US-France Collaboration: Architectures and Interaction Paradigms for Multi-Surface Environments

University Of California-Berkeley, Berkeley CA

Investigators

Abstract

This project will establish a collaboration between the University of California at Berkeley in the United States and the University of Paris-Sud and INRIA in France to explore architectures and interaction paradigms for multi-surface computing environments. Multi-surface environments are interactive workspaces that combine wall displays, handheld computing devices and traditional laptops. Such environments can be used to explore and manipulate "big data" in a variety of application domains, including product design, scientific discovery, decision-making and crisis management. Multi-surface computing environments raise multiple challenges: What are the appropriate interaction paradigms that make teams working in such spaces most effective? How can we facilitate successful collaboration among remote sites? What authoring tools and abstractions enable researchers to rapidly explore the space of multi-surface applications? This collaboration will contribute new theory, technology and empirical findings to understand remote collaboration in multi-surface environments. The project will build on the French DIGISCOPE project, which is creating a network of multi-surface environments for interactive and collaborative visualization. The researchers will extend the research from France to the US, and develop new techniques for remote collaboration between workspaces in both countries. The provided funds will be used for two main activities: 1) site visits to France to learn about the current DIGISCOPE architecture and hold research meetings; and 2) the construction of a high-resolution wall prototype at Berkeley to enable research into remote collaboration techniques. This prototype itself will serve as the primary communication tool between the US and French teams after initial visits.