We present results from a study examining how the physical layout of a project room and task affect the cognitive maps acquired of a connected virtual environment during mixed-presence collaboration. Results indicate that a combination of physical layout and task impacts cognitive maps of the virtual space. Participants did not form a strong model of how different physical work regions were situated relative to each other in the virtual world when the tasks performed in each region differed. Egocentric perspectives of multiple displays enforced by different furniture arrangements encouraged cognitive maps of the virtual world that reflected these perspectives, when the displays were used for the same task. These influences competed or coincided with document-based, audiovisual and interface cues, influencing collaboration. We consider the implications of our findings on WYSIWIS mappings between real and virtual for mixed-presence collaboration.

Sketching is a vital process in scientific research and procedural learning. In educational contexts, sketching helps students visualize abstract concepts and facilitates communication with their instructors as well as with other students. Inspired by a problem-based learning science class in which students use papers and pens to collaboratively sketch diagrams and equations for given problems, we aim to provide a digital tabletop platform for collaborative learning and customization. Current tabletop systems are unaffordable to be widely adopted in the classroom and are unable to identify multiple pens. We propose a pen-based tabletop system that utilizes a low-cost high-frame-rate infrared camera and HTML5 web canvas programming, making it cheaper and easier to customize for specific uses.

In this paper we present Responsive Objects, Surfaces, and Spaces (ROSS) API, a tangible toolkit that allows designers and developers to easily build applications for heterogeneous network devices. We describe the unique nested structure of the ROSS framework that enables cross-platform and device development and demonstrate its capabilities using several prototype applications.

Young children often feel anxious when visiting the doctors. This paper presents mediPuppet, an interactive companion with an exploratory procedure map designed to help children feel more relaxed and comfortable during their medical procedure. The ultimate goal of this study is to transform an intimidating stressful situation into a joyful exploring game for children during hospital visits.

Pictures at an Exhibition is a physical/digital puppetry piece that uses tangible interface puppets to modify a virtual scene projected at the back of the stage in real-time. Telling the story of a heist in an art gallery, the actions of the puppets are digitally reflected in abstract changes to an artwork in the scene. The piece merges traditional puppeteering practices with tangible interaction technologies and virtual environments to create a novel performance for the live stage.

We review the creative activity in the software development process of the ROSS (Responsive Objects, Surfaces, and Spaces) API. The ROSS API is a tangible toolkit that allows designers and developers to easily build applications for many different tangible platforms while still accommodating the continued evolution of the underlying sensing technologies. This paper describes the ROSS API specification, identifies its originality and relevance to creativity, discusses the challenges of the API development process, and summarizes the lessons learned.

We report on an ethnographic study of the work practice and discovery process in a systems biology lab, and outline a tabletop visualization that was developed based on this study, in collaboration with the researchers. The feedback from the researchers on the current prototype is presented, and ongoing revisions are outlined. We conclude with some of the challenges involved in developing such tangible visualizations for discovery.

In this paper, we introduce approaches to navigating and manipulating objects in a Collaborative Virtual Environment (CVE) that engage tangible objects and an interactive table interface. We also identify three design concerns that are common to physical-virtual connectivity for interaction with CVE systems. At last, we propose solutions to these issues within the context of CVEs.

In this paper, I propose that visualization should escape the traditional constraint of the screen and embrace the physical environment to realize more tangible interactions for manipulating digital information.

We introduce TwinSpace, a flexible software infrastructure for combining interactive workspaces and collaborative virtual worlds. Its design is grounded in the need to support deep connectivity and flexible mappings between virtual and real spaces to effectively support collaboration. This is achieved through a robust connectivity layer linking heterogeneous collections of physical and virtual devices and services, and a centralized service to manage and control mappings between physical and virtual. In this paper we motivate and present the architecture of TwinSpace, discuss our experiences and lessons learned in building a generic framework for collaborative cross-reality, and illustrate the architecture using two implemented examples that highlight its flexibility and range, and its support for rapid prototyping.

This paper presents Tangible Tracking Table, an interactive tabletop display, and Optical Chess, a strategy game. We discuss the design and implementation of both systems and report our evaluation game play sessions with young adults, with a special focus on how the Tangible Tracking Table enhances interaction over a point-and-click interface.

Many research efforts today explore how digitally augmented tables enable face-to-face interaction with digital content and applications. Yet the design of digital tables is still largely driven by the constraints and requirements of the underlying sensing technologies. In order to move digital tables into our real-world physical spaces, researchers need to work closely with architects and industrial designers in order to engage the knowledge and skills from a long history of physical design and fabrication in the creation of tabletop systems. This paper presents Architales, an interactive story table for gallery exhibition, developed as an experiment in physical/digital co-design. We describe the creation of the interactive table, tangible storytelling system, and story content, which evolved together in a closely unified design process, drawing on the skills from computing, media, design and architecture. We also describe lessons learned about the interdisciplinary design process and the creation of physical/digital artworks.

The Graphical User Interface (GUI) has created an efficient work environment for many applications. However, when users are confined by keyboards and mice, they lose the ability to interact with the virtual world using habits from the real world. Our research examine how emerging modes of authorship, such as wikis, can be used to generate new possibilities for bringing atoms and bits together for digital annotation. Our goal is to combine the everyday habits in reading books with emerging digital possibilities.