Distributed families face many challenges trying to maintain a sense of intimacy: different time zones, limited knowledge of the other’s availability and mindset, etc. Phone, cell phone, email, instant messaging improve communication, but in most cases, do not achieve the same level of intimacy and connectedness as in face-to-face communication.

CASY: Contextual Asynchronous System (PDF of the project) integrates audio/video to enable family members to send “good morning” and “good night” asynchronous video snippets into a shared family database. The recipient views the snippet in-context of going to sleep or waking up.

Scenario:
Living in San Francisco, Martha glances at her CASY picture frame, showing the portraits of her grandchildren. She decides to leave video messages to Maya and Aden. She touches Maya’s portrait and records a “good morning” message that Maya, who is currently asleep in Amsterdam, will find when she wakes up.

For Aden’s (at home in Brooklyn) she reads a few pages as a “good night” story, from a new book. A few hours later, Aden goes to bed. He glances at the screen mounted in his CASY pillow, and says “good night” to the portrait of his grandmother. Martha’s portrait reacts with a smile, and he sees that she has sent him a “good night” message. Aden touches the screen to activate the audio/video message – Martha reading him a bedtime story. When the message is over,he replies to Martha through his CASY pillow, pleading her to read him a few more pages when he wakes up the next morning.

By Orit Zuckerman.

It’s not the first pillow interface for distributed families: robotic pillow, and interactive pillows. There’s also a sexy Body-drawing communicator for distant partners.

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