Thorsten Prante

Connectables: dynamic coupling of displays for the flexible creation of shared workspaces

We present the ConnecTable, a new mobile, networked and context-aware information appliance that provides affordances for pen-based individual and cooperative work as well as for the seamless transition between the two. In order to dynamically enlarge an interaction area for the purpose of shared use, a flexible coupling of displays has been realized that overcomes the restrictions of display sizes and borders. Two ConnecTable displays dynamically form a homogeneous display area when moved close to each other. The appropriate triggering signal comes from built-in sensors allowing users to temporally combine their individual displays to a larger shared one by a simple physical movement in space. Connected ConnecTables allow their users to work in parallel on an ad-hoc created shared workspace as well as exchanging information by simply shuffling objects from one display to the other. We discuss the user interface and related issues as well as the software architecture. We also present the physical realization of the ConnecTables.

Designing smart artifacts for smart environments

Smart artifacts promise to enhance the relationships among participants in distributed working groups, maintaining personal mobility while offering opportunities for the collaboration, informal communication, and social awareness that contribute to the synergy and cohesiveness inherent in collocated teams. Two complementary trends have resulted in the creation of smart environments that integrate information, communication, and sensing technologies into everyday objects. We distinguish between two types of smart artifacts: system-oriented, importunate smartness and people-oriented, empowering smartness. The system-oriented and people-oriented approaches represent the end points of a line along which we can position weighted combinations of both types of smartness depending on the application domain. We developed the Hello.Wall, our version of an ambient display, for the Ambient Agoras environment. The Hello.Wall transmits organization-oriented information publicly and information addressed to individuals privately.

Roomware: computers disappear and interaction evolves

We develop a comprehensive approach to the design of information and collaboration environments that support human activities by starting in the real world. Our goal is to design environments that combine the affordances of real objects with potential computer-based support in the virtual world. This combination generates hybrid worlds that have significant consequences for the design of human-computer interaction. Hybrid worlds allow human-information interaction and human-human communication to move into the foreground while the computer disappears into the background.

Ambient Displays and Mobile Devices for the Creation of Social Architectural Spaces

In this paper, we address three major issues, look at their interaction and combination and present our results on how to arrive at solutions for these issues. The issues are: 1) supporting informal communication and atmosphere in organisations, 2) the role and potential of ambient displays in future work environments, and 3) the combination of mostly static artefacts that are integrated in the architectural environment with mobile devices carried by people. Our results can be considered as steps towards the design and realization of what we call “social architectural spaces” in the context of future work environments. These environments will be populated with a range of different smart artefacts that are designed to facilitate awareness and notification as well as informal communication. We address a range of spaces in office buildings including public spaces, e.g., in the hallway, the foyer, and the cafeteria that have not been the focus of research so far. In particular, we present two artefacts: the Hello.Wall, a wall-size large ambient display, and the ViewPort, a mobile handheld device. They are interacting with each other via wireless networks and different types of sensing technology. The artefacts and the software were developed in the EU-funded “Disappearing Computer”- project “Ambient Agoras: Dynamic Information Clouds in a Hybrid Worlds”.

Roomware-moving toward ubiquitous computers

Collaboration between users and environments with multiple interconnected devices will determine, to a large degree, approaches to work and everyday activities. An example of this type of device is roomware, or computer-augmented objects resulting from the integration of room elements, such as walls, doors, and furniture, with computer-based information devices. The roomware components that we have developed at Fraunhofer IPSI support the vision of a future where our surroundings act as an information interface, and the computer as a device disappears from our perception. Three main observations influenced the creation of roomware components: the growing importance of information technology; the need to integrate information technology with the environment in which it is used; and the recognition that new work practices will emerge to cope with the increasing rate of the innovation.

Smart artefacts as affordances for awareness in distributed teams

The manifolds of spaces and places we are entering, populating, transiently crossing and eventually leaving (only to immerse in another subsequent context) as part of our daily activities in our personal, public and professional lives are undergoing a dramatic change. Although this change is taking place we are aware of it only in a limited fashion due to its unobtrusive character as illustrated in the statement by Streitz and Nixon (2005): “It seems like a paradox but it will soon become reality: The rate at which computers disappear will be matched by the rate at which information technology will increasingly permeate our environment and our lives”.

Towards a unifying approach to mobile computing

In this paper we address the diversity of mobile devices and the related problematic issues with a largely platform-independent approach to development. Our work is motivated by the amount and variety of mobile devices foreseen to reside in future ubiquitous computing environments. To reduce the development effort and to augment data exchange facilities, we present an application framework that abstractly defines common interaction objects in user interfaces on mobile devices.

„Metaplan“ für die Westentasche: Mobile Computerunterstützung für Kreativitätssitzungen

In diesem Beitrag wird PalmBeach, ein Kreativitatswerkzeug fur Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), vorgestellt. PalmBeach greift die Metaplankarten-Metapher auf: Ideen werden auf Karten externalisiert und zueinander in Beziehung gesetzt. Im Kontext von Roomware-Umgebungen ist PalmBeach durch seine Moglichkeiten zum Informationsaustausch auch Bindeglied zwischen Einzel- und Gruppenarbeit. Die jeweils verfugbaren Visualisierungs- und Manipulationsmoglichkeiten von Objekten in PalmBeach und der umgebenden Infrastruktur orientieren sich an den speziellen Eigenschaften von PDA und Roomware. Durch ein eigens entwickeltes objektorientiertes Framework wurde weitgehende Plattformunabhangigkeit erreicht.

ContextDrive – Individuelles Informationsmanagement für das Ubiquitous Computing (ContextDrive – Personal Information Management for Ubiquitous Computing)

Zusammenfassung In diesem Beitrag wird das ContextDrive vorgestellt, ein kontext-bewusstes System, das Benutzer in Ubiquitous-Computing Umgebungen beim Rückgriff auf Informationen im Rahmen der Wiederaufnahme von Aufgaben oder allgemein bei der Wiederbenutzung von Informationen unterstützt. Dazu wird werkzeug- und geräteübergreifend hybrider Nutzungskontext protokolliert. Die so aufgebaute Kontexthistorie ist die Basis für den zusammenführenden Rückgriff auf zuvor benutzte Informationen. Dies wird anhand einer zeitorientierten Benutzungsoberfläche und mit Aufgabenkarten exemplarisch gezeigt. Bei dem vorliegenden Artikel handelt es sich um eine aktualisierte und erweiterte Version des Beitrags auf der Mensch-und-Computer-Tagung 2004, der den zweiten Platz im Wettbewerb um den Best-Paper-Award erzielen konnte.