NetPot: Easy Meal Enjoyment for Distant Diners

Abstract

Abstract. We capture key factors of a group meal with communication and interface technologies to make a meal more enjoyable for diners who cannot be collocated. We determined three factors of a popular group meal, Chinese hotpot, that are essential for a group meal experience: interacting as a group with food, a central shared hotpot, and a feeling that others are nearby. We developed a prototype system to maintain these factors for an online meal with remote friends. Our technique is of interest to designers creating technology for isolated diners.

Digital Commensality: Eating and Drinking in the Company of Technology

“…; see Narumi et al, 2012; Spence and Piqueras-Fiszman, 2013, 2014; Spence et al, 2016; Spence, 2017c]. We will not, however, be focusing on the role of digital technology in helping people to connect, or share, in the act of preparing/making food (e.g., Bell and Kaye, 2002; Mäkelä, 2009; Foley-Fisher et al, 2010). One might think here only about the phenomenal rise of digital cooking assistants such as Chef Steps 1 .…”

Interactive Tables for Social Experiences at Home

“…This could again be due to the fact that the research focus of the authors was less on the development of a holistic, interactive tabletop system or device, but rather on the innovation of a technical aspect. Nevertheless, five papers [6,12,14,45,46] mentioned explorative research into the practices, rituals, values, and meanings embedded in the scenarios chosen. Only three of the 22 papers [10,15,16] started the design process started with an ethnographic investigation to provide an overview of possible scenarios and practices in homes.…”

“…Ultimately, the RemoTable aims for a neutral aesthetic, which has proven useful in the lab but not yet in the wild. In fact, most projects from our set of relevant papers were evaluated in a technical proofof-concept state [3,14,24,32,33,35,42,43,49]. In this context, only four papers contribute to the interplay between interactive tables and a preferable interaction that fits the demands of a group of people at a table [5,16,44,45].…”

Impossible (Food) Experiences in Extended Reality

“…Using stereoscopic AR interfaces, other studies have investigated altering the luminance distribution of a slice of cake (Ueda et al, 2020) and changing the apparent size of a cookie (Narumi et al, 2012). Furthermore, projective AR systems have been used to modify the food color of sponge cake and potato crisps in real time (Nishizawa et al, 2016) and modify the appearance of the cooking state of food in a Chinese hotpot with remote commensals (Foley-Fisher et al, 2010).…”