ProxemicUI: Object-Oriented Middleware and Event Model for Proxemics-Aware Applications on Large Displays

Interpersonal spatial relationships (“proxemics”) play an
important role when people collaborate or work near one
another. While state-of-art tracking systems and toolkits
have been demonstrated that are able to provide proxemics
data, application developers require the ability to define
their own custom proxemics events (i.e., the meaning
behind specific spatial configurations) rather than conduct
manual tests in the UI layer. At the same time, proxemicsaware applications involving shared displays need
mechanisms to tightly integrate UI events and proxemics
events. This requires a middleware framework that allows
developers to define proxemics events by composing lowlevel proxemics data and optionally UI events. In this
paper, we present a proximity-based event model suited to
collaboration around large displays, and a corresponding
framework for building proxemics-aware applications. The
design of this model is derived from a review of prior work,
and direct experience implementing and evaluating a
proxemics-aware interactive tabletop application (a
museum information kiosk).