This project reflects on the differences between introverts and extroverts, and how each approaches presentation vs. private thought and work.  Departing from a traditional office set up of separate cubicles and a conference room, working space can now be manipulated such that there is not as much separation and sorting into different locations for collaboration, but rather boundaries can be more fluid.  Walls are moveable, allowing individuals to merge workspaces and show each other the native, raw materials they were working on.

Users designate what they wish to keep private even as they open up their environment to another person. The wall itself is a digital object. With the aid of phicons, It uses touch screen like features to allow the hiding and showing of certain content, and automatically organizes public (to be shown) or private (to be hidden) information accordingly when sensing users move between private or collaborative configurations.

2D physical content can also be transferred into a digital format on the wall.

Two scenarios are described to flesh out the nuances of this new collaborative object:
1. Collocated
Body, object, spaces, configuration, private, and public

In this scenario, when working privately, each user has one private ThoughtSpace board and one SharedSpace board.  The SharedSpace board is the “showing platform”, upon which all content that should be shown during later collaboration is placed.  The ThoughtSpace board is the user’s private working space, but importantly, they have the option of using a highlighting phicon (described more below) to designate any work in progress they want to show when collaborating later – thus, ideas at different points of progress are separated spatially.  All other ThoughtSpace items are hidden automatically by the computer when moving into collaborative configurations, as seen in the second figure below.  The body is engaged when initiating collaboration through the moving of the digital wall object.  Space and information is reconfigured in the transition between private and collaborative modes.

Remote
Body, object, private, and public

Each office is equipped with a wall “socket” that is bordered by an actuating flexible material.  An ambient invitation to initiate a remote collaboration is signaled by an inviter by moving one of their walls into their socket, which then activates the invitee’s wall socket to become depressed or “open”.  The invitee can then start the collaboration by moving their wall into the socket revealed.

Flipping the desk surface down triggers a full body conferencing mode, allowing the exchange of all gestural and postural information.

When the digital wall is shifted to desk mode, the desk becomes ThoughtSpace and the vertical screen SharedSpace.  The eraser phicon can be used to erase content, and the other side, a highlighter phicon, when used on ThoughtSpace items, causes them to show when shifting into collaboration.  The drawer phicon is a handle that, when brought to the intersection of the desk and “monitor” in desk mode and pulled towards the user (like opening a drawer), allows the user to pull open a digital drawer for archiving. Lastly, the shelf is a piece of the wall that rotates open where users store content they want out of the view of their actual working space.

Because of lack of physical proximity, ambient digital shadows are employed to inform users when remote team-members are present, and knocking on a teammate’s icon is employed as a way to reach them in a more urgent manner.

This digital wall does not replace other physical furniture. However, because of the desired movement of this interface, we imagined that furniture would be sparse – users would have to be “lighter” in the way they inhabited their workspace.  To accommodate this, and to extend the involvement of the body with this interface, we built features of office furniture into the usage of the wall.  This included an eraser/highlighter phicon, a revolving piece of the wall which would show a digital shelf upon flipping it open, a desk, and a drawer phicon (which are described below).

Limitations
Implementation of moveable walls would, of course, be constrained by the available architecture of the working environment.  Additionally, it could be hard to add more users in a collocated space – different geometries, and how they affect the efficiency, productivity, and feel of the space, need to be explored.  Also, the touchscreen aspect has specific advantages and disadvantages as compared to smaller devices which use a mouse interface or stylus and a keyboard.

The Importance of Scale
By using different boards (i.e. different spaces) to designate the privacy and progress of work, we allow the user to spatially represent their ideas, which cognitively eases the burden of trying to organize various thoughts and work being built.  Users are forced to step back, much as an artist would to look at a large canvas, affording a bigger picture view that likely prevents unnecessary obsessive focus and attachment to certain details.  In addition, the ability to have a workspace and a “gallery” adjacent, as an artist often desires, is an interesting feature to add to the working environment of other fields and may yield new insights from the perspectives of considering showing and hiding in one’s work.

Prototype
https://www.dropbox.com/s/axwcvem0pbki9gt/MIT_PROJECT_checkpoint1-5.apk
short click highlights yellow (highlighter phicon). long click turns black. two long clicks in a row will delete the information (eraser phicon). Change in orientation hides information not designated to be seen.

Inspiration (Related Work)
Academic studies: Sharlin et al (Pers Ubiquit Comput 2004) “Tangible user interfaces, humans, and spatiality; Binder et al (Pers Ubiquit Comput 2004) “Configurability in a mixed-media environment for design students”

Design projects: ReticularSpaces (Bardram et al CHI ’12), AWE (robotic wall w/ reconfigurable surfaces) (Green et al IROS ’09)

Commercial:  Manhattan – Graham Hill’s LifeEdited apartment – 420 ft^2
http://www.treehugger.com/modular-design/new-york-times-treehugger-founder-graham-hill-tiny-apartment-convertible-tricks.html

Hong Kong – Gary Chang’s Domestic Transformer – 24 different rooms from 330 ft^2
http://www.interactivearchitecture.org/gary-chang-reconfigurable-living-spaces-suitcase-house-hotel.html

Team
-Sophia Chang – Concept development, final published slides, presentation compilation, stop motion video photography and editing
-Christine Hsieh – Concept development, unpublished project development slides, stop motion story line/directing and sound, detailed description and conceptual framework write up
-Wenting Guo – Concept development, final published slides, stop motion video editing
-Andrea Miller – Concept development, unpublished project development slides, app development, stop motion production

RubixCubicle 0 from Sophia on Vimeo.

SoundSpace is a tool for musicians to meet and create music while apart. Current tools (ex. garageband, webconferencing) ignore the importance of body movements, spatialized sound, or even the vibrations of a performer stomping on the ground. The importance of these ways of communication become clear when thinking of the way a lead violinist directs a string quarter solely through emphasized body movements. SoundSpace provides all of these sensory inputs while also adding the ability to record and playback sessions. This is great for rehearsal alone later or revisiting improvised sections that are otherwise difficult to repeat. It can also by used to turn on and off instruments or rearrange portions in the composition and lead to new ways of experimentation.

As a follow-up to Clearboard, Permea-b-oard latches on to the importance of the direct gaze, and continuity of space, but suggests that this does not only need to be for the sharing of 2D representation. A space is added at the bottom of the board for working with physical or digital 3D models. While physically located far apart, the interface creates the appearance of a shared space allowing for direct gesturing, eye-contact, and shared manipulation of an object.

MeetingMaker is a tool for meetings or charrettes where a lot of sketching happens that doesn’t get recorded or that happens on one end of the table and can’t be seen by people on the other end. This is often the case in meetings between architects and engineers. At the end of the meeting, people walk away with the sketches they made and important information gets lost.

It starts out with the idea of ‘Shared Design Space‘ where the entire surface of a table can be used to draw. Important images which have been pinned-up can be grabbed and moved to the table digitally using phicons for people to look at or sketch over. Updated drawings can be easily moved back to the pin-up wall. Personal sketches can be moved towards the center of the table to be enlarged and allow everyone to look at or sketch over together.

Project files from a network or server can also be pulled up directly on the table rather than needing to run back to a computer, plot, and bring back physically. These drawings are connected directly to the project’s 3D model and any sketching that happens over these drawings are directly imported into a layer on the computer model, relating the sketch to the overall building and precluding the need to find a sketch, scan it, import it, and retrace it into the 3D model later. While sketching the computer can be told to create alignments or snaps for more accurate drawing.

Finally, the audio of the meeting can be recorded and synchronized with the movement of images around the room allowing for review of the meeting later.