Oct 13 2013
Collaborative Surfaces
Interactive Surfaces are the new face of computing: smartphones, tablets, multi-touch walls and tables. Our research in this area has a focus on surface software to support collaborative work. We started by building collaborative games on multi-touch tables, then wall displays for agile software development teams, and now our main focus in analysis work, especially for security operations centers. We study the work environments and develop new surface applications to support the collaborative work.
The technology was use has also changed over the years. We started with home-built multi-touch tables, and used first Flash and then PyMT as software frameworks. We later used the Smart Table, and MT4J. Recently, however, we have used PQ Labs frames on large televisions, but as walls and tables, and our software is written in JavaScript to run in web browsers. Using this technology, we make our applications persistent so that the same instance of the same application can be used on multiple surfaces, whether walls, tables, tablet, or smartphones. We are especially interesting in using this approach for co-located collaboration using multiple devices.
Research Partners
Faculty
- Dr. Robert Biddle, Professor in Computer Science and Cognitive Science
- Dr. Judith M. Brown, Mitacs/CA Post-Doctoral Fellow
Current Graduate Students
- Jeff Wilson, Masters Candidate in Computer Science
- Ravina Samaroo, Masters Candidate in Human-Computer Interaction
- Peter Simonyi, Masters Candidate in Computer Science
Current Undergraduate Students
- Miran Mirza, BCS Honours Student