Kairoscope: managing time perception and scheduling through social event coordination

  • Authors:
  • Reed Martin;Henry Holtzman

  • Affiliations:
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA;Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
  • Year:
  • 2011

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Abstract

If everyone says time is relative, why is it still so rigidly defined? There have been many attempts to address the issue of coordinating schedules, but each of these attempts runs into an issue of rigidity: in order to negotiate an event, a specific time must be designated in advance. This model is inherently poor at accommodating life's unpredictability. Kairoscope looks at time from a human perspective, focusing on time as made up of a series of events, rather than simply a series of events in time. By removing our reliance on a fixed time system, events are coordinated socially and on the fly, without worrying about precision. This paper explores the creation of Kairoscope, rooted in ideas of time perception and aiming to reduce time-related stress, optimize time usage, and increase social interaction. The result is a socially-coordinated, constantly adapting, and highly malleable guide through time.