Spherical Interaction for Public Spaces (SIPS)

Public interactive displays have the potential to significantly enhance the quality of life for people living in future city spaces. However, current public displays and interfaces go unnoticed or completely ignored by the majority of passers-by. This presents a serious problem for the impact and uptake of touch sensitive displays if only a small minority will approach these displays and discover their interactive qualities. Existing approaches to designing and evaluating public displays have not been successful at realising the substantial opportunities that public displays afford. This research addresses this problem by exploiting recent technological developments in curved displays to create socially acceptable and enticing interactions for public spaces.

Curved displays offer exciting opportunities for public interaction that are not possible with flat displays. For example, a cylindrical display mimics the shape and form traditional kiosks for flyers and notices that can be seen in many cities. This kind of display can be placed in a walkway and be viewed from many perspectives. Other non-flat shapes, such as spherical displays, allow multiple users to interact while facing each other and viewing vertical content. Installations where users can see each other and observe others interacting are more encouraging and result in higher rates of interaction than displays where users are unable to observe each other. Another important aspect of a spherical display is that the entire display is never completely visible from one perspective. While areas on the top may be visible to both users vertical areas of the screen are only visible to some. These "private" areas of the display could be exploited to support sharing, ownership, and collaboration on a social display.

Given the new opportunities afforded by curved displays, foundational research is needed to understand how this new technology should be designed for and used in public spaces. There is limited research on interaction for curved surfaces and even less on curved surfaces for public spaces. An important aspect of this research is to develop novel multitouch interaction techniques that exploit the form factor of a curved display for public interaction. This will involve perceptual studies to learn the physical constraints and ergonomics of multitouch gestures on curved surfaces. This research will also explore how novel gestures and physical metaphors can enhance interaction on curved surfaces. This will involve evaluating user perceptions of control and responsiveness on a spherical display, simulating different levels of friction and weight for interactive elements.

Another important aspect of this research involves how curved displays work in real public spaces as compared to flat displays. Little is known about how different interaction styles encourage or discourage continued use of flat or curved public displays. In order to measure these metrics at scale for large numbers of passers-by, new evaluation techniques are needed. This project introduces a novel evaluation technique to capture and analyse pedestrian traffic around public installations. This approach can quantify different metrics of public display usage and enable the collection of large-scale data sets not feasible with traditional observation methods.

Finally, this research also aims to dramatically change the approach to designing public displays by considering context and impact on local spaces. Previous work on public displays has primarily involved flat displays and focused on making displays as noticeable and enticing as possible. This presents the possibility of creating unnecessary or unpleasant distraction and actually making public spaces less enjoyable places to be. This research will not only measure how enticing our displays are but also critically analyse the impact of these displays on the places where they are deployed.

This research will have benefits for public information services and experiences, reaching out the people living in urban areas, and increasing the competitiveness of novel display companies in the UK.

Public Information Services and Experiences

This research could be used by a variety of service providers, such as city councils, museums, and festivals, to improve the quality and uptake of public facing information displays and interactive experiences. For example, museum exhibits use a variety of displays to share information and capture the curiosity of museum visitors. Our guidelines will advise on best practices for staging and placement of displays for maximum uptake and quality of experience. In order to maximise our impact with these stakeholders, we will host a workshop aimed at these stakeholders to share the guidelines resulting from this research.

Urban Residents as Beneficiaries

The research proposed in the project is aimed at creating more acceptable and usable displays for public spaces. Given that the vast majority of people living in the UK live in cities, the potential societal impact of successful or unsuccessful displays is immense. This project aims to maximise the positive impact on society by changing current thinking about public displays. Our research argues against current approaches that focus on attention grabbing and enticement to consider how displays change public spaces and how they might be a benefit or detriment. Considering carefully the context of a public display brings focus to positive social impacts as opposed to technology driven outcomes. This project aims to lay the foundation for a new research agenda that focuses on the impacts of technology on public spaces to create more pleasant/enjoyable spaces, increase social welfare and community cohesion, and improve the quality of life for people living in urban areas.

Commercial Beneficiaries

The project team will work closely with Pufferfish Ltd to improve the design and user experience of the novel spherical displays that the company produces. Our work packages will delivery immediately applicable techniques for improving interaction on the sphere as well as guidelines for improving the staging and placement of the displays in public spaces. Because we will be gathering data about both flat and curved displays, the resulting guidelines will be beneficial to any commercial display developer aiming to increase the impact and uptake of their displays in public places.