IllumiShare: Sharing Any Surface

CHI 2012 |

Published by ACM

Publication

Task and reference spaces are important communication channels for remote collaboration. However, all existing systems for sharing these spaces have an inherent weakness: they cannot share arbitrary physical and digital objects on arbitrary surfaces. We present IllumiShare, a new cost-effective, light-weight device that solves this issue. It both shares physical and digital objects on arbitrary surfaces and provides rich referential awareness. To evaluate IllumiShare, we studied pairs of children playing remotely. They used IllumiShare to share the task-reference space and Skype Video to share the person space. The study results show that IllumiShare shared the play space in a natural and seamless way. We also found that children preferred having both spaces compared to having only one. Moreover, we found that removing the task-reference space caused stronger negative disruptions to the play task and engagement level than removing the person space. Similarly, we found that adding the task-reference space resulted in stronger positive disruptions.

IllumiShare Physical and Digital Surface Sharing (TechFest 2012)

In this video, we show how IllumiShare can share any object both across two physical surfaces and across a physical and a digital surface. In the first part of the video, we show how sharing across two physical tables supports scenarios such as sketching, diagramming, and designing, while in the second part of the video, we show how a remote meeting attendee on a digital device, such as a slate or tablet PC, can interact with a physical whiteboard in the meeting conference room.