Skip to main content

Multi-Touch Tables for Exploring Heritage Content in Public Spaces

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Visual Heritage in the Digital Age

Part of the book series: Springer Series on Cultural Computing ((SSCC))

Abstract

Multi-Touch tables are increasingly being used in public spaces such as museums, art galleries, and libraries to help to engage the public and provide access to collections. Designing applications for this type of environment where a wide variety of people can use the table raises unique interaction issues that need to be addressed. This chapter initially provides a detailed review of research studies that have investigated the impact of multi-touch tables in cultural heritage environments. A case study into the design of a touch table application for The Hive (the first integrated public/university library and history centre in Europe) is then presented where we highlight issues experienced and lessons learned during the development process. In particular, we cover requirements gathering, design approaches used, the selection of appropriate content (for a broad user base), installation and maintenance of a table and details of an initial informal evaluation.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Microsoft PixelSense. http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/pixelsense/default.aspx.

  2. 2.

    WPF. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms754130.aspx.

  3. 3.

    Surface 2.0 SDK. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff727815.aspx.

  4. 4.

    Open Exhibits. http://openexhibits.org/.

  5. 5.

    GestureWorks. http://gestureworks.com/.

  6. 6.

    Unity. http://unity3d.com/.

  7. 7.

    W7Multitouch. http://bit.ly/Z0Nmyy.

  8. 8.

    Snowflake Suite. http://snowflakesuite.com/.

  9. 9.

    Touch Events API. http://www.w3.org/TR/touch-events/.

  10. 10.

    HTML5 Multi-Touch Applications. http://ie.microsoft.com/testdrive/.

  11. 11.

    Surface stress tool. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff727926.aspx.

References

  • Alt, F., et al. (2012). How to evaluate public displays. In Proceedings of the 2012 International Symposium on Pervasive Displays (p. 17). ACM.

    Google Scholar 

  • Arroyo, E., et al. (2011). A remote multi-touch experience to support collaboration between remote museum visitors. In Lecture Notes in Computer Science (Vol. 6949, pp. 462–465).

    Google Scholar 

  • Benko, H. (2009). Insights on interactive tabletops: A survey of researchers and developers. Microsoft Research Technical Report MSR-TR-2009-22.

    Google Scholar 

  • Black, G. (2005). The engaging museum: Developing museums for visitor involvement. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brignull, H., Rogers, Y., & Bnqh, B. (2003). Enticing people to interact with large public displays in public spaces. In Proceedings of Interact (p. 17–24).

    Google Scholar 

  • Ciocca, G., Olivo, P., & Schettini, R. (2012). Browsing museum image collections on a multi-touch table. Information Systems, 37(2), 169–182.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Collins, A., Clayphan, A., & Kay, J. (2012). My museum tour: Collaborative poster creation during school museum visits. In Educational Interfaces, Software, and Technology 2012: 3rd Workshop on UI Technologies and Educational Pedagogy.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dillenbourg, P., & Evans, M. (2011). Interactive tabletops in education. International Journal of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning, 6(4), 491–514.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Geller, T. (2006). Interactive tabletop exhibits in museums and galleries. IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, 26(5), 6–11.

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • Ha, V., et al. (2006). Direct intentions: The effects of input devices on collaboration around a tabletop display. In First IEEE International Workshop on Horizontal Interactive Human-Computer Systems (TABLETOP’06) (pp. 177–184).

    Google Scholar 

  • Han, J. Y. (2005). Low-cost multi-touch sensing through frustrated total internal reflection. In Proceedings of the 18th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (pp. 115–118).

    Google Scholar 

  • Hara, K. O. (2010). Interactivity and non-interactivity on tabletops. In CHI’10 Proceedings of the 28th International Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 2611–2614).

    Google Scholar 

  • Hsieh, C., et al. (2010). Yongzheng emperor’s interactive tabletop: Seamless multimedia system in a museum context. In MM’10 Proceedings of the International Conference on Multimedia (pp. 1453–1456).

    Google Scholar 

  • Hinrichs, U., Schmidt, H., Isenberg, T., et al. (2008a). Bubble type: Enabling text entry within a walk-up tabletop installation. Computer Science: University of Calgary.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hinrichs, U., et al. (2007). Examination of text-entry methods for tabletop displays. In Second Annual IEEE International Workshop on Horizontal Interactive Human-Computer Systems (TABLETOP’07) (pp. 105–112).

    Google Scholar 

  • Hinrichs. U., & Carpendale, S. (2011). Gestures in the wild: Studying multi-touch gesture sequences on interactive tabletop exhibits. In Proceedings of the 2011 Annual Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 3023–3032).

    Google Scholar 

  • Hinrichs, U., Carpendale, S., & Group, I. (2011). Interactive tables in the wild—visitor experiences with multi-touch tables in the Arctic Exhibit at the Vancouver Aquarium. Computer Science, University of Calgary, Calgary.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hinrichs, U., Schmidt, H., & Carpendale, S. (2008b). EmDialog: Bringing information visualization into the museum. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 14(6), 1181–1188.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hornecker, E. (2008). “I don’t understand it either, but it is cool”—visitor interactions with a multi-touch table in a museum. In 3rd IEEE International Workshop on Horizontal Interactive Human Computer Systems, TABLETOP 2008 (pp. 113–120).

    Google Scholar 

  • Isenberg, P., et al. (2010). Digital tables for collaborative information exploration. In C. Müller-Tomfelde (Ed.), Tabletops—horizontal interactive displays (pp. 387–405). London: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Jokisch, M., Bartoschek, T., & Schwering, A. (2011). Usability testing of the interaction of novices with a multi-touch-table in semi public space. In Human-Computer Interaction—Interaction Techniques and Environments (pp. 71–80).

    Google Scholar 

  • Jordà, S., et al. (2007). The reactable: Exploring the synergy between live music performance and tabletop tangible interfaces. In Proceedings of the 1st international conference on Tangible and embedded interaction, ACM (pp. 139–146).

    Google Scholar 

  • Kirk, D. S., et al. (2012). At home with surface computing? In CHI’12 Proceedings of the 2012 ACM Annual Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 159–168).

    Google Scholar 

  • Lee, S., Buxton, W., & Smith, K. C. (1985). A multi-touch three dimensional touch-sensitive tablet. In CHI 1985 Proceedings of the 1985 Annual Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 21–25).

    Google Scholar 

  • Loureiro, B. (2011). Multi-touch as a natural user interface for elders: A survey. In Information Systems and Technologies (CISTI) (pp. 1–6).

    Google Scholar 

  • Majewski, J. (2012). Smithsonian guidelines for accessible exhibition design: Retrieved March 7, 2013, from http://www.si.edu/Accessibility/SGAED.

  • Marshall, P., et al. (2011). Rethinking “multi-user”: An in-the-wild study of how groups approach a walk-up-and-use tabletop interface. In CHI’11 Proceedings of the 2011 Annual Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 3033–3042).

    Google Scholar 

  • Nagel, T. et al. (2009). Mæve—an interactive tabletop installation for exploring background information in exhibitions. Human-computer interaction. Ambient, Ubiquitous, and Intelligent Interaction—Lecture Notes in Computer Science, (Vol. 5612, 483–491).

    Google Scholar 

  • Norman, D. (2010). Natural user interfaces are not natural. Interactions, 17(3), 6–10.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vanacken, D., et al. (2008). Ghosts in the interface: Meta-user interface visualizations as guides for multi-touch interaction. In 3rd IEEE International Workshop on Horizontal Interactive Human Computer Systems, IEEE (pp. 81–84).

    Google Scholar 

  • Wellner, P. D. (1993). Interacting with paper on the digital desk. Communications of the ACM, 36(7), 87–96.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wigdor, D., et al. (2007). Living with a tabletop: analysis and observations of long term office use of a multi-touch table. In Second Annual IEEE International Workshop on Horizontal Interactive Human-Computer Systems (TABLETOP’07) (pp. 60–67).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Chris Creed .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2013 Springer-Verlag London

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Creed, C., Sivell, J., Sear, J. (2013). Multi-Touch Tables for Exploring Heritage Content in Public Spaces. In: Ch'ng, E., Gaffney, V., Chapman, H. (eds) Visual Heritage in the Digital Age. Springer Series on Cultural Computing. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-5535-5_5

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-5535-5_5

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4471-5534-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4471-5535-5

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics