Augmented Collaborative Card-Based Creative Activity with Digital Pens

Typically, practitioners of the KJ method use paper labels and four-colored ball-point pens to externalize their thoughts and ideas during the process. A similar approach and method is used in group KJ lessons. However, due to the large paper size required, this approach is limited in effective capturing and sharing of outcomes. Considering the merits of the conventional paper–pen approach and the demand for quick sharing of outcomes after the session, we designed and implemented a system to digitize the group KJ session—not just the outcomes but also the details of the creative work processes. We use digital pens to capture position and orientation of labels, as well as their contents, during the session. We confirmed the efficiency of our system with several KJ sessions.