Object-Bound Agentic Interfaces: Receiver-First Spatial Inventories for Post-Smartphone Computing

Abstract This paper introduces Object-Bound Agentic Interfaces (OBAI): a post-smartphone interface paradigm in which physical objects act as primary interface anchors, activating spatially bound inventories that contain app shortcuts, dynamic state signals, and agent-generated outputs. In contrast to app-centric and chat-centric interaction models, OBAI operates under a receiver-first logic: object → receive → generate AI output is not immediately generated in abstract interfaces, but is instead triggered by interaction with a real-world object and may be persistently placed back into that object’s spatial inventory. The paper argues that existing AR systems, object recognition tools, and spatial computing platforms provide only partial precedents. What remains absent is the unified combination of object-bound inventories, persistent fading state layers, integration of apps and agent outputs, and autonomous agentic landing into object-specific contexts. OBAI therefore defines a new interface primitive: the physical object as a living, spatial, persistent interface container. The work extends earlier Ambient Era Canon lines around field-first AR discovery, bounded carrying, and agentic routing into a coherent interface architecture for post-smartphone computing.