TY - GEN
T1 - Sometimes when we touch
T2 - how arm embodiments change reaching and collaboration on digital tables
AU - Doucette, Andre
AU - Gutwin, Carl
AU - Mandryk, Regan L.
AU - Nacenta, Miguel
AU - Sharma, Sunny
N1 - This work was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the SurfNet Research Network, and the Walter C. Sumner Foundation.
PY - 2013/2/23
Y1 - 2013/2/23
N2 - In tabletop work with direct input, people avoid crossing each others' arms. This natural touch avoidance has important consequences for coordination: for example, people rarely grab the same item simultaneously, and negotiate access to the workspace via turn-taking. At digital tables, however, some situations require the use of indirect input (e.g., large tables or remote participants), and in these cases, people are often represented with virtual arm embodiments. There is little information about what happens to coordination and reaching when we move from physical to digital arm embodiments. To gather this information, we carried out a controlled study of tabletop behaviour with different embodiments. We found dramatic differences in moving to a digital embodiment: people touch and cross with virtual arms far more than they do with real arms, which removes a natural coordination mechanism in tabletop work. We also show that increasing the visual realism of the embodiment does not change behaviour, but that changing the thickness has a minor effect. Our study identifies important design principles for virtual embodiments in tabletop groupware, and adds to our understanding of embodied interaction in small groups.
AB - In tabletop work with direct input, people avoid crossing each others' arms. This natural touch avoidance has important consequences for coordination: for example, people rarely grab the same item simultaneously, and negotiate access to the workspace via turn-taking. At digital tables, however, some situations require the use of indirect input (e.g., large tables or remote participants), and in these cases, people are often represented with virtual arm embodiments. There is little information about what happens to coordination and reaching when we move from physical to digital arm embodiments. To gather this information, we carried out a controlled study of tabletop behaviour with different embodiments. We found dramatic differences in moving to a digital embodiment: people touch and cross with virtual arms far more than they do with real arms, which removes a natural coordination mechanism in tabletop work. We also show that increasing the visual realism of the embodiment does not change behaviour, but that changing the thickness has a minor effect. Our study identifies important design principles for virtual embodiments in tabletop groupware, and adds to our understanding of embodied interaction in small groups.
KW - Embodiments
KW - Reaching
KW - Social norms
KW - Tabletops
KW - Interaction
KW - Co-located groupware
UR - http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/2441776.2441799
U2 - 10.1145/2441776.2441799
DO - 10.1145/2441776.2441799
M3 - Conference contribution
SN - 9781450313315
T3 - CSCW '13
SP - 193
EP - 202
BT - Proceedings of the 2013 Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work
PB - ACM
CY - New York, NY, USA
ER -