Memtable - Part 1 - Intro

MemTable is an interactive touch table that supports co-located group meetings by capturing both digital and physical interactions in its memory. Everyone can be a scribe at the MemTable. The goal of the project is to demonstrate hardware and software design principles that integrate recording, recalling, and reflection during the life cycle of a project in one tabletop system. The project has been developing during the last year.

Memtable poses an important question to HCI designers: How can the multi-person interactions we design be integrated with our workpractices into systems which have history and memory? What is the social computing space of the future?

 MemTable’s hardware design prioritizes ergonomics, social interaction, structural integrity, and streamlined implementation. Its software supports heterogeneous input modalities for a variety of contexts: brainstorming, decision making, event planning, and story-boarding. The user interface introduces personal menus, capture elements, and tagging for search purposes.

Users in this meeting were discussing potential themes for a restauraunt in their neighborhood. A Chef, Architect, Designer, and Finacial Advisor each had individual concerns which they could record to the table - it's physical design also creates an ergonomic and formal setting for structured collaborative discussions where any person can be a scribe at any time.

Use case example, photo 1: Marcelo and Natan had a meeting to discuss a new prototype of a food printer before demo week. Here is a screenshot of the review panel. Note the 5 different types of input supported by the system: text, image capture, sketching, laptop capture, and audio.

Use case example, photo 2: Marcelo and Natan bring out version 2 of their prototype and sketch improvements together.