TACT is a set of small, portable, wireless communicant objects with a low-resolution tactile surface. In the surface of each device two differently-colored points move around randomly. The points have the property of leaving a trace of light behind them when they advance. Each point represents one member of the couple, and two connected TACTs always display the synchronized images of the two colored points. By touching the point that represents him/her, a member of the couple can take control of it and trace simple figures with his/her fingertip, but doesn’t have access to the other one’s point, which is simultaneously represented on both surfaces.
Source: Hoffmann, C., Jumpertz, S., and Marquet, B. 2007. On nurturing strong-tie distant relationships. In Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI’07). ACM Press, 2411–2416.
