 The Collaborative Environments project is aimed at improving the experience of distributed workers. Since distance between coworkers usually equates to less effective teams and inadequate project outcomes, our goal is to use technology to bridge the distance between people. By providing more effective communication tools, we enable distributed coworkers to develop relationships that are so important to increasing trust, improving worker satisfaction, and solidifying loyalty to the organization. The project was formed in 2003 to experiment with ways to decrease the distance between distributed people by creating software that provides a sense of "virtual co-location."
A theme that runs through the prototypes we have created is the use of high-fidelity communication channels. In all cases, people's voices can be transmitted using CD-quality stereo audio. This capability, embodied in jVoiceBridge, dramatically improves the user experience. Here are some additional details about the prototypes: jVoiceBridge
jVoiceBridge is the basic building block of all Collaborative Environment prototypes. This software-only, open source component, written in the JavaTM Programming Language, handles the audio portion of each interaction, mixing voices and transmitting them using voice-over-IP (VoIP). It supports application features such as conference calls, voice chat, speech detection, private conference audio layouts, and audio for 3D environments. jVoiceBridge also supports a range of voice qualities from telephone to CD-quality. In addition, jVoiceBridge supports stereo audio and the ability to move individuals around in the stereo field.
Project Wonderland
Project Wonderland is an open source toolkit for building 3D virtual worlds. Wonderland worlds feature live application sharing, easy integration with enterprise data, and the ability to run servers either inside or outside an organization's firewall. Using the immersive audio provided by the jVoiceBridge server, the virtual environments created with the Wonderland toolkit provide a strong sense of social presence, making them ideal for business and education collaboration.
MPK20: Sun's Virtual Workplace
MPK20 is a 3D virtual environment designed to enhance business collaboration. Like people in the Sun Labs' physical office building, Menlo Park building #16 (a.k.a. "MPK16"), people in the MPK20 virtual world can conduct business, interact with team members, and have chance encounters with colleagues, all using natural voice interaction. Most importantly, real work can be accomplished within MPK20. People can create, edit, and share documents within the virtual world.
SunTM Labs Meeting Suite
Our first prototype to use the Voice Bridge, the Meeting Suite is an audio conferencing tool designed to improve the effectiveness of distributed meetings. Based on voice of the customer data, the design of the Meeting Suite is aimed specifically at solving those problems that have the biggest impact on meeting effectiveness. The software, for example, shows who's present, who's speaking, and who's having trouble hearing. It also integrates a voting mechanism, a multi-user PDF viewer for sharing presentations, telepointers for gesturing and pointing, and a place to centrally store all meeting documents. Advanced audio features include private voice chats and the ability to modify the volume of each participant and move them around in the stereo field. The Meeting Suite also includes features tailored to executive-level meetings including waiting rooms, authenticated dial-in, restricted and closed meetings, and access-control lists for individual meeting documents.
SunTM Labs Conference Manager
Conference Manager is a "Web 2.0" application that includes the most important features of the Meeting Suite including the ability to set up and manage conference calls. Once in a call, a browser-based conference call window displays who is on the call and who is speaking.
Porta-Person: Telepresence for Collaborative Environments
A Porta-Person is a remote-controlled telepresence device for use in distributed communication. In meetings taking place in conference rooms, the Porta-Person provides "at the table" presence for remote participants. For interactions taking place between physical spaces and the MPK20 virtual workplace, the Porta-Person provides a bridge between the physical and virtual worlds.
For more information:
Porta-Person: Telepresence for the Connected Conference Room (pdf)
CHI 2007, Nicole Yankelovich, Nigel Simpson, Jonathan Kaplan, and Joe Provino. Proceedings of the 2007 conference on Human-Computer Interaction, (April 28 - May 3, 2007, San Jose, CA).
Improving Audio Conferencing: Are Two Ears Better Than One? (pdf)
CSCW 2006. Nicole Yankelovich, Jonathan Kaplan, Mike Wessler, Joe Provino, and Joan DiMicco. Proceedings of the 2006 ACM conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (November 4-8, 2006, Banff, Alberta, Canada).
SunTM Labs Meeting Suite, Executive Edition (pdf)
HCIC 2006. Jonathan Kaplan and Nicole Yankelovich. Boaster paper for the Human Computer Interaction Consortium 2006 Winter Workshop on Collaboration, Cooperation, Coordination (February 1-5, 2006, Fraser, CO).
Office Central (pdf)
DUX 2005. Nicole Yankelovich, Mike Wessler, Jonathan Kaplan, Joe Provino, Nigel Simpson, Karl Haberl, and Justin Matejka. Design sketch published in the 2005 Conference on Designing for User eXperience (November 3-5, 2005, San Francisco, CA).
Meeting Central: Making Distributed Meetings More Effective (pdf)
CSCW 2004. Nicole Yankelovich, William Walker, Patricia Roberts, Mike Wessler, Jonathan Kaplan, and Joe Provino. Paper published in the 2004 conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work (November 6-10, 2004, Chicago, IL).
Private Communication in Public Meetings (pdf)
CHI 2005. Nicole Yankelovich, Jen McGinn, Mike Wessler, Jonathan Kaplan, Joe Provino, and Harold Fox. Late breaking results published in the 2005 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (April 2-7, 2005, Portland, OR).
From Meeting Central to Office Central (pdf)
Sun Labs Open House. Nicole Yankelovich (April 27, 2005). |
