Multi-display Composition: Supporting Display Sharing for Collocated Mobile Devices

Multi-display composition is a technique that enables several mobile devices to join together over a wireless network to form a larger logical display. This logical display can be created in an ad hoc manner for use when and where it is needed out of a group of users' existing mobile computers. In this work we present a multi-display composition system and discuss our implementation that supports dynamically extending the display across several devices. Furthermore, we present findings from a study of collocated groups of individuals using multi-display composition on two different types of mobile computers. We found mixed results with respect to the effect of the resulting display area. The use of two devices by a pair of participants tended to be rated more favorably than a corresponding group of four devices and participants. Furthermore, while providing additional screen real estate for smaller UMPCs, tablets were rated more favorably when using our system. Finally, we discuss usage themes that emerged from participants' use of the multi-display composition system.