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InPhase: evaluation of a communication system focused on "happy coincidences" of daily behaviors

Published: 10 April 2010 Publication History

Abstract

To supplement existing forms of communication such as telephone and e-mail, this research proposes a new method of communicating "awareness" between people who are separated by long distances. In this paper, we investigate cases where coincidences in daily activities lead to casual conversation and thus intimacy and togetherness. We propose a new method of communicating these "happy coincidences" between a pair of remotely located locations. By equipping furniture and appliances such as doors, sofas, refrigerators and televisions with sensors, we developed a system wherein these items are connected to remote equivalents and their near simultaneous use is communicated. We conducted a two month field test of the system in a laboratory setting and a three month field test in an actual home. The study showed that the participant felt the presence of other people and thought about, imagined or even confirmed the habits of others by intentionally triggering the coincidence notification.

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    cover image ACM Conferences
    CHI '10: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
    April 2010
    2690 pages
    ISBN:9781605589299
    DOI:10.1145/1753326
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    Published: 10 April 2010

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    Author Tags

    1. awareness
    2. coincidences
    3. communication
    4. synchronization

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    • (2018)Review of unconventional user interfaces for emotional communication between long-distance partnersProceedings of the 20th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services10.1145/3229434.3229467(1-10)Online publication date: 3-Sep-2018
    • (2017)Playful FurnitureGames and Culture10.1177/155541201771874913:3(301-321)Online publication date: 10-Jul-2017
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