Info: Touch Screen Gesture-based Process Modelling

Picture on the left shows Markus Rittenbruch and Fortune Truong working in the QUT VISER laboratory on our new gesture-based process modeller, destined for the QUT Cube.

We have implemented a set of gestures to promote its use with large scale touch screen collaboration systems, such as the Cube.   Note, both participants in the image are modelling concurrently, as it is a multi-user system.

We will be looking for process modelling volunteers soon to perform a collaboration experiment. Keep your eyes peeled for an invite to take part in some leading edge collaborative modelling research.

Many thanks to Michael Rosemann (HOS) and Ian Mackinnon (IFE) for support, and the VISER laboratory for access to their Star Wars gear.

This project is a collaboration involving myself, Erik Poppe and Artem Polyvany at QUT, and Alex Nolte at Bochum University, Germany.

Get in contact if you are interested in the project.

Ross

Short Paper: Using natural user interfaces for collaborative process modelling in virtual environments

Just had a short paper accepted for Models and their Role in Collaboration (MoRoCo 2013), 22 September 2013, Paphos, Cyprus.  Submitted version of paper available here. 

Abstract: Modelling business processes for analysis or redesign usually requires the collaboration of many stakeholders. These stakeholders may be spread across locations or even companies, making co-located collaboration costly and difficult to organize. Modern process modelling technologies support remote collaboration but lack support for visual cues used in co-located collaboration. Previously we presented a prototype 3D virtual world process modelling tool that supports a number of visual cues to facilitate remote collaborative process model creation and validation. However, the added complexity of having to navigate a virtual environment and using an avatar for communication made the tool difficult to use for novice users. We now present an evolved version of the technology that addresses these issues by providing natural user interfaces for non-verbal communication, navigation and model manipulation.

Well done Erik!

Ross

Paper: Evaluation of an Augmented Reality Collaborative Process Modelling System

Just had our paper "Evaluation of an Augmented Reality Collaborative Process Modelling System" accepted for CyberWorlds 2012 in Darmstadt, run by Fraunhofer IGD.

Paper is found here.

Abstract - Identifying, modelling and documenting business processes usually requires the collaboration of many stakeholders that may be spread across companies in inter-organizational business settings. While there are many process modelling tools available, the support they provide for remote collaboration is still limited. This paper investigates the application of virtual environment and augmented reality technologies to remote business process modelling, with an aim to assisting common collaboration tasks by providing an increased sense of immersion in a shared workspace. We report on the evaluation of a prototype system with five key informants. The results indicate that this approach to business process modelling is suited to remote collaborative task settings, and stakeholders may indeed benefit from using augmented reality interfaces.

Ross

Paper: A Prototype Augmented Reality Collaborative Process Modelling Tool

We have had a BPM 2011 Demo paper accepted describing our new augmented reality process modelling prototype. A copy of the paper is available here. A video of the prototype is available here.

This work is the product of an Honours project by my new PhD student Erik Poppe. He will be continuing this work in his PhD project, supported by a scholarship from the Smart Services CRC.

Well done Erik!

Abstract at end of post.

Ross

Abstract.

Identifying, modelling and documenting business processes usually requires the collaboration of many stakeholders that may be spread across companies in inter-organizational business settings. While there are many process modelling tools available, the support they provide for remote collaboration is still limited. This demonstration showcases a novel prototype application that implements collaborative virtual environment and augmented reality technologies to improve remote collaborative process modelling, with an aim to assisting common collaboration tasks by providing an increased sense of immersion in an intuitive shared work and task space. Our tool is easily deployed using open source software, and commodity hardware, and is expected to assist with saving money on travel costs for large scale process modelling projects covering national and international centres within an enterprise.

Journal Paper: Using virtual worlds for collaborative business process modeling

Have uploaded a new journal paper I have written with Jan Recker and Stephen West, published at the Journal of Business Process Management, "Using virtual worlds for collaborative business process modeling."

Ross

Video: Augmented Reality Process Modelling Tool

In this video we show a prototype BPMN process modelling tool which uses Augmented Reality techniques to increase the sense of immersion.

The avatar represents a remotely logged in user, and facilitates greater insight into the editing actions of the collaborator than present 2D web-based approaches in collaborative process modelling.

We modified the Second Life client to integrate the ARToolkit in order to support pattern-based AR.

Open Source version of this project will be available soon.

Ross