Tabletop Interfaces

 Merrie Ringel Morris, Stanford CS Dept.
    merriestanford.edu

Seminar on People, Computers, and Design
Stanford University January 7, 2005

Computationally-enhanced tables are an emerging technology that have the potential to enhance face-to-face group activities. Designing interfaces and interaction techniques for this novel class of devices is a challenging area of HCI research.

Interactive tabletops offer benefits in many application areas -- in my talk, I will present prototypes from several domains, including:

• TeamTag - a productivity application for bio-diversity researchers that supports labeling and searching through digital photographs
• La Mesa de Clasificacion - an educational application for foreign-language learners
• SoundTracker - an entertainment application supporting group music-browsing

I will discuss the design challenges presented by tabletop interfaces, such as orienting information on the horizontal surface, coordinating the actions of multiple users, and balancing individual and group needs. I will then describe the ways in which our prototype systems meet these challenges, as well as presenting the results of studies evaluating the interaction solutions offered by these applications.

Merrie Ringel Morris is a Ph.D. student in the Stanford HCI Group. She received an MS in computer science from Stanford University and a BS in computer science from Brown University. Merrie has also done research at AT&T Labs, Microsoft Research, and Mitsubishi Electric Research Labs..

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View this talk on line at CS547 on Stanford OnLine

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