Fade to Play

This morning while reading this CBC News article over breakfast, I thought about how cool it would be to have breakfast with my parents once a week although they live over 5000 kms away. It is about a prototype called The Virtual Family Dinner which enable family members to eat dinner and see each other using a flat screen tv and two videocameras.

Because the device is meant for people who may not be familiar with such technology, Accenture researchers have made it highly automated. Built-in software monitors the images from the cameras, and when it detects that the kitchen’s occupant is putting food on the table, the system goes through a list of contacts, trying to reach each in turn until it finds one who is available for a dinnertime chat.

That’s the difference between this system and setting up a dinnertime videoconference using ordinary computers or laptops equipped with webcams. “Grandma doesn’t have to do anything,” Dadong Wan, the Accenture senior researcher who developed the prototype, said. While existing personal computing gear could do the job, he believes it requires a level of comfort with technology and willingness to make an effort that many people don’t have.

So as Mom puts her dinner on the table in Ontario, the system might automatically check to see if her son in Calgary is available. If he hasn’t arrived home from work yet, it would try her daughter in Halifax. Other family members could be on the list as well.

Rather than requiring those it calls to be in their kitchens, the system could alert them via telephone or cellphone.

Relevance: From a usability perspective, I like how simple the system is and it would be great to find out about their usability testing with techno-neophytes whether 85yrs or 25yrs. Also, I am wondering about the sense of presence felt by the person far away and about how much lag there is in the system. Is conversation possible? I know I would be much more conscious of what I was eating if my parents were watching.