Context-Aware Work Surfaces

Context-aware interfaces such as the computer desktop work to anticipate a user’s needs and desires in order to simplify tasks. We demonstrate that such principles can be applied to physical work surfaces to provide various types of hands-free assistance based on the needs of users and their tasks. Context-aware work surfaces use vision recognition in combination with a model of the user and the task to improve the accessibility, safety, comfort and efficiency of interfacing with these work surfaces. These work surfaces can support varied useful scenarios robustly. Their adaptable architecture can be applied to work surfaces as diverse as computer desks, kitchen countertops and hospital sinks. Context-Aware work surfaces operate based on user models that consider ergonomics and sensor placement, the expected task and environment, and recognize when these parameters are exceeded. These work surfaces automatically adjust their height and slope to individual users and provide task-specific assistance such as a hands-free tap for a sink, hand-washing compliance for hospital, and task-aware lighting for a desk. This paper describes the design of context-aware work surfaces, presents our working prototypes and discusses the results of user evaluations of our system.