Wrigglo: Shape-Changing Peripheral for Interpersonal Mobile Communication

Abstract

In this paper, we introduce Wrigglo, a shape-changing smart phone peripheral that allows pairs of users to share wriggling movements with one another. It can send 4-way bending, shrinking motion to a connected user not only with the joystick but also by touching the Wrigglo itself. Attached to a smart phone, Wrigglo captures the sender's motions and activates the receiver's Wrigglo which repeats the motion simultaneously. Wrigglo has potentials for playing emotional and functional roles of body gestures and postures, and, to some extent, reflecting the connected user's presence through the device's movement during our conventional video call or instant messaging time.