CAREER: People, Paper and Computers

尽管体积更小、功能更强大的平板电脑在设计上取得了进步，但经常被吹捧的“无纸化办公”仍然遥不可及。相反，纸张的消耗量正在上升，除了少数例外，办公室工作仍然严重依赖这种媒介。这一明显矛盾的根源在于纸质文献的支持（例如，导航和注释的便利性，以及高信息密度的显示）和数字文献的支持（例如，分发、存档和搜索的便利性）之间的巨大差距。在这项研究中，PI将研究如何通过将纸张和数字文档的功能结合起来，在导航、注释、显示大量信息和信息处理方面弥补这一差距。为此，PI将采取三管齐下的方法：书面跟踪。纸张是一种廉价的静态介质，非常适合于对大量信息进行导航和注释，但它缺乏信息处理能力。PI的纸质增强数字文档系统将研究Anoto数字笔系统等新技术如何将数字功能带到纸上。本课程将聚焦于数字世界与纸质世界的共存，当需要纸质支持时，使用纸张作为数字文档的临时支持。平板电脑轨道。PI的下一代平板电脑项目将在平板电脑上使用有形和触觉界面提供类似纸张的文档导航技术。它还将解决平板电脑固有的屏幕空间不足的问题，探索如何在运行中创建小型平板电脑集群，作为不同文档的门户。交互式表面跟踪。交互式表面提供了大的显示区域，并且可以利用诸如计算集群之类的大型计算资源。不幸的是，他们通常缺乏有效的文档导航工具。利用马里兰交互表作为实验的试验台，PI将探索新的跟踪技术如何在水平交互表面上提供更好的文档导航。对于每条赛道，PI的目标是构建一个足够先进的原型，以服务于一个共同的任务：支持一小群人创建和改进文档，例如该奖项所基于的提案！整合来自不同轨道的数据将为分析这些方法之间的异同提供一个独特的机会。PI认为，这种并排比较是对设计参数进行合理、科学探索的关键，这些参数与提供高效导航、获取大量信息和获取计算资源有关。特别是，他希望这项研究能够回答以下问题：纸质交互与数字交互的相对优势和劣势是什么？现实生活中纸张的使用模式是什么？它们与民族志研究的结果如何比较？在便携式设备和交互式界面上重现纸质导航功能的最佳方法是什么？纸张的数字等效物的引入如何影响信息采集模式以及社会模式（例如，在小群体中）？更广泛的影响：该项目将影响人们执行许多常见任务的方式，例如校对文档、在蓝图等大格式文档上做笔记、浏览数字文档以及使用交互式界面进行会议。在这个项目中开发的技术也将影响人机交互领域，通过为如何设计有效的有形界面和更好的交互表面的双手界面提供有价值的见解。研究生将参与这项工作的各个方面，并鼓励探索结合硬件和软件设计，交互设计以及不同设计之间的系统比较的跨学科项目

Despite advances in the design of smaller and more powerful tablet-like computers, the often-touted "paperless office" remains elusive. On the contrary, consumption of paper is on the rise and, with only few exceptions, office work still relies heavily on this medium. At the root of this apparent paradox is the wide gap between paper affordances, (e.g., ease of navigation and annotation, and high information density display), and digital document affordances, (e.g., ease of distribution, archiving, and search). In this research the PI will investigate how to bridge this gap, by focusing on combining the affordances of paper on the one hand and digital document on the other, with respect to navigation, annotation, displaying large quantities of information, and information processing. To do so, the PI will adopt a 3-pronged approach:Paper track. Paper is an inexpensive static medium well adapted for navigating and annotating large quantities of information, but it lacks information processing capability. The PI's Paper Augmented Digital Document system will study how new technology such as the Anoto digital pen system can bring digital affordances to paper. This track will focus on cohabitation between the digital and the paper world, using paper as transient support for digital documents when paper affordances are needed.Tablet computer track. The PI's Next Generation Tablet PC project will provide paper-like document navigation techniques on tablet computers using tangible and haptic interfaces. It will also address the inherent lack of screen real estate on tablet computers, by exploring how small clusters of tablet computers that can be created on the fly may serve as portals to different documents.Interactive surfaces track. Interactive surfaces provide large display areas and can tap into large computational resources such as computational clusters. Unfortunately, they typically lack efficient document navigation tools. Using the Maryland Interactive Table as a testbed for his experiments, the PI will explore how new tracking technology can deliver better document navigation on horizontal interactive surfaces.For each track, the PI's goal is to build a prototype advanced enough to serve one common task: supporting a small group of people in creating and improving a document, such as the proposal on which this award is based! Integrating data from the different tracks will provide a unique opportunity to analyze the differences and similarities among the approaches. The PI believes that such side-by-side comparisons are the key to a sound, scientific exploration of the design parameters relevant for providing efficient navigation, access to large quantities of information, and access to computational resources. In particular, he expects this research to provide answers to questions such as the following: What are the relative advantages and disadvantages of paper-based vs. digital interactions? What are the patterns of paper use in real-life settings, and how do they compare with findings from ethnographic studies? What are the best ways to reproduce paper navigation affordances on portable devices and interactive surfaces? How does the introduction of digital equivalents of paper influence information foraging pattern as well as social patterns (e.g., in small groups)?Broader Impacts: This project will impact how people perform numerous common tasks such as proofreading documents, making notes on large format documents such as blueprints, navigating through digital documents, and conducting meetings using interactive surfaces. The techniques developed in this project will also impact the field of human computer interaction in general, by providing valuable insights into how to design efficient tangible interfaces and better two-handed interfaces for interactive surfaces. Graduate students will be involved in all aspects of this work, and will be encouraged to explore interdisciplinary projects combining hardware and software design, interaction design, and methodical comparison between different design