Public and Private Workspaces on Tabletop Displays

As co-operative work environments are becoming more popular, new tools and techniques have been emerging that allow users to perform collaborative tasks more efficiently. We have been exploring new interaction techniques made possible by using a multi-view display as a tabletop surface. This paper presents the concept of public and private working areas for multi-view display environments, and presents a taxonomy that allows us to better understand how they can be applied in computer supported collaborative work environments. We have formally defined and categorized various multi-view characteristics, along with possible uses and applications. We also created a display mask that allows an LCD monitor to be used as a multi-view display from four viewing directions. Furthermore, our initial implementation of a window manager utilizing the taxonomy has been discussed to demonstrate some of the interaction techniques that are possible using a multi-view tabletop display.