Title: Next Generation Digital Tabletop Interfaces: Moving Beyond Photosharing
Date: Tuesday Dec 15th, 2009
Time: 6:00pm
Place: TheCodeFactory, 246 Queen St., Ottawa

Abstract:
Even before Microsoft announced the Surface system in 2007, the Human-Computer Interaction community was actively researching digital tabletop technologies since Pierre Wellner proposed the DigitalDesk in 1991. Yet only very recent and emerging hardware and software advances have begun to make digital tabletops a feasible technology for real-world markets. Innovations in operating systems (e.g. Microsoft 7), development environments (e.g. Windows Presentation Foundation), and input technologies (e.g. FTIR and TouchCo “multitouch” technologies) are enabling a move beyond proof-of-concept tabletop systems, beyond demonstrations of simple applications that show new interface metaphors and interaction techniques for manipulating and sharing digital photos. Though we are still a few years away from consumer-grade interactive tabletop systems being sold at Best Buy, more specialized markets are emerging and early-adopter markets are on the horizon. This talk will overview some of the digital tabletop research being conducted in the Collaborative Systems Laboratory at the University of Waterloo in two specific application areas: military command and control operations, and digital board gaming.

Speaker Bio:
Stacey D. Scott, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Human Systems Engineering in the Department of Systems Design Engineering at the University of Waterloo in Waterloo, ON, Canada. Dr. Scott received her Ph.D. in Computer Science (specializing in Human-Computer Interaction and Computer-Supported Collaboration) from the University of Calgary in 2005. She received her B.Sc. in Computing Science and Mathematics from Dalhousie University (Halifax, NS) in 1997. She completed two years of postdoctoral studies in the Humans and Automation Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, MA, USA) from 2005-2007, where she developed awareness technologies to facilitate collaborative decision-making in time-critical military command and control operations. Dr. Scott’s graduate research focused on understanding collaborative tabletop work practices with traditional media and developing interface design requirements for digital tabletop platforms. She is now combining this previous
theoretical and high-level requirements work with the applied research experience gained in her postdoc to pursue the development of digital tabletop systems that support real-world collaboration in complex task domains. In general, her research interests include computer-supported collaboration, large-screen displays, interface and interaction design, and information visualization.

When and Where:

This event will take place on Tuesday Dec 15th, 2009, 6:00pm at TheCodeFactory, located at 246 Queen Street, between Bank and Kent, (on the second floor) above the Green Papaya Restaurant.

Note: there is no cost for attending this event and prior registration is not required. Light snacks and refreshments will be served. An informal social gathering will follow at a nearby pub.