Applications of Projector Phones for Social Computing

Although mobile phones can help us stay connected with friends, family, and colleagues, these personal communication devices can also isolate us from the world around us by drawing our attention into a private digital realm. In contrast, public displays can catalyze conversation with people nearby. Mobile phones with integrated pico projectors have the potential to combine the phone’s computation and communication capabilities with the projected display’s ease of sharing, creating a personal, mobile, public display. Enabling the phone’s content to become visible to co-present people could help bridge the gap between the physical and digital realms, and even enhance face-to-face interaction. In this paper, we explore applications of projector phones for social computing. We characterize technical properties and social implications of projector phones, explore the design space through scenarios, illustrated by low-fidelity prototypes, and discuss design opportunities and challenges.