Shared Public Displays - State of the Art in Multi-User Interfaces

1st Supervisor: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Andreas Schrader

2nd Supervisor: Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Oliver Bimber

The thesis discusses challenges facing the development of Shared Public Displays. These are analysed in different dimensions – from technical and conceptual point of view. The author explores how different display technologies can impact the performance of shared displays, including the quality of image, lifetime, power consumption, different available sizes, etc. On the other hand, it is acknowledged that hardware optimisation is just one of many issues to be resolved. Other topics are related to user privacy, interaction modes, context awareness, ownership and control of displayed elements, etc. This thesis aims to compare the research questions and chosen, deployed projects addressing them. The privacy issue is specially emphasized as the author recognizes it to be one of the most curtail factors for the comfortable usage of Shared Public Displays. The first chapter deals with the description of trends in computing - the trend for ubiquitous computing: growing number of processors embedded in the environment and the need for interconnectivity, context awareness, and implicit and explicit feedback. In this context, the term Shared Public Displays is introduced and analysed. Following chapter deals with certain types of display technologies to portray possibilities and limitations originating from the technical point of view. Third chapter discusses various issues that are peculiar for the development of Shared Public Displays. Then, a number of projects are described to present how current state of research deals with the problems mentioned in the third chapter. Finally, conclusions are drawn about remaining issues not addressed or addressed in a limited range by researchers.