In this paper, we describe Kimura, an augmented office environment to support conorion multitasking practices. Previous systems, such as Rooms, limit users by constraining the interaction to the desktop monitor. In Kimura, we leverage interactive projected peripheral displays to support the perusal, manipulation and awareness of background activities. Furthermore, each activity is represented by a montage comprised of images from current and past interaction on the desktop. These montages help remind the user of past actions, and serve as a springboard for ambient context-aware reminders and notifications.

This paper combines spatial hypermedia with techniques from Geographical Information Systems and location based services. We describe the Topos 3D Spatial Hypermedia system and how it has been developed to support geospatial hypermedia coupling hypermedia information to model representations of real world buildings and landscapes. The prototype experiments are primarily aimed at supporting architects and landscape architects in their work on site. Here it is useful to be able to superimpose and add different layers of information to, e.g. a landscape depending on the task being worked on. We introduce a number of central concepts to understand the relation between hypermedia and spatial information management. The distinction between metaphorical (and abstract) versus literal (and concrete) spaces is introduced together with a workspace composition semantics and a distinction between direct and indirect navigation. Finally, we conclude with a number of research issues which are central to the future development of geo-spatial hypermedia, including design issues in combining metaphorical and literal hypermedia space, as well as a discussion of the role of spatial parsing in a geo-spatial context.

collaborations

While CSCW research has mostly been focusing on desktop applications there is a growing interest on ubiquitous and tangible computing. We present ethnographic fieldwork and prototypes to address how tangible computing can support collaboration and learning. The student projects at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna is a relevant case to study, for the variety and distributed character of the cooperative arrangements, and for the richness of interactions with heterogeneous physical artefacts. After describing current practices, we propose qualities of the environment that support collaboration and learning: creative density, multiple travels in materials and representations, re-programming (seeing things differently), and configurability. We then describe several prototypes that address in various ways these qualities. Finally we discuss how tangible and ubiquitous computing supports collaboration in our case by providing intermediary spaces, and dynamic objectifications.

We are investigating the design of digital 3D interaction technology embedded in a physical environment. We take as point of departure complex, collaborative industrial design projects involving heterogeneous sets of documents, and physical as well as digital 3D models. The paper introduces our notion of interactive room technology supporting industrial design and describes two examples of this technology: the Designers Workbench and the 3D Whiteboard, both integrated in a common distributed and collaborative infrastructure. The paper also describes a number of new easy-to-grab and lightweight interaction devices being experimented with in the interactive room environment. The interactive room technologies have all been designed with the requirement that they must seamlessly integrate both into the physical and into the digital work environment, while providing new affordances for industrial design work. Keywords: CSCW, Interactive rooms, 3D Environments, interaction devices, design support 1

Drawing on ethnographic studies of (landscape) architects at work, and interdisciplinary cooperation with them, this paper presents a human-centered approach to information visualization. A 3D collaborative electronic workspace allows people to configure, save, and browse arrangements of heterogeneous work materials. A network of links between parts of documents and objects underpins this spatio-temporal order. Both spatial arrangements and links are created and maintained as an integral part of ongoing work with the ‘live ’ documents and objects that populate these arrangements. The result is an extension of the physical information space of the architects ’ studio that utilizes the potential of electronic data storage, visualization, and network technologies to support work with information in context.

In many environments the landscape of space and artefacts is evolving and changing with the tasks at hand. Integrating digital media and computation in these environments has to take into account that users will configure space, functions and tools according to the situation, organizing use in unexpected ways. In this article we present and discuss how the issue of configurability is dealt with in a series of field trials with design students. The aim of these trials was to construct for architecture and interaction design students a mixed media environment for inspirational learning. We give examples from two rounds of field trials. In the first round emphasize was given to introduce components integrating dynamic digital media into the design studio practice of the students. One of the important findings from this first round was that integration becomes particularly useful when it facilitates the creation of composite representations called mixed objects blending digital and non-digital media in one design artifact. We did however also find that configurability has to be supported at different levels (infrastructures, artefacts, functions) and across physical and digital realm. From the second round of field trials examples are presented of component assemblies that provide a tangible formatting of the mixed media environment suitable for design work and two different approaches to end-user configuration of these component

Abstract: While electronic documents are increasingly prevalent in the workplace there are many texts – such as books, magazines and letters – which are not easily available in an electronic form. Since many electronic document systems depend upon documents existing exclusively, or at least predominantly, in electronic form, this suggests an opportunity for document scanning technology. However, conventional scanners are limited by their large size and relatively cumbersome usage. Using a diary-based methodology, this study investigated the use of a new portable document scanning technology. In this paper we explore the need for document scanning, and how this portable device was used by our study participants. Document scanning is shown to be a goal-driven activity – individuals did not scan just to have an electronic version of a document, but to do something with electronic documents, in particular, distributing documents to others, archiving documents and reusing documents. The small design of this device also enabled a mode of usage distinct from that of conventional flatbed scanners. Its size meant that the device was a personal, rather than shared technology; that it could be easily stored when not being used; and that the scanner could be carried to the materials to be scanned, rather than the materials brought to the scanner. We discuss this interaction with the local environment as a case of “local mobility ” – this is less to do with portability but with how a device’s small size can make it fit better into work environments.