Anticipating the Use of Mobile Video Communication 

Nadine Ozkan
CSIRO Intelligent Interactive Technologies
Robert Tot
CSIRO Intelligent Interactive Technologies

Tuesday 26 June at 11am

Abstract

Mobile phones have gained extraordinary popularity since their introduction.

"In 13 years, [Australia] has amassed 10.2 million mobile service subscribers - more than half the population - up from 1 million in 1994. Aside from chiefly using our mobile phones to make and receive telephone calls, as a nation we have developed an obsession with sending each other short messages. Both Telstra and Optus claim some 15 million SMS messages are sent around their respective networks each week." (The Sydney Morning Herald, June 5th 2001).

Surprisingly, mobile communication has not been much studied in the literature. One of the aims of the work reported in this seminar is to develop an understanding of how and why mobile communication is used. The second aim is to predict future uses of mobile video communication.

Currently mobile phones allow communication via two channels: voice (synchronous) and text (asynchronous). Mobile phone companies have recently announced that they will shortly release a miniature camera to be hooked on the mobile phone, thereby adding video, synchronous and asynchronous, to the choice of channels available to the mobile phone user. The work reported here attempts to anticipate the place and usage of the up coming "mobile videophone"from an understanding of: (a) mobile communication and (b) stationary video communication.

More generally, we propose a method for anticipating the use of new technology.

Questions which will be examined are:
- what reasons motivate people to use a mobile phone? Are they only linked to mobility or to other factors as well?
- what is the nature of mobile communication (i.e., its goals)?
- what motivates people to choose one communication channel over another (the question of media choice between text and voice) in mobile communication?
- what communication tasks are particularly well suited to the video medium in non-mobile situations?
- can these tasks be envisaged in mobile situations, and how can this be validated?

Short resume

Robert Tot

Robert is a research engineer within the CMIS Human-Computer Interaction group. Robert has worked on research and industrial projects in the areas of interactive TV and cable services, small/constrained interface designs, video interpersonal communication and new technology in the home. Robert joined CMIS roughly 2 years ago. Robert holds a BSc in Psychology and is currently studying part time in Electrical Engineering.

Nadine Ozkan

Nadine has worked for CSIRO as a research scientist in Human-Computer Interaction since 1995. During the course of her work at CSIRO, Nadine worked on a number of research and applied research projects, and has developed methods and approaches to the design of technology. Nadine's PhD in Cognitive Sciences was specialised in the area of human-computer dialogue. Prior to doing her PhD, Nadine worked as an IT consultant in expert systems and knowledge based systems.

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