Exploring Ambient Visualizations of Context Information

Abstract — In this paper we investigate how ambient displays can be used to share context information. Currently, many personal devices provide context information, such as location or activity, and at the same time the number of ambient displays is increasing. We developed two prototypes for visualizing contextual information and initially explored the suitability of these in an online study. Additionally, we investigated which parameters are important for users when sharing personal context. Based on our findings we discuss guidelines for the design of ambient displays for context sharing. Keywords- Context-aware computing, ambient visualization I