Beam-it - Creating and Managing Projected Virtual Post-its
Speaker:Mira Spassova
Institution:Saarland University
Abstract:
Since the invention of Post-its, people are used to stick small pieces of paper containing short notes at particular locations as reminders for themselves or as messages for others. This concept of leaving short notes seems to be so successful that the Post-it metaphor was even implemented in several desktop applications that allow users to stick virtual messages to any kind of document, put them on their desktops or even send them remotely to their friends' desktops.
Following the principles of ubiquitous computing, the idea of virtual Post-its can be extended to the real environment. Using a steerable projector system (Fluid Beam), virtual messages can be displayed at any possible location in the instrumented room. Users can create the so called /Beam-its/ on their PDAs by writing on the touch screen in a special interface as if they were writing on a peace of paper. With a simple button click on the interface, the message can then be "beamed" to the location the user is currently looking at. In contrast to the paper Post-its, the virtual Beam-its can be enhanced with additional features and functionalities. They can for example be made only visible for particular users or user groups or they can be added the feature to appear only if a certain event occurs, for example at a particular time (as a reminder) or if someone approaches the location of the Beam-it.