Integrating Physical and Digital Interactions for Creative Collaboration

Today, physical and electronic media coexist unaware of each other. Contemporary design studios, offices, and labs are filled with both physical and electronic artifacts, but the two exist separately, and the infrastructure for moving between media representations-scanning and printing- is heavyweight and cumbersome, at odds with the freewheeling, organic nature of creative work.

For the past six years at UC Berkeley and Stanford University, my colleagues and I have conducted research into user interfaces that bind physical and electronic representations of artifacts for integrated interaction: Manipulation in one medium effects a corresponding change in the artifact’s dual medium. Based on fieldwork with designers, office workers, scientists, and engineers, we’ve created and evaluated integrated interfaces ranging from whiteboards to oral history transcripts to field notebooks.

Presenter(s)

Scott Klemmer is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University, where he co-directs the Human-Computer Interaction Group. He is also a member of the new Stanford Institute of Design. His research addresses interaction techniques and design tools for integrated interaction with physical and digital artifacts. He received a dual BA in Art-Semiotics and Computer Science from Brown University in 1999, and an MS and PhD in Computer Science from UC Berkeley in 2001 and 2004 respectively.