Mobile Collocated Interactions

Abstract

Mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets were originally conceived and have traditionally been utilized for individual use. Research on mobile collocated interactions has been looking at situations in which collocated users engage in collaborative activities using their mobile devices, thus going from personal/individual toward shared/multiuser experiences and interactions. However, computers are getting smaller, more powerful, and closer to our bodies. Therefore, mobile collocated interactions research, which originally looked at smartphones and tablets, will inevitably include ever-smaller computers, ones that can be worn on our wrists or other parts of the body. The focus of this workshop is to bring together a community of researchers, designers and practitioners to explore the potential of extending mobile collocated interactions to the use of wearable devices.

Designing for Multi-User Interaction in the Home Environment

“…Conflict management systems store information of use in user profiles and use this information to coordinate interaction possibilities for each user for pre-programmed contextual scenarios. When a conflicting preference is observed between different users (e.g., in deciding which channel to watch on TV), such systems can implicitly mediate between preferences and present an average alternative and/or request explicit user input (e.g., [18,34]). Another approach towards multi-user interaction makes use of hierarchies in control: a user that is higher in the hierarchy has more permissions than a person that is lower in hierarchy.…”

Proxemic Mobile Collocated Interactions

“…at MobileHCI '11 [18]) identified a number of core related areas for research including group size, physical distance, device-binding, operating systems privacy, extending to public displays and tabletops, and conducting in-the-wild evaluations. More recent workshops, such as at CHI '15 [10], have examined the use of technology, gadgets and prototyping ideas for mobile collocated interactions. Another workshop, at MobileHCI '15 [13], focused on the body, materials, and bodily exploration with wearable devices, essentially harnessing the trend of technology to become evermore personal and closer to the body.…”

“…However, a question that, as yet, remains still unanswered through these workshops, is of how to incorporate the untapped value of proxemics in designing for face-to-face interactions with mobile devices. Whereas some previous workshops have focused on specific interactive technologies, such as interactive tables [1], smartphones, or wearable devices [10], with this workshop we wish to explore the implications of introducing a potentially more theoretical approach to mobile collocated interactions, to help promote research in the overall domain and to ground existing design practices further.…”