How do interactive tabletop systems influence collaboration?

This paper examines some aspects of the usefulness of interactive tabletop systems, if and how these impact collaboration. We chose creative problem solving such as brainstorming as an application framework to test several collaborative media: the use of pen-and-paper tools, the ‘‘around-the-table’’ form factor, the digital tabletop interface, the attractiveness of interaction styles. Eighty subjects in total (20 groups of four members) participated in the experiments. The evaluation criteria were task performance, collaboration patterns (especially equity of contributions), and users’ subjective experience. The ‘‘aroundthe-table’’ form factor, which is hypothesized to promote social comparison, increased performance and improved collaboration through an increase of equity. Moreover, the attractiveness of the tabletop device improved subjective experience and increased motivation to engage in the task. However, designing attractiveness seems a highly challenging issue, since overly attractive interfaces may distract users from the task

Analysing, visualising and supporting collaborative learning using interactive tabletops

The key contribution of this thesis is a novel approach to design, implement and evaluate the conceptual and technological infrastructure that captures student’s activity at interactive tabletops and analyses these data through Interaction Data Analytics techniques to provide support to teachers by enhancing their awareness of student’s collaboration. To achieve the above, this thesis presents a series of carefully designed user studies to understand how to capture, analyse and distil indicators of collaborative learning. We perform this in three steps: the exploration of the feasibility of the approach, the construction of a novel solution and the execution of the conceptual proposal, both under controlled conditions and in the wild. A total of eight datasets were analysed for the studies that are described in this thesis. This work pioneered in a number of areas including the application of data mining techniques to study collaboration at the tabletop, a plug-in solution to add user-identification to a regular tabletop using a depth sensor and the first multi-tabletop classroom used to run authentic collaborative activities associated with the curricula. In summary, while the mechanisms, interfaces and studies presented in this thesis were mostly explored in the context of interactive tabletops, the findings are likely to be relevant to other forms of groupware and learning scenarios that can be implemented in real classrooms. Through the mechanisms, the studies conducted and our conceptual framework this thesis provides an important research foundation for the ways in which interactive tabletops, along with data mining and visualisation techniques, can be used to provide support to improve teacher’s understanding about student’s collaboration and learning in small groups

Tangible user interfaces : past, present and future directions

In the last two decades, Tangible User Interfaces (TUIs) have emerged as a new interface type that interlinks the digital and physical worlds. Drawing upon users' knowledge and skills of interaction with the real non-digital world, TUIs show a potential to enhance the way in which people interact with and leverage digital information. However, TUI research is still in its infancy and extensive research is required in or- der to fully understand the implications of tangible user interfaces, to develop technologies that further bridge the digital and the physical, and to guide TUI design with empirical knowledge. This paper examines the existing body of work on Tangible User In- terfaces. We start by sketching the history of tangible user interfaces, examining the intellectual origins of this field. We then present TUIs in a broader context, survey application domains, and review frame- works and taxonomies. We also discuss conceptual foundations of TUIs including perspectives from cognitive sciences, phycology, and philoso- phy. Methods and technologies for designing, building, and evaluating TUIs are also addressed. Finally, we discuss the strengths and limita- tions of TUIs and chart directions for future research

RFID interactive tabletop application with tangible objects: exploratory study to observe young children’ behaviors

International audienceNumerous academic and industrial studies and developments concerning interactive tabletops are paving the way for new educational applications. We have developed an interactive tabletop application equipped with RFID technology. This tabletop, called TangiSense, is based on a Multi-Agent System that allows users to associate information with behaviors to manipulate tangible objects. The application involves the recognition of basic colors. With the application, children are required to manipulate tangible objects. Their task involves recognizing objects that have "lost" their dominant color and placing these objects in appropriate colored areas. A tangible magician object automatically analyzes the filled zones and provides children and their teacher with virtual and vocal feedback. This application has been evaluated in a field study with children 3 to 5 years of age. The initial results are promising and show that such an application can support interaction and collaboration, and subsequently educational situations, among young children

Designing for Shareable Interfaces in the Wild

Despite excitement about the potential of interactive tabletops to support collaborative work, there have been few empirical demonstrations of their effectiveness (Marshall et al., 2011). In particular, while lab-based studies have explored the effects of individual design features, there has been a dearth of studies evaluating the success of systems in the wild. For this technology to be of value, designers and systems builders require a better understanding of how to develop and evaluate tabletop applications to be deployed in real world settings. This dissertation reports on two systems designed through a process that incorporated ethnography-style observations, iterative design and in the wild evaluation. The first study focused on collaborative learning in a medical setting. To address the fact that visitors to a hospital emergency ward were leaving with an incomplete understanding of their diagnosis and treatment, a system was prototyped in a working Emergency Room (ER) with doctors and patients. The system was found to be helpful but adoption issues hampered its impact. The second study focused on a planning application for visitors to a tourist information centre. Issues and opportunities for a successful, contextually-fitted system were addressed and it was found to be effective in supporting group planning activities by novice users, in particular, facilitating users’ first experiences, providing effective signage and offering assistance to guide the user through the application. This dissertation contributes to understanding of multi-user systems through literature review of tabletop systems, collaborative tasks, design frameworks and evaluation of prototypes. Some support was found for the claim that tabletops are a useful technology for collaboration, and several issues were discussed. Contributions to understanding in this field are delivered through design guidelines, heuristics, frameworks, and recommendations, in addition to the two case studies to help guide future tabletop system creators

Multi-touch interaction for interface prototyping

Tese de mestrado integrado. Engenharia Informática e Computação. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 201

Using natural user interfaces to support synchronous distributed collaborative work

Synchronous Distributed Collaborative Work (SDCW) occurs when group members work together at the same time from different places together to achieve a common goal. Effective SDCW requires good communication, continuous coordination and shared information among group members. SDCW is possible because of groupware, a class of computer software systems that supports group work. Shared-workspace groupware systems are systems that provide a common workspace that aims to replicate aspects of a physical workspace that is shared among group members in a co-located environment. Shared-workspace groupware systems have failed to provide the same degree of coordination and awareness among distributed group members that exists in co-located groups owing to unintuitive interaction techniques that these systems have incorporated. Natural User Interfaces (NUIs) focus on reusing natural human abilities such as touch, speech, gestures and proximity awareness to allow intuitive human-computer interaction. These interaction techniques could provide solutions to the existing issues of groupware systems by breaking down the barrier between people and technology created by the interaction techniques currently utilised. The aim of this research was to investigate how NUI interaction techniques could be used to effectively support SDCW. An architecture for such a shared-workspace groupware system was proposed and a prototype, called GroupAware, was designed and developed based on this architecture. GroupAware allows multiple users from distributed locations to simultaneously view and annotate text documents, and create graphic designs in a shared workspace. Documents are represented as visual objects that can be manipulated through touch gestures. Group coordination and awareness is maintained through document updates via immediate workspace synchronization, user action tracking via user labels and user availability identification via basic proxemic interaction. Members can effectively communicate via audio and video conferencing. A user study was conducted to evaluate GroupAware and determine whether NUI interaction techniques effectively supported SDCW. Ten groups of three members each participated in the study. High levels of performance, user satisfaction and collaboration demonstrated that GroupAware was an effective groupware system that was easy to learn and use, and effectively supported group work in terms of communication, coordination and information sharing. Participants gave highly positive comments about the system that further supported the results. The successful implementation of GroupAware and the positive results obtained from the user evaluation provides evidence that NUI interaction techniques can effectively support SDCW

Kosketuskäyttöliittymän toteuttaminen olemassa olevaan ohjelmaan

The purpose of this work was to evaluate the migration steps of a windowing desktop application into a touch based input enabled software. The study was conducted on an already existing building information modelling software called Tekla BIMsight. The task was to retain all the functionality already in the software while making it possible to be used on touch-enabled devices, such as tablets or convertible laptops with a swivel display. Design and implementation of the system has been documented as part of the thesis, as well as most problematic issues during this period. The effects of the implementation are validated and tested with real users and the results from that study were documented. The usability study was conducted to obtain quantitative and qualitative metrics of the usability. The nature of the input mechanism, direct or indirect, affects the user experience greatly. The final system should be as responsive as possible to maintain a good level of perceived performance. Early prototyping and access to the target devices is critical to the success of a migration process. There are several common mistakes that should be avoided in the design and implementation phases. Not all the problems were critical, but many of them were identified as very cumbersome for the user that would affect the positive user experience of the software. With each new context for a user interface the problems need to be solved again and only experience from such solutions can help alleviate this task. The implemented touch support can be verified to meet the set requirements very well: It allows the system to be used on touch based input environments and all the major user interface elements support this.Työn tarkoituksena oli toteuttaa ja arvioida toimenpiteet ja. menetelmät joilla olemassa olevaan käyttöliittymään voidaan lisätä tuki kosketuskäytölle. Ominaisuudet lisättiin rakennusten tietomallinnuksen tarkasteluohjelmaan, Tekla BIMsight. Tehtävänä oli säilyttää kaikki aiemmat toiminnot ja tehdä ohjelmasta tehokkaasti käytettävä kosketuslaitteilla, kuten tableteilla ja kääntyvällä näytöllä varustetuilla kannettavilla. Suunnittelu ja toteutus järjestelmälle on dokumentoitu työssä ja kaikkein vaativimmat ongelmat. Toteutetun tuen vaikutuksia arvioitiin oikeiden käyttäjien kanssa tehdyssä käyttäjätutkimuksessa, jonka tulokset on esitetty. Käytettävyystutkimuksella hankittiin kvantitatiivista ja kvalitatiivista tietoa tuotteesta. Laite jolla ohjelmistoa käytetään vaikuttaa ohjelmasta saatuun käyttökokemukseen merkittävästi. Hyvän käyttökokemuksen saavuttamiseksi lopullisen järjestelmän käytön tulisi olla sujuvaa. Aikaisten prototyyppien kokeilu ja kohdelaitteiden saatavuus ovat tärkeitä tekijöitä siirtymäprosessin kannalta. Yleisiä ongelmatilanteita ja haasteita joita kohdattiin suunnittelu- ja toteutusvaiheissa on listattu työssä. Loppukäyttäjän kannalta useat ongelmat olivat rasittavia ja vaikuttaisivat käyttökokemukseen negatiivisesti jos niitä ei korjata. Uuden käyttöympäristön tuomat ongelmat joudutaan ratkaisemaan aina uudestaan. Vain kokemuksella vastaavista tilanteista on merkittävästi etua itse ratkaisujen löytämiselle. Toteutetun kosketuskäyttöliittymän tuen voidaan todeta vastaavan sille asetettuja tavoitteita ja vaatimuksia hyvin; se mahdollistaa ohjelman käyttämisen kosketuskäyttöliittymän omaavissa laitteissa ja kaikkein merkittävimmät käyttöliittymäelementit on tuettuina

Development platform for elderly-oriented tabletop games

Tese de mestrado integrado. Engenharia Informática e Computação. Universidade do Porto. Faculdade de Engenharia. 201