Backchannel: An Application for Secondary Co-located Communication using Mobile Devices

Mobile devices have become a popular form of interacting with others, even those in a shared setting. When copresent, communication mediums like SMS and IM also provide channels to engage in discussions that parallel larger, more central discussions, such as lectures and presentations. In the interest of exploring this phenomenon, we present Backchannel, a mobile application for communicating with those around you discreetly. We have two goals with this project. First, by sampling other mobile communication mediums, we seek to develop a novel locationsensitive method of interacting with others. Secondly, we wish to observe its use among actual mobile device owners and capture any emergent behavior that arises. ACM Classification: H5.2 [Information interfaces and presentation]: User Interfaces. Graphical user interfaces. General terms: Design, Experimentation, Human Factors