Use of gestures in a multi-device environment

We report a case-study of an evolving meeting space based on a 6-month observation of a multi-device meeting environment. Each meeting member had his own tablet PC and the meeting group used a large vertical display to view presentations, meeting notes, sketches, and other documents. After our first round of observations, a large tabletop computer was introduced. Subsequent observations enabled us to assess the impact of the device upon the meeting activity. We observed a marked increase in the incidence and variety of gestures. The aim of our analysis was to identify the factors that contributed to the observed use of gestures and understand the meaning and function of these gestures. We focus on the role of gesture in directing attention to the content on a single device and heterogeneous content across multiple devices.