A chalkboard for asymmetric collaboration

Conventional stand-alone kiosk systems do not allow communication between people. However, customers sometimes needs help or advice from the expert in a complex kiosk, such as making a contract. By adding asymmetric collaboration functions to a kiosk system, we have made it possible for them to obtain such assistance. Asymmetric collaboration is a new type of collaboration, in which two or more people who have different environments or standpoints work together toward a common goal. We developed a remote collaboration platform that supports asymmetric collaboration, and created a remote loan-contracting system as the first application. The platform has conferencing functions such as a shared chalkboard, which allows two or more terminals to share graphical data in real time. In this paper, we focus on the shared chalkboard function. To handle asymmetry in the loan-contracting system, the shared chalkboard can dynamically switch user interface, and can be controlled by application programs through an API. We describe its design and implementation, and discuss its advantages.