User Interface Components to Support Simple and Efficient Use and Control of Large, High Resolution

11.02.2005

Abstract
This thesis investigates basic user interface abstractions and tools, with the purpose of simplifying and enhancing their use on large, high resolution tiled displays (display walls). The hardware platform comprises 24 projectors driven by 12 commodity x86 PCs, interconnected via gigabit ethernet. The underlying software platform is based on Linux and Mac OS X, with X Windows and VNC forming the display wall’s backend.

A control management interface and tool is developed and implemented to simplify the process of booting the many components of the display wall, supporting hardware and software control of individual projectors and computers. Support for multiple cursors is added to the X Windows-driven interface in an application-agnostic manner by multiplexing the system cursor, providing different users with individually controllable virtual cursors. Interaction is simplified by making new windows appear at the current user’s cursor, and by allowing windows to be grouped and moved together.

The management and user interface artifacts developed and implemented in this thesis have been deployed in the display wall lab at the Department of Computer Science, University of Tromsø, and are currently in daily use by both teachers and students.