Interactive environment-aware display bubbles

We present a novel display metaphor which extends traditional tabletop projections in collaborative environments by introducing freeform, environment-aware display representations and a matching set of interaction schemes. For that purpose, we map personalized widgets or ordinary computer applications that have been designed for a conventional, rectangular layout into space-efficient bubbles whose warping is performed with a potential-based physics approach. With a set of interaction operators based on laser pointer tracking, these freeform displays can be transformed and elastically deformed using focus and context visualization techniques. We also provide operations for intuitive instantiation of bubbles, cloning, cut & pasting, deletion and grouping in an interactive way, and we allow for user-drawn annotations and text entry using a projected keyboard. Additionally, an optional environment-aware adaptivity of the displays is achieved by imperceptible, realtime scanning of the projection geometry. Subsequently, collision-responses of the bubbles with non-optimal surface parts are computed in a rigid body simulation. The extraction of the projection surface properties runs concurrently with the main application of the system. Our approach is entirely based on off the-shelf, low-cost hardware including DLP-projectors and FireWire cameras.