Mediating Multi-Party Negotiation Through Marker-Based Tracking of Mobile Phones

Michael Rohs, Deutsche Telekom Laboratories, TU Berlin, Germany
Christian Kray, Informatics Research Institute, Newcastle University, UK


Abstract

Negotiating a date and a time for a meeting involving a number of people can
be a difficult and time-consuming process - even when all participants are
collocated and supported by technology. Oftentimes, it involves an auction-
like procedure, where suggestions and conflicts are announced to the group
and then checked individually until a feasible time can be found. We propose
to use spatial proximity regions around handheld devices to significantly
reduce the effort of exploring proposed meeting times in the context of a
party of collocated people. In order to determine the location of devices
on a table, we have developed a new tracking mechanism that relies on
dynamic visual markers shown on the screen of the devices used. A
preliminary evaluation of the underlying idea and the tracking mechanisms
highlights advantages and drawbacks of our approach.