Observed Appropriation of IoT Technology: A Semiotic Account

Abstract

The Internet of Things (IoT) is an emerging technology powered by smart devices that increasingly pervades our environments and practices. The process of incorporating technology into one's practices involves use and adaptation of the technology and is usually referred to as appropriation. In research about IoT, appropriation of IoT technology is a rather new topic. It is necessary to understand how appropriation takes place in order to be able to provide strong support for it in the design of technology. In this paper, we present the initial results of an in-situ study observing how people use and adapt commercially available smart home technology, in practice, over time. We took Semiotic Engineering as a theoretical lens to understand the appropriation we observed in actual settings. Our contribution is to propose a semiotic account of appropriation and two derived qualities that can help designers address appropriation support in IoT technologies.