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

ABSTRACT

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.

REFERENCES

• 1: Anand Agarawala , Ravin Balakrishnan, Keepin' it real: pushing the desktop metaphor with physics, piles and the pen, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human Factors in computing systems, April 22-27, 2006, Montréal, Québec, Canada [doi>10.1145/1124772.1124965]
• 2: Aliakseyeu, D., Champoux, B., Martens, J.B., Rauterberg, M. and Subramanian, S. The Visual Interaction Platform. In Proc. of INTERACT'03, 1101--1102.
• 3: Jacob T. Biehl , Brian P. Bailey, ARIS: an interface for application relocation in an interactive space, Proceedings of Graphics Interface 2004, p.107-116, May 17-19, 2004, London, Ontario, Canada
• 4: Doug A. Bowman , Ernst Kruijff , Joseph J. LaViola , Ivan Poupyrev, 3D User Interfaces: Theory and Practice, Addison Wesley Longman Publishing Co., Inc., Redwood City, CA, 2004
• 5: Brener, M.E. 2004. Vanishing points: three dimensional perspective in art and history. McFarland & Co.
• 6: Michael Broughton, Virtual planning rooms (ViPR): a 3D visualisation environment for hierarchical information, Proceedings of the 7th Australasian User interface conference, p.125-128, January 16-19, 2006, Hobart, Australia
• 7: Olivier Chapuis , Nicolas Roussel, Metisse is not a 3D desktop!, Proceedings of the 18th annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology, October 23-26, 2005, Seattle, WA, USA [doi>10.1145/1095034.1095038]
• 8: Davis, J., Chen, X. LumiPoint: Multi-User Laser-Based Interaction on Large Tiled Displays. In Displays 23, 5 205--217.
• 9: Steven Feiner , Ari Shamash, Hybrid user interfaces: breeding virtually bigger interfaces for physically smaller computers, Proceedings of the 4th annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology, p.9-17, November 11-13, 1991, Hilton Head, South Carolina, United States [doi>10.1145/120782.120783]
• 10: Forlines, C., Esenther, A., Shen, C., Wigdor, D., Ryall, K., (2006). Adapting a single--display, single-user geospatial application for a multi-device, multi-user environment. In Proc. of UIST'06 273--276.
• 11: Armando Fox , Brad Johanson , Pat Hanrahan , Terry Winograd, Integrating Information Appliances into an Interactive Workspace, IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, v.20 n.3, p.54-65, May 2000 [doi>10.1109/38.844373]
• 12: Greenberg, S., Boyle, M., and Laberge, J. PDAs and shared public displays: Making personal information public, and public information personal. In Pers. Techs. 3, 1 (Mar. 1999), 54--64.
• 13: Tovi Grossman , Daniel Wigdor , Ravin Balakrishnan, Exploring and reducing the effects of orientation on text readability in volumetric displays, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems, April 28-May 03, 2007, San Jose, California, USA [doi>10.1145/1240624.1240702]
• 14: Jonathan Grudin, Partitioning digital worlds: focal and peripheral awareness in multiple monitor use, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems, p.458-465, March 2001, Seattle, Washington, United States [doi>10.1145/365024.365312]
• 15: Yves Guiard , Olivier Chapuis , Yangzhou Du , Michel Beaudouin-Lafon, Allowing camera tilts for document navigation in the standard GUI: a discussion and an experiment, Proceedings of the working conference on Advanced visual interfaces, May 23-26, 2006, Venezia, Italy [doi>10.1145/1133265.1133312]
• 16: Ken Hinckley , Gonzalo Ramos , Francois Guimbretiere , Patrick Baudisch , Marc Smith, Stitching: pen gestures that span multiple displays, Proceedings of the working conference on Advanced visual interfaces, May 25-28, 2004, Gallipoli, Italy [doi>10.1145/989863.989866]
• 17: Azam Khan , George Fitzmaurice , Don Almeida , Nicolas Burtnyk , Gordon Kurtenbach, A remote control interface for large displays, Proceedings of the 17th annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology, October 24-27, 2004, Santa Fe, NM, USA [doi>10.1145/1029632.1029655]
• 18: Kenneth L. Kraemer , John Leslie King, Computer-based systems for cooperative work and group decision making, ACM Computing Surveys (CSUR), v.20 n.2, p.115-146, June 1988 [doi>10.1145/46157.46158]
• 19: Russell Kruger , Sheelagh Carpendale , Stacey D. Scott , Saul Greenberg, Roles of Orientation in Tabletop Collaboration: Comprehension, Coordination and Communication, Computer Supported Cooperative Work, v.13 n.5-6, p.501-537, December 2004 [doi>10.1007/s10606-004-5062-8]
• 20: Larimer, D. and Bowman, D.A. VEWL: A Framework for Building a Windowing Interface in a Virtual Environment. In Proc. of INTERACT'03, 809--812.
• 21: Kevin Larson , Maarten van Dantzich , Mary Czerwinski , George Robertson, Text in 3D: some legibility results, CHI '00 extended abstracts on Human factors in computing systems, April 01-06, 2000, The Hague, The Netherlands [doi>10.1145/633292.633374]
• 22: Blair MacIntyre , Elizabeth D. Mynatt , Stephen Voida , Klaus M. Hansen , Joe Tullio , Gregory M. Corso, Support for multitasking and background awareness using interactive peripheral displays, Proceedings of the 14th annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology, November 11-14, 2001, Orlando, Florida [doi>10.1145/502348.502355]
• 23: Jock D. Mackinlay , George G. Robertson , Stuart K. Card, The perspective wall: detail and context smoothly integrated, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems: Reaching through technology, p.173-176, April 27-May 02, 1991, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States [doi>10.1145/108844.108870]
• 24: Mannoni, L., Nekes, W., Warner, M. Eyes, Lies and Illusions. 2004 Lund Humphries.
• 25: Merriam-Webster Inc. Merriam-Webster online dictionary. http://www.m--w.com. Retrieved March 2007.
• 26: Brad A. Myers , Rishi Bhatnagar , Jeffrey Nichols , Choon Hong Peck , Dave Kong , Robert Miller , A. Chris Long, Interacting at a distance: measuring the performance of laser pointers and other devices, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems: Changing our world, changing ourselves, April 20-25, 2002, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA [doi>10.1145/503376.503383]
• 27: Brad A. Myers , Herb Stiel , Robert Gargiulo, Collaboration using multiple PDAs connected to a PC, Proceedings of the 1998 ACM conference on Computer supported cooperative work, p.285-294, November 14-18, 1998, Seattle, Washington, United States [doi>10.1145/289444.289503]
• 28: Miguel A. Nacenta , Samer Sallam , Bernard Champoux , Sriram Subramanian , Carl Gutwin, Perspective cursor: perspective-based interaction for multi-display environments, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human Factors in computing systems, April 22-27, 2006, Montréal, Québec, Canada [doi>10.1145/1124772.1124817]
• 29: Pirenne, M.H. 1970 Optics, Painting & Photography. Cambridge U.P.
• 30: Thorsten Prante , Norbert Streitz , Peter Tandler, Roomware: Computers Disappear and Interaction Evolves, Computer, v.37 n.12, p.47-54, December 2004 [doi>10.1109/MC.2004.255]
• 31: Jun Rekimoto, A multiple device approach for supporting whiteboard-based interactions, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems, p.344-351, April 18-23, 1998, Los Angeles, California, United States [doi>10.1145/274644.274692]
• 32: Jun Rekimoto , Masanori Saitoh, Augmented surfaces: a spatially continuous work space for hybrid computing environments, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems: the CHI is the limit, p.378-385, May 15-20, 1999, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States [doi>10.1145/302979.303113]
• 33: George Robertson , Maarten van Dantzich , Daniel Robbins , Mary Czerwinski , Ken Hinckley , Kirsten Risden , David Thiel , Vadim Gorokhovsky, The Task Gallery: a 3D window manager, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems, p.494-501, April 01-06, 2000, The Hague, The Netherlands [doi>10.1145/332040.332482]
• 34: Manuel Román , Christopher Hess , Renato Cerqueira , Anand Ranganathan , Roy H. Campbell , Klara Nahrstedt, A Middleware Infrastructure for Active Spaces, IEEE Pervasive Computing, v.1 n.4, p.74-83, October 2002 [doi>10.1109/MPRV.2002.1158281]
• 35: Desney S. Tan , Brian Meyers , Mary Czerwinski, WinCuts: manipulating arbitrary window regions for more effective use of screen space, CHI '04 extended abstracts on Human factors in computing systems, April 24-29, 2004, Vienna, Austria [doi>10.1145/985921.986106]
• 36: Masayuki Tani , Masato Horita , Kimiya Yamaashi , Koichiro Tanikoshi , Masayasu Futakawa, Courtyard: integrating shared overview on a large screen and per-user detail on individual screens, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems: celebrating interdependence, p.44-50, April 24-28, 1994, Boston, Massachusetts, United States [doi>10.1145/191666.191690]
• 37: Vernier, F., Lesh, N., Shen, C. Visualization techniques for circular tabletop interfaces. In Proc. AVI'07, 257--266.
• 38: Daniel Wigdor , Ravin Balakrishnan, Empirical investigation into the effect of orientation on text readability in tabletop displays, Proceedings of the ninth conference on European Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, p.205-224, September 18-22, 2005, Paris, France
• 39: Daniel Wigdor , Chia Shen , Clifton Forlines , Ravin Balakrishnan, Effects of display position and control space orientation on user preference and performance, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human Factors in computing systems, April 22-27, 2006, Montréal, Québec, Canada [doi>10.1145/1124772.1124819]
• 40: Daniel Wigdor , Chia Shen , Clifton Forlines , Ravin Balakrishnan, Perception of elementary graphical elements in tabletop and multi-surface environments, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems, April 28-May 03, 2007, San Jose, California, USA [doi>10.1145/1240624.1240701]
• 41: Ka-Ping Yee, Peephole displays: pen interaction on spatially aware handheld computers, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems, April 05-10, 2003, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, USA [doi>10.1145/642611.642613]

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)
          Subjects: Graphical user interfaces (GUI)

General Terms:
Design, Experimentation, Human Factors

Keywords:
legibility, multi-display environments, pattern matching, perspective-aware interfaces, steering, targeting