Multi-level interaction with an LED-matrix edge display

Abstract

Interaction with mobile devices currently requires close engagement with them. For example, users need to pick them up and unlock them, just to check whether the last notification was for an urgent message. But such close engagement is not always desirable, e.g., when working on a project with the phone just laying around on the table. Instead, we explore around-device interactions to bring up and control notifications. As users get closer to the device, more information is revealed and additional input options become available. This allows users to control how much they want to engage with the device. For feedback, we use a custom LED-matrix display prototype on the edge of the device. This allows for coarse, but bright, notifications in the periphery of attention, but scales up to allow for slightly higher resolution feedback as well.