AuraOrb: social notification appliance

Authors:
Mark Altosaar;Roel Vertegaal;Changuk Sohn;Daniel Cheng
Affiliations:
Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada;Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada;Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada;Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada
Venue:
CHI '06 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Year:
2006

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Abstract

One of the problems with notification appliances is that they can be distracting when providing information not of immediate interest to the user. In this paper, we present AuraOrb, an ambient notification appliance that deploys progressive turn taking techniques to minimize notification disruptions. AuraOrb uses eye contact sensing to detect user interest in an initially ambient light notification. Once detected, it displays a text message with a notification heading visible from 360 degrees. Touching the orb causes the associated message to be displayed on the user's computer screen.We performed an initial evaluation of AuraOrb's functionality using a set of heuristics tailored to ambient displays. Results of our evaluation suggest that progressive turn taking techniques allowed AuraOrb users to access notification headings with minimal impact on their focus task.