Collaborative visual analysis with multi-level information sharing using a wall-size display and see-through HMDs

Solving complex data analysis problems can often benefit a collaborative effort. For synchronous co-located collaboration, a well-recognized challenge is to deliver different contents to people with different privileges and different responsibilities. This challenge is becoming more obvious with the use of a shared display space such as a wall-size display. In particular, scenarios often arise that a privileged participant needs to access sensitive information that other participants are not permitted to view. This is nearly impossible to achieve with only a single display. As a result, it becomes clear that additional devices are needed to provide some of the participants the capability to access and manage certain information in a private space. In this work, we investigate incorporating optical see-through head-mounted displays (OST-HMDs) with a wall-size display to deliver sensitive information in a synchronous co-located, collaborative setting. With our prototype system, we conduct a user study to observe the collaboration styles under this unique setup. We also present the lessons learned by reflecting on the iterative design process of our prototype system.