A Tabletop Interface Using Controllable Transparency Glass for Collaborative Card-Based Creative Activity

Conventional tabletop systems have focused on communication with virtual data, using phicons or physical objects as handles. This approach is versatile, given the full use of a horizontal display. However, we consider that an another approach can be formulated that can support normal specific tasks on a table. We have developed a card-handling activity environment enhanced by a tabletop interface. We use a glass tabletop with controllable transparency to improve surface scanning and the display of supplemental data. We describe the architecture of the tabletop system and its design criteria. Due to its simple configuration, this tabletop system can handle a large number of paper cards, as used in the KJ method. Therefore, our system can be used to enhance card-based tasks by showing additional data, and it provides the ability to review transactions by recording the tasks.