ShareTable: A System to Support Parent-Child Interaction over Physical Artifacts

Outcomes IDC 2009 full paper We've outgrown the hosting available here, so you can find out more about the ShareTable, including background, implementation details, and how to join this project, by visiting the ShareTable Google Site. Almost a third of children in the US live apart from one of their parents. The ShareTable seeks to support and enrich long-distance interaction between parents and children. One such table in the child's home is connected via broadband to a paired table in the parent's home. Standard videoconferencing provides an audio/video connection, while a camera-projector system superimposes a video stream of one table's surface on top of the other. The parent and child can view and layer physical artifacts in this shared media space, enabling activities like doing homework, reading, and playing together. Users can even leave notes on the table's plexiglas surface using the familiar medium of dry-erase markers. Each table has an audio/video feed for face-to-face communication and a shared surface tabletop. The shared surface is a color-video feed recorded from directly above the table and projected onto the remote table. In our setup, we covered the screen with Plexiglas, which allowed participants to write or draw on the table using a dry-erase marker—a familiar interaction to both parents and children.