Co-Present Photo Sharing on Mobile Devices

The paper reports a mobile application that allows users to share photos with other co-present users by synchronizing the display on multiple mobile devices. Various floor control policies (software locks that determine when someone can control the displays) were implemented. The behaviour of groups of users was studied to determine how people would use this application for sharing photos and how various floor control policies affect this behaviour. Explicit policies was shown to be the best strategy for structured presentations, but when all locks were removed, the users created a new form of social interaction which seemed to be a more compelling use of the technology than the original, intended, application