Sharing Experiences

Advanced Interaction Design

Final Report

Group PLAJ
Pavel Okopny
Laura Wiegand
Andreas Runeson
Julia Dashevska

Human-Computer Interaction
Uppsala University
March 2016

Sharing Experiences

Group PLAJ

Theorising
In the modern global world we travel a lot: move from one city or country to another for studying,
working or just for new adventures. Being away from family, friends, loved ones can be a very
frustrating experience. To communicate with distant friends different technologies are used: email,
text chat, phones and VoIP, video-calls (Skype and others). Internet allows us not only to
communicate verbally but also to perform pair and group activities online, e.g. playing games.
However, distant communication can hardly substitute real personal communication as
aforementioned technologies do not provide means for all various types of nonverbal
communication, e.g. touch or facial micro-expressions. Those technologies do not deliver the
feeling of presence of another person, they also do not allow to share context or environment. Due
to that, people might feel estranged or not be able to express themselves correctly.
The person-to-person communication consists of far more than the verbal exchange of information.
Mostly friends, lovers, families bond by experiencing things together and by creating memories.
How can technology help friends, lovers and families, who are not living close to each other, to
create new experiences with each other and not just share past experiences?

The Situation - Distant (mis)communication

In order to prove our first assumptions about the problem, we talked to several international people
living in Sweden. They all share the same problem that is the need to communicate with their
family and friends over distance. The following use cases are examples for the situations that
people face when sharing experiences and communication over distance.
An international student lives abroad and can not communicate with parents
Theresa lives and works in Copenhagen. Her family lives in Prague. Currently Theresa and her
mother use Skype to communicate on the weekly base. The biggest problem they currently face
when talking via Skype is that they normally would not just sit in front of each other but would walk
around and do things together. Theresa and her mother would like to have a solution that provides
them the feeling of a shared context.
Distant relations - How do you communicate with your partner, who lives far away?
Francisco is from Spain and he is a student at the Uppsala University. He keeps in contact with his
family and girlfriend via Skype, WhatsApp and Facebook. He and his girlfriend often watch the
same movie at the same time using Skype and video chat. Francisco and his girlfriend would like
to have a solution that has a better sound and video quality, which would improve their experience.
A group of friends is attending an event, and you want to be part of that experience
Boris is a former teacher from White Russia and he is currently studying in Sweden. He wants to
keep in touch with his former students and colleagues. There is an upcoming conference in White
Russia and several of Boris former students are going to attend. He does his best to keep in
contact and to get information about what is going on at the conference. His problem is that he has
to contact them to get information about the event. It is difficult for him to receive as much
information as he wishes for.

Sharing Experiences

Group PLAJ

You travel and want to share the experience with a friend

Stephanie likes travelling. She often travels for several weeks alone through various countries. She
would like to share some special moments with her family and friends. She needs a solution that
allows her to instantly share emotions and experiences with her friends and family.
What does it mean to feel close to someone?
As described above the world is shifting towards being more global. That includes the fact that
people who have an emotional bond are often not physically close to each other.
Having an experience of being close to someone includes more than the exchange of verbal
signals; micro mimics and gestures, grooming, smell, touch, a shared space, shared context,
shared memories or a shared current activity can convey the feeling of closeness. Partners who
live together do not experience living together only by talking to each other but also by making
decisions together and by having influence on each other's personal life.
What do we expect from technology?
The technology that we are going to look at is expected to enable a communication over distance
that conveys the feeling of closeness without adding artificiality. As in real situation we might
enter a commonly shared space, stay there for a while and exit it. The solution is expected to do
the same. Today the digital communication takes place in a doorway an artificial space inbetween two real places. It is not possible to visit each others world. The communication is limited
to recalling memories of past activities; the setup of a conversation is unnatural due to technical
limitations. The resulting experience is happening neither in the place of the visitor nor in the one of
the host (see the figure below). We want the technology to make it possible to fully enter a place in
order to share experiences and to be close to another person.
Furthermore we want to find a new way of creating new experiences despite physical distance that
make us feel close to the other person by having a shared context.

Sharing Experiences

Group PLAJ

Relevant Qualities of a Solution

1. Enable to share experiences with family and friends by involving more than just talking or
chatting online
2. Allow to do things together and to feel close to each other by entering a shared space
3. Provide the feeling of being close to another person over distance
4. Take part in activities that happen far away
5. Share your environment and the emotions connected to a specific experience

Hypothesising
Based on the given theories we made two hypotheses. Both ideas match several of the above
mentioned qualities. Due to the wide range of the topic we were not able to find one solution that
could cover all points evenly.

Hypothesis 1 - Sharing Experiences

The first idea is a quasi-presence system, which consists of a device and a proper software. The
device is a 360-degrees camera and a 360-degrees microphone, which can be easily transported
and placed on any surface (using a small tripod). The user, who wants to share his/her experience
(Sender) places the device on a surface or holds it in a hand and turns it on. The device captures
the video and audio of the surrounding and transmits it into the web. Another user (Receiver), who
is willing to participate in the experience, accesses the transmission with the web-, mobile-, or
desktop application. As the camera and microphone capture everything around, the Receiver can
look in any direction (for example using glasses or a mobile device) and hear the sound coming
from that direction. Having the ability to look around, the Receiver places him/herself into the
Senders environment. The Receiver and the Sender can communicate using simple
communicational software, discussing the situation and/or the environment.

Sharing Experiences

Group PLAJ

The biggest risk with that solution is a possible lost of privacy. Since the Sender does not control
the direction of Receivers gaze, he/she must be aware that the Receiver is able to see anything
around and, possibly, some things that the Sender is not willing to show for any reason.
The following qualities are solved by the given hypothesis:
1. Enable to share experiences with family and friends which involved more than just talking
or chatting online
SOLVED by enabling the receiver to explore the surrounding by the use of the 360 degree
camera. Also the use of 360 audio provides directional sound that enhances the receiver's
ability to explore.
2. Allow to do things together and to feel close to each other
SOMEHOW SOLVED by enabling the receiver to actively take part in some of the activities
of the sender. These might however be limited to exploring an environment, the receiver
can look at another direction then the sender.
3. Provide the feeling of being close to another person over distance
SOMEHOW SOLVED by connection two people in one moment and not in retrospective.
They are both sharing the experience in this moment together and are not disturbed by a
smartphone as communicator of the images and sounds.
4. Take part in activities that happen far away
SOMEHOW SOLVED by adding the receiver into the picture of the sender. They are
together at the same place and can interact based on the environment.
5. Share your environment and the emotions connected to a specific experience
SOLVED by allowing the sender to immediately share the situation without the need of
taking a picture which needs to be uploaded and sent later.
We do not actually invent anything new here. We are just taking existing technologies and showing
a case, what can they be used for.

Hypothesis 2 - Creating and sharing experiences over distance

The idea: Share the same experience over distance by the use of a physical device (like a board
game). Both participants create an experience together and can feel close to each other by
participating in small physical activities. There is no need to talk with each other (it can also be a
turn based game that is played over a longer period of time).
When being apart from one another even the little things that can bring us closer matter. Taking
part in an activity together might make a great difference in the communication and feeling of
closeness. Board games are a common social activity which many people find enjoyable. In this
hypothesis we re-create the experience of playing a board game with friends or family. In this case
the experience is shared via the usage of a physical device. The device for example could be a
chessboard where two people are able to share the experience of playing chess together.
Sharing Experiences

Group PLAJ

To play chess together (and therefore to share an experience) the two participants need to have
one board each. The boards contain magnets that can be matched to the different pieces of chess.
Each board is connected to each other via the internet using Wi-fi. In doing so the two boards can
sync up so that when one person moves a piece, the corresponding piece on the other chessboard
also moves. Obviously the activity is limited to chess but since the board could be expanded upon
it could provide a variety of board game classics such as Checkers or Go. It all depends on the
pieces and board design. Additional layers could be placed on the board so that it is not limited to a
grid based game. Some issues with delay might be expected so turn based games are preferable
(a stable and fast Wifi connection on both ends would make it possible to play more fast paced
games).

The above described hypothesis solves several of our previously stated theories. As the
participants partake in a shared activity we assume that the experience that is created is more
natural than just sitting in front of a computer and talking via Skype. Partaking in an activity
together provides a deeper feeling of closeness.
The following qualities are solved by the given hypothesis:
1. Enable to share experiences with family and friends which involved more than just talking
or chatting online
SOLVED by providing a game that can be played together. It is not even necessary to chat
or to talk while playing.
2. Allow to do things together and to feel close to each other
SOLVED by having the physical shared game which can either be played directly or can be
played turn-based to communicate that you think about the other person
3. Provide the feeling of being close to another person over distance
SOLVED by having this thing that only these two people share.
4. Take part in activities that happen far away
SOMEHOW SOLVED by taking part in the chess game. But not in any other activities that
happen somewhere else
5. Share your environment and the emotions connected to a specific experience
NOT SOLVED

Sharing Experiences

Group PLAJ

Falsification
We received three falsification documents containing feedback about our theories and hypotheses.
We got a lot of general feedback about our hypotheses and qualities. Those are summarised
below and described in detail for each hypothesis.
General Feedback
The main feedback was that just providing a 360 degree view combined with 360 degree sound
would not lead to a feeling of presence. It would only act as an enhancement of the existing
technology (Skype). The hypothesis only includes visual and audial communication but it excludes
other senses such as touch (haptic feedback) and smell. The opposition also pointed out that the
solution is more of a sender-receiver relationship, which allows one person to share its vision and
sound but not the other way around.
Feedback on Hypothesis 1
The main feedback was that just providing a 360 degree view combined with 360 degree sound
would not lead to a feeling of presence. It would only act as an enhancement of the existing
technology (Skype). The hypothesis only includes visual and audial communication but it excludes
other senses such as touching (haptic feedback) and smell. The opposition also pointed out that
this is more of a sender-receiver relationship, which allows one person to share its vision and
sound but not the other way around.
Feedback on Hypothesis 2
For the second hypothesis we received a lot of good feedback. The opposition pointed out that the
hypothesis solved the quality of sharing an activity. The hypothesis also includes some physical
interaction which further enhances the experience. However, the opposition pointed out that this is
very similar (if not identical) to how online games work today. World of Warcraft and other popular
online games enable people to share an activity in a digital world where each person is
represented as a digital character. Our hypothesis enables the same sharing of activities but it is
more limited, in this case, to playing chess. Another drawback with that hypothesis is that we do
not include any audio or visual representation of the participants. However, the addition of sound
could easily be implemented into the chessboard. Another major problem is that the second
hypothesis is limited to board games and specifically chess, which limits the user group.
Conclusion
To conclude, the feedback made us aware that our first hypothesis could be seen as an enhanced
Skype, which in itself does not fulfil some of our qualities. The second hypothesis was received
better but also here we face the problem that if we add audio and visual communication to it, it
becomes Skype with the addition of a chessboard. We do NOT want that. The feedback made us
look at the problem in a different way.
We decided to develop a new hypothesis that is building mainly on the elements of the second
hypothesis.

Sharing Experiences

Group PLAJ

Building
Based on the given feedback in the falsification we decided to mainly focus on the second
hypothesis while not totally omitting the first hypothesis. The main goal was NOT to create a new
and more advanced Skype but to find a way to improve the current communication over distance.
We decided to further explore the idea of using a physical device as for example a chess board for
creating a sense of presence in another persons world. Therefore we decided to take a step
backwards to find a more general approach to the question of what presence and closeness
means. As the current global world often results in couples not living together we discussed what it
actually means to live and to be together for couples. What does it mean to do things together at
the same time? One common example is cooking. People living together often cook together
whereas people living alone do not cook for themselves so often. How could technology help
people feel close while doing daily activities like cooking - even if they are hundred of kilometres
apart from each other.
One of the biggest differences between doing something in the natural way and doing it over
Skype or any other current device is that all these technologies afford a direct action to initiate the
conversation. People living together do not need to call each other just for asking: how was your
day? They just start talking. We decided that we wanted to work on a technology which allows this
kind of passive interaction and therefore enables a more natural communication. The biggest
question was how to connect people without the need of actively calling each other - and still
protect the privacy and not monitor them all the time.
Based on the theorising, the first two hypotheses, the falsification and various rounds of discussion
and brainstorming, we came up with the idea of Im Home.

Im Home
The core of this concept is a device that is shaped like an egg. This device is used in order to
improve the communication and to provide the feeling of presence and closeness over distance.
Based on the idea of passive interaction, we decided to develop a device that enhances the natural
communication between partners without the need of actively starting it (except for starting talking
of course). The egg should be seen as a communication device that does not replace the other
person but enables a close connection. Not only by providing sound - as a normal telephone and
Skype do - but by also transmitting further elements from the daily environment such as
movement, temperature and light.
Limitation of scope
As the idea of sharing experiences and improving communication over distance is very broad we
decided to limit the target group of our solution to couples. Two people that are currently not living
together but that still want to have the experience of living together.

Sharing Experiences

Group PLAJ

How does Im Home improve communication over distance?

The Im Home device is not only used to communicate information by audio but also to transmit
emotions and environment. The main part of the device is a lamp, which changes the colour based
on the situation. Furthermore it can change its surface temperature and is able to tilt and vibrate.
Finally, the device contains a movement sensor which realises if somebody is around. That
enables the passive activation of the system. The following section will describe the main features
of the device and the concept.
What to communicate
Emotions
Environment
Information
Current activities
How to communicate
Surface temperature
Sound
Light (colour, brightness, pulse)
Vibration
Light
The device (egg) uses light to transmit and to allow communication. The light is used as feedback
to get a better understanding on what is happening. The following states of the egg represent the
different communication states.
Neutral state

Active state

If nobody has been

If someone is detected
detected (so nobody is at (coming home) the egg
home) the egg in
switches on.
inactive.

Sharing Experiences

Ready for
communication

Ongoing
communication

If both persons are

available, the egg turns
green to indicate they
just can start talking

While communicating the

light slightly pulses

Group PLAJ

Touch
The light is furthermore used to communicate the action of touching the egg. The colour of the light
changes to red at the spot where the other person is touching the egg. So if person A is touching
his egg, the egg of person B turns red at the spot where person A touched it.
Person A

Person B

If one person touches

the egg on the lower-left
side, it turns red on this
spot for the other person.

Sharing Experiences

If one person touches

the egg on the lowerright side, it turns red on
this spot for the other
person.

If you hold the egg on

the top or if you put your
hand on the top, it turns
red on the top for the
other person.

Group PLAJ

If you hold the egg in

both hands it totally turns
red for the other person.

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Movement
Another way of using the device is for communication of emotions by movement. The egg can tilt
and can vibrate.
Person A

Person B

If one person touches the device to move it, it also

moves (tilts) for the other person.

If one person holds the egg and shakes it a little, it

will vibrate for the other person as well.

Privacy
One of the main concerns we faced during our brainstorming sessions was users privacy issues.
As the Im Home system is based on the passive interaction, it is difficult to decide when it should
actually be turned on and transmit the audio signals and when it should be turned off. In order to
not turn on the audio transmitting of the egg when it is not intended, we introduced two states: the
active (yellow light) and communication (green light). They should make clear what the device is
currently doing. The pulse, which is shown when the sound is transmitted, should be used to get a
even better understanding of when the connection is established.

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For the case when one person does not want to start a conversation, we added a button on the
bottom of the device to turn it off. This will bring it to the neutral state. The egg will turn on again
after some hours automatically (that means it will start recognising movement again after a set
amount of hours and will only turn active if someone is close by). If the user wants to totally turn off
the device (so that it doesnt turn on automatically), the button needs to be pressed for a longer
time. The time can be changed by the user (see next section of the report). The device will give
voice feedback on for how long it is going to be turned off (Turned off for 8 hours or Turned off).
Clicking the button again will always turn it on (Turned on). Nevertheless the user is always able
to see the current state of the device.

Configuration
To set up the egg for the first time the user must connect it via the docking station to a computer.
The first step is to connect the it to wi-fi. The user is prompted to connect the device to the local wifi, entering the wi-fi password and such. Once, the egg is connected via Wi-Fi the rest of the setup
is done by using the Im Home configuration tool. The next step in the initial setup is to link your
egg to your partner's egg. This is done by entering the ID code of the other egg into your
configuration tool, the same has to be done with the other egg.

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The Im Home configuration enables the configuration of different privacy settings. Here you have
the option to configure how long the egg stays in sleep mode when the user presses the power
button once. This could range from one hour to completely turning it off. Another option is to set a
delay so that the egg delays the time it takes for it to go from yellow (active state) to green
(communication state). It can be set to have no delay to up to 30 minutes.
Other functional settings include: movement, vibration, pulsing light and temperature. These can all
be turned on and off. There is also an option to set up custom colours for different states.

Material and design

Why have we actually decided to go with the shape of an egg for our design? Well, there are
several reasons. Lets begin with the reasons why we did not do other things such as faces or
animals. We discussed several designs for the device and the debate included some sort of face.
This could be anything from something that resembles a human face or an animal. We decided to
go against this since it is very difficult to design a face that everyone would feel comfortable with.
We thought that we could have several versions of the device so that people would be able to pick
the one they like and would feel comfortable with. In the end the biggest reasons for not including a
face shape was that the device is not supposed to represent the person on the other side. By that
we mean that we do not want you to associate your loved one with a hedgehog or a squirrel. Also,
if we included anything with a face, we would have to design the facial expressions and this is a
really difficult job. We did not want to miss-communicate the feeling that a face would have had to
express. Therefore, the idea of a face or any other animal was excluded from the design.
But if not a face or animal what else? There are a lot of ways we could have designed our device.
We decided to go for the more abstract shapes. The more abstract the more freedom the user has
to interpret the device. An egg shape represents something unborn, something that could become
anything. The egg has in a very abstract sense not taken form yet, it is still unhatched. We also
have colours that signal different states and therefore the device had to have a shape that could
reflect the colours in a very soft and natural way. The egg shape is perfect since it has no sharp
edges and has an up (top) and down (button) which enables it to stand and tilt.
The materials used are very important. The device cant be too heavy or too light since it needs to
have presence, and this presence needs to be balanced. If it was to heavy it would have, in a
sense, too much presence but if it was too light it would have nearly no presence. The plastic used
has a sort of white tone, which emits very ambient light. We did not want the device to be too bright
since it can become annoying or even straining for the eyes. The plastic is balanced in the sense
that it is neither too slippery or too rough. It should be soft to touch so that it is comfortable to hold.
Physical pleasure is very important.
Currently the device is only available in an egg shape but in the future more customisable versions
might emerge. Versions with other materials for example wood, for the bottom part (since that is
where the speaker is located and not much light is emitted from the bottom). Maybe even other
decorative patterns can be added as long as they do not obscure the light.

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Technical Details
The device has a number of inputs and outputs.
Outputs
Several LED arrays inside to provide ambient light. Each array has several colour LEDs.
Each array is directed to different surface areas to make it possible to light up different sides
of the Egg with different colours
Separate LED array at the bottom of the device is used to indicate power state of the device
(flashes/pulses red when battery is low)
Heater to warm the surface on the device (to transmit warmth of hand)
Vibration motor
Speaker
A motor with the mass attached to deliver tilting
Inputs
Accelerometer to detect tilt
Human presence sensor
Surface temperature sensor
Microphone
Light sensor to adjust the brightness of light
Button to switch the device off/on
Station
Charging could be done by a docking station where the person can just place the egg onto without
the special need of connecting a charger. Docking station is also used to connect the device with a
PC/laptop for the first-time setup. It utilises NFC to connect the device with the docking station. The
docking station is connected to PC/laptop with a USB cable. When the device is connected with
the docking station, the docking station will indicate the battery state of the device.

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Egg energy status

If the egg itself is running out of energy, a red bar will appear in the middle of the egg (using only a
limited set of lights). It will become more intense and flashy the more the battery empties. This
indicates in a simple and not too much disturbing way that the egg needs to be charged again.

Example Scenario and Prototype

In order to get a better understanding and to prototype the concept of Im Home we created the
following storyboard. It is based on two personas Alexander and Josephine. Alexander had to
move to London for 6 months. He lives there in a small one-room apartment. Josephine lives in
their three-room apartment in Berlin. In order to be together while Alex lives in London they bought
a set of two Im Home devices. Alex places his egg in his living room and Josi places hers in her
kitchen.

The device is in a standby mode

while no human presence is
detected

When a human presence is

detected the device signalizes
that is it on with yellow light.

When both users are in reach,

When one user holds his/her
their devices indicate it with green device the paired device indicates
light. Devices transmit sound,
it with red light.
allowing users to talk.

When the user leaves a room just

for a limited amount of time the
device stays on.

When both users hold their

devices, it i indicated by the red
light, also the warmth is being
transmitted.

In order to get a better understanding of the Im Home concept and the egg you can have a look
at our video prototype: https://youtu.be/C8wHtg6hHGk

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Limitations and open questions

Our design has several limitations. One is that we only focus on one particular target user group:
life partners/couples. We excluded friends, parents, etc, so we could address specific problems in
our design. In future, the present design can address other problems for other target groups, and,
probably, without even any changes.
Second, during the design process we had numerous discussions whether or not we should
include video-streaming into the design. We decided to exclude the video, as it will require
additional technologies, it will introduce some ethical problems (as the device might turn into
surveillance camera), and in our discussion we came to a conclusion that users wont benefit from
it. Besides, we didnt want to reinvent Skype.
Another important limitation in our design is that we use colour to inform user of the state of the
device. Thus, we exclude colourblind people. This problem can and should be addressed in further
development.
In the present document we provide description of a daily usage of the device, but do not provide a
description of how to setup it. As the devices must be linked and a user might want to disable some
of its features (e.g. vibration), there will be a need for the setup tool. We suggest that the device
could be configured with special application when attached to a PC with USB.

Why should you buy the Im Home Eggs?

Finally, the main advantage of the Im Home solution is that it allows a seamless and simple
communication between two people not living together. It allows to share experiences and to have
a daily life together. The most important part is the way of keeping the natural conversation
between couples without putting a screen between them. But it is not only about the
communication and the audio information. It is also about the feeling of presence that the egg
should transmit. By small actions like making the egg move or vibrate or by touching it for a
moment one person has a direct impact on the environment of the other person. When coming
home after work the egg recognised the movement and turns its light on - like saying welcome
home. It is not about sharing the big things but to share the small and personal things together living together and feeling close over distance.

Sharing Experiences

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