Keywords: Hardware , Communication , Teleprecense, intimacy, tangible interaction

Personal note: many IO options, trivial interactions, bad examples

In this paper, I present ''The Bed'', an environment providing a new form of abstracted presence for intimate, non-verbal inter-personal communication. This secure and familiar environment is explored for its ability to become a shared virtual space for bridging the distance between two remotely located individuals through aural, visual, and tactile manifestations of subtle emotional qualities. As an example, I describe the application of these tangible interfaces and ambient media into a working prototype.

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BACKGROUND:

? The presence and actions of our other partners are immediately communicated to us because we are always in close physical contact. We can feel their rhythmic breathing, hear their quiet whispers, and sense their body warmth. Because of this closeness, we have an acutely hightened awareness of the physical and emotional state of one another?.

? The most salient object of a typical bed environment is the pillow which has two inherent roles: most functionally it is a place to rest our heads, and, more emotionally, it sometimes serves as a physical substitute for the person that we wish to be next to. [?] Therefore, it could serve as a natural and intuitive interface because of these physical and associative

Curtains can visualize an airflow - either caused by one persons breath or form a storm outside. Furthermore curtains promote a feeling of secure enclosure within the environment surrounding the individual.

Shadows: common component of night experience, indicate presence of unseen bodies

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IMPLEMENTATION:

The two beds are connected over a TCP/IP connection.
Each bed environment: two pillows and one curtain

Input options:
- head pillow with (1) body tracker and (2) microphone



Output options:
-- graspable pillow that can be pressed against body with (1) electric heating blanket inside pillow and (2) sub-woofer speaker that is capable of producing strong physical vibrations.
- Curtains with (1) back-projected images and (2) computer controlled fans to blow/move curtains