Déjà vu -- technologies that make new situations look familiar

In this position paper we outline a technology concept for making new situations and encounters more familiar and less threatening. Going to new places, interacting with new people and carrying out new tasks is part of everyday life. New situations create a sense of excitement but in many cases also anxiety based on a fear of the unknown. Our concept uses the metaphor of a pin board as peripheral display to automatically provide advance information about potential future experiences. By providing references to and information about future events and situations we aim at creating a "feeling of having already experienced the present situation" (term Déjà vu as defined in the Oxford Dictionary) once people are in a new situation. This draws on the positive definition of the concept of déjà vu. In this paper we outline our idea and use scenarios illustrate its potential. We assess different ways the concept can be realized and chart potential technology for content creation and for presentation. We also present a discussion of the impact on human memory and how this changes experiences. Copyright 2014 ACM.