Niklas Elmqvist

Niklas Elmqvist, Panagiotis D. Ritsos, Peter W. S. Butcher

Traditional HCI interaction models assume a single monolithic interface and a stable sensorimotor loop. These models fit poorly with cross-device (XVA) and ubiquitous analytics (UA), where interactive data sensemaking unfolds across multiple devices, artifacts, and people in disparate settings from the office to the factory floor. In this paper, we show how interaction in ubiquitous analytics can be modeled using distributed cognition as propagation of representational state across substrates -- minds, speech, bodies, artifacts, and devices -- rather than as traffic through a single interface. On this basis we introduce input and output channels as generalizations of the visual channels from data visualization: just as visual channels carry data through properties of the visual substrate, input and output channels carry representational state through substrates whose availability, suitability, and preferability depend on context. We demonstrate the channels and substrates framework by reanalyzing several ubiquitous, immersive, and situated analytics systems.

Niklas Elmqvist, Panagiotis D. Ritsos, Peter W. S. Butcher

Spatial computing, generative AI, and open web standards are converging. Three spatial operating systems -- Android XR, Meta Horizon OS, and Apple visionOS -- now ship with platform-level scene understanding. Wearable displays span the range from full headsets to slim smartglasses. Agentic AI operates on the same spatial substrates as the human user. This convergence enables new opportunities for \textit{ubiquitous analytics} (UA): the use of many, physically distributed, networked devices to support data sensemaking anytime and anywhere. But proprietary platforms are settling design conventions that will calcify without evidence-based alternatives. UA has now matured to the point where its intellectual history can be read as a structured genealogy of foundations, contributions, and lineages. We trace this genealogy and organize it into clusters spanning cognition, context, interaction, platforms, visualization, collaboration, and evaluation. Finally, we cross these clusters with each other, yielding a total of 42 future research challenges.