Multi-person Spatial Interaction in a Large Immersive Display Using Smartphones as Touchpads

Abstract: In this paper, we present a multi-user interaction interface for a large immersive space that supports simultaneous screen interactions by combining (1) user input via personal smartphones and Bluetooth microphones, (2) spatial tracking via an overhead array of Kinect sensors, and (3) WebSocket interfaces to a webpage running on the large screen. Users are automatically, dynamically assigned personal and shared screen sub-spaces based on their tracked location with respect to the screen, and use a webpage on their personal smartphone for touchpad-type input. We report user experiments using our interaction framework that involve image selection and placement tasks, with the ultimate goal of realizing display-wall environments as viable, interactive workspaces with natural multimodal interfaces.