What Spatial Computing Actually Is: Defining the Boundary Between Screen Computing and Computing in Space

This paper argues that the real divide in computing history sits between screen computing, which presents information on a flat rectangle the eyes must aim at, and spatial computing, which places computing inside the three-dimensional space around a person's body, not between virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality. Computing moved from punch cards to text terminals to graphical interfaces to touchscreens, and this paper reads that whole sequence as removing one layer of translation between a person's intention and a machine's response at each step, rather than adding a new device category. Spatial computing is presented as the next step in that same sequence. The paper states one definition: spatial computing is digital computing in space, where things possible and impossible, in both the digital and physical world, can be done. It introduces the term spatial world for the place this computing produces once it works, kept distinct from the computing itself. One section separates engineering quality from category, arguing that tracking, room mapping, occlusion, and anchoring describe how well a device works, not what kind of device it is, so excelling at all four never proves a device is doing spatial computing and failing at all four never proves it isn't. The paper closes by applying this definition to how shoppers, journalists, and regulators currently sort headsets and glasses, treating questions about how synthetic or how real a display looks as choices made after the category question, not separate technologies each needing its own evaluation. It is the first paper in a five-part series on spatial computing.