[Intimate] Lover's Cups

Lover’s Cups: Drinking Interfaces as New Communication Channels
MIT Media Laboratory
webpage
CHI2006

• The behavior of drinking has social meanings and functions
• to add more emotional channels to the traditional communication and improve the quality of interconnections
• sharing feelings of drinking between two people in different places
• Scenarios: For Lovers, Nurse, Family, and Patient, a Social Event; With Other Communication Channels
• Interactive Techniques: Attentive Illumination, Virtual Kiss, Connectivity, Shaking Hands, Toasting as Commitment
• Implementation

(To be continued...)

[Intimate] I Just Clicked To Say I Love You

I Just Clicked To Say I Love You: Rich Evaluations of Minimal Communication
Joseph ‘Jofish’ Kaye
Cornell University Information Science
webpage(download)
CHI2006

• VIOs were designed to express intimacy in a rich manner over a low bandwidth connection
• evaluated using a logbook which included openended questions designed to understand the context within which the VIO was used.
• a single bit of communication has no value
• the utility of a single bit of communication cannot be judged by how many packets of information are transmitted and received, but rather are dependent on external factors
• Must also evaluate our technology with metrics that go beyond task completion
  

[Intimate] Comslipper

ComSlipper: An Expressive Design to Support Awareness and Availability
Carnegie Mellon University
CHI2006

• difficult to:
• maintain a sense of connection with others, to communicate with others in an emotionally rich way
• know whether one is available for initiating a conversation in an appropriate context

• designing for two people in an intimate relationship
• Chose a slipper because it metaphorically represents comfort, warmth, and ease of use.& its wearable and mobile properties
• Prototype:
  
• LED: different emotions
• covered with aesthetic fabric
• communicate through USB port (future: bluetooth)
• 5 interactions:
  
• presence => warm
  
• anxiety => light, jumping signal
  
• happy => light, brisk flashings
  
• sad => light, slowly drop down signal
  
• missing (I'm thinking of you) => vibration
• Future work:
  
• furthur user evaluation
• wireless implementation
• extending the network from one to one to one-to-many
• explore more flexible, personalized interactions