Sharing availability information with InterruptMe

Workplace collaboration often requires interruptions, which can happen at inopportune times. Sharing availability information can reduce many of these untimely interruptions. However, designing a successful availability-sharing system requires finding the right balance to maximize the benefits and reduce costs for both the interrupter and interruptee. The main challenges for finding such balance lie in the acquisition of availability information from the interruptee and its delivery to the interrupter. In this demonstration, we show how common technical approaches in ubicomp can address some of the problems typically encountered in availability sharing. We present InterruptMe, a novel availability sharing system that uses sensor information to calculate multiple availability measures for each interruptee and that delivers this information in the periphery of the interrupter's attention by using a projected peripheral display and monitoring implicit inputs to the system.