Lark

Matthew Tobiasz
Petra Isenberg
Sheelagh Carpendale

Overview

Large multi-touch displays are expanding the possibilities of multiple-coordinated views by allowing multiple people to interact with data in concert or independently. We present Lark, a system that facilitates the coordination of interactions with information visualizations on shared digital workspaces. We focus on supporting this coordination according to four main criteria: scoped interaction, temporal flexibility, spatial flexibility, and changing collaboration styles. These are achieved by integrating a representation of the information visualization pipeline into the shared workspace, thus explicitly indicating coordination points on data, representation, presentation, and view levels. This integrated meta-visualization supports both the awareness of how views are linked and the freedom to work in concert or independently. Lark incorporates these four main criteria into a coherent visualization collaboration interaction environment by providing direct visual and algorithmic support for the coordination of data analysis actions over shared large displays.

Images

Lark’s collaborative visualization environment:

Parallel and joint work: Ben and Ana are discussing a view together while Chris still focuses on his own analysis

Screenshot of parallel and joint work scenario

Video

Attach:lark.mp4 Download video: mp4 (21 MB) Flash Video (25 MB)

Project Pages

Petra Isenberg's Lark project page.

Publications

Matthew Tobiasz. Lark: Using Meta-visualizations for Coordinating Collaboration. Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, April, 2010.
Matthew Tobiasz, Petra Isenberg, and Sheelagh Carpendale. Lark: Coordinating Co-located Collaboration with Information Visualization. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (Proceedings Visualization / Information Visualization 2009), 15(6), November-December, 2009.