Demonstrating Coherent Interactions between Personal Mobile Devices

Mobile devices and situated installations have differing inherent advantages and limitations; coupling – the physical and computational combination – of personal mobile devices with situated installations allows designers to overcome these disadvantages and create interactional synergy. This paper presents a demonstration of a small macro-environment: three conceptually-linked installations to which visitors can couple their personal mobile phone and interact. We discuss two significant design issues – approaches to support the exploration of the macro-environment and the use of portable content raised during the development of the demonstration. Finally we conclude the paper by outlining our first and future steps in developing a comprehensive guiding framework in this emerging domain.