Waves: A Collaborative Navigation Technique for Large Interactive Surfaces

Abstract

Digital tables offer the possibility of performing collaborative tasks where two or more people can share artifacts in the same virtual space. However, most interactive methods of navigating through virtual space most commonly have the effect of changing the entire digital display simultaneously. In this thesis, I performed an exploratory study providing evidence for differences between two popular collaborative navigation techniques used in video games, split screens and single shared screen, in situational awareness, interference between collaborators, and difficulties with automatic view adjustment. Drawing inspiration from guidelines formulated from the results of the exploratory study, as well as previous work in interactive tabletops, collaboration, and navigation in information visualization, I designed and implemented Waves, a collaborative navigation technique for the tabletop. Waves simultaneously supports multiple personal workspaces, provides group workspace awareness, and mediates interference between workspaces.