Ideally, the user simply places the device in the living room, and there is an automatic "orientation" of the new device with subsequent integration into the living room device ecology.
The word "ecology" is used as a metaphor but also emphasises the idea of devices in relationship.
The notions of mutualism, commensalism, endosymbiosis and ectosymbiosis may then be interpreted for a device ecology with devices of different forms, functionalities and sizes; other relationships can be defined.
Typically, with a user in an environment, the devices in the environment and on the user can form a device ecology.
A European project talks about networked societies of artifacts.