It's Mine, Don't Touch!

Abstract

We present data from detailed observations of CityWall, a large multi-touch display installed in a central location in Helsinki, Finland. During eight days of installation, 1199 persons interacted with the system in various social configurations. Videos of these encounters were examined qualitatively as well as quantitatively based on human coding of events. The data convey phenomena that arise uniquely in public use: crowding, massively parallel interaction, teamwork, games, negotiations of transitions and handovers, conflict management, gestures and overt remarks to co-present people, and "marking" the display for others. We analyze how public availability is achieved through social learning and negotiation, why interaction becomes performative and, finally, how the display restructures the public space. The multi-touch feature, gesturebased interaction, and the physical display size contributed differentially to these uses. Our findings on the social organization of the use of public displays can be useful for designing such systems for urban environments.

Creating Your Bubble

“…However, these behaviours have largely been observed in private or semi-private settings such as offices or laboratories, and often around a shared tabletop [26]. To address this lack of field research, a number of researchers have deployed LPDs in public [3,5,20,22,30]. This research has explored how to design for multi-user interaction for indoor installations [22], how pedestrian traffic is shaped by the introduction of LPDs to public spaces [30], how displays should respond to approaching users [15], and how on-screen content can be used to manipulate the position of users in-front of the display [3].…”

“…This research has explored how to design for multi-user interaction for indoor installations [22], how pedestrian traffic is shaped by the introduction of LPDs to public spaces [30], how displays should respond to approaching users [15], and how on-screen content can be used to manipulate the position of users in-front of the display [3]. However, little research Notably, Peltonen et al [20] observed interaction with CityWall, a photo-browsing application installed in a shop window over an eight day period, and through a mixed-methods analysis describe aspects of interaction such as turn-taking, expressive on-screen gestures, and concluding actions. During their deployment Peltonen et al observed nearly 1200 people interact with CityWall in over 500 sessions, in which a majority of interactions (72%) involved pairs of individuals.…”

“…Recent work has developed descriptive theories such as proxemics [2,6] territoriality [25] to facilitate the use of individuals' positions to detect social relationships between nearby users, often leveraging low-cost and easily deployed sensors such as Microsoft's Kinect™. While the importance of these factors have been motivated by many studies in the field [3,5,20,22,30], guidance for how these relationships should translate into practical design considerations is still lacking. That is, how do one's surroundings and task influence their 'personal bubble' when approaching a public display?…”

Subtle and Personal Workspace Requirements for Visual Search Tasks on Public Displays

“…Example interactions include looking up a colleague in an office directory, navigating a school campus with a provided map, or interacting with a museum exhibit. To support interactions with large displays, researchers have explored underlying theories of human behaviour such as proxemics and territoriality [2,12], developed interaction techniques for multiple users and large displays [14], and observed the use of prototypes in public spaces [10].…”

Promoted Motion-Sensing Gestural Interaction by Adapting to Group Users' Spatial Movements

“…It becomes more difficult for users standing aside to reach the other side of display [2]; furthermore, the distribution in users' standing position incurs inequity in access efficiency and precision between users [25]. In public interactions, it has been demonstrated that users standing in central positions have priority to the other users in interaction efficiency and precision on large displays [20,24]. It has been verified that laser pointing interaction had a higher precision in central position than in peripheral position [19].…”