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iBand: a wearable device for handshake-augmented
interpersonal information exchange
Marije Kanis
1
, Niall Winters
2
, Stefan Agamanolis
1
, Cian Cullinan
1
, Anna Gavin
1
1
Human Connectedness group
Media Lab Europe
Sugar House Lane, Bellevue, Dublin 8, Ireland
{marije, stefan, cian, anna}@medialabeurope.org
2
London Knowledge Lab
Institute of Education, University of London
23-29 Emerald Street, London WC1N 3QS, UK
n.winters@ioe.ac.uk
ABSTRACT
iBand is a technology-enhanced bracelet that can store,
display, and exchange information about you and your
relationships. This exchange occurs during a common
user-initiated one-to-one gestural interaction between two
people: a handshake. iBand aims to leverage the familiar
nature of the handshake, coupled with the qualities of
jewelry to act as tangible keepsakes and reminders of
relationships, to explore potential applications at the
intersection of social networking and ubiquitous
computing.
Keywords
Human relationships, wearable computing, social
networking, context awareness, ubiquitous computing
INTRODUCTION
Initial meetings and introductions mark the first moments
of building new relationships. Yet, these important
moments are often awkward or forgotten, sometimes
because of the natural failings of human memory (not being
able to remember someone’s name) or because there is a
lack of a catalyst for a richer interaction. In many everyday
contexts, people may not have the time to fully engage
with one another at a first meeting. Perhaps email
addresses or business cards are exchanged, but sometimes
contacts are not reviewed or followed up on.
iBand is a wearable, context-aware bracelet that aims to
address some of these issues. The device stores and
exchanges information about you and your relationships.
Information exchange occurs peer-to-peer and only during a
one-to-one focused interaction: when two people shake
hands. Information gathered and processed is reflected on
the bracelet itself and can serve as a reminder or as an ice
breaker for further conversation.
From among many possible gestures of greeting (kissing,
hugging, bowing, etc.), we chose the handshake as the
focus of the project since in many cultures it is an intuitive
and natural practice that accompanies a variety of specific
social events: a first meeting, a subsequent reunion, a
goodbye, etc. The overall goal of the project is to augment
this gesture - and the interaction scenarios that involve it -
through the application of ubiquitous computing
technologies, thus exploring ways to enhance the process of
building relationships.
RELATED WORK
A number of earlier efforts share similar themes with that
of iBand. Systems such as the Lovegety, GroupWear [1],
nTag [2], and the SpotMe conference navigator [3],
determine when there is a match between interests or other
characteristics of both parties and notify the parties
accordingly. These devices are “always on” in that users do
not explicitly control the transfer of information.
Unlike the iBand, Portable Digital Proxies (PDPs) [4] are
devices/applications representing users in physical space by
broadcasting their profile, usually without explicit user
action or intervention. They are characterized by being
portable, peer-to-peer and always-on. Similarly, the
concept of an Inter-Personal Awareness Device (IPAD),
instantiated in the Hummingbird [5], augments a person’s
awareness of others by providing a continuous sense of
when other members of a community are in the vicinity.
An important characteristic of the iBand is that it seeks to
augment gestural language and leverage the social behavior
of touch. Unlike the devices described above, it is not
triggered by people’s location, distance from, or proximity
to each other. Zimmerman [6] uses touch to transmit
information via a weak electrical current running between
two people’s bodies, but this exchange happens in the
absence of any specific gesture.
SURVEY
Before building a first prototype of iBand, we distributed a
questionnaire to help us gain some insight into people’s
feelings about personal details and contact management in
general, followed by more specific thoughts about an
iBand-like device. We received completed questionnaires
from 30 people from a variety of cultures, with an even
split between men and women.
The results of the survey were largely not surprising.
Several respondents expressed frustration with the
complexity and time consumption of current means of
contact management. Other answers revealed that there
were certain pieces of information the respondents felt
comfortable having broadcast and others over which they
wished to have more control, although the threshold was
not the same for everyone. However, on the whole, the
respondents claimed they were comfortable sharing their
name, email address, time and place met, photograph, and
biography with people that they shake hands with. Several
respondents envisaged using an iBand to keep track of
people met in business contexts (conferences, meetings) but
some also imagined social scenarios (concerts, parties).
USAGE SCENARIO
Karen and Rob are meeting each other for the first time.
Both are wearing iBands. Karen has decorated hers with
sparkles, whereas Rob, being a successful businessman,
wears a sleek gold-plated version. They introduce
themselves to each other as they shake hands. Small lights
flash on their iBands, indicating that an information
exchange has occurred. Certain fibers on Karen’s bracelet
start to glow, indicating that Rob is interested in business
networking and that she has never met him before. After
some initial small talk, a lull in the conversation occurs.
Rob glances discretely at his iBand display, which
indicates that he earlier met a friend of Karen’s named
Catherine. Catherine’s photo is also displayed. He
remembers the conversation he had with her and mentions
it to Karen who is interested to hear about it. After the
meeting, Karen forgets Rob’s name, but gets a quick
reminder when she looks down at the display on her iBand
that recalls the names of the last ten people she shook
hands with. She can now tell her friend David that he
should go over and talk to Rob without feeling
embarrassed that she has forgotten his name. Rob,
meanwhile, uploads the contacts he has collected on his
iBand and emails them to his business development team.
FIRST PROTOTYPE
Our first prototype is an initial step toward the device
envisioned in the above scenario that includes more basic
components and functionality. We wish to incrementally
build toward a more complex device through an iterative
process of evaluation and refinement.
The prototype is a wearable bracelet, adjustable in design
for different kinds of users (male, female). When worn, the
circuit board and battery lay flat under the wrist and an
infrared (IR) transceiver is positioned near the back of the
thumb pointing toward the hand such that it is visible to
an IR transceiver on another device when shaking hands.
The user first enters contact/biographical information into a
kiosk, which stores it in a database and assigns a unique ID
number to their iBand. When the user shakes hands with
another iBand user, ID numbers are exchanged and stored.
Illumination patterns on LEDs woven into the fabric of the
bracelet change incrementally to indicate the number of
contacts collected and other information. When the user
returns to the kiosk, it displays a list of new contacts by
looking up the collected ID numbers in the database.
Handshake Detection
There are many ways to imagine detecting a handshake via
a device based on the hand or wrist: Accelerometers could
be used to detect an up-and-down shaking motion
synchronized on two devices (a technique similar to that
used in Smart-Its Friends [7]); muscle tension in the wrist
or palm could indicate the user is gripping another hand;
light or pressure sensors on or near the palm of the hand
could detect when a hand is in contact with or pressing
against an object; carefully-positioned directional IR
transceivers could detect when two hands are in alignment
with each other… An ideal detection system would take
advantage of all of these simultaneously, and maybe others.
For this first experiment, we wanted to avoid the potential
awkwardness of having sensors placed directly on the hand.
Our technique uses IR transceiver alignment combined with
a detected up-and-down motion synchronized on the two
devices in IR contact. IR transmission is only activated
when the hand/wrist orientation are within a certain range
defined by a calibration phase in which the user holds their
hand in “shaking position” and presses a small button on
the bracelet. This, combined with the fact that an up-and-
down motion must be detected at the same time via
accelerometers on both devices, helps to reduce the number
of unintended contacts (for example, if by chance two
devices become aligned randomly while gesturing in
conversation or handing an object to someone). Because it
does not incorporate muscle tension or pressure, this
technique also runs the risk of missing some handshakes
that do not have a strong up-and-down motion
characteristic (sometimes people just grip each others’
hands instead of shaking). It is possible that, if told about
this limitation in advance, users may be able to adapt their
handshake practice to enable proper detections.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
We are currently working toward mass production in order
to undertake meaningful evaluations of iBand use in real-
world situations. We are also exploring scenarios and
iBand-like devices that involve other types of greeting
gestures used in different cultures. We are also interested
in studying how the iBand might change the meaning of
the handshake and nature of social interactions involving it.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This research has been supported by partners of Media Lab
Europe and London Knowledge Lab. Additional thanks to
Matt Karau, James Auger, and Richard Noss.
REFERENCES
1. Borovoy, R., Martin, F., Resnick, M., & Silverman,
B., “GroupWear: nametags that tell about
relationships”, CHI 98 Conference Summary.
2. nTag, http://www.ntag.com
3. SpotMe Conference Navigator, http://www.spotme.ch
4. Terry, M., Mynatt, E.D., Ryall, K., & Leigh, D.,
“Towards Design Guidelines for Portable Digital
Proxies: A Case Study with Social Net and Social
Proximity”, unpublished, 2001, available at:
http://www.cc.gatech.edu/grads/t/Michael.Terry/papers
5. Holmquist, L.E., Falk, J. & Wigström, J., “Supporting
Group Collaboration with Inter-Personal Awareness
Devices”, Personal Technologies, vol. 3, no. 1-2,
1999, pp. 13-21.
6. Zimmerman, T.G., “Personal Area Networks: Near-field
Intrabody Communication”, IBM Systems Journal vol.
35, no. 3-4, 1996, pp. 609-617.
7. Holmquist, L.E., et.al., “Smart-Its Friends: A
Technique for Users to Easily Establish Connections
between Smart Artefacts”, technical note, Proceedings
of UbiComp 2001.
