Reach-Through-the-Screen: A New Metaphor for Remote Collaboration

Abstract

For some years, our group at FX Palo Alto Laboratory has been developing technologies to support meeting recording, collaboration, and videoconferencing. This paper presents several systems that use video as an active interface, allowing remote devices and information to be accessed "through the screen." For example, SPEC enables collaborative and automatic camera control through an active video window. The NoteLook system allows a user to grab an image from a computer display, annotate it with digital ink, then drag it to that or a different display. The ePIC system facilitates natural control of multi-display and multi-device presentation spaces, while the iLight system allows remote users to "draw" with light on a local object. All our systems serve as platforms for researching more sophisticated algorithms to support additional functionality and ease of use.

The convertible podium

“…For teleconferencing and remote presentation, meeting capture, media control, and document sharing, we use the same protocol to communicate with a suite of applications developed in our lab [Foote et al 2004]. One application, ePic, was developed for authoring and presenting on multiple screens and speakers, both locally and remotely. ]…”