---
title: "Negotiating Ontological Boundaries in User-Authored Personal Sensing Systems"
description: "Designed artifacts are ontological, shaping what becomes possible, yet systems enabling user authorship are typically evaluated on usability rather than ontological boundary negotiation. Two open-ended probes using a Wizard of Oz technique were created to let participants experience training a personalized machine learning system on phenomena they defined themselves. In a week-long exploratory study, participants used one of two probes during their everyday lives, allowing observation of boundary negotiations. Four sites of ontological boundary negotiation emerged: the boundaries of a phenomenon, the subject as part of relations, distinguishing signal from noise, and the objectivity of data. The paper offers starting points for supporting boundary negotiation through design and proposes open-ended probes as a method for ontological design."
---

# Negotiating Ontological Boundaries in User-Authored Personal Sensing Systems

[Apple](https://yomu.fyi/company/apple) · Oct 5, 2026

**Type:** Explainer

## Summary

Designed artifacts are ontological, shaping what becomes possible, yet systems enabling user authorship are typically evaluated on usability rather than ontological boundary negotiation. Two open-ended probes using a Wizard of Oz technique were created to let participants experience training a personalized machine learning system on phenomena they defined themselves. In a week-long exploratory study, participants used one of two probes during their everyday lives, allowing observation of boundary negotiations. Four sites of ontological boundary negotiation emerged: the boundaries of a phenomenon, the subject as part of relations, distinguishing signal from noise, and the objectivity of data. The paper offers starting points for supporting boundary negotiation through design and proposes open-ended probes as a method for ontological design.

## Context

Designed artifacts shape what becomes possible, yet systems enabling user authorship are typically evaluated on usability and feasibility rather than ontological boundary negotiation. This study addresses that gap by designing two open-ended probes using a Wizard of Oz technique to let participants train personalized machine learning systems on phenomena they define themselves.

## Takeaways

- The study identified four sites of ontological boundary negotiation: boundaries of phenomena, subject as part of relations, signal versus noise, and objectivity of data.
- The probes used a Wizard of Oz technique to simulate personalized machine learning training on user-defined phenomena during a week-long everyday study.
- The paper offers design starting points for supporting boundary negotiation and proposes open-ended probes as a method for ontological design.

## FAQ

### What method enabled participants to train ML on self-defined phenomena?

Two open-ended probes using a Wizard of Oz technique were designed to simulate training a personalized machine learning system on phenomena participants defined themselves, without requiring a fully functional system.

### What ontological boundaries were negotiated?

Four sites: the boundaries of a phenomenon, the subject as part of relations, distinguishing signal from noise, and the objectivity of data.

### What is the contribution of this work?

It offers starting points for supporting ontological boundary negotiation through design and proposes open-ended probes as a method for ontological design, moving beyond usability evaluations.

**Tags:** [Machine Learning](https://yomu.fyi/topic/machine-learning), [Personalization](https://yomu.fyi/topic/personalization), [Research](https://yomu.fyi/topic/research)

- Source: [Apple](https://machinelearning.apple.com/research/ontological-boundary-negotiation)
- Source URL: https://machinelearning.apple.com/research/ontological-boundary-negotiation
- Ingested by Yomu: 2026-10-05T18:00:10.877Z

[Read original post](https://machinelearning.apple.com/research/ontological-boundary-negotiation)