Internet of family: Increasing social presence of family members via sharing ambient IoT usage data

Abstract

Designing home with IoT has been a challenge. As the essence of home is family, we capture family ties and social presence as a significant design construct. We study family interaction and role identity as elements of 'connection'. To increase social presence of family members, we developed the prototype Starry-Starry through experience prototyping. Starry-Starry utilizes ambient color ID and usage data of home appliances as behavioral 'trace'. We conducted qualitative research in three households for a week to explore how families interact with each other via Starry-Starry. Findings reveal interesting reactions related to social presence, self-reflection, augmented absence and curiosity. The findings suggest the potential home design elements; infusion of social identity and abstraction of information. As a result, we propose Smart Home features with user interface for family connectedness.