A field study of a multi-touch display at a conference

Abstract

Large interactive displays are increasingly used in public spaces. Yet, it is still a challenge to understand how people behave when faced with such displays in their real life, not only when they are used for entertainment (or advertising), but also when they mediate more purposeful tasks. Do people feel shy? Are they willing to interact? Are they satisfied with the services offered and will they come back to use them again? To answer such questions, these systems have to be evaluated in the field so as to understand their actual impact on users in the real life. This paper first introduces an initial evaluation framework, aimed at highlighting some of the variables involved in understanding the impact of large display installations. Then, it applies the framework to analyze users' behavior and their experience with a large display installed at an international conference. Results highlighted that people showed greater interest in those services that, despite a lower appeal, supported them in carrying out useful tasks.

An Acceptance Test for Assistive Robots

“…These effects depend strongly on subjective and objective parameters. Extending Ardito’s research [ 23 ], the changes to the interacting condition come from four factors: environmental factors: where the experiment is performed and the physical characteristics; individual factors: what are the individual expectations of the robot; software factors: functionalities available and performance; and, hardware factors: robot performance, appearance, or shape for interacting. …”

“…These effects depend strongly on subjective and objective parameters. Extending Ardito's research [23], the changes to the interacting condition come from four factors: This research avoids the environmental factors of our acceptance tests. It focuses on those associated with the individual and his/her perception of the robot (software and hardware).…”

Interaction with Large Displays

“…The users also declared that they would have liked the possibility of manipulating photos and videos together with other people. A system using a 46 inch wide LCD multi-touch display was installed during a four-day international conference in the transit zone from the conference hall to the foyer where coffee breaks were held, so that people could comfortably interact with it while they were not busy in the conference sessions [Ardito et al 2012]. Three applications offered different services to conference participants: 1) Taxi Sharing to book a taxi/shuttle or share it with other people; 2) Conference Photos to visualize photos of the conference available in FlickR; 3) Interactive Program to interact with the conference program to gather various information about the sessions and the presented papers.…”

Pupils’ collaboration around a large display

“…The location strongly affects the behavior of people in the environment around the display. In semi-public locations, most people know each other and could thus be less inhibited to work together [23]. If the display is installed in a location where people do not know each other, an initial time span is observed in which people are a bit reluctant to approach the display [24], but, once they start interacting, in most cases they soon socialize and collaborate with each other.…”