Embodied cooperation using mobile devices: presenting and evaluating the Sync4All application

Embodied cooperation arises when two co-present, individuals in motion coordinate their goal-directed actions". The adoption of the embodied cooperation paradigm for the development of embodied and social multimedia systems opens new perspectives for future User Centric Media. Systems for embodied music listening, which enable users to influence music in real-time by movement and gesture, can greatly benefit from the embodied cooperation paradigm. This paper presents the design and the evaluation of an application, Sync4All, based on such a paradigm, allowing users to experience social embodied music listening. Each user rhythmically and freely moves a mobile phone trying to synchronise her movements with those of the other ones. The level of such a synchronisation influences the music experience. The evaluation of Sync4All was aimed at finding out which is the overall attitude of the users towards the application, and how the participants perceived embodied cooperation and music embodiment.