Identity-Differentiating Widgets for Multiuser Interactive Surfaces

Widgets - standard reusable GUI elements - are a staple of user-interface development. The use of widget toolkits, such as Java´s Swing, X Window System´s Motif, or Microsoft´s MFC, allows programmers to quickly incorporate a number of standard interactions (such as clicking buttons, selecting check boxes, or scrolling through lists) into their software. To date, most widgets have been designed for use by one person at a time. Within a single session, a widget behaves the same regardless of who uses it. By applying the iDwidgets concept, the authors supplement traditional widgets with identity differentiation that supports widget reuse, dynamic widget customization, clutter reduction, and novel multiuser widget type creation. This article introduces a conceptual framework for iDwidgets, describing four axes that application can customize by exploiting identity differentiation: function, content, appearance, and group input