After analysing the results of the user study, the overall experience of using the system was reported by the participants as personal, intimate and feeling like being close to the other person. The most used terms to describe the system were interesting, different, intimate, new and surprising. Users described the experience as “a strange sense of intimacy”,“pleasantly strange” and “tranquil”. These terms resonate well with the original artistic motivations of the system: Taking the people out of their ordinary conversation situations and habitual responses, and to create intimate communication. The eye did not reveal too much of the communication partner’s emotional state – a broader view of facial gestures would be needed to interpret those emotional cues. Still, the eye seemed to function as a means to prevent distractions from the focus of the discussions, and thus helped users to stay in the moment. “You couldn’t get distracted visually to anything. It kind of helped you to focus on the matter at hand. … It is not as if you could start reading a newspaper, which I sometimes do when I’m using Skype. I’m beginning to wander off to other things.” another reports “It felt a bit like being closer to each other than in normal telephone conversation.” and a “A strange sense of intimacy.”

The Team:

Nokia Research Center and Tampere University of Technology

Tina Gonsalves, Kaisa Väänänen-Vainio-Mattila , Katja Suhonen, , Martin Schrader, Toni Järvenpää

Exhibition:

Phoenix Brighton, White Night Festival, Celebration of Shyness, Brighton, UK

Funding:

Australia Arts Council interacts residency, Nokia Research Labs

Papers