Christian Müller-Tomfelde

Tilted tabletops: In between horizontal and vertical workspaces

In this paper we examine tilted tabletops as workspaces for computer-supported group collaboration. The configuration of a tilted tabletop is considered to be in between a fully horizontal tabletop and a vertical whiteboard. We describe related work, and provide an overview of the advantages and disadvantages of such a configuration. Furthermore, we present the results of a user study about tilted tabletops. We captured the tilt angle preference of 78 participants using mock-ups of the basic workspace elements. The study was conducted after they experienced a combined distributed and co-located collaboration. The results of the study reveal that the majority of the participants prefer a tilted workspace rather than a fully horizontal one for interaction. We discuss the implications of these results for the design of tabletop-based collaborative environments.

Tabletops: Interactive Horizontal Displays for Ubiquitous Computing

The hype cycle points to widespread adoption of tabletop systems within the next decade.

Dwell-based pointing in applications of human computer interaction

This paper describes exploratory studies and a formal experiment that investigate a particular temporal aspect of human pointing actions. Humans can express their intentions and refer to an external entity by pointing at distant objects with their fingers or a tool. The focus of this research is on the dwell time, the time span that people remain nearly motionless during pointing at objects. We address two questions: Is there a common or natural dwell time in human pointing actions? What implications does this have for Human Computer Interaction? Especially in virtual environments, feedback about the referred object is usually provided to the user to confirm actions such as object selection. A literature review and two studies led to a formal experiment in a hand-immersive virtual environment in search for an appropriate feedback delay time for dwell-based pointing actions. The results and implications for applications for Human Computer Interaction are discussed.

Does proprioception guide back-of-device pointing as well as vision?

We present research that investigates the amount of guidance required by users for precise back-of-device interaction. We explore how pointing effectiveness is influenced by the presence or absence of visual guidance feedback. Participants were asked to select targets displayed on an iPad device, by touching and releasing them from underneath the device. Another iPad was used to detect finger positions from the rear. Results showed that participants were able to select targets as accurately without visual feedback of finger position as they were with it. Additionally, no significant increase in workload was identified when visual feedback was removed. Our results show that users do not require complex techniques to visualize finger position on the rear of device. Visual feedback does not affect any performance parameters, such as effectiveness, perceived performance, and the number of trials needed to select a target. We also outline the implications of our findings and our future work to fully investigate the effect of visual guidance feedback.

Supporting interaction and collaboration on large displays using tablet devices

In this paper, we present an interaction technique that supports the use of tablet devices for interaction and collaboration with large displays. Users can interact with a subset of the large workspace on their tablet, while the same area is visualized on the large display as a rectangular frame. We propose an efficient management and navigation interface through the use of an interactive world-in-miniature view and multitouch gestures. Users can intuitively manage their views on their tablets, navigate between different areas of the workspace, or enlarge them for a closer look. Additionally, they can quickly jump to the same view that their collaborators are looking at.

Introduction: A Short History of Tabletop Research, Technologies, and Products

This chapter presents a brief history of scientific research into interactive tabletops, associated emerging technologies, and commercial products. It summarizes and visualizes a body of scientific work, identifies major advances during the past 15 years, and thereby draws a picture of the research landscape to date. Key innovations during this period are identified and their research impact is discussed. We synthesize historical information into a synoptic landscape including research highlights, enabling technologies, prototypes, and products. On top of this landscape, we point out and trace innovations as they stimulated and triggered key transitions in research and technology. These innovations have also played a major role in leveraging ideas from a conceptual level to widespread adoption and use. Finally, the chapter examines possible future trends of tabletop research, technologies, and applications.

Distributed scientific group collaboration across biocontainment barriers

This paper reports the findings from a field study of distributed scientific collaboration within a national animal health laboratory. Collaboration in this setting is challenged by the need for biosecurity - there are physical containment barriers between scientists and work groups and movement of people and other physical objects across the barriers requires extensive security procedures. The aim of the field study was to understand how the scientists communicate across the barriers, particularly how they share information and collaborate on its analysis. The findings reveal that the collaboration issues relate not just to the challenges caused by the containment barriers but also to the need for collaboration support between the scientists and their work groups irrespective of the barriers. The paper explains how these findings informed the design of the collaboration platform being installed and how more generic requirements of supporting collaboration over distance were configured and extended to meet the specific requirements of a very particular local setting.

Hxi: research down under in distributed intense collaboration between teams

The Australian HxI Initiative led by CSIRO, DSTO, and NICTA investigates how the application of information and communication technology can help geographically distributed teams collaborate more effectively. The HxI Initiative embraces not only the development of world-class scientific and industrial outcomes, but the development of human capital in this multi-disciplinary research field. In its first project, [braccetto], a team of engineers, computer scientists, and social scientists are collaborating on overarching research goals to explore the principles underlying distributed intense collaboration and to develop effective applications. We present our research challenges, the research platform, and a suite of experiments conducted during the first year of the [braccetto] project.

Designing for Distributed Scientific Collaboration: A Case Study in an Animal Health Laboratory

We have been exploring the design of an advanced collaboration platform to support scientists in a national animal health laboratory to work collaboratively across a physical containment barrier. This paper describes the design considerations based on the findings from a field study of the collaboration processes in this particular environment. We emphasize the need of providing flexible support for various information sharing practices. The major component of the platform - a collaboration environment which integrates life-size video conferencing and a large shared digital workspace - has been under routine use. Our preliminary results from a user study of the distributed group meetings supported by the platform have shown the value of high quality audio-video communication in combination with the feature of allowing access and simultaneously sharing multiple data resources.

Pseudo-direct touch: interaction for collaboration in large and high-resolution displays environments

In this paper, we present an exploration of an interaction technique designed for large and high-resolution display environments in collaborative work situations. We introduce the Pseudo-Direct Touch technique to enable users to interact with a large display from a distance through a transparent touch frame. The touch points on the frame are projected onto the distant large display, so that users have the impression of touching on the large display directly. This approach combines the advantages of intuitive interface for individuals and interaction design that supports unobstructed awareness and face-to-face contact for collaborations in display environments. We assessed our design and performance of our technique in a user study, and gauge the effect of parallax on accuracy during absolute selections. Finally, we trialled a prototypical user application and observed fluent interactions by most participants.