Aura_FinalPres

Convergence of Media Convergence of Media: Concepts Presentation

Communication Design Workshop: Early Stage Decision Making | Spring 2009

Lin Lin |

Paritosh Desai |

Amanda McKown |

Marisa Knopman

People live in an increasingly transient world

but, they still desire deep connections

Facebook what if you don’t want to broad cast your communication?

Video chat and texting These forms provide deep connections and in the moment contact

Video chat and texting ...but, not without distraction

A communication tool is needed to: • help users maintain strong and deep relationships with their few closest contacts have • encourage users to communicate with undivided attention • provide a wide range of depths of communication • connote physical presence

User needs

Meet aura

What Aura is a: • gesture responsive communication wall • living history of the user’s connections • focused place for communication • ambient artistic representation of contacts • tool to help users manange 8-10 close contacts that live far away • visual reminder of which contacts the user should reconnect with

What is Aura Gesture responsive communication wall

Aura’s ambient state Convergence of Media: Concepts Presentation

What Aura does: • allows users to create an representational aura for each contact

Aura’s ambient state

What Aura does: • allows users to create an representational aura for each contact • aggregates the user’s methods of connection with each contact (email, phone, text, etc) and over the first 90 days learns individual communication patterns

Aura’s ambient state Convergence of Media: Concepts Presentation

What Aura does: • allows users to create an representational aura for each contact • aggregates the user’s methods of connection with each contact (email, phone, text, etc) and over the first 90 days learns individual communication patterns • places the auras to reflect consistency communication. Auras with a high placement represents consistent communication, low placement, an inconsistent communication. This enables aura to be a visual reminder for the user to reach out to contacts who’s auras are falling.

Aura’s ambient state Convergence of Media: Concepts Presentation

What Aura does: • demonstrate’s a contact’s recent activity (note, message, photo, etc) through comet trails surrounding the aura • fades the comet trails over time to provide a living history of user’s communication

Aura’s ambient state Convergence of Media: Concepts Presentation

What Aura does: • provides a ludic and entertaining way to communicate with those that are far away by implying physical presence and playing on the happiness derived from surprise and anticipation

creative commons

Aura’s ambient state Convergence of Media: Concepts Presentation

What Aura does: • allows for a wide range of communication, from quickies which, capture a “just thinking of you moment” to an enhanced life size video chat to convey a more direct contact.

creative commons

Aura’s ambient state Convergence of Media: Concepts Presentation

What Aura does: • provides a technological solution that reinforces traditional means of connections usually associated with non technological solutions • employs a projection on a wall rather than using a screen, to provide a tactile experience and connote a more tangible experience

creative commons

Aura’s ambient state Convergence of Media: Concepts Presentation

Aura Demonstration Stop motion video

Aura Prototype Interactive Flash

• Apple makes 30% of every application that is sold • Over 1 billion app downloads in the first 9 months • Allows users to change the look and feel of the Aura to match their style, so that technology is conforming to user styles • Example applications: new pranks, games, skins

Business Case Application open platform

The auras could show the movement of the contact they represent

The auras could be personal photos of the users choosing

Example skins Application open platform

The palimpsest could be represented by fallen leaves

creative commons

Footprints in the sand could represent a contact’s recent visit to your aura, rather than the comet trail

creative commons

Example skins Application open platform

• Johnny Lee’s wii-mote hack allows a projection to work like a touch screen • This enables Aura to have the texture of the wall to be more tangible • This is another example of the Aura’s technology catering to the physical world of the user

Technology Examples Johnny Lee Wii-mote

• The Funky Forest shows how projection can automatically respond to the physical presence of a human • T his enables the Aura to sense the user without needing to be touched

Technology Examples Funky Forrest

• The Water Board shows how a wall can automatically adjust to the user through touch • This type of real-time manipulation capability allows the aura to remember old behaviors and adjust to new ones

Technology Examples WaterBoard

Appendix How we got here

“Choose your Combo� Exercise Convergence of Media: Concepts Presentation Communication Design Workshop: Early Stage Decision Making | Spring 2009

Lin Lin |

Paritosh Desai |

Amanda McKown |

Marisa Knopman

Observations Convergence of Media: Concepts Presentation Communication Design Workshop: Early Stage Decision Making | Spring 2009

Lin Lin |

Paritosh Desai |

Amanda McKown |

Marisa Knopman

Discussions and Interviews Convergence of Media: Concepts Presentation Communication Design Workshop: Early Stage Decision Making | Spring 2009

Lin Lin |

Paritosh Desai |

Amanda McKown |

Marisa Knopman

How to maintain and continue to grow personal connections while apart?

Opportunity 1 Convergence of Media: Concepts Presentation Communication Design Workshop: Early Stage Decision Making | Spring 2009

Lin Lin |

Paritosh Desai |

Amanda McKown |

Marisa Knopman

user typology

Jillian

Jillian is a 28 year old female who left her boyfriend to move across the country to go to graduate school. She’s happy to be in school, but being apart take a toll on their relationship. She misses most the small things, like his hand on her back and kiss goodbye in the morning. They text several times throughout the day to try and stay connected throughout the small moments, but they’ve realized that many small contacts fools you into thinking that you are more connected that you actually are. “I know everything that happened over the past 4 days, but we haven’t actually had a real conversation to discuss anything! Texts are great, but on their own, it’s not enough, that’s not a real connection,” she says. Jillian

is not very tech savvy and is so busy at school that she often feels like her head is busy doing 12 things at once, but what she has found to be most successful is video chat on the computer. “We can see each other, so pauses are more natural, we spend more time on the phone just making sure the other one is still there!” They have dinner dates, where Jillian places the computer on the table where he would be sitting, and they both eat dinner on opposite sides of the country.

“It’s the best way to actually connect, see, the hardest thing is focusing, when we’re on the phone, we’re also doing something else, I text in between activities and video chat is on my com-

puter so its usually one of many windows open, putting the computer away from me really forces me to focus, which is exactly what we need, but my available options don’t make that too easy for me.”

Convergence of Media: Concepts Presentation

precedent studies current offerings Video Chat

http://estrip.org/elmwood/users/paul/images/0807/VideoChat0830.png

Pros: + You can see the other person + You can see gesture and expression + You are hands free + Pauses are natural + Presence is felt Cons: - Connection not always good - You can’t make eye contact - It is often one of many windows open, do distraction is easy

Phone (talking)

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://wwwdelivery.superstock.com/

Pros: + You can leave a message if they aren’t there + It’s a 2 way conversation + Very mobile

Phone (texting)

Facebook

http://www.dalbeyblog.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/04/15/texting.jpg

Pros: + Very mobile +C an be a conversation or can only be a quick note + Allows freedom to share things in the moment without the burden of a long call

Cons: Cons: - Pauses and expressions can be missed or - M ore of a fragmented and superficial misunderstood connection - It is hard for us to sit and only talk on the - Very connected to multitasking, done phone without multitasking between activities, not it’s own activity

http://www.nevblog.com/images/facebook-screenshot.jpg

Pros: + Allows you to keep in touch with many people with little effort + Offers new place to express your identity + Allows communication to be broadcast Cons: -C onnection is very superficial -C ommunication is to everyone via one person, not to one person only - Allows friendships and relationships not based in connection

Ambient Orb

http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/environmentandenergy/ambient-orb-alt1.jpgv

Pros: + Separate from other integrated devices + Allows feeling of connection without disturbance Cons: - No connection is happening, connection is only one way - Becoming more gadgety and less personal Out of this world, 1987

Convergence of Media: Concepts Presentation

Visual + Ambient + Connection + Mobility + Time + Mood + Memory + Presence + Holistic + Ludic Attributes Convergence of Media: Concepts Presentation Communication Design Workshop: Early Stage Decision Making | Spring 2009

Lin Lin |

Paritosh Desai |

Amanda McKown |

Marisa Knopman

++ Look deeper into current offers to see where they succeed or fail ++ Do more user studies to see where the deepest needs are. ++ Explore ways to separate this new mode of connection from every other aspects of their life to allow for a deeper connection ++ Explore ways that technology can enhance personal connection, rather than create a new type of personal connection that is less personal. (Move away from facebook and texting)

Next Steps Convergence of Media: Concepts Presentation Communication Design Workshop: Early Stage Decision Making | Spring 2009

Lin Lin |

Paritosh Desai |

Amanda McKown |

Marisa Knopman

understanding traditions • List the first 3 words that come to mind when you think of the word tradition • Example of favorite tradition • How did it start?

• What motivates you to participate?

• What do you think motivates others to participate?

• Who keeps the tradition going?

• Has your lifestyle required you to modify a tradition?

• How did you modify it?

• Have you ever introduced your tradition to someone else?

• Who did you introduce it to & why?

• How was it accepted or adapted?

• Explain a time when a tradition died and why?

Convergence of Media: Concepts Presentation

understanding connections • How do you stay connected to loved ones far away?

• What’s the most challenging in staying connected to loved ones that are far away?

• How have you overcome the challenages?

• What do you do on your own to feel connected to distant loved ones?

• Who do you stay in best touch with and why?

• Who do you wish you were able to be in touch with and why?

Convergence of Media: Concepts Presentation

Instant Messengers: The instantaneous-ness of the solution helps foster more interactive and life-life conversations, remotely. Helps people express the more nuanced aspects of the day, the little things, that may go ignored in emails or catch up phone conversations.

Precedent Study Convergence of Media: Concepts Presentation

ooVoo: a real-time video chat program that features the following functions: sharing common schedules, staging multi-way family video chats, pre-plan shared interaction that can be recorded, share recipes and menus, and record and send individual video messages.

These functions facilitate new ways for families and friends to connect digitally.

Precedent Study Convergence of Media: Concepts Presentation

sanxaviermission.org: a website that allows people to send prayers and confessions to church and spiritual leaders. This is helpful because like the problem that we are trying to understand, this solution looks to create a very specific type of connection, for a specific type of user, at a specific point in time. It is not a panacea for all spiritual/ religious-related experiences or connections.

Precedent Study Convergence of Media: Concepts Presentation

livejournal.com: an online journal/ diary that allows users to share entries with a group of people or one person. This solution provides a more intimate experience than regualr email in that it offers a special forum for friends to “go to� and share coveted information.

Precedent Study Convergence of Media: Concepts Presentation