Large Display Workshop - UBC - Tony Tang - How and why wall and table displays will be used

We use them every day: programmes, designers, etc have them
Windows 98 had 9 displays because of Brady Bunch according to Tony
bezels and things between provide means of organizing
What happens when we have large displays where we didn't have them before?
Large displays can change the way we work with computers and people
Shadow Reaching:
The computer sees us as 1 eye with a finger, mouse pointer i.e. x-y coordinate, not the rich way we interact with people
embody users in large displays
we've interacted with shadows our entire lives
so that can help us
use our entire body as interaction mechanism
What if we had cameras that can figure out where our hands are (touch and drag demo)
Problems: too large, can't reach etc.
So instead, follow shadow around
More fluid
can also use rendered shadows instead of physical shadows
Surface Affordances:
what are large displays good for?
We do use large displays aka "surfaces": whiteboards, flip charts, etc
Observed teams of engineers using these surfaces
Surfaces have to manage info, visibiliity and info-suface coupling
management - how easy to group
easy on whiteboard
not easy to add all info
visibility:
horizontal vs. vertical
what if screen was on table instead of at front of room
coupling:
how easy is it to manipulate info independent of surface
e.g. you can tear flip chart, and move elsewhere, so less coupled than whiteboard info
the problem is not how to build but
Really understanding useful apps and how can we use them to work together
On table top displays, reaching is still a problem