An interactive surface solution to support collaborative work onboard ships

Industrial environments are notoriously known as difficult places to gain access to conduct any type of contextual inquiry work, and marine vessels are no exception. But once this initial hurdle is overcome, these environments reveal interesting research directions. Challenges faced onboard ships range from issues with communication links, to the lack of support for current work practices. Based on findings from an earlier field study, the work presented in this paper focuses on several challenges involving collaboration, communication, information sharing such as video and images, and tracking task completion of crew members. This paper therefore presents a prototype which consists of a Microsoft surface, mobile phones, and PCs to enable crew members onboard ships to effectively communicate and collaborate with their colleagues.