Information at the wave of your hand

Many universities are placing large screen displays in public locations to provide information about their academic programs and events. Typically, these displays are not interactive and the person viewing the information can only see a small subset as (s)he passes by. We present a gesture-based interactive system that can be used for any public information system when the information can be represented by entities and relations. In our demonstration system we have defined entities and relations among classes, professors, research topics, organizations, and events both within a department at a university. This Gesture Interactive Information System is a "Walk-Up-And-Use" interface that utilizes gesture recognition via Microsoft Kinect, and is designed so that multiple users may interact with the system. To provide clarity and visual hierarchy, information is displayed in clusters of circles with different sizes and color to differentiate between the various information types. This information can be arranged by type or discipline in order to provide users with multiple ways to explore the relationships between the various entities in the information system. Our user evaluation studies show that the system was able to attract the passers-by attention and engage them. The mean rating for system's design consistency, content engagement, and ease of navigation was significantly higher than other usability aspects.