UbiTable
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MERL's UbiTable allows one to walk up to an interactive table, connect laptops, cameras, and other USB devices to the table; so that people can fluidly share, manipulate, exchange, and mark up their contents with each other on a large tabletop surface. At the same time, each user can still maintain explicit control over the accessibility and interactability of his/her own documents displayed on the tabletop.
Background & Objective: Tables are a natural focal point for both formal and informal gatherings where people work on solutions to collaborative problems, sketch out design ideas, browse personal or web contents, or simply discuss issues of the day. It is common for participants to bring their own documents, sketches, or other data in digital form on mobile personal devices; however, the display and input capabilities of personal devices are primarily designed for use by only one individual at a time. UbiTable enables its users to opportunistically annex the input and display affordance of a large tabletop surface.
Technical Discussion: The key research challenges include (1) interaction techniques for fluid movement and transfer of documents amongst the tabletop and different devices in a multi-device, multi-user, environment, (2) a tabletop interface that allows simultaneous operations by multiple people on the same documents, while a user still maintains control over what operations on his/her own documents are allowed. The UbiTable tabletop functions as a shared workspace. External devices (e.g., laptops, digital cameras, etc.) function as private workspaces for each user, and also as data repositories. The UbiTable shared tabletop can be divided into two types of regions, Personal and Shared, such that the access control and interactibility of documents positioned in each region are distinctly different. Documents that are visibly displayed on the tabletop provide feedback information for both the ownership and current user. UbiTable is implemented using DiamondSpin, a Java Toolkit for developing multi-user tabletop applications. The UbiTable interface is projected onto a DiamondTouch touch input surface that can distinguish which user is touching the surface. Laptops use a wireless link to communicate with UbiTable, while other personal mobile devices can be connected via USB.
Contact: Clifton Forlines
Publications:
Hancock, M.S.; Shen, C.; Forlines, C.; Ryall, K., "Exploring Non-Speech Auditory Feedback at an Interactive Multi-User Tabletop", Conference on Graphics Interface (GI), ISBN: 0713-5424, pp. 41-50, May 2005 (Canadian Human-Computer Communications Society, TR2005-054)
Ringel-Morris, M.; Ryall, K.; Shen, C.; Forlines, C.; Vernier, F., "Beyond Social Protocols: Multi-User Coordination Policies for Co-located Groupware", ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), ISBN: 1-58113-810-5, pp. 262-265, November 2004 (ACM Press, TR2004-123)
Shen, C.; Vernier, F.D.; Forlines, C.; Ringel, M., "DiamondSpin: An Extensible Toolkit for Around-the-Table Interaction", ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), ISBN: 1-58113-702-8, pp. 167-174, April 2004 (ACM Press, TR2004-005)
Shen, C.; Everitt, K.M.; Ryall, K., "UbiTable: Impromptu Face-to-Face Collaboration on Horizontal Interactive Surfaces ", ACM International Conference on Ubiquitous Computing (UbiComp), October 2003 (UbiComp 2003, TR2003-049)
Technology Area: Off the Desktop Interaction and Display
Modification Date: July 7, 2008