Ambient Social TV (CHI 2008)

Ambient Social TV Gunnar Harboe, Crysta Metcalf, Frank Bentley, Joe Tullio, Noel Massey, Guy Romano Drawing People into a Shared Experience

Introduction

Summary
Social Television: creating a remote shared experience around watching TV
Ambient devices for social awareness
Two-week user-study in 2x5 households
Ambient devices helped put people in touch
Social TV demands interaction options for multiple levels of engagement

Remotely shared TV-watching experience
“Like watching TV together”
Presence + communication (+ sharing content)
Social Television

Buddy list with channel/program context
Program recommendations
Text chats
Voice calls
Video chats
Emoticons
Multiplayer quiz games
Social TV Features

Social TV Systems
AmigoTV (Coppens et al. 2004)
Telebuddies (Luyten et al. 2006)
Media Center Buddies (Regan & Todd 2004)
PARC Social TV (Oehlberg et al. 2006)
Reflexion (Cullinan & Agamanolis 2006)
ConnecTV (Boertjes 2007)
CollaboraTV (Harrison & Amento 2007)
2BeOn (Abreu et al. 2001)

Motorola Labs’ Social TV Project

Social TV 1
Investigated live voice sessions
Provided social and practical benefits
Some indications of potential problems
1 2 3 4 Harboe et al. (2008) “The Uses of Social Television” in ACM Computers in Entertainment

Social TV 2
Investigate naturally occurring instances of interaction, not-pre arranged sessions
Investigate behaviors leading up to a communication session
Introduce ambient displays as extension of presence

Social TV 2
Test an experience without freeform communication (no voice, just presence)
Primarily a research probe: design priority to gather data, not provide the best possible experience

System Description

System Components

Features
Ambient devices
Presence
Communication

Ambient Devices
Ambient Orb (Ambient Devices, Inc.)
Virtual Orb (Chumby) (www.chumby.com)

Ambient Devices
Social Awareness (even when TV off)
Changing colors
(Pulsing)
Number of buddies watching Social TV:
None One Multiple

Presence

Presence
Buddy list

Presence
Buddy list
Channel banner

Presence
Buddy list Channel banner

Presence
Buddy list Channel banner
Pop-ups

Presence
Buddy list Channel banner Pop-ups

Communication

Communication Suggestions

Communication
Suggestions

Suggestions
Communication Emoticons

Communication
Suggestions Emoticons

Communication
Suggestions Emoticons
Canned text messages

Communication
Suggestions Emoticons Canned text messages
Metcalf et al. (2008): “Examining Presence and Lightweight Messaging in a Social Television Experience” – forthcoming

Study Description

Study Design
2 groups of 5 households
1 system/household, all 5 connected
2 weeks per group

Participants
Group A
Female (+families)
26-33
4 married, 1 engaged
3 with (small) children
Friends and family members
Group B
Female (+families)
46-53
4 married, 1 divorced
All with teenagers
Friends and family members

Data and Analysis
Interviews, voice mail diaries, system logs
Qualitative analysis: Affinity method

Measurable Use 185 N/A Canned text messages sent 120 59 Emoticons sent 160 62 Buddy’s show joined via buddy list 390 185 Buddy list views 181 154 Social TV watched (hrs) B A Activity

Reported Use
“ Every time I walked back and forth, I’d see [the orb]” (B3)
“ Every time I passed by, a thousand times a day, I would look to see what color it was.” (B1)

Reported Use
“ Every time I walked back and forth, I’d see [the orb]” (B3)
“ Every time I passed by, a thousand times a day, I would look to see what color it was.” (B1)
“ Just about every time I turned it on, if I saw someone was on, I called their house.” (B1)

Use-Cases
“ The first thing I’ll do is I’ll look at the orb. […] Then I’ll turn on the TV.” (A2)

Use-Cases
“ I’ll quickly turn it on and see who’s on and what they’re watching.” (A1)

Use-Cases
“ Something they were watching might grab my attention more than what I thought I was going to watch.” (A3)

Use-Cases
“ I’ll see what they are watching and I’ll usually send out shout-outs based on what they are watching, or the thumbs down or whatever.” (A2)

Use-Cases
“ I do thumbs up [or] thumbs down, wait to see if there’s a reaction, and if there is I’ll send a message.” (B3)

Use-Cases
“ I’ll say, ‘Who’s there?’ and if it comes back that it’s not one of their kids and it’s my girlfriend or something, then I’ll pick up the phone.” (B1)

Use-Cases
“ I noticed the orb was blue, so I knew somebody had their television on, and sure enough, it was [B2’s household]. And I knew that her husband’s at work and her kids were at school, so I deduced it was [B2]. And so without even saying ‘Who’s there?’ I immediately went to her channel, which was Oprah , and I sent her a thumbs-up. And then she thumbs-upped me, and then two seconds later I said [to myself], ‘This is dumb!’ And then [I called her, and] we had a whole conversation.” (B1)

Findings

Ambient Awareness
Ambient orbs provided peripheral social awareness while not watching
“ Since I had [the Chumby] in the kitchen, it was just while I was cooking… it was like, ‘Oh, I wonder who’s on.’” (A1)
“ I notice when the color’s on, whether it’s purple or blue; I know that someone else is actually on the system.” (B3)

Feeling Connected
This social awareness inspired a feeling of togetherness
“ I liked coming into the house and saying, ‘Oh, someone’s home watching TV too now.’ […] It was like a friendly feeling; like, ‘Someone else is home and I’m not the only one home tonight.’” (B1)

Motivation to Turn On
Ambient orbs provided reasons to turn on the TV
“ The orb was purple, so I thought, ‘Wow, that’s a lot of people on!’ and so I turned it on.” (B1)

Providing Context
Situating the ambient displays within a larger system enriched the ambient information
“ There’d be no reason to have an orb [if] I can’t turn it on and see who it’s connected to.” (B1)
“ As the two weeks progressed, I kinda had a feel [about who might be on].” (A1)

Increasing Engagement Full involvement Talking on the phone Exchanging lightweight messages Co-viewing program Viewing buddy list Peripheral awareness Noticing ambient display

Reactions
“ A stupid toy” (B1)
“ Just kinda boring” (B5b)
“ I wouldn’t buy it” (A4)
“ It’s just no use” (B4)
“ So unnecessary” (B3b)
“ [Not] something that I would use” (A3)

Reactions
Not their close friends
Not enough free communication

Reactions
“ I love the orb” (A2, B5)
“ We liked the orb” (B1)
“ The coolest part” (A3)
“ Cool” (A2, A4)
“ That was neat” (A1b)
“ The orb is the interesting thing” (B4)

Conclusion

Takeaways: Ambient
Television use can be a meaningful social signal, well suited to an ambient display
Ambient information becomes richer when it is part of a greater system

Takeaways: Social TV
Social television systems benefit from an ambient mode of interaction
Need to support interactions at all different levels of engagement

Current/Future Work
Study communicative Social TV systems
Further in-home testing, longer periods
Explore other ambient presence modes
Embed ambient devices in other systems

Thanks
Larry Marturano
Elaine Huang
Seonyoung Park
Ambient Devices, Inc.
chumby.com

Questions?
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Ambient Social TV (CHI 2008)

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