Proxemic Interaction: Designing for a Proximity and Orientation-Aware Environment

Ballendat, T., Marquardt, N. and Greenberg, S. (2010)
Proxemic Interaction: Designing for a Proximity and Orientation-Aware Environment. In Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Interactive Tabletops and Surfaces - ACM ITS'2010. (Saarbruecken, Germany), ACM Press, pages 121-130, November 7-10. <B>Best Paper Award. Later, received (in 2019) the 10-Year Impact Award from ACM ISS for its substantial and long-lasting impact on the ITS/ISS and broader HCI communities. </B>Earlier version as Report 2010-963-11 (paper) and Report 2010-963-12 (video).

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Abstract

In the everyday world, much of what we do is dictated by how we interpret spatial relationships, or proxemics. What is surprising is how little proxemics are used to mediate people's interactions with surrounding digital devices. We imagine proxemic interaction as devices with fine-grained knowledge of nearby people and other devices -- their position, identity, movement, and orientation -- and how such knowledge can be exploited to design interaction techniques. In particular, we show how proxemics can: regulate implicit and explicit interaction; trigger such interactions by continuous movement or by movement of people and devices in and out of discrete proxemic regions; mediate simultaneous interaction of multiple people; and interpret and exploit people's directed attention to other people and objects. We illustrate these concepts through an interactive media player running on a vertical surface that reacts to the approach, identity, movement and orientation of people and their personal devices.

Keywords

Proximity, proxemics, location and orientation aware, implicit interaction, explicit interaction

Bibtex entry

@INPROCEEDINGS { 2010-ProxemicInteractions.ITS,
CLASS = { CONFARTICLE },
AUTHOR = { Ballendat, T. and Marquardt, N. and Greenberg, S. },
TITLE = { Proxemic Interaction: Designing for a Proximity and Orientation-Aware Environment },
YEAR = { 2010 },
MONTH = { November 7-10 },
BOOKTITLE = { Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Interactive Tabletops and Surfaces - ACM ITS'2010 },
PUBLISHER = { ACM Press },
ADDRESS = { Saarbruecken, Germany },
PAGES = { 121-130 },
NOTE = { <B>Best Paper Award. Later, received (in 2019) the 10-Year Impact Award from ACM ISS for its substantial and long-lasting impact on the ITS/ISS and broader HCI communities. </B>Earlier version as Report 2010-963-11 (paper) and Report 2010-963-12 (video) },
KEYWORDS = { Proximity, proxemics, location and orientation aware, implicit interaction, explicit interaction },
}