Pixhale: Breath Based Communication

AbstractIn this paper we describe a system that supportssensual synchronous co-operative engagementbetween two parties separated by geographicaldistance using a breath-based interface with mobiledevices (phones, PDAs).

KeywordsBreath, opacity, intimacy, artifact-oriented, experience-oriented.

ACM Classification KeywordsH.4.m [Information Systems Applications]:Miscellaneous.H.5.5 [Information Interfaces andPreservation]: Sound and Music Computing.

IntroductionBreath modality is a form of communication reservedfor the most private and intimate exchange betweentwo people. Pixhale’s breath interface offers users theopportunity to experience a physical, co-operative, realtime, sensual engagement over geographical distance.

In a culture saturated with electronic devices, artifact-oriented experiences (phone, camera, mp3 player, etc.)obligate the users to additional and unnecessaryhardware. Pixhale is an experience-oriented applicationthat eliminates the requirement of an additional devicea user must commit to by appropriating currently

Copyright is held by the author/owner(s).

CHI 2006, April 22–27, 2006, Montreal, Canada.

ACM 1-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.

First Author

Matthew Yapchaian

University of Illinois

201 N. Goodwin Ave.

Urbana, IL 61801

myapcha2@uiuc.edu

Second Author

Karrie Karahalios

University of Illinois

201 N. Goodwin Ave.

Urbana, IL 61801

kkarahal@cs.uiuc.edu

2

available networks and hardware users are alreadyfamiliar and comfortable with.

PixhalePixhale is a breath–based photo-exchange applicationdesigned to facilitate a sensual synchronous co-operative engagement between two people through theubiquity of personal mobile devices.

Breath modality enables an interaction unavailable withcurrent methods of mobile communication (verbalaudition, text messages, picture messages), which iscritical to the intimacy of the Pixhale user experience.

The gestures a person uses when gently blowing on apartner’s neck or playfully exhaling at them are thesame physical gestures used in Pixhale.

The Pixhale experience is contained in the immediacyand privacy of the mobile device rather than theawkward and bulky hardware of previous projects’attempts to generate an intimate experience throughcomputer mediated design.

Pixhale exchanges images (captured on the samedevice), initially displaying them somewhattransparent. Users breathe into the phone’s microphoneto increase the opacity. Pixhale’s sound filter resemblesthe volume and timbre of human breath, whichprevents other sound forms from influencing theexchange. Each user contributes 50% of the maximumopacity. The sum of the two users’ breath value isdistributed equally to both clients. The distribution ofBreath values is communal because Pixhale is acooperative rather competitive experience. Imagesbecome permanent on the user’s phone when the

opacity value is 100%. If a user suspends theirbreathing, their input begins to recede, returning theimage to a more transparent photograph. In this way, auser’s breath is visualized as the increase/decreaselevel of opacity.

Pixhale engages users in synchronous, sensual,cooperative interaction. We imagine the image chosenby the users to have an implied emotional valuespecific to their relationship. Once Pixhale is initiated,the users determine the length of engagement throughthe control of the images’ opacity value.

Breath“In Sanskrit breath is called Prana, the very life. Andwhat is voice? Voice is breath. If there is anything inlife, in a man’s constitution, which maybe called life, itis breath.” [5]

Breath is used as an effortless non-verbal means ofsensual communication between two people engaged inan intimate relationship. As a playful gesture or anintimate exchange, breath between two people isembedded with an emotional value intrinsic to eachrelationship.

AccessCurrent attempts to conjoin remote spaces throughinterpersonal communication technologies, sharedbetween two people engaged in an intimaterelationship, are dominated by cumbersome orexcessive hardware that obstructs optimal emotionalexchange [1,2,4,6,7].

Pixhale is an application that appropriates the ubiquityof mobile devices (phones, PDAs) in technologically

3

advanced cultures to gain the best possiblegeographical access to an already networked audience.

Pixhale’s implementation on mobile devices takesadvantage of an object already available in a usersimmediate environment that they are familiar with,comfortable handling, and already consider an essentialcommunication tool. Pixhale is designed to beimplemented on pre-existing hardware rather than asingle-use artifact exclusive to the Pixhale experience.

Through the ubiquity of mobile devices Pixhale is ableto access a greater user base and provide a morecomfortable experience than any single experienceyielding artifact-oriented device.

How Pixhale WorksUser A contacts user B with a text request toparticipate in a Pixhale exchange. If B responds to thePixhale invitation in the affirmative, both phones will beenabled for a Pixhale exchange. Users A and B selectan image from his/her image library. Once an image isselected it will appear on the partner’s phone with a 0opacity value. A’s selected image (from A’s library) willappear on the screen of B’s mobile device.

Once the images are exchanged an audio and visualalert will cue the users to begin breathing. When bothusers begin to breathe the will only see the image sentto them. Images will stay active on each user’s phonefor the duration of the Pixhale session (until imageopacity = 100); if the session is prematurelyterminated (before opacity = 100) the users will haveto begin a new session.

figure 1. Design Scenario: One half of a Pixhale exchange in

the privacy of an office cubicle.

When A and B begin to breathe into their phones theimages’ opacity increases synchronously andproportionally to reveal the exchanged images. A and Bhave the option to immediately increase the opacity to100% or play with their partner through a pushing andpulling of the opacity value, extending their interactionand the conjoining of two remote people.

When the image opacity reaches 100% an audio andvisual alert will conclude the Pixhale session. Each userwill have the option to retain the exchanged image intheir image library.

Current ImplementationCurrently Pixhale is a Java Applet (figure 2) designed tosimulate the experience a user will have with mobiledevices. Laptop computers provide similar

4

figure 2. Current implementation: prototype of Pixhale applet

(120 X 90 pixels).

mobility offered through phones and PDAs whileinternal/external microphones (figure 3) allow for thesame breathing interface. The web version is for designresearch and user studies. The only publicly availableversion of Pixhale will be for mobile devices. ThePixhale client(s) were constructed in Processing whilethe server was written in Java.

figure 3. Current implementation: Two users breathing into

their laptops’ internal microphones.

figure 4. Current implementation: Both images’ opacity value

increasing synchronously from 0% to 100%.

Related WorkIntimate Objects: Physical Intimate objects (PIO),Virtual Intimate Objects (VIO) [7,6] are described as“technological devices designed for communicatingintimacy between couples in long distancerelationships.”[7]

To convey intimacy PIO uses a glowing LED while VIO’sinterface is a small circle located in a user’s taskbar.Both of the Intimate Objects’ displays begin to fadeonce they are initiated, a user can restart the processan infinite amount of times.

Pixhale attempts to convey intimacy through a singleprivate cooperative real-time interaction and the

5

exchange of an image chosen by each individual user.One goal of the Pixhale experience is upon completionof an interaction the emotions stimulated between twopeople will sustain throughout a day. The exchangedimage is a reference to the image’s content and thePixhale experience.

Intimate Objects require constant attention to preventthe LED/taskbar circle from fading to maintainintimacy. The constant restarting of a VIO/PIO cyclebecomes a game about preserving the intensity of lightrather than intimacy between two people.

Chris Dodge summarizes The Bed: A Medium forIntimate Communication as “an environment providinga new form of abstracted presence for intimate, non-verbal inter-personal communication.” [4] Pixhaleprovides the same “non-verbal inter-personalcommunication” [4] without the bulky hardwarerequired by the system. The Bed interrupts flow by notallowing users to map their own emotional/intimatevalues to the Bed system; users are required to use theBed’s mapping of emotions to achieve an intimateexperience.

The Bed requires users to enter an unfamiliar and non-intimate environment dominated with apparatus notnative to the users’ local bed environment. Pixhaleremoves many of these obstacles, offering: mobility,simplicity, and familiarity with hardware alreadyinherent to a user.

The Kiss Communicator [2] is a small module thatcommunicates an asynchronous intimate gesture, akiss, between two people possessing a KissCommunicator. The sender blows into their Kiss

Communicator, then “sensors in the handheld devicepick up your kiss, translate the impulse into a series ofrandomly lit LEDs, which are then transmitted as a slowglow to your partner’s device.” [5]

The mapping of breath to a series of glowing LEDs as akiss is inconsistent with the physical gesture of a kiss.Breath modality experienced between two people inreal life is the same interaction used in Pixhale. A usercan exhale gently creating a slow and steady increaseof the images opacity and sustain the experience whilequick playful bursts of breath will have a more suddenand ephemeral increase of the images opacity.

Although mobile, the Kiss Communicator experience isexclusive to the Kiss Communicator object. Users mustremember to bring the device with them in the eventtheir partner may send a message. Because of theubiquity of mobile devices in Western culture Pixhale isintended to always be accessible to users.

The sound of a partner’s breathing and the sensation oflightheadedness are more visceral than the glow of LEDlights and the pulse of a speaker.

Pixhale is an experienced-oriented design while KissCommunicator and The Bed are artifact-orienteddesigns facilitating a specific experience. Requiring auser to install copious amounts of hardware ordemanding them to remember to bring a device alongwith them. The obligation to the device interrupts anypotential for an optimal flow experience.

inTouch [1] is a artifact-oriented experience designedto conjoin two remote spaces through a tactileexperience. InTouch connects two spaces with devices

6

that facilitate both asynchronous and synchronousinteractivity. An inTouch user becomes aware of asecond user’s presence when he/she manipulates theInTouch rollers.

Pixhale enables an intimate experience throughsynchronous cooperation between two users.

ConclusionBreathing is a process not exclusive to organic objects.The mobile devices intended for Pixhale to beimplemented on (phones, PDAs) share similarrespiratory qualities found in living creatures; circuits,microphones, screens, and speakers make up thecirculatory system while: phone calls, text messaging,email, instant messaging, and picture messages formthe breath it circulates.

Pixhale facilitates an intimate experience between twopeople through common mobile devices using breath-based modality that is more organic than mechanical.

AcknowledgementsWe thank Evan Acaharya, Tony Bergstrom, Eric Gilbert,and Ankur Kalra for continual guidance and inspiration.

Example citations[1] Brave, S. and Dahley, A., inTouch: A Medium forhaptic Interpersonal Communication, Proceedings ofCHI97, ACM Press (1997)

[2] Buchenau, M and Suri, J.F., ExperiencePrototyping, DIS 2000, ACM Press (2000). 1-11.

[3] Debatty, R., Kiss Communicator, URL:http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/007274.php [21 October 2005]

[4] Dodge, C., The Bed, A Medium for IntimateCommunication, Proceedings of CHI97, ACM Press(1997)

[5] Khan, H.I. The Mysticism of Sound and music.Shambhala Publications, Inc, Boston, MA, USA, 1991.

[6] Kaye, J., Levitt, M.K., Nevins, J., Golden, J., andSchmidt, V., Communicating Intimacy One Bit at aTime, Proceedings of CHI’05, ACM Press (2005)

[7] Kaye, J., Intimate Objects: A Site for AffectiveEvaluation, Paper accepted for CHI 2005 Workshop:Innovative Approaches to Evaluating AffectiveInterfaces