A Digital Photography Framework Enabling Affective Awareness in Home Communication Olivier Liechti Tadao Ichikawa Information Systems Laboratory Information Systems Laboratory 1-4-1 Kagamiyama 1-4-1 Kagamiyama Higashi-Hiroshima 739, Japan Higashi-Hiroshima 739, Japan
[email protected] [email protected] ABSTRACT By transforming the personal computer into a communication appliance, the Internet has initiated the true home computing revolution. As a result, Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) technologies are increasingly used in domestic settings, and are changing the way people keep in touch with their relatives and friends. This article first looks at how CMC tools are currently used in the home, and points at some of their benefits and limitations. Most of these tools support explicit interpersonal communication, by providing a new medium for sustaining conversations. The need for tools supporting implicit interaction between users, in more natural and effortless ways, is then argued for. The idea of affective awareness is introduced as a general sense of being in touch with one's family and friends. Finally, the KAN-G framework, which enables affective awareness through the exchange of digital photographs, is described. Various components, which make the capture, distribution, observation and annotation of snapshots easy and effortless are discussed. Keywords Affective awareness, ambient media, awareness, calm technology, Computer Mediated Communication, digital camera, home photography, implicit social interaction, social role of home photography, ubiquitous computing, World Wide Web 1 INTRODUCTION new ways to maintain relationships with their The so-called "personal" computer has made its family and friends, new ways to establish apparition in the home more than two decades contacts with local and global communities, etc.