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230 Lorna Heaton

Figure 3
Gaze awareness in MAJIC

A further extension of the idea of direct physical manipulation
in MAJIC II is the “Whisper Chair.” By leaning right or left, the per-
son sitting in this chair (equipped with sensors) can talk to one or
the other persons on screen without the third party hearing. The ra-
tionale behind this development is that leaning is a more subtle,
more natural way of confiding a secret than flipping a switch to turn
the audio channel off.
MAJIC represents a curious mix of virtual or imaginary space
and an interest in simulating reality as closely as possible, including
providing direct physical feedback whenever possible. In the demon-
stration video of MAJIC shown at CSCW’94, the participants have a
“virtual tea party” in which one person “pours” and real tea comes
out into the cup of another. Although this is a presentation gimmick
(and the metaphor of sharing tea is highly significant in Japanese
culture), one is left wondering where the limits might be. 10

Discussion

Characterizations of Japan as a society in which human relations
are all-important, relationships are dependent on positioning people