The team will develop a fun and engaging trans-surface application using 4 iPhones and an iPad to facilitate sharing photos. Contexts could vary from families sharing digital photos around a table to distributed sharing in a crowded environment. Creative activity contexts are highly encouraged.

Students will investigate methods of bridging the two modalities (iPhone private display & public surface) into a coherent interface ecosystem. Issues involving information transfer from one device to another, while maintaining a consistent state will arise. Students should also consider the physical and information gap that exists between the two devices, and how that will influence the experience. A review of the prior work will aid in finding a good solution to these problems. You should also consider the role of interpersonal interactions within the context of the activity. Does interacting with the devices draw players attention away from other participants in the activity? How will the activity be augmented with the addition of the linked digital devices? Understanding the different levels of communication inherent in the activity that you choose is key.

The team will study relevant literature on Computer Supported Collaborative Work (CSCW) specifically regarding private and public spaces for human-computer interaction and visualization. The readings will make the students aware of research issues involved in multimodal interaction of teams. They will develop and analyze various forms of interaction within the context of their proposed project. The application developed will leverage the novel features of the provided hardware and software to explore new interactions between participants.

bonus objectives

• incorporation of iPhone sensors into the design - your application could incorporate things like the built-in accelerometer, compass, etc. The interaction must go beyond a trivial use of the sensors, and really add to the experience to qualify for extra credit. Keep in mind the more obscure sensors such as the proximity sensors.
• augmented reality integration - Using the iPhone AR toolkit, incorporate augmented reality in your system. This could include fiducial markers on each iPhone, or other tangible markers incorporated into the environment.

required readings

• Kerne, A., Hamilton, W., and Toups Dugas, P. O. Culturally Based Design: Embodying Trans-Surface Information Exchange in Rummy. Accepted at the Conference on Computer Supported Collaborative Work (CSCW) 2012.
• Ames, M., Eckles, D., Naaman, M., Spasojevic, M., and Van House, N. Requirements for Mobile Photoware..Journal of Personal and Ubiquitous Computing vol. 14(2), February 2010.
• Ahern, S., King, S., Qu, H., and Davis, M.PhotoRouter: destination-centric mobile media messaging..Proceedings of the 13th annual ACM international conference on Multimedia
• Bader, T., Heck, A., and Beyerer, J. Lift-and-drop: crossing boundaries in a multi-display environment by Airlift. Proceedings of the International Conference on Advanced Visual Interfaces. 2010. pp. 129–146
• Hinckley, K., Ramos, G., Guimbretiere, F., Baudisch, P., and Smith, M.Stitching: pen gestures that span multiple displays. Proceedings of the International Conference on Advanced Visual Interfaces. 2004. pp. 23–31
• Rekimoto, J.Pick-and-drop: a direct manipulation technique for multiple computer environments. Proceedings of the 10th annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology. 2004. pp. 31–39
• Meredith Ringel Morris, Anthony Cassanego, Andreas Paepcke, Terry Winograd, Ann Marie Piper, Anqi Huang, Mediating Group Dynamics through Tabletop Interface Design, IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, vol. 26, no. 5, pp. 65–73
• Morris, M. R., Paepcke, A., Winograd, T., and Stamberger, J. 2006. TeamTag: exploring centralized versus replicated controls for co-located tabletop groupware. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 1273–1282.
• Khaled, R., Barr, P., Johnston, H., and Biddle, R. 2009. Let's clean up this mess: exploring multi-touch collaborative play. In Proceedings of the 27th international Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems p4441–4446
• Dachselt, R. and Buchholz, R. 2009. Natural throw and tilt interaction between mobile phones and distant displays. In Proceedings of the 27th international Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (Boston, MA, USA, April 04 - 09, 2009). CHI EA '09. p3253–3258.

technical resources

• iPhone OS reference library
• OODSS Reference (Bluetooth Communication Tutorial Comming Soon)
• Cocos2D for iPhone

project resources

• 4x iPhone 3GS
• iPad WiFi
• 8-core Mac Pro /w Snow Leopard

project-specific deliverables

Activity Analysis

Write a critical breakdown and analysis of the activity that you are developing the proposed trans-surface application to support or facilitate. If possible you should conduct this activity yourselves with physical artifacts (photos).

Visual aids (diagrams, flow charts, screenshots, photographs, etc.) will be essential. The breakdown should address the following in a narrative (not outline) format:

1. what information is available in the activity
2. what information is visible to whom and at what times?
3. through what means is information transferred or communicated between participants
4. representations: how is the information encoded
5. social interaction / rules (implicit rules)

Project Plan (addendum)

• In your project plan, reflect on your activity analysis and discuss it. Your project plan should address the following questions:
  1. How did what you learned from the analysis inform your design?
  2. What design elements (from the literature) are you employing? Justify your decisions.