GIT-GVU-99-06

Supporting Capture and Access Interfaces for Informal and Opportunistic Meetings

Jason A. Brotherton
Gregory D. Abowd
Khai N. Truong

Automated support for the capture and access of live experiences is a common theme for ubiquitous computing. For certain capture situations, such as informatl or opportunistic gatherings, existing capture framesworks are inadequate for a number of reasons. They require too much time to initiate a capture session and they often are too inflexible to support unstructured and impromptu use. In this paper, we present a whiteboard capture application called DUMMBO, aimed to support opportunistic and serendipitous meeting capture. We emphasize an easy-to-initiate interface that mirrors as much as possible traditional whiteboard functionality. This is accompanied by visualization techniques for accessing captured meetings afterwards. By separating the physical interface for capture from the electronic interface for accessing captured meetings, we demonstrate how a capture and access application can be designed to better support its intended audience.

Ubiquitous computing, automated capture and access applications, whiteboards, informal meeting, transparent interaction, visualization

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