Tokuo Yamaguchi

E-conic: a perspective-aware interface for multi-display environments

Multi-display environments compose displays that can be at different locations from and different angles to the user; as a result, it can become very difficult to manage windows, read text, and manipulate objects. We investigate the idea of perspective as a way to solve these problems in multi-display environments. We first identify basic display and control factors that are affected by perspective, such as visibility, fracture, and sharing. We then present the design and implementation of E-conic, a multi-display multi-user environment that uses location data about displays and users to dynamically correct perspective. We carried out a controlled experiment to test the benefits of perspective correction in basic interaction tasks like targeting, steering, aligning, pattern-matching and reading. Our results show that perspective correction significantly and substantially improves user performance in all these tasks.

A Middleware for Seamless Use of Multiple Displays

Current multi-display environments (MDEs) can be composed of displays with different characteristics (e.g. resolution, size) located in any position and at different angles. These heterogeneous arrangements present specific interface problems: it is difficult to provide meaningful transitions of cursors between displays; it is difficult for users to visualize information that is presented on oblique surfaces; and it is difficult to spread visual information over multiple displays. In this paper we present a middleware architecture designed to support a new kind of perspective-aware GUI that solves the aforementioned problems. Our interaction architecture combines distributed input and position tracking data to generate perspective-corrected output in each of the displays, allowing groups of users to manipulate existing applications from current operating systems across a large number of displays. To test our design we implemented a complex MDE prototype and measured different aspects of its performance.

A display table for strategic collaboration preserving private and public information

We propose a new display table that allows multiple users to interact with both private and public information on a shared display in a face-to-face co-located setting. With this table users can create, manage and share information intuitively, strategically and cooperatively by naturally moving around the display. Users can interactively control private and public information space seamlessly according to their spatial location and motion. It enables users to dynamically choose negotiation partners, create cooperative relationships and strategically control the information they share and conceal. We see the proposed system as especially suited for strategic cooperative tasks in which participants collaborate while attempting to increase individual benefits, such as various trading floor-like and auction scenarios.

An image-based system for sharing a 3D object by transmitting to remote locations

We propose a system that allows multiple groups of users at remote locations to naturally share a 3D image of real objects. All users can interactively observe a 3D stereoscopic image without distortion from their own viewpoints. The system basically consists of a combination of systems: imaging and display. The imaging system captures the real objects images from certain number of viewpoints which are used to generate stereoscopic images from arbitrary viewpoints based on an image-based rendering technique implemented on GPU. The display system interactively generates a 3D virtual image of the real object based on the IllusionHole technique. Users at one place just put the real object on their imaging system to capture a set of its images from sparse viewpoints around it; other groups of multiple users at remote places connected by networks observe its virtual image from arbitrary viewpoints on their display systems.

Strategic tabletop negotiations

Strategic negotiations in digital tabletop displays have not been well understood. There is little reported in the literature on how users strategize when group priorities and individual priorities conflict and need to be balanced for a successful collaboration. We conducted an observational study on three digital tabletop systems and a real-world setup to investigate similarities and differences in real-world and digital tabletop strategic collaborations. Our results show that in the real world, strategic negotiation involves three phases: identifying the right timing, using epistemic actions to consider a task plan and evaluating the value of the negotiation. We repeated the real-world experiments with different digital tabletops and found several differences in the way users initiate and perform strategic negotiations.

Interactive Multimedia Contents in the IllusionHole

This paper proposes a system of interactive multimedia contents that allows multiple users to participate in a face-to-face manner and share the same time and space. It provides an interactive environment where multiple users can see and manipulate stereoscopic animation with individual sound. Two application examples are implemented; one is location-based content design and the other is user-based content design. Both effectively use a unique feature of the IllusionHole, i.e., a location-sensitive display device that provides a stereoscopic image with multiple users around the table.

A computerized interactive toy: TSU.MI.KI

Young children often build various structures with wooden blocks; structures that are often used for pretend play, subtly improving children’s creativity and imagination. Based on a traditional Japanese wooden block toy, Tsumiki, we propose a novel interactive toy for children, named “TSU.MI.KI”, maintaining the physical assets of wooden blocks and enhancing them with automation. “TSU.MI.KI” consists of a set of computerized blocks equipped with several input/output devices. Children can tangibly interact with a virtual scenario by manipulating and constructing structures from the physical blocks, and by using input and output devices that are integrated into the blocks.