Over the past decades, numerous concepts and prototypes for fostering emotional connections across distance (relatedness technologies) have been proposed. This has made it challenging for researchers and designers in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) to maintain a comprehensive overview and effectively build on previous work. To address this, we conducted a systematic literature search (PRISMA) and collected 241 concepts and prototypes (2010-2024). We organized this corpus according to key aspects: (1) target population, (2) theoretical grounding, (3) design, (4) evaluation, and (5) ethics. Based on this, we developed the “COmpendium of RElatedness Technologies” (CORE), an open-access, searchable online database that provides researchers and practitioners with a reliable repository to inform future work. In addition, we present a systematic review of the corpus, revealing that despite its long tradition work on relatedness technologies remains characterized by limited theoretical grounding, lack of robust empirical evidence of effects, and insufficient attention to ethical considerations.

Many people prefer not to think about their own death, let alone talk about it. This contributes to fear of death and reduces the acceptance of its inevitability. We hypothesized that talking about one’s own death with a specially designed chatbot reduces fear of death and strengthens the confidence to discuss the topic further with loved ones. Participants (N=100) talked with the chatbot for an average of 25 minutes. It offered conversations about planning for one’s own death, end-of-life preferences, and hopes for the afterlife. We measured participants’ fear and acceptance of death (DAP-R questionnaire) and readiness for end-of-life conversation (REOLC questionnaire) before and after the chat. Overall, attitudes toward death improved and fear decreased, while readiness for end-of-life conversations increased. Bigger changes in attitude corresponded with longer, more reflective responses in the conversations, commitment to plans, finding meaning in death, and some notion of legacy or afterlife.

People with osteoarthritis or other chronic conditions need to adopt and maintain healthy behaviors, such as physical exercises. Current behavior change technologies primarily seek to motivate this through goal setting, self-monitoring, and rewards. Based on Organismic Integration Theory (OIT), we designed Equi as a tangible alternative. Its aim is to “integrate” behavior rather than to externally control it. When behavior becomes integrated, its maintenance is based on self-congruence. Equi facilitates integration by situated reflection, symbolism, and appreciation of values. We conducted a two-week field exploration to gather osteoarthritis patients’ experiences with Equi. We identified specific features and general principles that are conducive to the pursuit of self-congruence, such as ambient visibility, reflection, insight and matching, as well as detrimental ones, such as performance orientation or controlling forces (e.g., reminders, rewards). From a theoretical perspective, OIT offers strategies for designing behavior change technologies that focus on the maintenance of newly acquired behavior.

Dying is a universal experience that entails uncertainty, loss, and termination. Often, people face death unprepared and miss out on opportunities to shape their final stage of life as well as their afterlife. To better understand how thanato-technology can support the dying and the bereaved, we performed a scoping review on the current state-of-art in Human Computer Interaction. Following the PRISMA-ScR procedure, we gathered and analyzed 107 relevant papers. We categorized theoretical and conceptual contributions into three overarching themes: digital remains, remembrance, and coping. We further highlight 18 practices, such as curation, honoring and letting go. We show that technology can help to capture the identity of the deceased, to validate the life lived, and to come to terms with death. However, available approaches focus more on the bereaved than on the dying. In addition, potentially important aspects of dying (e.g., balancing involvement and autonomy, spiritual meaning-making) remain largely unexplored.