Hierarchical multi-touch selection techniques for collaborative geospatial analysis
Thomas Butkiewicz, Dong Hyun Jeong, Zachary J. Wartell, William Ribarsky, Remco Chang · Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE · 2009
In time critical visual analytic environments collaboration between multiple expert users allows for rapid knowledge discovery and facilitates the sharing of insight. New collaborative display technologies, such as multi-touch tables, have shown great promise as the medium for such collaborations to take place. However, under such new technologies, traditional selection techniques, having been developed for mouse and keyboard interfaces, become inconvenient, inefficient, and in some cases, obsolete. We present selection techniques for multi-touch environments that allow for the natural and efficient selection of complex regions-of-interest within a hierarchical geospatial environment, as well as methods for refining and organizing these selections. The intuitive nature of the touch-based interaction permits new users to quickly grasp complex controls, while the consideration for collaboration coordinates the actions of multiple users simultaneously within the same environment. As an example, we apply our simple gestures and actions mimicking real-world tactile behaviors to increase the usefulness and efficacy of an existing urban growth simulation in a traditional GIS-like environment. However, our techniques are general enough to be applied across a wide range of geospatial analytical applications for both domestic security and military use.