ambiPad: enriching mobile digital media with ambient feedback

Abstract

With the recent increase in sales figures of tablet computers, a corresponding boost of mobile media consumption on such devices can be observed. Even though tablets provide a comparably larger screen in contrast to smartphones - which are taking the main share of mobile media consumption - the experience of consuming media content on tablets is still limited. For movie theatres the notion of 4 dimensional (4D) films exist, describing a 3D movie that is enhanced with ambient feedback such as environmental light, air streams or moist. In this paper we present ambiPad, a tablet prototype that enriches mobile digital media with ambient feedback around the tablet's display. Besides a light emitting frame, ambiPad allows for thermal stimuli as well. We report on the results of a qualitative user study, in which the feedback channels of ambiPad were rated as highly attractive and desirable by the participants.