Rudi Vernik

Design discussion of the [braccetto] research platform: supporting distributed intensely collaborating creative teams of teams

The growing ubiquity of computer processing power, storage and bandwidth has helped stimulate increased interest in computer-mediated interaction in recent years. Concurrently, many technological solutions to essentially human problems are maturing to the point where their higher socio-psychological context is becoming the limiting factor. An example of this is real time collaboration between remote team members, where new telepresence and groupware solutions continue to close the gap between remote and co-located collaboration. Here, an improved understanding of what types of cues are critical to preserve common ground, the coupling of work, and awareness between remote sites is still fundamentally required. In the HxI Initiative we are investigating, designing, developing, and evaluating Human Computer Interaction, Human Human Interaction, and Human Information Interaction for distributed teams of teams who are intensely collaborating. The mixture of co-located and remote interaction in social communication as well as interaction with a shared digital artifact provides complex research challenges in areas which address particular interaction issues such as multiple cursor support, mixed-presence communication, and action-communication disparities. We present the research platform [braccetto] that we designed as an enabler for the investigations of the above research challenges. The hardware design and setup discussed in this paper are the result of careful requirements engineering and design discussions for rapidly composable and adaptable telepresence workstations for distributed, intensely collaborating teams of teams. We also present underlying software services and components as enablers for telepresence and groupware capabilities that are deployed in our application domains.

Using ARToolkit for passive tracking and presentation in ubiquitous workspaces

This paper presents new infrastructure for future work environments. These environments support a variety of display and interaction modalities for use by multiple users. To be able to interact in such environments, a mechanism must exist to track devices, displays, etc. We present a passive detection framework that uses ARToolkit and fiducial markers to track marked objects in a workspace. To solve for occlusion of targets, we propose the use of multiple cameras monitoring a work environment form multiple angles. A key advantage of this approach is that it allows the tracking cards to be used for both control and display of ambient information.

A Rapidly Adaptive Collaborative Ubiquitous Computing Environment to Allow Passive Detection of Marked Objects

This paper presents a tool to support the rapid and adaptive deployment of a collaborative, ubiquitous computing environment. A key tool for the configuration and deployment of this environment is a calibration tool to quickly and efficiently calculate the positions of cameras in a dynamic environment. This tool has been incorporated into our current Passive Detection Framework. The paper describes the context where our rapidly adaptive collaborative ubiquitous computing environment would be deployed. The results of a study to test the accuracy of the calibration tool are also presented. This study found that the calibration tool can calculate the position of cameras to within 25 mm for all lighting conditions examined.

Spatial augmented reality support for design of complex physical environments

Effective designs rarely emerge from good structural design or aesthetics alone. It is more often the result of the end products overall design integrity. Added to this, design is inherently an interdisciplinary collaborative activity. With this in mind, todays tools are not powerful enough to design complex physical environments, such as command control centers or hospital operating theaters. This paper presents the concept of employing projector-based augmented reality techniques to enhance interdisciplinary design processes.

LiveSpaces: An Interactive Ubiquitous Workspace Architecture for the Enterprise

This paper examines the use of ubiquitous and enterprise computing infrastructure for future workplace environments. We focus on the integration of Interactive Intelligent Workspaces (IIWs) into the wider information enterprise. IIWs employ new forms of operating environments to coordinate and manage interactions between people, workspace devices, and workspace services. We argue that if these media rich workspaces are to become an integral part of an enterprise, consideration needs to be given to how these elements interface with and use enterprise-wide services and artifacts. In this paper we propose an architectural reference model called LiveSpaces to guide research and development activities for enterprise-enabled ubiquitous workspaces. We also discuss our experiences in developing an initial implementation.

Cognitive dust: a framework that builds from CSCW concepts to provide situated support for small group work

The aim of this paper is to describe a framework that extends and combines two CSCW theories, Situated Action (SA) and Distributed Cognition (DC), to provide situated support for human activities in small workgroups. SA characterises teamwork as unpredictable, ill structured or emergent (often all of these) and people need creative processes to find solutions to their problems. In order to provide support, we draw on DC. We extend this concept into a framework called Cognitive Dust, which is composed of cognitive processes and anything observable in a focus domain. Cognitive Dust, which is collected through a multi modal infrastructure, allows us to measure complexity in various aspects of workspace activities and we use complexity as a marker for creativity. This allows us to identify when creativity is occurring and suggests opportunities for providing dynamic, contextually relevant, situated support for the group. This paper describes Cognitive Dust, which is the first step in a research project that will ultimately enable a computer infrastructure to provide group support without human assistance.

Imago: An integrated prototyping, evaluation and transitioning environment for information visualisation

This paper introduces Imago, an environment that supports the prototyping, evaluation and transitioning of information visualisation approaches into practice. The approach is based on the use of an underlying semantic model of contextual and visualisation knowledge and integrated evaluation capabilities to aid the transitioning process. We discuss the use of Imago in relation to our experiences in researching and providing information visualisation approaches for command and control activities.

A Characterisation Model for Visual Interaction Interfaces

This paper focuses on enhancing the effectiveness of information visualisation approaches through the use of visual interaction interfaces (VIIs). We define VIIs as being graphical components which help users understand and interact with visual representations of a target environment (or data space). These types of components have been effectively used in computer-based games to enhance user experience. However, few such techniques are used in visualisation approaches designed to support decision-makers in real-world domains. A characterisation model, based on the capture and analysis of some 200 VIIs, has been developed to help describe and understand these types of visualisation components and hence support the transitioning of these techniques into future visualisation systems.