“VisiPhone” by Karahalios and Viegas
Conference:
- SIGGRAPH 1999
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More from SIGGRAPH 1999:
Type(s):
E-Tech Type(s):
- Communication
Entry Number: 23
Title:
- VisiPhone
Presenter(s):
Collaborator(s):
Description:
Visiphone is a communication object that opens a visual and auditory portal through space by visualizing the sounds flowing between two places. A continuous audio connection between two distant locations brings the inhabitants closer, allowing them to talk informally and easily.Yet using audio alone has disadvantages. It is difficult in a noisy environment, to know if one’s voice has carried or if others are speaking at the other end. Furthermore, long periods of silence make it easy to forget the device, which then takes on a quality of covert surveillance.
VisiPhone’s graphical rendering of the audio brings greater continuity and expressiveness to this connection. It portrays the existence of the connection even in moments of silence and it expresses the dynamics and inflections of conversation originating in both locations.
This rendering is evocative rather than technical; our goal in building the VisiPhone has been to create an aesthetic object that enhances sociable awareness.
Other Information:
More information about our research can be found at:
www.media.mit.edu/~fviegas/visiphone.html
