Synchronized Mixed Presence Data-Conferencing Using Large-Scale Shared Displays

Marrinan, T., Renambot, L., Leigh, J., Forbes, A., Jones, S., Johnson, A.

Location: Niagara Falls, ON, Canada
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2992154.2996780
PDF: marrinan_synchronizedconferencing_iss2016.pdf

Caption: Mixed presence collaboration using the dataduplication technique. The yellow highlight in each photo shows the shared portal on each shared display with synchronized applications and pointer icons.

Real world group-to-group collaboration often occurs between partially distributed interdisciplinary teams, with each discipline working in a unique environment suited for its needs. Groupware must be flexible so that it can be incorporated into a variety of workspaces in order to successfully facilitate this type of mixed presence collaboration. We have developed two new techniques for sharing and synchronizing multi-user applications between heterogeneous large-scale shared displays. The first new technique partitions displays into a perfectly mirrored public space and a local private space. The second new technique enables user-controlled partial synchronization, where different attributes of an application can be synchronized or controlled independently. This paper presents two main contributions of our work: 1) identifying deficiencies in current groupware for interacting with data during mixed presence collaboration, and 2) developing two multi-user data synchronization techniques to address these deficiencies and extend current collaborative infrastructure for large-scale shared displays.

Author Keywords: Mixed presence collaboration; computer-supported cooperative work; large-scale displays; multi-user interaction; data synchronization.

ACM Classification Keywords: H.5.3. Information Interfaces and Presentation: Group and Organization Interfaces: Computer-supported cooperative work, synchronous interaction.