What is "ambient device"

n. A simple wireless object that unobtrusively presents information.

Ambient devices represent a new niche of consumer electronics characterized by their ability to be perceived at-a-glance (also called "glanceable"). Ambient devices use pre-attentive processing to display information (ZIEGLER, 2012) and are aimed at minimizing the user’s mental effort. Associated fields include Ubiquitous Computing and Calm Technology. The concept in question is also closely related to what is usually referred to as The Internet of Things. (DAECHER, GALIZIA, 2015)

The New York Times Magazine announced ambient devices as one of the Ideas of the Year in 2002 on the heels of a start-up company, Ambient Devices, releasing their first product Ambient Orb, a frosted-glass ball lamp which maps information to a linear color spectrum and displays the trend in the data. Other products in the ambient genre have since been produced, such as the wifi-enabled 2008 Chumby, and in October 2012 the more sophisticated, 52- LED device MooresCloud (a reference to Moore's Law) from Australia.

Initial research on ambient devices began at Xerox Parc with a paper co-written by Mark Weiser and John Seely Brown entitled Calm Computing. Associated fields include Ubiquitous computing (also known as Ubicomp) and Calm technology.