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Mobile 'tsunagari-kan': always-on, casual telecommunication

Published: 19 September 2005 Publication History

Abstract

In mobile communications, people can be contacted by anyone, anywhere, and anytime, but this might interrupt them. We propose a new mobile telecommunication style, called mobile `Tsunagari-Kan', where users exchange situational cues constantly and casually so they can imagine the situation of the other party. To make this possible, we must decrease users' mental workload caused by frequent communications. We considered that the mental workload could be decreased by exchanging situational cues casually to achieve true `always-on' communications. To link the `flip action' of a cell phone with a communicational behavior, we have developed a test system called the Flip Communicator System based on the Tsunagari-kan concept. This prototype system enables users to exchange situational cues on their cell phones. We carried out a communication field test between seven sets of Japanese mothers and their children. The results indicate that our method can strengthen the ties between a mother and a child.

References

[1]
Matsuo, T. Communication Psychology: Cognitive Approaches. Nakanishiya Publishing, (1999). (In Japanese).
[2]
Itoh, Y., Miyajima, A., and Watanabe, T. 'TSUNAGARI' Communication: Fostering a Feeling of Connection between Family Members. Ext. Abstracts CHI 2002 (2002), 810--811.
[3]
Watanabe, T., Takaya, K., Shimada, J., Ohguro, T., Kuwabara, K. `Home Communication Services': Research and Development for Workstyle and Lifestyle Innovation. NTT R&D, 50, 7 (2001), 508--516. (In Japanese).
[4]
Miyajima, A., Itoh, Y., Itoh, Masako., Watanabe, Takumi. Tsunagari-kan Communication: Design of a New Telecommunication Environment and a Field Test with Family Members Living Apart. Int'l Journal of Human Computer Interaction (2005). (to be published).
[5]
Ishii, H. and Ullmer, B. Tangible Bits: Towards Seamless Interfaces between People, Bits and Atoms. CHI'97 (1998), 234--241.

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  1. Mobile 'tsunagari-kan': always-on, casual telecommunication

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    cover image ACM Other conferences
    MobileHCI '05: Proceedings of the 7th international conference on Human computer interaction with mobile devices & services
    September 2005
    400 pages
    ISBN:1595930892
    DOI:10.1145/1085777
    Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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    Published: 19 September 2005

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    Author Tags

    1. mobile communication
    2. mother-child relationship
    3. situational cue

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