Hummingbirds Go Skiing: Using Wearable Computers to Support Social Interaction

The Hummingbird is a wearable computer that aims to support communication in co-located groups of people, by giving users a continuous awareness of the physical presence (or absence) of others. To examine the effect on group communication, we performed a study where six ski instructors used the Hummingbirds during a five-day trip. The study showed that the Hummingbirds were used more as a support for informal social interaction than for the actual work activities of the test group. In subsequent focus group sessions, we saw a clear difference between instructors who had used the devices and those who had not, in that the first group gave many enthusiastic suggestions for improvements and new usage areas, whereas the second group had great difficulties in seeing any use for the devices at all.