KBoard: Knowledge Capture in Multimedia Collaboration Rooms

KBoard is a software environment developed to facilitate group work conducted in multimedia collaboration rooms. Specifically, KBoard has been designed to support the process of capturing knowledge during group sessions in which interaction among participants is mediated by large interactive displays. We focus on two main requirements arising in this setting: (1) Users need agile and unobtrusive means to persistently represent their ideas and build associations among them; and (2) Users need to easily enter text without relying on conventional mouse and keyboard facilities. KBoard addresses these needs by (1) implementing the notion of workspaces that are built and inter-linked as discussion progresses and knowledge is shared by group members; and (2) providing alternative dynamic QWERTY and pie-menu virtual keyboards that speed up text input. As per our preliminary evaluation of KBoard, this combination results in a powerful environment that facilitates knowledge capture and offers an appealing toolset to explore more fully the potential of large interactive displays and to promote the adoption of multimedia collaboration rooms to support creative group activities.