“Ah That is Cute, I Will Stay Away!” Wearer Experiences of a Backpack with Shape-Changing Accessory for Keeping Social Distance to Others in Public Context

Abstract

Smart wearable solutions for social distancing have appeared during the Covid-19 pandemic with various types of outputs often directed only to the wearer or if directed to others, the visual output is usually displayed on the front side of the wearers body. This paper presents instead a design, implementation, and in-the-wild Wizard of Oz evaluation of a backpack with shape-changing accessory which output is directed to others approaching the wearer from behind. Qualitative findings from six participants suggest that there is potential in shape-changing accessory for keeping social distance in public context, however, the social acceptability issues caused by noisy motors and inclusiveness of the design limit the willingness to wear it. Even though the study was inspired by the Covid-19, other non-pandemic use cases for personal space respecting wearables are discussed also for users with special needs.