Understanding remote presence

An ethnographic study examining family communication and the role of artifacts in supporting emotional closeness, e.g. heirlooms, activities and places in the house, and a small evaluation of a technology intended to support intimacy at a distance.

Abstract

In this paper, we discuss a study of new media for interpersonal communication. The paper motivates, designs and presents a small evaluation of a technology that is intended to support intimacy at a distance. It first presents an ethnographic study examining family communication and the role of artifacts in supporting emotional closeness, e.g. heirlooms, activities and places in the house. The paper then describes a couple of prototypes that were designed to support different types of closeness and how we evaluated one of these prototypes in a study of 3 families (6 households), for two weeks each. The interview data that the study presents show that people were generally positive about the technology, although this depended on the nature of the users' pre-existing communication patterns. One critical point is the importance of pairing blue sky design with down-to-earth deployment: we demonstrate how ethnographic-like work can inform design practice. Finally we discuss user experiences of "telematic emotional communication" and how this has enriched our understanding of remote presence.