Developing a Usable API for Multi-Surface Systems

A multi-surface system brings together a variety of different devices – such as a tabletop, tablet, mobile phone and wall display – into a single cohesive system. This integration allows users to take advantage of the unique capabilities of each device in ways that would not be possible using those devices separately. But creating usable interactions for moving content and control between all these devices has proven a difficult problem. Spatially augmented gestures, which are gestures which incorporate the spatial layout of the room as well as the people and devices in it, might provide a solution to this problem. Building such gestures into a multi-surface systems is difficult and tedious to develop. It represents too large an investment of time and effort for developers to bear. To decrease the cost of developing such systems, we have created an API – called MSE-API – that allows developers to quickly and efficiently add gestural interactions to multi-surface applications. In developing such an API we focused especially on making it usable for developers. Specifically we insured the API was learnable and discoverable for inexperienced developers but still an efficient tool for more experienced developers. This thesis presents the requirements and structure of an API for developing multi-surface systems with spatially augmented gestures. The result of two case studies, in which the API was used to develop real world multi-surface applications, are also presented.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science (MSc)

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Computer Science

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Graduate Studies

Year dc:date.issued

2013

Author dc:creator

• Burns, Christopher

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Maurer, Frank
• Costa Sousa, Mário

• Computer Science

Statement dc:rights

• University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.

Language dc:language.iso

eng

DOI

http://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/25621

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:ucalgary.scholaris.ca:11023/727