Rajesh Hegde

Semi-synchronous conflict detection and resolution in asynchronous software development

Previous work has found that (a) when software is developed collaboratively, concurrent accesses to related pieces of code are made, and (b) when these accesses are coordinated asynchronously through a version control system, they result in in- creased defects because of conflicting concurrent changes. Previous findings also show that distance collaboration aggravates software-development problems and radical co- location reduces them. These results motivate a semi-synchronous distributed computer- supported model that allows programmers creating code asynchronously to synchro- nously collaborate with each other to detect and resolve potentially conflicting tasks be- fore they have completed the tasks. We describe, illustrate, and evaluate a new model designed to meet these requirements. Our results show that the model can catch con- flicts at editing time that would be expensive to manage at later times.

Distributed side-by-side programming

Recent work has proposed a variation of pair programming called side-by-side programming, wherein two programmers, sitting next to each other and using different workstations, work together on the same task. We have defined a distributed approximation of this idea and implemented it in both a compiled and interpretive environment. Our experiments with these implementations provide several new preliminary results regarding different aspects of (distributed) side-by-side programming.

Requirements and recommendations for an enhanced meeting viewing experience

We have found that viewing recorded meetings using traditional meeting viewers whose interfaces consist of an automatic speaker and a fixed context view does not provide sufficient information and control to the users. In particular, a survey of users who watch meeting recordings on a regular basis revealed that it is also useful to provide (1) speaker-related information, including who the speaker is talking to, looking at, and being interrupted by, and (2) more control of the interface, including changing the relative sizes of the speaker and context views and navigating within the context view. We present a 3D interface prototype designed specifically to meet these requirements when viewing recorded meetings. We describe in detail the results of a user study comparing the effectiveness of the new and traditional style interfaces with respect to these requirements. Based on this study, we present a set of guidelines for future interfaces.

What did i miss?: in-meeting review using multimodal accelerated instant replay (air) conferencing

People sometimes miss small parts of meetings and need to quickly catch up without disrupting the rest of the meeting. We developed an Accelerated Instant Replay (AIR) Conferencing system for videoconferencing that enables users to catch up on missed content while the meeting is ongoing. AIR can replay parts of the conference using four different modalities: audio, video, conversation transcript, and shared workspace. We performed two studies to evaluate the system. The first study explored the benefit of AIR catch-up during a live meeting. The results showed that when the full videoconference was reviewed (i.e., all four modalities) at an accelerated rate, users were able to correctly recall a similar amount of information as when listening live. To better understand the benefit of full review, a follow-up study more closely examined the benefits of each of the individual modalities. The results show that users (a) preferred using audio along with any other modality to using audio alone, (b) were most confident and performed best when audio was reviewed with all other modalities, (c) compared to audio-only, had better recall of facts and explanations when reviewing audio together with the shared workspace and transcript modalities, respectively, and (d) performed similarly with audio-only and audio with video review.

Exploring spatialized audio & video for distributed conversations

Previous work has demonstrated the benefits of spatial audio conferencing over monophonic when listening to a group conversation. In this paper we examined three-way distributed conversations while varying the presence of spatial video and audio. Our results demonstrate significant benefits to adding spatialized video to an audio conference. Specifically, users perceived that the conversations were of higher quality, they were more engaged, and they were better able to keep track of the conversation. In contrast, no significant benefits were found when mono audio was replaced by spatialized audio. The results of this work are important in that they provide strong evidence for continued exploration of spatialized video, and also suggest that the benefits of spatialized audio may have less of an impact when video is also spatialized.

AIR conferencing: accelerated instant replay for in-meeting multimodal review

When people attend meetings they may miss parts of the discussion if they, for example, step out to take a phone call, go to the bathroom, or have a momentary lapse in concentration. As a result, they may need to catch up on what they missed upon returning to the meeting. Asking other attendees for a recap is often disruptive. To avoid such disruptions, we have developed an Accelerated Instant Replay (AIR) Conferencing system for videoconferencing that enables participants to privately catch up to an ongoing meeting. We explored several mechanisms where the meeting content is replayed at an accelerated rate so that the participants can catch up to the live discussion reasonably quickly.