mopix is an application for mobile and stationary use that engages spatial and contextual annotation, media sharing and interaction with strangers and acquaintances. Set up in large public spaces (public displays) but also accessible through private (e.g. a web interface at home) and semi-private (e.g. a mobile phone in public) interfaces, it establishes a link between a physically perceived world and a virtual playground. Annotating a public space with pictures taken with a camera phone and with text messages, users leave digital traces behind that are linked to their physical locations and can be retrieved by other passersby with their mobile phones or via public displays that are distributed within the spatial environment. Walking through a city, strolling along a street, or shopping in a mall translates into an activity that extends beyond the immediate visible space and into an imaginary playground that lets strangers interact with each other in unobtrusive ways. While privacy is maintained through virtually shared identities without revealing the link between an individual’s physical presence and a digital artifact, individual perceptions of the environment are shared by revealing different spatial and contextual interpretations and understandings.		project members:     Silvia Lindtner: lindtner[at]uci.edu     Judy Chen: judychen[at]uci.edu     University of California, Irvine     Department of Informatics     Donald Bren School of Information     and Computer Science     lab: http://luci.ics.uci.edu/     last updated: Sep-07
	We envision mopix to be a system that will constitute a virtual space that is linked to the users’ immediate physical environment, transgressing the clear line between a virtual playground and the everyday physical world. This allows a less restricted form of social interaction while, at the same time, encouraging explorative engagement with one’s environment, where play remains a form of everyday practice and is not performed apart from everyday life. Pre-constructed dichotomies between self and other, as well as different spatial interpretations are made visible in order to play with “surveilling” and “being surveilled”. However, this should not be restricted to users carrying mobile phones or to users who are logged into the system. Instead the application will function as an environment for collaborative space and context annotation. It will support all members of a spatial context, including short term visitors such as tourists, inhabitants such as locals and vendors, business people who are traveling, teenagers on their way home from school, etc .