Mobility and emotional distance: exploring the ceiling as an ambient display to provide remote awareness

Living and working have become more and more mobile. This may have negative impacts on the quality of relationships. Recent research work on emotional communication showed the potential of new technologies to improve intimate long-distance communication. The goal of this project is to suggest the ceiling as a projection space in order to create a continuous feeling of remote awareness. We conducted a qualitative study to investigate how remote couples currently use technologies for communication. We also asked people about their preferences and desires concerning non-verbal information. People were most interested in knowing the emotional state of their partners and moreover, the fun factor of a new tool was very important to them. On the contrary, they rejected approaches that supported location, movement, or sound awareness. Based on these results we developed initial prototypes that can serve as a basis for future evaluations and further refinements.