What Does it Do?

The Character App allows your mobile phone to have social interactions, or practical conversations, with other mobile phones in its proximity.
Watch the demo here.

How Does it Work?

Currently running on Android, the application uses NFC to create a bluetooth connection with another phone. After the phones recognize each other, they will be able to communicate while they remain within bluetooth distance (typically 8-10 feet). Read more about the technical details and programming here.

What Kinds of Things Would Phones Want to Talk About?

For all we know, phones may be social creatures. We don't know exactly what they would want to know about or tell to another phone until we give them the capabilities to connect (and maybe some social behaviors). But we can imagine that they could be interested in all kinds of data that help the other phone run better. They may want to learn from each other, each phone having knowledge of unique languages, and experiences from different places. They may ask about connectivity in London, or the process a specific model uses to organize its tasks. They may also inquire about the owner, and how their relationship is. They may want to complain about losing power or their owner's neglecting ways. Some phones may be interested in sharing images or bragging about their internet-enhanced know-how on current events. Read about my research in our relationship to mobile devices here.

How Can I Download the App?

To try out the application, you must have an NFC enabled phone, and contact maria at mariarabinovich (at) gmail . com . You can also check for updates here.

Why?

The Character App was designed by Maria Rabinovich, an interactive artist and designer, as part of a research project run at ITP, NYU, funded by a grant from Intel's research lab. The topic explored is Vibrancy in Technology. Read more about this opportunity, other vibrancy research projects from ITP here.

What is Vibrancy?

The idea of vibrancy spans disciplines and philosophies as it explores the agency of our technologies. Do our tools and systems have agency? In looking at these questions, I became aware of our interdependency with our mobile devices: we rely on them more every day as tools for information storage and retrieval and communication tasks, and they rely on us for their existence, supply of power, development, and function. Through this interdependency, a new type of system, human and phone, has developed, where levels of agency among the individual components can come into question. As the lines blur between tool and agent, the mobile device seems more and more vibrant. You can read through my research blog entries below or look at the related research and writing I reference here.

• 

  Watch the presentation of the project on February 28th, as well as a detailed description of the concept and research behind the application.

• 

  Intro and description of the Vibrancy research project, and my original proposal to the project and Intel that explains the conceptual goals of this project.

• 

  List of books, studies, and notes referenced throughout the other blog entries, has links to my other research.