StepsConnect: A Real-Time Step-Sensing Ambient Display System to Support Connectedness for Family Members Living Apart.

StepsConnect is a real-time step-sensing ambient display system that transforms personal walking data into dynamic digital art to provide presence cues for family members living apart.

• The system continuously captures step data via smartphones and renders them as spatial and embodied visual cues embedded in everyday environments.
• Walking data is transformed into dynamic digital art providing low-effort and non-intrusive presence cues.
• The system is designed to support connectedness for family members separated by education, employment, or health-related constraints.

A 90-minute laboratory study was conducted with 15 young adult-parent dyads to evaluate the system.

• Young adults engaged in a simulated work session while viewing real-time visualizations of their parents' step activity.
• Young adults' perceived connectedness was measured using the Inclusion of Other in the Self (IOS) scale.
• The study was complemented with semi-structured interviews.
• Parents' walking data were logged to provide an objective behavioral reference.

Quantitative results indicated modest and heterogeneous changes in IOS scores at the group level, with individual variability across participants.

• IOS scale was used to measure young adults' perceived connectedness.
• Changes in IOS scores were described as 'modest and heterogeneous' at the group level.
• Individual variability was observed across participants.
• Connectedness was not simply proportional to activity magnitude.

Walking data exhibited large variation across dyads, providing objective context for participants' subjective experience of presence.

• Parents' step activity was logged continuously throughout the study session.
• Large variation in walking data was observed across the 15 dyads.
• Despite variation in step activity, connectedness was not simply proportional to activity magnitude.
• Walking data served as an objective behavioral reference against which subjective presence experiences could be contextualized.

Qualitative findings indicated that step-based visualizations primarily functioned as ambient reminders and cues of presence rather than drivers of deep relational closeness.

• Step-based visualizations supported 'momentary relational awareness' while remaining calm and non-intrusive within the workspace context.
• Semi-structured interviews revealed the visualizations served as ambient reminders of the parent's presence.
• The system maintained a non-intrusive quality suitable for co-existence with work tasks.
• The display supported presence awareness without disrupting the simulated work session.

The study distinguishes between momentary relational awareness and immediate shifts in stable closeness as outcomes of ambient sensing-based visualization.

• Aesthetic step-based ambient visualization primarily supports 'momentary relational awareness rather than immediate shifts in stable closeness.'
• The authors argue this distinction advances understanding of how sensing-based digital art may function in intergenerational contexts.
• The system is positioned as a 'complementary presence layer' rather than a replacement for direct communication.
• The findings clarify the functional role of ambient displays in family connectedness.