1. University of Illinois at Chicago Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) Kyoung S. Park Supporting Scientific Collaboration in Amplified Collaboration Environments

2. University of Illinois at Chicago Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) Established in 1973 Joint Program: Art and Computer Science First Star Wars film in 1977 Research: –Visualization –CAVE Research and Development –High-speed Optical Networks –Tele-Immersion –Amplified Collaboration Environments

3. University of Illinois at Chicago Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) Amplified Collaboration Environment Amplified Collaboration Environments (ACEs) are distributed war rooms which are enhanced with advanced visualization displays and computation (Leigh02). Goal is to enhance collaboration among distantly located teams of experts gathered to intensively solve problems. Human Factors study over ACEs is intended to understand how people work in display-rich environments, which consist of having every wall be an active display.

4. University of Illinois at Chicago Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) Motivation: Maximally Co-located War rooms War rooms (Olson&Olson00) Study of 9 project rooms Comparison of war room groups with norm showed performance of war room group well above corporate average (Teasley00) Characteristics of war rooms: –Persistence of information –Spatiality of human interaction and deictic reference –Group awareness –Immediacy of access to information and experts

5. University of Illinois at Chicago Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) The Continuum : Amplified Collaboration Environment for Scientific Investigation To develop integrated ubiquitous tools and environments for collaborative scientific research in which collaborators can visualize, analyze and solve scientific problems EVL’s Continuum consists of the number of modular technologies: –Video Conferencing –Immersion –Large Scale Data Visualization and Distribution –Annotation –Wireless Interaction

6. University of Illinois at Chicago Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) The Continuum at EVL Tiled Display (LCD tiles for high resolution, or plasma screens) Passive stereo Immersive Display Access Grid Plasma Touch-screen (annotations)

7. University of Illinois at Chicago Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) Access Grid Multi-sites conferencing – http://www.accessgrid.org/ cameras desktop ambient mics speakers

8. University of Illinois at Chicago Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) Passive Stereoscopic Immersive Display Tele-Immersion content distribution (Leigh01) Widespread adoption by GeoWall Consortium for research & education in the Geosciences (Nayak02)

9. University of Illinois at Chicago Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) Tiled LCD Display Treat tiled display as a large digital corkboard on which information can be posted permanently for long term collaborative work SpaceGlider as a remote control of all Continuum displays as if one big screen (Chowdhry02) Switcher to jump between screens (Leigh02)

10. University of Illinois at Chicago Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) Collaborative Annotation Shared persistent whiteboard and flipcharts through plasma touchscreen

11. University of Illinois at Chicago Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) Continuum Design Study Iterative improvement of 2 networked Continuum spaces (Park03) Observe and explore design issues for interaction of lots of displays and multiple simultaneous inputs in ACE Observe how display-rich environments affect group awareness and parallelism in distance collaboration

12. University of Illinois at Chicago Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) Study Methods 1 pilot study and 4 iterative design studies with system configuration variations Tiled display was main display used 19 students (all subjects participated in two studies) A group of 3~4 students performed a set of collaborative scientific tasks: –Web-based search and information fusion –Information visualization of multivariate data –Collaborative brainstorming and design Measures –Observation; Video recording; Survey; Interview; Logging

13. University of Illinois at Chicago Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) Initial Use of the Continuum – Pilot Study (Distributed) Access Grid (full-AG setting; mini-AG setting) Shared Whiteboard Focus Display (for group discussion) Distributed Corkboard Tiled Display with Switcher 1 Input Control per Site

14. University of Illinois at Chicago Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) Initial Use of the Continuum – Pilot Study (Co-located) Shared Whiteboard Focus Display with KVM switcher Distributed Corkboard Tiled Display (1x4 format) with Switcher 1 Input Control per User

15. University of Illinois at Chicago Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) Pilot Study Observations Sense of ownership for the resources Tiled display offered partitioned group workspace while maintaining necessary awareness between distributed users Tiled display was useful for multiple linked views and side-by-side comparison Flexible tiled display that can project up to single large high-resolution data visualization Treat Continuum’s displays as one big screen Need to provide input control per individual

16. University of Illinois at Chicago Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) Evaluation of Seamless Distributed Corkboard – Study 1 Access Grid (full-AG setting; mini-AG setting) Shared Whiteboard Seamless Distributed Corkboard Tiled Display using SpaceGlider (to support the illusion of one seamless display) 1 Input Control per User Physical Layout

17. University of Illinois at Chicago Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) Study 1 Observations Seamless distributed corkboard tiled display –Privacy concern (for locking individual workspace) –Treated as one seamless display; mouse conflicts –Group shared workspace –Public visibility helped group focused work –Casual glancing; but, often checked task progress –Data transfer between displays (copy-and-paste; read-and-write collaboration; use of paper) –Need close-up view Shared resource sharing over whiteboard Need more microphones and cameras in mini-AG setting!

18. University of Illinois at Chicago Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) Evaluation of Seamless Distributed Corkboard with Personal Displays – Study 2 Access Grid (full-AG setting; improved mini- AG setting) Shared Whiteboard Seamless Distributed Corkboard Tiled Display using SpaceGlider (between tiled display and whiteboard) Tablet w/screen echo (to support close up view)

19. University of Illinois at Chicago Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) Study 2 Observations Seamless distributed corkboard with personal displays –Mixed: Tablet as individual workspace and Tiled Display as group workspace –Less casual glancing; task awareness –Public visibility helped mixed focus collaboration –Privacy concern (to focus assigned individual work) –Treated as one seamless display; mouse conflicts –Tablet helped proximity but raised size issue –Users felt no continuity of the workspace Use of audio/video for shared resource sharing Increased remote interaction; but, video overload Read-and-write collaboration over AG

20. University of Illinois at Chicago Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) Evaluation of Discrete Flexible Tiled Display with Personal Displays – Study 3 Access Grid (full-AG setting; improved mini- AG setting) Shared Whiteboard Discrete Flexible Shared Tiled Display (with different background colors) with Switcher Tablet w/screen echo Layout Changes

21. University of Illinois at Chicago Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) Study 3 Observations Discrete flexible tiled display with personal displays –Full-screen used for group discussion and personal uses (helped size problem) –Users can still work on Tablet while full-screen –Fewer mouse conflicts; no seamless display –Putting displays together helped copy-and-paste –Provided less public visibility; less casual glancing –Privacy concern (for personal thing - email) –Still copy-and-paste; read-and-write collab.over AG –Shared resource turn-taking over whiteboard Finished faster; More casual interaction with remote users; Increased WB usages; Higher user satisfaction

22. University of Illinois at Chicago Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) Evaluation of Presentation-model Display with Personal Displays – Study 4 Access Grid (full-AG setting; improved mini-AG setting) Shared Whiteboard Presentation-model Display (to provide more privacy by sharing only single individual’s workspace at a time) with Switcher Tablet w/screen echo

23. University of Illinois at Chicago Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) Study 4 Observations Presentation-model display with personal displays –Provided more privacy but no casual glancing –‘Show me’ pattern by less visibility –Wanted distributed corkboard back! to glance other’s work (i.e. awareness) and to display data side-by-side (i.e. resolution issue) –No privacy concern –No mouse conflict by no control sharing –Disappeared read-and-write collaboration over AG Shared resource sharing over Presentation Display Quality degraded; Limited interaction with remote users; Decreased WB usages; Low user satisfaction

24. University of Illinois at Chicago Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) Discussion: Summary of Study Design System Configurations PilotStudy1Study2Study3Study4 Individual vs. Group workspace Group Mixed Individual VisibilityPublic Less Public More private AwarenessCasual glance Less casual glance No glance Seamless vs. Discrete display Discret e Seamless Discrete Resolution, size, proximity & layout Close up display Fullscreen; Layout Reduced resolution Resource sharing pattern observed InputWhiteboardWB; Fullscreen Presentati on Display

25. University of Illinois at Chicago Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) Discussion: Communication Audio –Overhearing –> provide microphones next to all displays –Collaboration halts by audio fails; but not easily repaired by using text chat Video –How to position/angle camera? –Multiple video sources useful? –Wall-size video display useful? –How to arrange multiple video sources in the display?

26. University of Illinois at Chicago Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) Discussion: Shared Workspace Multiple users interaction over group workspace –Ownership pattern –> Need locking –Turn-taking pattern –> Need identification Individual/Group Workspace –Public workspace provides information fully visible and supports group awareness –Presentation-model display (Private->Public) showed visibility problem –Individual workspace needed to be visible for collaborative work! –Need close up display for individual focus work –Group co-reference should always be visible

27. University of Illinois at Chicago Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) Discussion: Display-rich Environment User Interface Seamless vs. Discrete Display –SpaceGlider is good for 1 user; but, many collisions for multiple users (mainly by accidental intrusion) –Switcher avoids collisions between multiple users; but, not scalable to many tiles Data Transfer between Displays –Copy-and-paste (only with search task) –Move windows between displays (only with seamless display) –Used various channels (e.g. tablet, paper, verbal) –Putting displays closer together helped copy-and- paste

28. University of Illinois at Chicago Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) Discussion: Parallelism/Awareness Task Parallelism –Task types (Mixed-focus vs. Group focused work) –Group work styles (Divided work vs. Work together) –Provide individual workspace –Need awareness when user’s working in parallel Group Awareness –Shared resource sharing awareness –> Need identification –Task awareness –> Need group coordination tool –Awareness by overhearing and casual glancing –Overhearing and displaying spatiality of human interaction over AG

29. University of Illinois at Chicago Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) Conclusions Lessons learned: –Provide individual workspace for parallel work –Maximize visibility to enhance group awareness and interaction for distributed teams –Provide close up display for focus work –Support easy transition between individual work and group work –Group co-reference should always be visible Improvements: –Need identification for shared resources sharing –Need coordination tool

30. University of Illinois at Chicago Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) Future Directions Further human factors research on Amplified Collaboration Environments (ACEs) –Exploring design issues of shared workspace –Long distance collaboration – e.g. EVL and TRECC –Exploring organizational or social factors Research on intensive computing and data mining over ACE Developing advanced visualization and collaboration technology to support ACE

31. University of Illinois at Chicago Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) Building a Collaborative Bridge – The Continuum @TRECC

32. University of Illinois at Chicago Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) Varrier : Tiled Auto-Stereoscopic LCD Display Use barrier strip material in front of LCD to create autostereoscopic image. 4 horizontal pixels to create 1 stereoscopic pixel- oversampling to reduce aliasing. Use low-latency tracking to eliminate pseudo-stereo.

33. University of Illinois at Chicago Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) References Park, K., Renambot, L., Leigh, J., Johnson, A., The Impact of Display-rich Environments for Enhancing Task Parallelism and Group Awareness in Advanced Collaborative Environments, In Workshop on Advanced Collaboration Environments, Seattle, WA, June 22-24, 2003. Leigh, J., Johnson, A., Park, K., Nayak, A., Singh, R., Chowdry, V., Amplified Collaboration Environments, In the proceedings of VR Grid Workshop, November 26, 2002, Daejun, Korea, pp. 77-85. Park, K., Cho, Y., Krishnaprasad, N., Scharver, C., Lewis, M., Leigh, J., Johnson, A., CAVERNsoft G2: A Toolkit for High Performance Tele-Immersive Collaboration, Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on Virtual Reality Software and Technology 2000, Oct 22-25, 2000, Seoul, Korea, pp. 8-15. Park, K., Kapoor, A., Leigh, J., Lessons Learned from Employing Multiple Perspectives In a Collaborative Virtual Environment for Visualizing Scientific Data, Proceedings of ACM CVE 2000, San Francisco, CA, 09/10/00-09/12/00, pp. 73-82. Park, K., Kenyon, R., Effects of Network Characteristics on Human Performance in a Collaborative Virtual Environment, Proceedings of IEEE VR `99, Houston, TX, 03/13/99 - 03/17/99.

34. University of Illinois at Chicago Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) Thank You For more information: –www.evl.uic.edu/cavern/continuum This work is supported in part by: –The National Science Foundation –The Office of Naval Research through the Technology Research Education and Commercialization Center (TRECC) –Microsoft Corporation