Temperature sharing to support remote relationships

Abstract

Among the data that can now be readily sensed and shared, we believe temperature has potential to support relationships, because people perceive warmth as intimate and temperature as indicative of comfort and wellness. We interviewed 20 participants who interacted with prototypes of temperature sensing and sharing systems. Participants believed that shared temperature information could make their remote relationships stronger by supporting coordination, reassurance, and intimacy. They also perceived many challenges common in UbiComp -- such as difficulty interpreting data and tradeoffs between intimacy and privacy. We discuss nuances and guidelines for using temperature information as "shared informatics" and how these results can inform future research and system designs.