Gaze information provides indication of users focus which complements remote collaboration tasks, as distant users can see their partner’s focus. In this paper, we apply gaze for co-located collaboration, where users’ gaze locations are presented on the same display, to help collaboration between partners. We integrated various types of gaze indicators on the user interface of a collaborative search system, and we conducted two user studies to understand how gaze enhances coordination and communication between co-located users. Our results show that gaze indeed enhances co-located collaboration, but with a trade-off between visibility of gaze indicators and user distraction. Users acknowledged that seeing gaze indicators eases communication, because it let them be aware of their partner’s interests and attention. However, users can be reluctant to share their gaze information due to trust and privacy, as gaze potentially divulges their interests.

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The RELATE interaction model is designed to support spontaneous interaction of mobile users with devices and services in their environment. The model is based on spatial references that capture the spatial relationship of a user's device with other co-located devices. Spatial references are obtained by relative position sensing and integrated in the mobile user interface to spatially visualize the arrangement of discovered devices, and to provide direct access for interaction across devices. In this paper we discuss two prototype systems demonstrating the utility of the model in collaborative and mobile settings, and present a study on usability of spatial list and map representations for device selection.

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In this paper we present a new approach for cooperation between mobile smart objects and projector-camera systems to enable augmentation of the surface of objects with interactive projected displays. We investigate how a smart object's capability for self description and sensing can be used in cooperation with the vision capability of projector-camera systems to help locate, track and display information onto object surfaces in an unconstrained environment. Finally, we develop a framework that can be applied to distributed projector-camera systems, cope with varying levels of description knowledge and different sensors embedded in an object.

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If a mobile computing device knows how it is positioned and oriented in relation to other devices nearby, then it can provide enhanced support for multi-device and multi-user interactions. Existing systems that provide position information to mobile computers are reliant on externally deployed infrastructure, such as beacons or sensors in the environment. We introduce the Relate system, which provides fine-grained relative position information to co-located devices on the basis of peer-to-peer sensing, thus overcoming dependence on any external infrastructure. The system is realised as a hardware/software plug-in, using ultrasound for peer-to-peer sensing, USB to interface with standard mobile devices, and data abstraction and inferencing to map sensor data to a spatial model that maintains both quantitative and qualitative relationships. We present a set of services and applications to demonstrate the utility of the system. We report experimental results on the accuracy of the relative position and orientation estimates, and other aspects of system performance.

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Location information can be used to enhance interaction with mobile devices. While many location systems require instrumentation of the environment, we present a system that allows devices to measure their spatial relations in a true peer-to-peer fashion. The system is based on custom sensor hardware implemented as USB dongle, and computes spatial relations in real-time. In extension of this system we propose a set of spatialized widgets for incorporation of spatial relations in the user interface. The use of these widgets is illustrated in a number of applications, showing how spatial relations can be employed to support and streamline interaction with mobile devices.@en

Novel ubiquitous computing systems and applications which inevitably requires prototyping physical components are explored. Smart-Its are hardware and software components that augment physical objects with embedded processing and interaction to address the need. Smart-Its addresses the need to create embedded interactive systems that disappear from the foreground to become secondary to the physical objects with which people interact during everyday activities. The Smart-Its project aims to develop a platform for context-aware embedded systems and augmented artifacts.@en

The development of Smart-Its for building smart environments is discussed. Smart-Its are small, self-contained, stick-on computers that attach to everyday objects. These augmented objects become soft media, enabling dynamic digital relationships with users and each other. A Smart-Its consists of a core board with a wireless transceiver to let the device communicate with other Smart-Its, plus a sensor board that gives the Smart-Its data about its sorroundings. The major advantage of the system is that it allows designers and researchers to construct responsive or intelligent environments.@en

Ubiquitous computing is giving rise to applications that interact very closely with activity in the real world, usually involving instrumentation of environments. In contrast, we propose Cooperative Artefacts that are able to cooperatively assess their situation in the world, without need for supporting infrastructure in the environment The Cooperative Artefact concept is based on embedded domain knowledge, perceptual intelligence, and rule-based inference in movable artefacts. We demonstrate the concept with design and implementation of augmented chemical containers that are able to detect and alert potentially hazardous situations concerning their storage.

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Ambient intelligent applications require applications to recognise user activity calmly in the background, typically by instrumentation of environments. In contrast, we propose the concept of Cooperative Artefacts (CAs) to instrument single artefacts that cooperate with each other to acquire knowledge about their situation in the world. CAs do not rely on external infrastructure as they implement their architectural components, i.e. perceptual intelligence, domain knowledge and a rule-based inference engine, on embedded devices. We describe the design and implementation of the CA concept on an embedded systems platform and present a case study that demonstrates the potential of the CA approach for activity recognition. In the case study we track surface-based activity of users by augmenting a table and household goods.

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In this paper we describe the design and architecture of an adaptive proactive environment in which information, which reflects the communal interests of current inhabitants, is proactively displayed on large-scale public displays. Adaptation is achieved through implicit communication between the environment and personal sensor devices worn by users. These devices, called Pendle, serve two purposes: they store and make available to the environment user preferences, and they allow users to override the environment's proactive behavior by means of simple gestures. The result is a smooth integration of environment-controlled interaction (experienced by the user as implicit interaction, triggered by their presence) and user-controlled explicit interaction. Initial results show that user-controlled adaptation leads to an engaging user experience that is unobtrusive and not distracting. Crown

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This paper presents a low-cost and practical approach to achieve basic input using a tactile cube-shaped object, augmented with a set of sensors, processor, batteries and wireless communication. The algorithm we propose combines a finite state machine model incorporating prior knowledge about the symmetrical structure of the cube, with maximum likelihood estimation using multivariate Gaussians. The claim that the presented solution is cheap, fast and requires few resources, is demonstrated by implementation in a small-sized, microcontroller-driven hardware configuration with inexpensive sensors. We conclude with a few prototyped applications that aim at characterizing how the familiar and elementary shape of the cube allows it to be used as an interaction device.@en

The combination of personal mobile devices and mobile ad hoc networks for mobile collaboration was discussed. The possible application scenarios include informal social interactions in public places, opportunistic meetings in office settings and educational multi-user applications for use in classrooms. The success of ad hoc networks largely depends on the applications and social benefits they provide.

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