Paper Reading #14: Bonfire: a nomadic system for hybrid laptop-tabletop interaction

Title:
Bonfire: a nomadic system for hybrid laptop-tabletop interaction


Comments:
Pape Youm
Cindy Skach

Reference:
Kane, S., Avrahami, D., Wobbrock, J., Harrison, B., Rea, A., Philipose, M., LaMarca, A.  Bonfire: a nomadic system for hybrid laptop-tabletop interaction.  UIST '09.  http://delivery.acm.org/10.1145/1630000/1622202/p129-kane.pdf?key1=1622202&key2=9957069921&coll=DL&dl=ACM&ip=165.91.14.231&CFID=12937478&CFTOKEN=50707220


Summary:

Bonfire is a system of two cameras, two micro-projectors, and a MacBook.  These devices interact together to form an interactive desktop environment paired with the laptop.  This is done in order that a fuller experience can be felt.  The system, by use of the cameras, is able to observe objects in the laptops immediate vicinity and appropriately suggest to start and stop applications.  For instance if headphones are laid on the table it could pause the music that is playing.  If a coffee cup is placed next to it it could calculate and project your current budget and calorie intake.

While there has been study on tabletop environments, not much study has been done on the interaction between these and that of say a laptop.  This approach increases the laptops interaction space without significantly increasing size or weight.

The cameras recognize gestures done by the user in appropriation with the projections on the table allowing clicking and dragging on the tabletop.  Background subtraction along with skin recognition is used to pick up these movements.

Future development could be the use of more cameras in order to capture more of the surroundings as well as user interactions.

Discussion:

This is an interesting design but looks a tad bulky to me.  Carrying around more components means more to lose and more to break.  I don't have a neat bag to carry my netbook in, just a simple one, and if I were to increase that to micro-projectors and cameras I think that I would be carrying too much "heavy" equipment that I could break.  Other than that the system sounds like a great idea.  I like the fact that they are increasing the usable parts of the persons environment at a minimal cost.  Bulky laptops can be a pain, and this could be one way of avoiding that while offering a unique display.