An interactive whiteboard for immersive telecollaboration

Abstract

In this paper, we present CollaBoard, a collaboration system that gives a higher feeling of presence to the local auditory and to the persons on the remote site. By overlaying the remote life-sized video image atop the shared artifacts on the common whiteboard and by keeping the whiteboard's content editable at both sites, it creates a higher involvement of the remote partners into a collaborative teamwork. All deictic gestures of the remote user are shown in the right context with the shared artifacts on the common whiteboard and thus preserve their meaning. The paper describes the hardware setup, as well as the software implementation and the performed user studies with two identical interconnected systems.

ImmerseBoard

“…Kunz et al, in Collaboard, extracted the remote participant from video and used background subtraction for showing attention [18]. Uchihashi et al proposed a system for mixing remote locations using stereo cameras that can show the touch position of the remote person [28].…”

Integrating Pointing Gesture Detection for Enhancing Brainstorming Meetings Using Kinect and PixelSense

“…deictic gestures pointing out a shared artifact can be correctly interpreted by the remote collaborator. To improve the recognition of users, CollaBoard [20] [21], exploiting polarized LC light emission, uses polarizing filters in front of the camera in order to segment a person in front of a highly dynamic background on an LC-screen.…”

Interaction Prediction for Content Synchronization of Net-based Shared Workspaces

“…In case of painting applications it is, moreover, reasonable to assume that strokes are not manipulated afterwards by the remote station. On real time synchronized systems like ClearBoard [6], CollaBoard [7], or VideoArms [8] it is, however, crucial to keep the digital content synchronized, since the strokes are shown in real time. The digital content must already be exchanged while the user is sketching, since a video of the user is shown on top if the digital content transferring deictic gestures.…”

“…The video and audio link is provided using Skype [13]. The digital content on the screen is shared between the two remote stations in real time by the CollaBoard-Software [7]. The software supports sketching and displaying of image objects.…”