Appliances to Arouse Mutual Awareness between Close People Separated by Distance, “SyncDecor”

Despite the fact that various means of communication such as mobile phones, instant messenger and e-mail are now widespread; many romantic couples separated by long distances worry about the health of their relationships. Likewise, these couples have a greater desire to feel a sense of connection, synchronization or “oneness” with their partners than traditional inter-family bonds. This paper concentrates on the use of common, day-to-day items and modifying them to communicate everyday actions while maintaining a sustained and natural usage pattern for strongly paired romantic couples. For this purpose, we propose the “SyncDecor” system, which pairs traditional appliances and allow them to remotely synchronize and provide awareness or cognizance about their partners - thereby creating a virtual “living together” feeling. We present evidence, from a 3-month long field study, where traditional appliances provided a significantly more natural, varied and sustained usage patterns which ultimately enhanced communications between the couples.