Interactive Public Displays

Large interactive displays are becoming increasingly prevalent in urban public life. This is due largely to rapid advances in display and projection technologies, input methods that enable different types of interaction mechanisms, and our expanding understanding of the potential for interaction variations and scenarios. Large displays have moved out of research laboratories into public spaces such as museums, libraries, plazas, and architectural facades, where they present information and enhance experiences in a highly visual and often interactive way. Researchers from disciplines such as human-computer interaction, architecture, social sciences, design, art, and media theory have started exploring public-display installations’ potential for educational, entertaining, participative, and evocative experiences. The design and development of these installations can be informed by previous research on, for instance, large interactive displays in collaborative and educational scenarios. However, public settings have unique characteristics and therefore impose unique challenges. Public spaces attract diverse audiences who differ in age, interests, and experience with technology and who will engage in spontaneous and often unpredictable activities, individually and in groups. In addition, public settings’ spatial layouts, sizes, lighting conditions, and social connotations affect which display technologies and interaction techniques are adequate and how people will interact with and experience an installation. Over the years, a body of research has formed around interactive public displays, including media facades,1 museum displays, interactive displays embedded in urban settings such as shop windows or plazas, and community displays. The technical challenges regarding display technologies and input devices suitable for urban scenarios are still relevant. In addition, research questions regarding how to best promote meaningful, evocative public displays that offer experiences in participation, authorship, and ownership are gaining importance. Researchers are looking for alternatives to installations that serve only commercial purposes and thus are “polluting” our public environments. This special issue follows up on Thomas Funkhouser and Kai Li’s special issue on large-format displays (July/Aug. 2000), Gordon Kurtenbach and George Fitzmaurice’s issue on applications of large displays (July/Aug. 2005), and particularly Stacey Scott and Sheelagh Carpendale’s issue on interacting with digital tabletops (Sept./Oct. 2006), which included a discussion of public horizontal displays in museums. The articles in this special issue present snapshots of current research topics and issues that the introduction of interactive displays into public spaces has brought to the fore.