Collaborative simulation interface for planning disaster measures

ABSTRACT

We introduce a disaster simulation system that supports collaborative planning of disaster measures. While several simulation tools are available for examination and evaluation of disaster prevention plans, they are limited to use on traditional computers and displays, and rarely used in collaborative planning sessions. To address this issue, we have designed and prototyped a tabletop tangible user interface for disaster simulation. This paper describes the design and implementation of our prototype and reports our preliminary user observations and their feedback. The results show that our system can effectively support collaborative emergency planning tasks by a group of users and that users can easily learn how to use our system.

REFERENCES

• 1: George W. Fitzmaurice , Hiroshi Ishii , William A. S. Buxton, Bricks: laying the foundations for graspable user interfaces, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems, p.442-449, May 07-11, 1995, Denver, Colorado, United States [doi>10.1145/223904.223964]
• 2: Hiroshi Ishii , Brygg Ullmer, Tangible bits: towards seamless interfaces between people, bits and atoms, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems, p.234-241, March 22-27, 1997, Atlanta, Georgia, United States [doi>10.1145/258549.258715]
• 3: Katada, T., Asada, J. Kuwasawa, N., and Oikawa, Y. Development of Practical Scenario Simulator for Dissemination of Disaster Information. Journal of Civil Engineering Information Processing System, Vol.9, pp.129--136, 2000.
• 4: James Patten , Hiroshi Ishii , Jim Hines , Gian Pangaro, Sensetable: a wireless object tracking platform for tangible user interfaces, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems, p.253-260, March 2001, Seattle, Washington, United States [doi>10.1145/365024.365112]

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.2 User Interfaces (D.2.2, H.1.2, I.3.6)

Keywords:
collaborative design, disaster simulation, geographic information systems (GIS), tangible user interfaces