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Carpeno: interfacing remote collaborative virtual environments with table-top interaction

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Abstract

Creativity is enhanced by communication and collaboration. Thus, the increasing number of distributed creative tasks requires better support from computer-mediated communication and collaborative tools. In this paper we introduce “Carpeno”, a new system for facilitating intuitive face-to-face and remote collaboration on creative tasks. Normally the most popular and efficient way for people to collaborate is face-to-face, sitting around a table. Computer augmented surface environments, in particular interactive table-top environments, are increasingly used to support face-to-face meetings. They help co-located teams to develop new ideas by facilitating the presentation, manipulation, and exchange of shared digital documents displayed on the table-top surface. Users can see each other at the same time as the information they are talking about. In this way the task space and communication space can be brought together in a more natural and intuitive way. The discussion of digital content is redirected from a computer screen, back to a table where people can gather around. In contrast, collaborative virtual environments (CVE) are used to support remote collaboration. They frequently create familiar discussion scenarios for remote interlocutors by utilizing room metaphors. Here, virtual avatars and table metaphors are used, where the participants can get together and communicate with each other in a way that allows behaviour that is as close to face-to-face collaboration as possible. The Carpeno system described here combines table-top interaction with a CVE to support intuitive face-to-face and remote collaboration. This allows for simultaneous co-located and remote collaboration around a common, interactive table.

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Notes

  1. http://www.smarttech.com/

  2. http://www.accessgrid.org/

  3. http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/feature_stories/2005/05halo.html

  4. http://www.smartmeeting.com/

  5. http://www.alicestreet.com/

  6. www.anoto.com

  7. http://www.cv.iit.nrc.ca/research/ar/artag/

  8. www.mimio.com

  9. www.nextwindow.com

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Claudia Ott, Michael Wagner, Graham Copson and the Technical Support Group at Otago University, and all the participants in our experiments for their great support. In addition, we would like to thank DaimlerChrysler Research and Technology for supporting our work and the anonymous reviewers with their comments, which lead to some very relevant improvements. The Office of Tomorrow project is sponsored by the Austrian Science Fund FFG (FHplus, contract no. 811407) and VoestAlpine Informationstechnologie. Moreover, the authors would like to thank Daniel Leithinger, Jakob Leitner, and Thomas Seifried for the great work in the Coeno project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Information Science, University of Otago, P.O. Box 56, Dunedin, New Zealand

    Holger Regenbrecht

  2. Upper Austria University of Applied Sciences, Frank-Fritsch-Straße, Upper Austria, Austria

    Michael Haller

  3. University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand

    Joerg Hauber & Mark Billinghurst

Authors
  1. Holger Regenbrecht
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  2. Michael Haller
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  3. Joerg Hauber
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  4. Mark Billinghurst
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Correspondence to Holger Regenbrecht.

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Regenbrecht, H., Haller, M., Hauber, J. et al. Carpeno: interfacing remote collaborative virtual environments with table-top interaction. Virtual Reality 10, 95–107 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10055-006-0045-3

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