LACOME, the Large Collaborative Meeting Environment, is a collaboration system that allows multiple users to simultaneously publish their computer desktops (workspace) and/or windows on a large shared display via a network connection. Once published, windows or even full desktops can be moved, resized, and iconified; optionally, users can even interact with the content of other users. LACOME was originally designed and developed at The University of British Columbia; we extend the system to consider privacy and security concerns. We conducted a series of focus groups to obtain feedback on the initial design of the system. Based on our findings, we developed high level design requirements for future iterations of LACOME; these include the need for addressing privacy and security concerns when moving from the use of LACOME in a co-located setting to the overarching goal of its use in a mixed presence environment. We implemented new features that provide enhanced awareness of users’ shared workspaces and the interactions of others with them. We also developed an access control framework in the system that allows users to assign permissions on an ad-hoc basis. We undertook an initial evaluation of the LACOME system to evaluate the overall system and the changes that we made to it.

The recent leaps in virtual reality (VR) technology have unleashed revolutionary potential for applications in a wide variety of areas, including education, training, psychological-therapy, etc. As part of the effort on understanding how users interact with VR, I focused on studying full-body joint action using a road crossing task which involves perception, decision-making, action, and joint action. I have been heavily involved in the design, implementation, and construction of two large-screen, room-like stereoscopic virtual environment (VE) simulators. Using this system, I developed a three-part research plan with a series of studies to examine how people engage in full-body joint-action with a partner under three scenarios: 1. two people who are physically present in a co-occupied virtual environment; 2. one person who shares a virtual environment with a computer-generated agent (CG agent); 3. two people who share the same virtual environment remotely in physically separate places where each person is motion tracked and presented in the environment as a graphic avatar. The behaviors of participants were recorded and processed through a customized pipeline that captures important performance metrics, such as how participants pick crossable gaps and time their movements. The VE system, user study designs, and findings are introduced in this dissertation.

Sharing a single, large touchscreen between several collaborating users is the research area of multi-user touchscreen interfaces, also named collaborative groupware. Collaborative groupware concerns how to best facilitate teamwork over such shared digital spaces. The technology is used in a number of high-technological and expert-dominated domains including emergency coordination, urban planning, military strategy, etc. This thesis investigates the problem of how to facilitate such mixed-focus work on a multi-user touchscreen in a two-dimensional geospatial context - a digital map - while avoiding the problematic use of widgets and click interfaces. Through a background study of previous work, a new solution is suggested. It is a handchord-input-based interface that uses hand-pattern recognition to interface with multiple users simultaneously and provides graphical tools to enable and enhance geospatial collaborative work. This solution is implemented and evaluated in two user studies. The first investigates the solution in the aspects of practical interfacing, tool impact, and hybrid collaboration on small teams of two. A second smaller expert user study evaluates the technique in the aspects of responsiveness, effectiveness, and representation; with more formalized procedures. The results show that a strong majority of users in the first study could successfully and quickly learn chord-input interfacing, and use it to access a variety of functionality with effectivity and enhancement of collaboration. The results of the second survey received moderately positive feedback in all aspects, with reserved opinions for its usage potential. These results indicate that chord-based interfacing, successfully implemented, could contribute to improved teamwork and task-solving in relevant collaborative contexts. / Kollaborativa gruppprogramet är området som faciliterar samarbete på delade digitala utrymmen. Den här tesen utreder problemet om hur man faciliterar kollaborativ, mix-fokuserad arbete på en fleranvändarpekskärm i en geospatial konext utan att använda problematiska knappar och klickbara gränssnitt. Kollaborativa geospatiala gränsnittanvänds i ett flertal av högteknologiska expertdominerade domäner som inkluderar nödsituationskoordinering, , militär strategi, etc. Den föreslagna lösningen är ett handackordsbaserat gränsnitt som använder fingeringenkänning för att interagera flera användare samtidigt och förse verktyg som möjliggör och förbättrar geospatialt samarbete. Denna lösning implementeras och är möjligtvis den mest omfattande implementationen av hand-ackord, men med signifikanta buggar. Denna utvärderas i två användarstudier. Den första undersöker lösningen i aspekterna av handackordsinteraktion, verktygens påverkan och hybridsamarbete i små lag om två. En andra, mindre studie utvärderar tekniken i termer av gensvar, effektivet och representation. Resultatet visar att ackord-baserade gränssnitt kan framgångsrikt förse en mångfald av funktionalitet med effektivtet och förbättring av samarbete i en geospatial kontext. Resultatet av den första studien visar att handackordbaserade kan bidra till förbättrat samarbete och problemlösning i geospatiala kontexter på en fleranvändarpekskärm, där vissa användare finner det mer praktiskt och enklare att bemästra än andra. Resultatet av den andra studien påvisade tämligen positiv respons i alla aspekter, med reservation för dess tillämpningspotential.