Survey of Pen-and-Paper Computing - Human-Computer Interaction - page 62

Fig. 2.24 DocuDesk (photo courtesy of Katherine Everitt)
uments are used simultaneously on the same surface and how users cope with oc-
clusion. Another publication [57] introduced interaction techniques for managing
hybrid paper-based and digital piles on tabletops that take into account paper-based
occlusion.
Another strand of research examines how physical paper itself can become
a large interactive surface, rather than combining (small) paper documents with
(large) displays. The underlying premise of these works is that paper can be con-
sidered a display with a very slow update rate. A paper poster is therefore an in-
expensive way of realizing a large, high-resolution display. Gigapixel Prints [177]
presented a set of innovative applications of interactive paper posters. While input is
realized with one or several Anoto pens, contents of the display can be updated ei-
ther by reprinting the poster (slow, but high-resolution update) or by projecting addi-
tional contents onto the poster. The concept can play to its strengths when large data
sets have to be visualized that are relatively stable over time. PLink [147] leverages
large paper deskpads for integrating the physical desk and the computer desktop of
office workers. The deskpad acts as a large linking area on which the user can easily
and quickly create and access links to resources of the digital desktop. A four-week
field study showed that PLink enables users to quickly access digital resources and
supports flexible organization of digital information by laying out links in physical
space.
The systems reviewed in the this section require that paper documents be kept
flat on a two-dimensional surface. This restricts the natural interaction with paper,
which to a large extent is manipulated above the table [151, 146]. Recent research
opens up the 3D space above the table for paper-digital interaction: