The Family Window: Connecting Families over Distance with a Domestic Media Space

Families have a strong need to connect and maintain awareness of their loved ones over distance. However, most technologies do not provide the same degree of awareness or feelings of connectedness that one feels from actually seeing remote family members in real time. To overcome this, we designed a domestic media space called the Family Window (FW) that we describe in the accompanying video. The FW provides an always-on video connection between two households. It runs on a dedicated and mobile device, which makes awareness information always available and permits families to easily move the media space throughout their home. Families can also leave handwritten messages or drawings for one another by writing on the display. If families are not home at the same time, a time shift feature permits families to record video and play it back when they return home. Author Keyword