Proxemic interaction: designing for a proximity and orientation-aware environment

  • Authors:

  • Till Ballendat;Nicolai Marquardt;Saul Greenberg

  • Affiliations:

  • University of Calgary, AB, Canada;University of Calgary, AB, Canada;University of Calgary, AB, Canada

  • Venue:
  • ACM International Conference on Interactive Tabletops and Surfaces
  • Year:
  • 2010

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Abstract

In the everyday world, much of what we do is dictated by how we interpret spatial relationships, or proxemics. What is surprising is how little proxemics are used to mediate people's interactions with surrounding digital devices. We imagine proxemic interaction as devices with fine-grained knowledge of nearby people and other devices -- their position, identity, movement, and orientation -- and how such knowledge can be exploited to design interaction techniques. In particular, we show how proxemics can: regulate implicit and explicit interaction; trigger such interactions by continuous movement or by movement of people and devices in and out of discrete proxemic regions; mediate simultaneous interaction of multiple people; and interpret and exploit people's directed attention to other people and objects. We illustrate these concepts through an interactive media player running on a vertical surface that reacts to the approach, identity, movement and orientation of people and their personal devices.