Tabletop Groupware

Several ongoing projects explore group interactions with computationally-enhanced tables:

• Look for the September/October 2006 issue of IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, which will contain an article called "Mediating Group Dynamics through Tabletop Interface Design" that gives an overview of tabletop research directions at Stanford. Also, look for two other articles in that special issue that reflect Stanford's collaborations with MERL on this research area.
• If you have a lot of time on your hands, you can read Meredith Ringel Morris's Ph.D. Thesis on "Supporting Effective Interaction with Tabletop Groupware"
• At CSCW 2006, we will present research on SIDES, a tabletop system designed to meet the needs of children with Asperger's Syndrome.
• Our work on supplementing tabletop displays with tangible drawers to reduce visual clutter will appear in UbiComp 2006's poster session.
• Our work on cooperative gestures and also on comparing the impact of centralized versus replicated control layouts for tabletop displays appeared in CHI 2006. Also, we presented on Tables in Context: Integrating Horizontal Displays with Ubicomp Environments at the CHI 2006 Workshop on Information Visualization and Interaction Techniques for Collaboration across Multiple Displays.
• Our recent article in Ambidextrous Magazine explores how tabletop UI design can impact group social dynamics
• TeamSearch explores direct-manipulation, collaborative search interfaces for tabletop displays.
• We have been exploring supplementing tabletop displays with individually-targeted audio feedback, as described in our CSCW 2004 paper on combining individual audio with single display groupware.
• We have also explored mechanisms for coordinating user actions on the tabletop:
  • At CSCW 2004 we presented our work on multi-user coordination policies.
  • We also presented a CSCW 2004 poster describing survey data that influenced the design of our coordination policies.
  • At CHI 2004 we presented techniques for document-sharing on interactive tables.
• Measuring the impact of design choices on group interactions can be challenging. Our CSCW 2004 Workshop Paper on quantifying collaboration on computationally-enhanced tables discusses some of our approaches to evaluation.
• Most of our tabletop research uses DiamondTouch technology, which has been generously donated by Mitsubishi Electric Research Labs. Several of our projects are collaborations with MERL, including:
  • the DiamondSpin tabletop interface toolkit (CHI 2004)
  • exploring the impact of table size on group activities (CSCW 2004)
  • iDwidgets: identity-differentiating widgets for multi-user interactive surfaces (Interact 2005)
  • informal observations on general usability issues relevant to tabletop design (IEEE TableTop 2006)
• We have also done preliminary work on using tables as ambient displays, which was presented as a poster at UbiComp 2004.
• Workshop papers from UIST 2005 and IEEE TableTop 2006 summarize a number of our table research themes.

  

  Four people using a DiamondTouch table enhanced with individually-targeted audio feedback.

  Contact: Meredith Ringel Morris (merrie at cs dot stanford dot edu)