Identity Awareness on Tabletop Computers

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Abstract

Most multi-user horizontal interactive surfaces, or tabletop computers, cannot determine which user has performed a given action. These tabletops are less capable than identity-aware (IA) tabletops, which can. However, current research on IA is scarce and speculative. Notably, no one has rigorously compared the power of IA and non-IA devices, so evidence that IA enables groups to work better together is lacking. My thesis establishes an identity-aware perspective for interactive surface design. First, I have constructed an experiment to determine that IA can improve the effectiveness of small collaborative groups. A second experiment compares several emulation techniques designed to bring the benefits of IA to non-IA devices. I explore IA in detail through examples, present some open problems involving IA, and discuss promising solutions. Taken as a whole, this document serves as a comprehensive introduction to the study of identity awareness and a springboard for future research on the topic.

Citation

Grant Partridge. 2011. Identity Awareness on Tabletop Computers. Master's thesis, Department of Computer Science, University of Manitoba.

Bibtext Entry

@MASTERSTHESIS { GrantPartridgeMScThesis,
    AUTHOR = { Grant Partridge },
    TITLE = { Identity Awareness on Tabletop Computers },
    SCHOOL = { Department of Computer Science, University of Manitoba },
    ADDRESS = { Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada },
    YEAR = { 2011 },
    MONTH = { May },
}