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M. Tomitsch, T. Grechenig, S. Mayrhofer:
"Mobility and Emotional Distance: Exploring the Ceiling as an Ambient Display to provide Remote Awareness";
Talk: The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET): 3rd IET International Conference on Intelligent Environments: IE 07, Ulm, Germany; 2007-09-24 - 2007-09-25; in: "Proceedings of the International Conference on Intelligent Environments", The Institution of Engineering and Technology, London (2007), ISBN: 9780863418464; 164 - 167.

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.

Emotional communication, remote awareness, ceiling interaction, ambient displays, mobility