This paper documents a study at three dialysis departments on the use of different alarm systems. The design of the alarm systems are to some extent in line with the visions of augmented reality and ubiquitous computing. Our study have raised a range of questions which we think are relevant for the research on how to embed technology in users' environment. We will discuss how the properties of the environment affords the localisation, orientation and recognition of alarms. Localisation is about how the alarm system notifies exactly where the alarm is coming from, where orientation is how the system guides the user towards the alarm in a more imprecise way. The issue of recognition is how the alarm system notifies the users that there is an alarm in the first place and if there are multiple alarms.