Investigating Collaborative Behaviors on Interactive Tabletop Displays in Complex Task Environments

A two-player, collaborative digital tabletop testbed has been developed in order to study collaborative behaviors of human operators in complex task environments such as Air Traffic Control. The game provides a means of examining interaction techniques designed to foster collaboration, and support natural communication strategies between operators in these complex environments. This paper describes key requirements for the testbed and how those requirements were met in a first version of the testbed. Finally, lessons learned from initial evaluations of its application to studying handoffs and coordination between players on an interactive tabletop display in a simulated ATC environment is presented.