Programme INRIA "Equipes Associées"

EQUIPE ASSOCIEE	MUSE : MUlti-Scale Environments
sélection	2007

Projet INRIA : in | situ |	Organisme étranger partenaire : University of Toronto
Unité de recherche INRIA : Futurs Thème INRIA : Cog C	Pays : Canada

 

	Coordinateur français	Coordinateur étranger
Nom, prénom	MACKAY Wendy	BALAKRISHNAN Ravin
Grade/statut	DR	Associate Professor
Organisme d'appartenance (précisez le département et/ou le laboratoire)	Projet in | situ | INRIA Futurs	DGP, Computer Sc. Dept, University of Toronto
Adresse postale	LRI - Bât 490 Université Paris-Sud 91405 Orsay	Department of Computer Science University of Toronto 10 King's College Road, Room 3302 Toronto, Ontario Canada M5S 3G4
URL	http://insitu.lri.fr/~mackay	http://www.dgp.toronto.edu/~ravin
Téléphone	01 69 15 69 08	+1(416) 978-5359
Télécopie	01 69 15 65 86	+1(416) 978-5184
Courriel	Wendy.Mackay@inria.fr	ravin@dgp.toronto.edu

Titre de la thématique de collaboration : Multi-scale environments / Environnements multi-échelles

Descriptif : Based on extensive mutual research interests between our labs, we propose the creation of MUSE, an INRIA Associate Team between Project in|situ| and the Dynamic Graphics Project laboratory (DGP) of the Computer Science Department at the University of Toronto. Both labs have international reputations in human-computer interaction, with a particular overlap in the area of advanced interaction techniques. Both seek to improve human-computer interaction on and beyond the desktop, from small devices such as PDAs and pen-based Tablet PCs to table-top and large wall displays. Each lab offers specific hardware and software assets of interest to the other lab and both labs will benefit from working together on joint research projects. Four research areas have been identified for the collaboration : Communication appliances, Multi-scale interaction, Usability of large displays, and Hybrid visualization. In addition to specific projects in these areas, a unique history project will take place in 2007, in conjunction with the ACM UIST 2007 conference.

 

Présentation de l'Équipe Associée

1. Présentation du coordinateur étranger

Ravin Balakrishnan is an Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Human-Centred Interfaces at the Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto, where he co-directs the Dynamic Graphics Project (DGP) laboratory. He is also a member of the Knowledge Media Design Institute (KMDI). His research interests are in Human Computer Interaction (HCI) and Interactive Computer Graphics. He earned his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Toronto, while concurrently working part-time as a researcher at Alias (now Autodesk) from 1997-2001. He is the recipient of several research awards and appointments, including the Bell University Laboratories Associate Chair in HCI at the University of Toronto (2002-present), a Premier's Research Excellence Award from the government of Ontario, and best paper awards at the ACM CHI 2005, ACM UIST 2004, and Graphics Interface 2005 conferences. Further information, including publications and videos demonstrating some of his research, can be obtained from www.dgp.toronto.edu/~ravin

2. Historique de la collaboration

• 2.1. entre les équipes :

  Senior research staff from both labs have visited the other: W. Mackay and M. Beaudouin-Lafon have each spent time at the University of Toronto within the past year and R. Balakrishnan recently spent one month as a visiting professor at the in|situ| lab. In addition, D. Lottridge, who received her Master’s degree from the University of Toronto, spent six months as an intern in the in|situ| lab, and is now beginning her Ph.D., jointly supervised by M. Chignall at the University of Toronto and W. Mackay from INRIA. P. Dragicevic, a French native who is currently a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Toronto working with Balakrishnan, is planning to apply for a research position at the in|situ| lab next year.

  Research collaborations based on our visits and meetings at recent conferences have already resulted in an accepted poster at the ACM CSCW 2006 Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and several research papers submitted to the ACM CHI 2007 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems – the top general international conference in the field of Human-Computer Interaction. In addition, senior and junior researchers from both labs are continuing to collaborate on several new research projects, some of which are described below. We plan to submit the resulting research articles to the ACM UIST2007 Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology and the ACM CHI 2008 conference. (Note: Both labs have a strong publication records at these conferences.)

• 2.2. entre l'INRIA et l'organisme partenaire :

  INRIA-DREI Canada

  • Equipe associée I-MAGE : EVASION (INRIA Rhones-Alpes) et DGP (U. Toronto)

3. Impact :

The University of Toronto has several unique equipment assets that offer interesting research possibilities for in|situ|, including one of the world’s largest interactive wall displays (5m x 1.8m, 6144x2304 pixels, 6x3 rear-projectors) and a Vicon motion-tracking system capable of tracking hundreds of markers in real time. This allows for rapid prototyping and evaluation of new user interface designs, and provides this group with a technological capability that is not available to researchers at any other lab in this field. In addition, the University of Toronto team has developed software libraries for enabling the display of data across numerous tiled projectors, and gesture recognition. These libraries will provide significant support for the design of new interfaces.

In|situ| has extensive experience developing tools and toolkits that leverage the state-of-the-art in interaction techniques. For example, the Metisse system makes it possible to develop and evaluate novel window management techniques with real applications, and IVTK, an Information Visualisation toolkit, can be used as a testbed for novel visualization techniques. In|situ| also offers expertise in design and evaluation methods, especially involving participatory design and longitudinal studies of novel interaction techniques.

We propose the following long-term research areas and specific projects for 2007, some of which are already in progress as informal collaborations.

1. Communication Appliances
W. Mackay, N. Masson (in|situ|), D. Lottridge (U.Toronto)

We are interested in designing novel forms of interactive communication among remote family members and friends that support peripheral awareness at a distance. in|situ| has developed the concept of Communication Appliances, which are extremely simple, always-on, devices that share diverse media. We are exploring a range of novel input and output technologies that permit more expressive and subtle means of sharing information via diverse input and output devices.

Project for 2007: To date, most such technologies are simply ad hoc ‘point designs’, with no theoretical or empirical foundations. We are working on more formal methods for capturing and expressing ‘design spaces’ that allow designers and users to collaboratively visualise and systematically explore specific design ideas that address particular user needs.

2. Hybrid visualisations
J.-D. Fekete (in|situ|), M. McGuffin (U. Toronto)

Both labs have been exploring a large suite of techniques for visualizing complex data, including node-link diagrams, matrix visualization of graphs, and space-filling tree-maps. No single technique is perfect and different techniques have advantages based on the structure of the data and the task at hand. Some systems allow multiple synchronized views of the same data with different visualizations, but these can raise other problems. A different approach is to create hybrid visualizations, where different types of visualizations are used for different parts of the data and merged together in a single visualization. For example, a node-link diagram can include matrix visualizations for the parts of the diagram whose structure is close to a clique. Designing and evaluating such visualizations is still a new and open problem.

Project for 2007: The two groups intend to leverage their joint expertise to address, in particular, two aspects of this problem: the design of animations and transitions that convey the mapping between different visualizations, and the evaluation of such visualizations.

3. Multi-scale interaction
E. Pietriga, M. Beaudouin-Lafon, W. Mackay (in|situ|), G. Ramos, R. Balakrishnan, D. Vogel (U.Toronto)

Two driving factors are pushing the move towards multi-scale interaction, i.e. interaction techniques that allow users to work at multiple levels of scale: on the one hand, the increased volume of data that modern computers allow users to manipulate, and on the other hand, the multiplicity of devices used to manipulate this data, from PDAs to laptops, from table tops to wall displays. Both groups have worked on multiscale interaction: Toronto has focused more on the issue of diverse devices, whereas in|situ| has focused more on issues of data size. Combining these two grouops' expertise should lead to new insights and novel techniques for addressing the critical issue of managing complex data on devices of all sizes. 

Project for 2007: To combine in|situ|'s work on multi-scale navigation with DGP's work on the trailing widget to create a multi-scale navigation technique that scales to large display surfaces.

5. 20-year historical event at ACM UIST 2007
M. Beaudouin-Lafon, W. Mackay (in|situ|), R. Balakrishnan (U.Toronto)

Special project for 2007: W. Mackay and M. Beaudouin-Lafon are responsible for an interactive event at the 20th ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST 2007), to celebrate 20 years of research in this field. Both labs have been working on collecting historical videos and interaction techniques and it would be beneficial for the two labs to actively collaborate on creating a shared repository that both captures the history of this field and provides an easily accessible method for people outside the field, particularly in industry, to take advantage of what we have learned. This collection will be showcased at this UIST 2007 20^th anniversary event.

References (U. Toronto)

Clifton Forlines, Daniel Vogel, Ravin Balakrishnan. (in press, 2006). HybridPointing: Fluid switching between absolute and relative pointing with a direct input device. To appear in Proceedings of UIST 2006 – the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology.

Anastasia Bezerianos, Pierre Dragicevic, Ravin Balakrishnan. (in press, 2006). Mnemonic rendering: An image-based approach for exposing hidden changes in dynamic displays. To appear in Proceedings of UIST 2006 – the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology.

Anand Agarawala, Ravin Balakrishnan. (2006). Keepin' it real: Pushing the desktop metaphor with physics, piles and the pen. Proceedings of CHI 2006 - the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. p. 1283-1292.

Tovi Grossman, Ken Hinckley, Patrick Baudisch, Maneesh Agrawala, Ravin Balakrishnan. (2006). Hover widgets: Using the tracking state to extend the capabilities of pen-operated devices. Proceedings of CHI 2006 - the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. p. 861-860.

Daniel Vogel, Ravin Balakrishnan. (2005). Distant freehand pointing and clicking on very large high resolution displays. Proceedings of UIST 2005 - the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology. p. 33-42.

Shahzad Malik, Abhishek Ranjan, Ravin Balakrishnan. (2005). Interacting with large displays from a distance with vision-tracked multi-finger gestural input. Proceedings of UIST 2005 - the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology. p. 43-52.

Michael McGuffin, Ravin Balakrishnan. (2005). Interactive visualization of genealogical graphs. Proceedings of InfoVis 2005 – the IEEE Symposium on Information Visualization. p. 17-24.

Michael McGuffin, Ravin Balakrishnan. (2005). Fitts' law and expanding targets: Experimental studies and designs for user interfaces. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction, 12(2). p. 388-422.

Tovi Grossman, Ravin Balakrishnan. (2005). The Bubble Cursor: Enhancing target acquisition by dynamic resizing of the cursor’s activation area. Proceedings of CHI 2005 – the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. p. 281-290. CHI 2005 Best Paper Award.

Ravin Balakrishnan. (2004). "Beating" Fitts' law: Virtual enhancements for pointing facilitation. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 61(6). p. 857-874.

W. Stuerzlinger, O. Chapuis, D. Phillips and N. Roussel. User Interface Façades: Towards Fully Adaptable User Interfaces. In Proceedings of UIST'06, the 19th ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology, pages 309-318, October 2006. ACM Press.

C. Appert and J-D. Fekete. OrthoZoom Scroller: 1D Multi-Scale Navigation. In Proceedings of ACM CHI 2006 Conference on Human Factors and Computing Systems, pages 21–30, April 2006. ACM Press.

J. Eisenstein and W. Mackay. Interacting with Communication Appliances: An evaluation of two computer vision-based selection techniques. In Proceedings of ACM CHI 2006 Conference on Human Factors and Computing Systems, pages 1111-1114, April 2006. ACM Press.

J-B. Labrune and W. Mackay. Telebeads: Social Network Mnemonics for Teenagers. In IDC 2006 (Interaction Design and Children), Tampere, Finland, 2006.

N. Henry and J-D. Fekete. MatrixExplorer: a Dual-Representation System to Explore Social Networks. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (Proceedings Visualization / Information Visualization 2006), 12(5):8 pages, to be published, September-October 2006.

E. Pietriga. Semantic Web Data Visualization with Graph Style Sheets. In ACM Symposium on Software Visualization (SoftVis'06), pages 177-178, September 2006.

W. Mackay and M. Beaudouin-Lafon. FamilyNet: A Tangible Interface for Managing Intimate Social Networks. In Proceedings of SOUPS'05, Symposium On Usable Privacy and Security, July 2005. ACM Press.

O. Chapuis and N. Roussel. Metisse is not a 3D desktop! In Proceedings of UIST'05, the 18th ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology, pages 13-22, October 2005. ACM Press.

J-D. Fekete. The InfoVis Toolkit. In Proceedings of the 10th IEEE Symposium on Information Visualization (InfoVis 04), pages 167-174, Austin, TX, October 2004. IEEE Press.

C. Appert, M. Beaudouin-Lafon and W. Mackay. Context Matters: Evaluating Interaction Techniques with the CIS Model. In People and Computers XVIII - Design for Life - Proceedings of HCI 2004, Leeds, UK, pages 279-295, September 2004. Springer Verlag.

M. Beaudouin-Lafon. Designing interaction, not interfaces. In Proc. Conference on Advanced Visual Interfaces, AVI 2004, pages 15–22, Gallipoli (Italy), May 2004. ACM Press. Invited keynote address.