[PenTable graphical user interface]

PenTable:

PenTable was my final years project at the Upper Austria University of Applied Sciences in Hagenberg. Many aspects of this project are described in my master's thesis: "PenTable: Augmenting a PC Workplace with a Digital Tabletop"

Thesis Abstract:

Digital tabletops are often utilized to create natural interfaces for human computer interaction. Previous research has introduced intuitive metaphors for specific interaction scenarios like sketching and multi-user collaboration. However, only few projects have investigated the challenges and possibilities of creating a multi-purpose single-user workplace with a digital tabletop. The PenTable system combines such a tabletop with standard PC interfaces like keyboard, mouse and LCD display. In the setup, the digital tabletop is utilized as a peripheral display and direct pen input device.
This thesis describes design and applications of PenTable and provides a detailed description of a special user-drawn graphical user interface (GUI) on the tabletop, which consists of sWidgets and pMenus. These elements have been custom designed for the specific requirements of direct input tabletop displays. The thesis also presents the results of a user-study which compares pMenus with standard pop-up menus.

Download Thesis (1 MB)

Publications:

Leithinger, D., Haller, M.
Improving Menu Interaction for Cluttered Tabletop Setups with User-Drawn Path Menus,
in Second Annual IEEE International Workshop on Horizontal Interactive Human-Computer Systems (TABLETOP'07), IEEE Computer Society, Los Alamitos, CA, USA, pp. 121-128, 2007.
(description at ieee.org)

Images:

Drawing a sWidget button and assigning its functionality with a context menu:
PenTable setup:	A pMenu:	User study setup:

Videos:

Download Video (32.5 MB)