Semantic Pointing in a Collaborative Applications

Making a reference in a common frame of reference, known as pointing, is an important part of communication between collaborators. We research a pointing mechanism called semantic pointing in collaborative applications where the collaborators’ representation of the interface varies. A telepointer, commonly used for pointing in a collaborative application, is not adequate. We demonstrate semantic pointing with the Deep View system, which supports collaboration between a sighted person using a visual interface and a blind person using an audio interface. Sync is an object-oriented replicated infrastructure used to construct collaborative applications. The Deep View implementation demonstrates how to integrate semantic pointing into applications created with the Sync infrastructure.