Tangible document sharing: handing over paper documents across a videoconferencing display

TL;DR

This paper introduces a system for sharing paper documents during video calls that preserves the physical and spatial experience for better collaboration.

Contribution

A novel system that eliminates media and space inconsistencies in sharing paper documents during videoconferencing.

Findings

Reproducing real paper documents increases the sense of information sharing.

Handing over documents enhances a sense of shared space regardless of document format.

The system improves collaboration by preserving physical and spatial consistency.

Abstract

Conventional techniques for sharing paper documents in teleconferencing tend to introduce two inconsistencies: 1) media inconsistency: a paper document is converted into a digital image on the remote site; 2) space inconsistency: a workspace deliberately inverts the partner’s handwriting to make a document easy to read. In this paper, we present a novel system that eliminates these inconsistencies. The media and space inconsistencies are resolved by reproducing a real paper document on a remote site and allowing a user to handover the paper document to a remote partner across a videoconferencing display. From a series of experiments, we found that reproducing a real paper document contributes to a higher sense of information sharing. We also found that handing over a document enhances a sense of space sharing, regardless of whether the document is digital or paper-based. These findings provide insights into designing systems for sharing paper documents across distances.

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