SMaRT: the Smart Meeting Room Task at ISL

As computational and communications systems become increasingly smaller, faster, more powerful, and more integrated, the goal of interactive, integrated meeting support rooms is slowly becoming reality. It is already possible, for instance, to rapidly locate task-related information during a meeting, filter it, and share it with remote users. Unfortunately, the technologies that provide such capabilities are as obstructive as they are useful - they force humans to focus on the tool rather than the task. Thus the veneer of utility often hides the true costs of use, which are longer, less focused human interactions. To address this issue, we present our current research efforts towards SMaRT: the Smart Meeting Room Task. The goal of SMaRT is to provide meeting support services that do not require explicit human-computer interaction. Instead, by monitoring the activities in the meeting room using both video and audio analysis, the room is able to react appropriately to users' needs and allow the users to focus on their own goals.