the mind. I don’t think it is but then at the moment I have a very limited understanding of how the mind works. I read the extended mind essay as the mind literally extended into the environment, not into a device as such. There are comparisons between an advanced GPS enabled mobile device such as a smartphone and a notebook with information written in which can be accessed, but is it the connectivity / interaction / relationship between the device and the environment which is actually where the processes are ‘ignited’; i.e when you listen to the radio and a song comes on which invokes a good / bad memory, it is not the physical radio which is connected to your mind, it is just the enabler ?

So if you have a smartphone which can access information whilst you are mobile, wandering around an environment such as a city, with the variety of connections that will soon be available through GPS, Wifi, possibly SMS, I think it would be the combination of - how you are feeling whilst you are freely wandering around, any sounds, sights, smells or something you can touch etc that might be affecting your memory and then with a possible connection to a specific activity/interaction such as RFID / NFC sending information on an exhibition / museum to your phone through a networked tag in the environment, which could all be part of an extended mind, not just the device which could be in your hand, on your wrist, around your neck, on your clothing or ultimately maybe embedded under human skin. 

What do users want / need - multimodal

"The challenge will be to effect a transition between the textual world and the multimedia, to communicate complex ideas in a manner accessible to people using audio and video. Neither medium favours the abstract (and neither do their consumers today) and each medium imposes channel limitations (you can't skim an audio or video file). It will be necessary, in my view, to evolve a form of language that combines audio, video and text, to in other words combine the subtlety and expressiveness of text with the emotion and immediacy of audio and video. And so when we are thinking about mobile applications, probably the primary challenge will be to enable people not only to receive relevant content in this multimedia language, but to compose, on the fly, with no more real difficulty than (say) speaking, multimedia messages, that can be beamed to colleagues or broadcast to the world."2 

Refs

1. Siemens G,  Learning Theory or Pastime for the Self-Amused? (November 12, 2006), Available at: http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism_self-amused.htm also "learning may reside in non-human appliances" various including Siemens G, Beyond Boundaries: Learning Today, Principle 3 (September, 2005), available at: http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/educa.htm and http://ltc.umanitoba.ca/KnowingKnowledge/index.php/Learning 

2. Downes S, mLearning Tools (August 9, 2006) Available at: http://www.downes.ca/post/38519 

Neuroscience links (needs updating):

Neurophysiological Basis of Human Movement

http://www.elearnspace.org/blog/2005/12/03/neuroscience/

http://www.elearnspace.org/blog/2006/01/16/neuroscience-lectures/

http://halfanhour.blogspot.com/2006/10/whats-number-for-tech-support.html

http://halfanhour.blogspot.com/2007/02/science-of-learning.html

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/kwabena_boahen_on_a_computer_that_works_like_the_brain.html

Mobile and interaction design links:

More songs about context and mood: A deeper dive into definitions « Adam Greenfield’s Speedbird