An awareness system for supporting remote communication - Application to long-distance relationships

Abstract

Recently, the methods of conducting long distance communication have dramatically changed due to improvements in communication technology including TV phones, e-mail, and SNS (Social Networking Services). However, people still have difficulty in enjoying sufficient long distance communication because subtle nuance and atmosphere are difficult to be felt in a distant place. For example, there are many romantic partners with feelings of anxiety about long-distance relationships. This is because an environment that allows the partners to understand each other has not been sufficiently supported. The purpose of this study is to help people separated by a long distance to understand each other by enabling the sensing of a partner's feelings from the partner's behavior. Our target is long-distance romantic partners. When people feel, sense, or are conscious of another person's existence or state, this ability or state is called "awareness.". Awareness is nonverbal communication. Awareness sharing among people is very important for managing relationships successfully, especially for people separated by a long distance. This is because a partner will develop feelings of unease if awareness sharing is not adequate. Our approach is as follows. First, examine what kind of action is useful for representing the feeling of love. Next, monitor these actions in partners. Third, summarize actions to quantitative indications. The prototype system was evaluated through evaluation experiments. Three pairs of partners used the system for two weeks. The result verified the effectiveness of this system as it promoted mutual communication. © 2013 Springer-Verlag.