Publication Details

Download

Andreas Butz, Tobias Höllerer, Clifford Beshers, Steven Feiner, Blair MacIntyre
An Experimental Hybrid User Interface for Collaboration
Columbia University, Department of Computer Science, Technical Report CUCS-005-99

We present EMMIE (Environment Management for Multiuser Information Environments), an experimental user interface to a collaborative augmented environment. Users share a 3D virtual space and manipulate virtual objects representing information to be discussed. This approach not only allows for cooperation in a shared physical space, but also addresses telecollaboration in physically separate but virtually shared spaces. We refer to EMMIE as a hybrid user interface because it combines a variety of different technologies and techniques, including virtual elements such as 3D widgets, and physical objects such as tracked displays and input devices. Seethrough headworn displays overlay the virtual environment on the physical environment. Our research prototype includes additional 2D and 3D displays, ranging from palmsized to wallsized, allowing the most appropriate one to be used for any task. Objects can be moved among displays (including across dimensionalities) through drag & drop. In analogy to 2D window managers, we describe a prototype implementation of a shared 3D environment manager that is distributed across displays, machines, and operating systems. We also discuss two methods we are exploring for handling information privacy in such an environment.