Large surface computing devices (wall-mounted or tabletop) with touch interfaces and their application to collaborative data analysis, an increasingly important and prevalent activity, is the primary topic of this book. Our goals are to outline the fundamentals of surface computing (a still maturing technology), review relevant work on collaborative data analysis, describe frameworks for understanding collaborative processes, and provide a better understanding of the opportunities for research and development. We describe surfaces as display technologies with which people can interact directly, and emphasize how interaction design changes when designing for large surfaces. We review efforts to use large displays, surfaces or mixed display environments to enable collaborative analytic activity. Collaborative analysis is important in many domains, but to provide concrete examples and a specific focus, we frequently consider analysis work in the security domain, and in particular the challenges security personnel face in securing networks from attackers, and intelligence analysts encounter when analyzing intelligence data. Both of these activities are becoming increasingly collaborative endeavors, and there are huge opportunities for improving collaboration by leveraging surface computing. This work highlights for interaction designers and software developers the particular challenges and opportunities presented by interaction with surfaces. We have reviewed hundreds of recent research papers, and report on advancements in the fields of surface-enabled collaborative analytic work, interactive techniques for surface technologies, and useful theory that can provide direction to interaction design work. We also offer insight into issues that arise when developing applications for multi-touch surfaces derived from our own experiences creating collaborative applications. We present these insights at a level appropriate for all members of the software design and developmentteam. Table of Contents: List of Figures / Acknowledgments / Figure Credits / Purpose and Direction / Surface Technologies and Collaborative Analysis Systems / Interacting with Surface Technologies / Collaborative Work Enabled by Surfaces / The Theory and the Design of Surface Applications / The Development of Surface Applications / Concluding Comments / Bibliography / Authors' Biographies
Judith Brown is a post doctoral fellow at Carleton University working in Prof. Biddle's Human-Oriented Technology Software Lab. She received her Ph.D. in Psychology, specializing in Human-Computer Interaction, by conducting field studies of collaborative software teams. She is currently engaged in a project for creating team room software enabling large surfaces for use by Agile software teams. She also works on a project to enable collaborative analysis work of incidents in data centers. She was a professor in Computer Science and Software Engineering for 15 years and has many publications in software engineering and HCI. She has 6 years of experience as a developer in the telecommunications field.
Jeff Wilson is a graduate student in Computer Science. He has over fifteen years of industry experience with computers, working his way from field technician to developer team lead before shifting to focus on research in Human Computer Interaction. His past development experience includes workflow automation, business data migration, call center reporting, electronic document management, and creation of proprietary development and deployment frameworks and tools. His current interests are interaction design methodology and development of mixed-presence collaboration tools for surface technologies.
Stevenson Gossage is a graduate student working on designing collaborative software for team rooms. He is designing and developing a multitouch agile cardwall to help with the ongoing planning work of software projects. He is particularly interested in the design of natural gestures, and is developing a gesture set for interaction with the cardwall. He leverages theories of situation awareness and shared team awareness in his work. The design of the cardwall is also being based on guidelines for shared awareness. As a result, the cardwall application will support a transparent planning process for software teams, inspire conversation, and encourage communication.
Chris Hack is a graduate student working on leveraging visual attention in human-computer interactions, especially in collaborative situations in which knowledge of where others are visually attending can improve collaboration. He is also developing a low cost, head-mounted, eye-tracker which has the potential to be used with any display surface. Having worked in industry for several years on web-development projects, Chris is an experienced software engineer. When he is not working on his research he is a teaching assistant for undergraduate computer science students on subjects that include software usability and software engineering.
Robert Biddle is a Professor at Carleton University, appointed to the School of Computer Science and the Institute of Cognitive Science. His research interests are in Human-Computer Interaction, and his current work is on usable computer security and on surface technologies for collaborative work. He leads themes for two Governmentof Canada NSERC Strategic Research Networks, ISSNet (Internetworked Systems Security) and SurfNet (Surface Applications), and leads the project on Usable Privacy and Security for GRAND, the Industry Canada Network of Centers of Excellence. He has over 200 refereed research publications, and university awards for teaching and research.
