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Fueled by falling display hardware costs and rising demand, digital signage and pervasive displays are becoming ever more ubiquitous. Such systems have traditionally been used for advertising and information dissemination, with digital signage commonplace in shopping malls, airports and public spaces. While advertising and broadcasting announcements remain important applications, developments in sensing and interaction technologies are enabling entirely new classes of display applications that tailor content to the situation and audience of the display. As a result, signage systems are beginning to transition from simple broadcast systems to rich platforms for communication and interaction. In this lecture, we provide an introduction to this emerging field for researchers and practitioners interested in creating state-of-the-art pervasive display systems. We begin by describing the history of pervasive display research, providing illustrations of key systems, from pioneering work on supporting collaboration to contemporary systems designed for personalized information delivery. We then consider what the near future might hold for display networks -- describing a series of compelling applications that are being postulated for future display networks. Creating such systems raises a wide range of challenges and requires designers to make a series of important trade-offs. We dedicate four chapters to key aspects of pervasive display design: audience engagement, display interaction, system software, and system evaluation. These chapters provide an overview of current thinking in each area. Finally, we present a series of case studies of display systems and our concluding remarks.

Large surface computing devices (wall-mounted or tabletop) with touch interfaces and their application to collaborative data analysis, an increasingly important and prevalent activity, is the primary topic of this book. Our goals are to outline the fundamentals of surface computing (a still maturing technology), review relevant work on collaborative data analysis, describe frameworks for understanding collaborative processes, and provide a better understanding of the opportunities for research and development. We describe surfaces as display technologies with which people can interact directly, and emphasize how interaction design changes when designing for large surfaces. We review efforts to use large displays, surfaces or mixed display environments to enable collaborative analytic activity. Collaborative analysis is important in many domains, but to provide concrete examples and a specific focus, we frequently consider analysis work in the security domain, and in particular the challenges security personnel face in securing networks from attackers, and intelligence analysts encounter when analyzing intelligence data. Both of these activities are becoming increasingly collaborative endeavors, and there are huge opportunities for improving collaboration by leveraging surface computing. This work highlights for interaction designers and software developers the particular challenges and opportunities presented by interaction with surfaces. We have reviewed hundreds of recent research papers, and report on advancements in the fields of surface-enabled collaborative analytic work, interactive techniques for surface technologies, and useful theory that can provide direction to interaction design work. We also offer insight into issues that arise when developing applications for multi-touch surfaces derived from our own experiences creating collaborative applications. We present these insights at a level appropriate for all members of the software design and developmentteam. Table of Contents: List of Figures / Acknowledgments / Figure Credits / Purpose and Direction / Surface Technologies and Collaborative Analysis Systems / Interacting with Surface Technologies / Collaborative Work Enabled by Surfaces / The Theory and the Design of Surface Applications / The Development of Surface Applications / Concluding Comments / Bibliography / Authors'Biographies

Our increasingly smart environments will sense, track and model users and provide them with personalized services. We can already embed computers in everyday objects such as shirt buttons and pencils; objects of all sizes, from wristwatches to billboards, will soon incorporate high-quality flexible displays; we have improved access to wireless Internet communication; and we are now transitioning from traditional linear to targeted interactive media. The convergence of these factors -- miniaturization, display technologies, wireless communication, and interactive media -- will allow us to leave our desktop computers and move to a radical computing paradigm, the ubiquitous display environment, where media and visual content will support a rich variety of display devices that enable users to interact with information artifacts in a seamless manner.This is one of the most exciting and important areas of technology development and this book addresses the challenge within the context of an educational and cultural experience. This is inherently a multidisciplinary field and the contributions span the related research aspects, including system architecture and communications issues, and intelligent user interface aspects such as aesthetics and privacy. On the scientific side, the authors integrate artificial intelligence, user modeling, temporal and spatial reasoning, intelligent user interfaces, and user-centric design methodologies in their work, while on the technological side they integrate mobile and wireless networking infrastructures, interfaces, group displays, and context-driven adaptive presentations.This book is of value to researchers and practitioners working on all aspects of ubiquitous display environments, and we hope it leads to innovations in human education, cultural heritage appreciation, and scientific development.