Emergency services in North America have relied on the use of audio calls to the phone number, 9-1-1, since the late 1960s. In the coming years, 9-1-1 services will move to integrate media-rich calling capabilities such as video-based calling. We explore how video calling services should be designed through an interview study with people who have called 9-1-1 in the past. Our results show the potential for video calling to help people who are calling 9-1-1 describe their location to call takers, show the situation at hand, receive video-based instructions, and assist in cases with language barriers. Yet video calling raises issues around anonymity, consent, culture and gender-based biases, and camera work. 9-1-1 video calling is best thought of as a collaborative act where camera work is negotiated between callers and call takers where callers are willing to hand over control of the call if their privacy concerns can be met.

Families preserve memories of their special and everyday experiences, though it can be hard to capture all these moments in everyday life. We explore the concept of automated forms of capturing family life and presenting them through situated, tangible everyday artifacts in the home. We designed Time-Turner, an always-on video recording system along with a set of three drink coasters that allow family members to easily search, filter and replay videos to connect to their past. We engaged households in speculative enactments and interviews to explore the design space. Our findings point to the value of witnessing real rather than staged moments and the ways in which the affordances of everyday artifacts can allow media to be 'lived with' as a part of everyday life. Yet our design also revealed tensions around sharing and changing perceptions across time and generations. This points to design challenges around safeguarding this media and capturing 'reality' as opposed to curated content.

Computer mediated-communication tools (CMC) support loved ones in maintaining connections with one another over distance, yet it can be difficult to do activities together. We studied the use of telepresence robots for supporting distance-separated loved ones in engaging in the joint activity of shopping over distance. One partner shopped in person while the other used either a telepresence robot or a tablet from a remote location. Compared to the tablet group, we found that when partners communicated through a telepresence robot, the remote partner's personality and presence were expressed through the movements and physicality of the medium. However, the use of the telepresence robot introduced tension between partners regarding responsibility, dependency, and contribution to the act of shopping. These results demonstrate the benefits of a mobile embodiment for remote partners, as well as the need for greater physical capabilities to support both physical connection and remote contribution to leisure activities.

Telepresence attendance at academic conferences is now a reality and allows people who cannot attend in person with the opportunity to still be “present.” This is valuable for people who face accessibility challenges, cost or travel restrictions, or limited time for travel. We have deployed and studied the use of telepresence robots at three ACM conferences, Ubicomp/ISWC 2014, CSCW 2016, and CHI 2016, ranging from remote users having dedicated telepresence robots to users sharing telepresence robots both synchronously and asynchronously. In this article, we report on the telepresence offerings along with the user behaviors, experiences, and the social norms found for remote conference attendance. Our results across the studies focus around three main themes: shared vs. dedicated robot usage, identity presentation and the value and challenges associated with it; and local in-person support through proxies and instant messaging backchannels. These themes point to three different areas of design exploration for telepresence robots, pointing out the limitations of existing design solutions with respect to each theme, areas for future telepresence design work, and the value in considering varied telepresence robot solutions, including both dedicated and shared telepresence robots.

Couples in Long Distance Relationships (LDRs) often rely on the use of video chat systems to help maintain their relationship. However, designs are typically limited to only supporting face-to-face conversations or providing narrow fields of view. We designed and evaluated MyEyes, a First Person View (FPV) video streaming technology probe made with cardboard goggles and a smartphone. Distance-separated partners see each other's view on their screen where it can overlap their own view (Overlapped), be placed above it (Horizontal), or presented at the same time where each is seen with a different eye (Split). We compared the three different views with couples to explore the effect on social presence and body ownership. The Overlapped View was most preferred by couples and it provided the strongest feeling of co-presence, whereas a Horizontal View provided the greatest sense of mutual understanding. Our qualitative results showed couples valued performing synchronized acts together and doing activities "in" the remote location.

Many couples live apart due to work, educational situations, or frequent travel. While technology can help mediate these relationships, there is a lack of designs that allow couples to share a sense of touch over distance. We present a design case study of a tangible communication system called Flex- N-Feel--a pair of gloves that allows distance-separated couples to feel the flexing of their remote partners' fingers through vibrotactile sensations on their skin. We evaluated our design with nine couples where the system was augmented with either a Skype audio call or a video connection. Our study showed that participants enjoyed their conversation more with the gloves, felt more emotionally connected, and experienced intimate moments together. Couples used the glove for shared actions, playful episodes, intimate touches, and to simply feel each other's presence. Video was important to aid couples in understanding each other's actions. Our results illustrate that designs focusing on physical touch over distance should be open to appropriation such that they can augment existing communication routines and technologies.