Improving collaboration efficiency via diverse networked mobile devices

Abstract

We introduce a framework for distributed or co-located teams to collaborate highly efficiently using diverse mobile devices for design and assessment of complex systems. Our framework enhances the efficiency of collaborations arising in design, simulation or data analysis, including visualization. First, we investigate which requirements on such a collaboration framework exist and which influences between task models have to be taken into account; afterwards we transfer those findings into a prototypical system. The devices provide three views of data to be processed collaboratively: (1) a simulation view; (2) a status report view; and (3) a status update view. These views serve the purpose of providing overview, detail and performance views. A smart watch view shows at-a-glance information, the environment or the process being inspected, possibly influenced by a user. Users can use their mobile devices as control interfaces. The framework is especially effective for combining the synergistic, complementary competencies of a team. We describe the design of our framework and discuss specific applications.