Starting Point for Refining: A First Design of the keepClose Experience

CloseExperience

The designs of the system in the car and at home are heteromorphic. The commuter’s experiences of leaving and coming home are different from the experiences of those at home letting the commuter go and expecting them back, and such are the connected emotions. For that reason, the corresponding parts of the system in the car and at home are designed differently.

During the Commuter’s Drive to Work

When the commuter begins the outbound drive communication with the family is possible until the commuter leaves thehome area. When this happens, those at home are still able to determine the location of the commuter, only without the acoustic communication channel.

During the Commuter’s Drive Home

As long as the commuter is at work the family members ones at home have the possibility to send messages as a way of showing that they are thinking of the commuter. When the commuter starts the drive back from work, the device at home displays the decreasing distance between the commuter and home. Furthermore, those at home can estimate when the communication channel between the commuter and home will be established by the commuter driving into thehome area. Once the commuter is arriving in front of the home (e.g., in the driveway) the communication channel is shut down in order to shift the focus from the device unto to the real encounter of the reunited family.

First Technical Realisation

The prototypes of the device within the car and of the device at home were realised with two different Android2applications. In order to be able to place the system in the cars of the different participants, it was implemented on anHTC One Ssmart phone. The device at home was installed at one specific place (like the Whereabouts Clock, see Section 4.3) in order to be available to every member of the group at home and to avoid any competition arising by one of the group potentially taking the device. To ensure that those at home are able to share the screen the device was implemented on aSamsung Galaxy Notetablet. Both devices communicate through a common server with two shared MySQL databases. The communication is implemented with the

Voice over IP services called Sipdroid3. This service establishes a communication channel from the application within the car triggered by the position of the car on the road, hence opening the communication channel within thehome area(see Figure 4.7).

The back-end realises the positioning and transmitting of messages. The general information about the position is delivered from the Android application in the car to the server via http requests. The PHP script on the server side processes the position data and stores the information

2 _{API level 15, for more information see www.android.com}

Figure 4.7:Distance thresholds on the way.

in a MySQL Database. The server sends the data to the Android application on the tablet in the home. The positioning interfaces in the car and at home display images to estimate the position on the road between the work and the home of the commuter. Thehome areainvolves 1/3 of the distance in the prototype as a first estimation of what a commuter recognises as the local area. The range of thehome area has to be evaluated in the first study where the system is tested and nimbly adapted. Since one aim is to foster the thrill of anticipation, the distance thresholds in the

home area are more condensed than outside so that the commuter’s position within that area is updated two times faster than outside of it. The messages sent from the device at home (see Figure 4.6) are uploaded to the server and downloaded to the device in the car when it starts the drive home.

The Home Interface: The Commuter’s Drive to Work

The interface of thekeepClosedevice at home during the commuter’s drive to work was created as

Figure 4.8: The interface of the keepClosedevice at home during the commuter’s drive to work

follows. As seen in Figure 4.8, when the commuter starts the system, Panel a) is displayed on the device at home. After the commuter’s departure the family at home sees the display in medium blue colour, as in Panel b), which illustrates that the communication channel is available. The status bar in the black bottom area (Panels b) and c)) indicates to the family at home how much longer the commuter remains in the home areawhere the audio channel is open, represented by the medium blue area in the status bar (Panel b)), and how much longer the commuter has left to drive before arriving at work, represented by the light blue area in the status bar (Panel c)). When the commuter arrives at work, Panel d) is displayed in the device at home until the commuter turns

off the system and leaves the car. Then, the message prompt is displayed, which can be used to send a message for the commuter to receive upon returning to the vehicle.

The Car Interface: The Commuter’s Drive to Work

The interface of thekeepClose system within the car infotainment system for the drive to work

Figure 4.9: The interface of thekeepClosesystem in the car during the commuter’s drive to work

is shown in Figure 4.9. When the commuter turns on the system in the car at home, Panel a) is displayed until the commute is started. While driving, the interface displays the road ahead with the actual position represented by the dark blue field on the left side. The section left within the home area is represented by the medium blue field on the left side in Panel b), whereas the lighter blue field on the right side stands for the section remaining before the arrival at work. The interface is segmented according to the distance thresholds ahead. In Panel b), the commuter has six segments left before arriving at work, and in Panel c) only one. When the commuter arrives at work, all of the light blue segments representing the distance remaining to work are gone and the interface is coloured entirely in dark blue.

The Home Interface: The Commuter’s Drive Home

The interface of the home device during the commuter’s drive back home (see Figure 4.10) is designed similarly to the interface during the commuter’s drive to work. Only in this case the status bar now works in a different direction so as display the homeward journey. When the commuter starts thekeepClose system, the message option disappears from the home device and Panel a) is displayed instead. Now the family members at home know that the commuter has received any sent messages. During the commuter’s drive the distance left ahead before reaching thehome area, when communication is possible again, is indicated by the light blue colour in the status bar. The black area in the status bar shows the area already driven. As soon as the commuter enters thehome area the colour in the upper field changes to medium blue (see Panel c)),which indicates that the audio connection is now available. When the commuter arrives home, Panel d) is displayed and the audio channel is disconnected in order to shift attention from the system to the

Figure 4.10:The interface of the device at home during the commuter’s drive home arriving commuter.

The Car Interface: The Commuter’s Drive Home

The interface of thekeepClosesystem in the car for the commute home after work is designed as

Figure 4.11: The interface of thekeepClose system in the car during the commuter’s drive home.

seen in Figure 4.11. When the commuter starts the system at work, any sent messages are received. Then Panel a) is displayed until the drive begins. Again, as in the commute to work, the distance ahead is segmented. The light blue segments indicate the distance remaining before reaching the

home area(as seen in Panel b)). The medium blue segments (Panel b)) show thehome area, and when the commuter arrives at home the interface turns dark blue (Panel d)).