Skip to main content
Springer Nature Link
Log in

Coordination and Awareness in Remote Tabletop Collaboration

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Tabletops - Horizontal Interactive Displays

Part of the book series: Human-Computer Interaction Series ((HCIS))

Abstract

Remote collaboration technologies frequently provide a shared visual workspace of the task at hand, but often lack support for the visual cues and work practices of co-located collaboration. This is particularly acute in design tasks, in which the shared workspace is the focus of collaboration. Lately there has been growing interest in remote tabletop interfaces: large horizontal interactive surfaces that provide shared workspaces for remote collaboration. These interfaces may afford some of the cues and beneficial work practices associated with collaboration at conventional tables. If so, they may offer benefits over other remote collaboration technologies. However, while a number of remote tabletop interfaces have been constructed, there are few empirical findings around these interfaces in practice. This chapter reviews current work in remote tabletop interfaces and then presents an exploratory study investigating two work practices in remote tabletop collaboration.

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

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Egido C (1988) Video conferencing as a technology to support group work: A review of its failures. In: CSCW’08: Proceedings of the 1988 ACM conference on computer-supported cooperative work, ACM Press, New York, pp 13–24

    Google Scholar 

  2. Okada KI, Maeda F, Ichikawaa Y, Matsushita Y (1994) Multiparty videoconferencing at virtual social distance: Majic design. In: CSCW ’94: Proceedings of the 1994 ACM conference on Computer supported cooperative work, ACM Press, New York, pp 385–393

    Google Scholar 

  3. Bly SA, Harrison SR, Irwin S (1993) Media spaces: Bringing people together in a video, audio, and computing environment. Communicaton of the ACM 36(1):28–46

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Nguyen D, Canny J (2005) Multiview: Spatially faithful group video conferencing. In: CHI ’05: Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems, ACM Press, New York, pp 799–808

    Google Scholar 

  5. Nguyen DT, Canny J (2007) Multiview: Improving trust in group video conferencing through spatial faithfulness. In: CHI ’07: Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems, ACM Press, New York, pp 1465–1474

    Google Scholar 

  6. Tang JC, Minneman S (1991) Videowhiteboard: Video shadows to support remote collaboration. In: CHI ’91: Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems, ACM Press, New York, pp 315–322

    Google Scholar 

  7. Gutwin C, Greenberg S (2002) A descriptive framework of workspace awareness for real-time groupware. Computer Supported Cooperative Work 11(3):411–446

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Bly SA (1988) A use of drawing surfaces in different collaborative settings. In: CSCW ’88: Proceedings of the 1988 ACM conference on computer-supported cooperative work, ACM Press, New York, pp 250–256

    Google Scholar 

  9. Weiser M (1999) The computer for the 21st century. SIGMOBILE Mob Comput Commun Rev 3(3):3–11

    Google Scholar 

  10. Scott SD (2005) Territoriality in collaborative tabletop workspaces. PhD thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

    Google Scholar 

  11. Morris MR (2006) Supporting effective interaction with tabletop groupware. PhD thesis, Stanford University

    Google Scholar 

  12. Rogers Y, Lindley S (2004) Collaborating around vertical and horizontal large interactive displays: Which way is best? Interacting with Computers 16(6):1133–1152

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Scott SD, Carpendale MST, Habelski S (2005) Storage bins: Mobile storage for collaborative tabletop displays. IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications 25(4):58–65

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Tang A, Tory M, Po B, Neumann P, Carpendale S (2006) Collaborative coupling over tabletop displays. In: CHI ’06: Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems, ACM Press, New York, pp 1181–1190

    Google Scholar 

  15. Wellner P (1993) Interacting with paper on the DigitalDesk. Communication of the ACM 36(7):87–96

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Ashdown M, Robinson P (2005) Escritoire: A personal projected display. IEEE MultiMedia 12(1):34–42

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Esenther A, Ryall K (2006) RemoteDT: Support for multi-site table collaboration. In: Proceedings of the CollabTech’06: International conference on collaboration technologies (CollabTech)

    Google Scholar 

  18. Hutterer P, Close BS, Thomas BH (2006) Supporting mixed presence groupware in tabletop applications. In: TABLETOP ’06: Proceedings of the 1st IEEE international workshop on horizontal interactive human-computer systems, IEEE Computer Society, pp 63–70

    Google Scholar 

  19. Regenbrecht H, Haller M, Hauber J, Billinghurst M (2006) Carpeno: Interfacing remote collaborative virtual environments with table-top interaction. Virtual Reality 10(2):95–107

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Tang A, Neustaedter C, Greenberg S (2006) VideoArms: Embodiments for mixed presence groupware. In: HCI 2006: Proceedings of the 20th British HCI Group annual conference, Springer, London, pp 85–102

    Google Scholar 

  21. Coldefy F, dit Picard SL (2007) Digitable: An interactive multiuser table for collocated and remote collaboration enabling remote gesture visualization. In: Proceedings of the PROCAMS’07: IEEE workshop on projector-camera systems, pp 1–8

    Google Scholar 

  22. Izadi S, Agarwal A, Criminisi A, Winn J, Blake A, Fitzgibbon A (2007) C-Slate: A multi-touch and object recognition system for remote collaboration using horizontal surfaces. In: Proceedings of the TABLETOP’07: Second annual IEEE international workshop on horizontal interactive human-computer systems, pp 3–10

    Google Scholar 

  23. Gutwin C, Greenberg S (1999) The effects of workspace awareness support on the usability of real-time distributed groupware. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction 6(3):243–281

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Ashdown M (2004) Personal projected displays. PhD thesis, University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory

    Google Scholar 

  25. Tuddenham P, Robinson P (2007) Distributed tabletops: Supporting remote and mixed-presence tabletop collaboration. In: Proceedings of the TABLETOP’07: Second annual IEEE international workshop on horizontal interactive human-computer systems, pp 19–26

    Google Scholar 

  26. Tang JC (1991) Findings from observational studies of collaborative work. International Journal of Man-Machine Studies 34(2):143–160

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Olson GM, Olson JS, Carter MR, Storrøsten M (1992) Small group design meetings: An analysis of collaboration. Human-Computer Interaction 7:347–374

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Bekker MM, Olson JS, Olson GM (1995) Analysis of gestures in face-to-face design teams provides guidance for how to use groupware in design. In: DIS ’95: Proceedings of the first conference on designing interactive systems, ACM Press, New York, pp 157–166

    Google Scholar 

  29. Bly SA, Minneman SL (1990) Commune: A shared drawing surface. SIGOIS Bulletin 11(2–3):184–192

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Tang JC, Minneman SL (1991) Videodraw: A video interface for collaborative drawing. ACM Transactions on Information Systems 9(2):170–184

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. Ishii H, Kobayashi M (1992) Clearboard: A seamless medium for shared drawing and conversation with eye contact. In: CHI ’92: Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems, ACM Press, New York, pp 525–532

    Google Scholar 

  32. Wellner P, Freeman S (1993) The DoubleDigitalDesk: Shared editing of paper documents. Technical Report EPC-93-108, Xerox Research Centre, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  33. Ishii H (1990) Teamworkstation: Towards a seamless shared workspace. In: CSCW ’90: Proceedings of the 1990 ACM conference on computer-supported cooperative work, ACM Press, New York, pp 13–26

    Google Scholar 

  34. Takao N, Shi J, Baker S (2003) Tele-graffiti: A camera-projector based remote sketching system with hand-based user interface and automatic session summarization. International Journal of Computer Vision 53(2):115–133

    Article  Google Scholar 

  35. Robinson JA, Robertson C (2001) The LivePaper system: Augmenting paper on an enhanced tabletop. Computers & Graphics 25(5):731–743

    Article  Google Scholar 

  36. Kuzuoka H, Yamashita J, Yamazaki K, Yamazaki A (1999) Agora: A remote collaboration system that enables mutual monitoring. In: CHI ’99: CHI ’99 extended abstracts on human factors in computing systems, ACM Press, New York, pp 190–191

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  37. Wilson A, Robbins DC (2006) PlayTogether: Playing games across multiple interactive tabletops. In: IUI’06 workshop on tangible play: Research and design for tangible and tabletop games

    Google Scholar 

  38. Kirk D, Crabtree A, Rodden T (2005) Ways of the hands. In: ECSCW’05: Proceedings of the 9th conference on European Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, Springer-Verlag Inc., New York, pp 1–21

    Google Scholar 

  39. Kirk D, Rodden T, Fraser DS (2007) Turn it this way: Grounding collaborative action with remote gestures. In: CHI ’07: Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems, ACM Press, New York, pp 1039–1048

    Google Scholar 

  40. Kirk D, Fraser DS (2006) Comparing remote gesture technologies for supporting collaborative physical tasks. In: CHI ’06: Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems, ACM Press, New York, pp 1191–1200

    Google Scholar 

  41. Hauber J, Regenbrecht H, Billinghurst M, Cockburn A (2006) Spatiality in videoconferencing: Trade-offs between efficiency and social presence. In: CSCW ’06: Proceedings of the 2006 20th anniversary conference on computer supported cooperative work, ACM Press, New York, pp 413–422

    Google Scholar 

  42. Pauchet A, Coldefy F, Lefebvre L, Picard SLD, Perron L, Bouguet A, Collobert M, Guerin J, Corvaisier D (2007) Tabletops: Worthwhile experiences of collocated and remote collaboration. In: Proceedings of the TABLETOP’07: Second annual IEEE international workshop on horizontal interactive human-computer systems, Newport, RI, pp 27–34

    Google Scholar 

  43. Dourish P, Bellotti V (1992) Awareness and coordination in shared workspaces. In: CSCW ’92: Proceedings of the 1992 ACM conference on computer-supported cooperative work, ACM Press, New York, pp 107–114

    Google Scholar 

  44. Gutwin C, Greenberg S (1998) Design for individuals, design for groups: Tradeoffs between power and workspace awareness. In: CSCW ’98: Proceedings of the 1998 ACM conference on computer supported cooperative work, ACM Press, New York, pp 207–216

    Google Scholar 

  45. Scott SD, Carpendale MST, Inkpen KM (2004) Territoriality in collaborative tabletop workspaces. In: CSCW ’04: Proceedings of the 2004 ACM conference on computer supported cooperative work, ACM Press, New York, pp 294–303

    Google Scholar 

  46. Hall ET (1966) Distances in man: The hidden dimension. DoubleDay, Garden City, NY

    Google Scholar 

  47. Tuddenham P, Robinson P (2009) Territorial coordination and workspace awareness in remote tabletop collaboration. In: CHI’09: Proceedings of the 27th ACM SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems, ACM Press, New York, pp 2139–2148

    Google Scholar 

  48. Kruger R, Carpendale S, Scott SD, Tang A (2005) Fluid integration of rotation and translation. In: CHI’05: Proceedings of the 2005 SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems, Minneapolis, MN, pp 601–610

    Google Scholar 

  49. Nacenta MA, Pinelle D, Stuckel D, Gutwin C (2007) The effects of interaction technique on coordination in tabletop groupware. In: Proceedings of the Graphics Interface 2007, ACM Press, New York, pp 191–198

    Google Scholar 

  50. Ha V, Inkpen KM, Mandryk RL, Whalen T (2006) Direct intentions: The effects of input devices on collaboration around a tabletop display. In: Proceedings of the TABLETOP 2006, Adelaide, South Australia, pp 177–184

    Google Scholar 

  51. Forlines C, Shen C (2005) DTLens: Multi-user tabletop spatial data exploration. In: UIST ’05: Proceedings of the 18th annual ACM symposium on user interface software and technology, ACM Press, New York, pp 119–122

    Google Scholar 

  52. Bier EA, Stone MC, Pier K, Buxton W, DeRose TD (1993) Toolglass and magic lenses: The see-through interface. In: SIGGRAPH ’93: Proceedings of the 20th annual conference on computer graphics and interactive techniques, ACM Press, New York, pp 73–80

    Google Scholar 

  53. Morris MR, Paepcke A, Winograd T, Stamberger J (2006) Teamtag: Exploring centralized versus replicated controls for co-located tabletop groupware. In: CHI ’06: Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems, ACM Press, New York, pp 1273–1282

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge Mark Ashdown, Alan Blackwell, Darren Edge, Cecily Morrison, and the anonymous referees, for feedback on drafts; and the EPSRC and Thales Research and Technology (UK), who funded this work.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

    Authors
    1. Philip Tuddenham
      View author publications

      You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

    2. Peter Robinson
      View author publications

      You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

    Corresponding author

    Correspondence to Philip Tuddenham .

    Editor information

    Editors and Affiliations

    1. Mosman St. 2/6A, Mosman, 2088, Australia

      Christian Müller-Tomfelde

    Rights and permissions

    Reprints and permissions

    Copyright information

    © 2010 Springer-Verlag London

    About this chapter

    Cite this chapter

    Tuddenham, P., Robinson, P. (2010). Coordination and Awareness in Remote Tabletop Collaboration. In: Müller-Tomfelde, C. (eds) Tabletops - Horizontal Interactive Displays. Human-Computer Interaction Series. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84996-113-4_17

    Download citation

    • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84996-113-4_17

    • Published:

    • Publisher Name: Springer, London

    • Print ISBN: 978-1-84996-112-7

    • Online ISBN: 978-1-84996-113-4

    • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

    Publish with us

    Policies and ethics

    Search

    Navigation