Browsing by Author "Neustaedter, Carmen"

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    Embodiments and VideoArms in Mixed Presence Groupware
    (2004-03-29) Tang, Anthony; Neustaedter, Carmen; Greenberg, Saul
    Mixed Presence Groupware (MPG) is software that connects collocated and distributed collaborators together in a shared visual workspace. The problem is that collaborators in MPG focus their collaborative energies almost exclusively on their collocated partners, ignoring their distributed counterparts. This arises because remote collaborators are disembodied when compared to their collocated cohorts: they lack the material presence that informs others of their actions. In this paper, we recap how physical bodies facilitate collaboration in physical workspaces via feedthrough, consequential communication and gestures. We recast this theory as four design implications for virtual embodiments that minimize the disparity between collocated and remote collaborators within MPG. We use these properties to design VideoArms, a video-based mechanism that captures people�s body actions within a physical workspace, and then digitally recreates them as virtual embodiments throughout the MPG workspace.
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    Embodiments for Mixed Presence Groupware
    (2004-12-23) Tang, Anthony; Neustaedter, Carmen; Greenberg, Saul
    Large surfaces such as tabletop and whiteboard displays naturally afford collocated collaboration, where multiple people work together over the shared workspace. As large digital displays become more ubiquitous, it becomes increasingly important to examine their role in supporting groups of distributed collaborators working over the digital work surface. In particular, Mixed Presence Groupware (MPG) is software that connects both collocated and distributed collaborators and their disparate displays via a common shared virtual workspace. We have built several MPG systems by connecting several distributed displays, each with multiple input devices, thereby connecting both collocated and distributed collaborators. By observing how these systems are used, we found that MPG presents a unique problem called presenc1e disparity: collaborators focus their energies on collocated collaborators at the expense of their distributed counterparts. Presence disparity arises because the physical presence of collaborators varies across the MPG workgroup: physically collocated collaborators are seen in full fidelity, while remote participants are represented by only virtual embodiments. Consequently, we propose four design principles for MPG systems that we believe will help mitigate the problem of presence disparity in MPG. We then introduce how these principles are realized in VideoArms, an embodiment technique that digitally captures people s arms as they work over large work surfaces, and redisplays them as digital overlays on remote displays. Our evaluation of VideoArms validates its use in principle as an effective embodiment technique for MPG systems.
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    Time, Meaning and Ownership: the Value of Location in the Home
    (2004-10-01) Elliot, Kathryn; Neustaedter, Carmen; Greenberg, Saul
    Ubiquitous computing researchers suggest that technology embedded within the home can augment communication and coordination of home inhabitants. Our goal in this paper is to inform the design of effective home information systems, where we determine how households now manage communication and coordination. Through contextual interviews, we identify four types of communicative information found in homes: reminders and notes, awareness and scheduling, visual displays and alerts, and resource coordination. We found that these information types are created and understood by home inhabitants as a function of contextual locations within the home. We also found that the choice of location is highly nuanced. Location affects the time when others need to interact with that information, the meaning of that information and what needs to be done with it, and the ownership: who this information belongs to and who should receive it.
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    VideoArms: Supporting Remote Embodiment in Groupware
    (2004-05-26) Tang, Anthony; Neustaedter, Carmen; Greenberg, Saul
    Shared visual workspaces afford collaboration by providing a medium that grounds workspace activity, conversation, and gestures. If distributed groupware systems designed as shared visual workspaces are to replace or augment the physical workspaces of today, they need to naturally support these affordances. VideoArms is an embodiment technique for distributed groupware that captures body images of collaborators as they work, and transmits them to remote workspaces. These body images are then placed in the context of the workspace, thereby supporting the transmission of conversational gestures, collaborator identity, workspace activity and complex workspace gestures. The technique uses a purely digital approach, allowing for the possibility of different presentation techniques (e.g. colour video, shadows, transparent video, outlines, etc.).

    Duration of video: 5 minutes, 8 seconds
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    Where Are You and When Are You Coming Home? Foundations of Interpersonal Awareness
    (2004-10-01) Neustaedter, Carmen; Elliot, Kathryn; Tang, Anthony; Greenberg, Saul
    A barely explored frontier in HCI is how computers can augment the everyday social world of home inhabitants. Within this rich setting, our own focus is on how people naturally maintain interpersonal awareness for members of their household and other individuals in their personal lives. We carried out an exploratory study designed to: a) define the interpersonal relationships critical to home members, and b) articulate the needs of home members for maintaining awareness of the activities and lives of these people. Our results identify three types of interpersonal awareness: home, intimate, and extended awareness. For each type, we identify the people for whom this awareness is desired; the actual awareness information wanted; and the current techniques people use to maintain this awareness. Our results also identify two problems that inhibit people s maintenance of this awareness: time constraints, and distance/time separation. These results motivate and lay the foundations for groupware that augments how home inhabitants maintain interpersonal awareness.