Monkey business : creating social awareness among distributed group members, using a network of animatronic agents

Members of a geographically distributed group are not normally aware of each other's presence or current activities. For example, two members of a team may be working on the same project, but they may have offices in different parts of a building. This geographical separation prevents them from knowing when the other has arrived in the morning, or if the other is busy or available, and it generally leads to a lack of awareness about the other's activities. It also tends to limit spontaneous and informal interaction among teammates. For this thesis, I have built a prototype of a system to keep distributed members of a group aware of each other's presence and activities in a light-hearted manner, while striving to remain non-intrusive. The system also aims to facilitate unplanned and informal communication among distributed colleagues. It consists of a network of animatronic agents, specifically monkeys, which are situated in the offices or rooms of each member of a group. Through subtle movements and sounds, the monkeys indicate the presence of the other members of the group. The monkeys are meant to be ambient, at the periphery of one's attention.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture. Program In Media Arts and Sciences

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2006

Author dc:creator

• Kern, Rachel Lori

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Christopher Schmandt.

• Architecture. Program In Media Arts and Sciences

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/36154

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/36154