Products of IoT can exhibit different behaviors as agents. This study consider three roles for IoT Products: the Collector, The Actor and the Creator

The Collector

(Also knows as: the data reader: used for understanding, making invisible patterns visible)

They have the ability to aggregate data from embedded sensors or social media platforms and feed the data back to its user, to other users or to other products. These products sometimes referred to as smart things. most of the Collector products have a dual identity — a physical form and a virtual existence that is connected to online services. Collector products are not only able to tap into environment factors but also reveal people’s pattern of behavior and webs of practices.

On a large scale, in smart cities where many products and app contribute to a pulsing cloud of urban data, the same co-ethnography is also at play. The notion of “computed civic” the situation in which civic participation emerges from computation. The data collected by these systems provide detailed knowledge about the city and city life.

The Actor

Also known as the interventionists: used for creating dialogs. These products sense and interpret data like the collector products but also respond to it. Designers create a potential space for the product behavior.

For example the addicted toaster relocates itself to a new home if neglected or the Amazon trash can of MIT Media Lab scan the barcodes of thing thrown away and have them reordered from Amazon, Automatically. Although the intensity and limits of the intervention could vary, what is common among the actor products is their intention to make a viable effect on everyday life and practices.

The Creator

Also known as the self-aware; used for creating futures

Samuelson and Glette have been developing a robot system that has a connection with a 3d printer and is able to print new robot or customized robot parts instantly to tackle any situation they face.

Designers will have to give up some authorial control and come up with concepts and forms that world prompt “Free agents to make choices and take actions that would yield to satisfying outcomes”

The agency metaphor extends the theoretical and social agendas of contemporary HCI research.

Source:Main Article:https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=3025797