The personal computer has revolutionized individual work and made it independent of time and space. The world has become a global village, consisting of networked workplaces.

But what about decisive coordination processes and team processes - when the main focus is on shared and creative cooperation?

Until now, the advantages of computer technology ended at the door to rooms used for conferences, meetings and teamwork. The consequences: loss of time, sources of errors and tedious transfer of results from one medium to another and back again...

Intelligent conference interiors with a mix of furniture and computers: Roomware® from Wilkhahn

With "Roomware®", we have therefore developed a completely new furnishing concept for conference and teamwork environments. Advance development and scientific basics of the Roomware Concept was carried out by the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Publication Systems (IPSI) in Darmstadt, Germany. Roomware combines the advantages of the worlds of virtual information with the social and creative qualities of face-to-face communication.  Electronic walls, tables and mobile displays support teamwork as an interface to computer data. And what is more: Roomware allows the digital process integration of individual work and teamwork, and the synchronous cooperation of teams working from different locations.
 The design concept integrates technology into familiar forms in a way that is as matter-as-fact as possible. The key idea: the more familiar the "reference furniture units", the simpler the access to new technologies. Chairs, table configurations, mobile catering furniture units, sideboards and Roomware® all exhibit a coherent design language in which technology no longer appears as a foreign body.

Roomware Components promote typical team processes in project work environments, in conference rooms or at consulting workplaces.

• Cooperating: projects can frequently only be carried out using computer technology and in a team layout. It is, therefore, important to reduce technical and social barriers with a view to mobilizing the potential of individual participants, and to involving them efficiently in creative processes. The methodical change between more informal, creative (horizontal) and formal, goal-oriented work surfaces (vertical) ensures dynamism and committed project controlling. The combination of the InteracTable, (the high table) with the mobile InterWall provides the ideal Roomware environment for supporting such dynamic team processes with digital presentation and work media. If the InterWall is additionally equipped for video conferencing, external project participants can be involved in a team process and seen as a "life-size" image.
  
  
• Coordinating: visualizing, comparing, modifying, taking decisions and coordinating are key phases involved in steering complex corporate organizations and processes. Presentations, project plans, conference documents or even a video conference can be presented online and in parallel. The CommBoard therefore has up to three separately accessible, touch-sensitive presentation and work surfaces. At a table combination with NoTables, decision-making bodies can interact with the CommBoard from where they are located. Or they can have additional information shown on the integral displays and then make notes which are immediately filed in the network. This means that the amount of time needed for preparing and reworking declines, whereas the efficiency of meetings increases.
  
  
• Consulting: so far, the customer and the computer have been two factors that are difficult to coordinate: operating technical equipment while taking care of a customer, making a brilliant presentation while also involving the other person, ensuring a degree of privacy while recording all relevant data in the system with maximum transparency. We have developed the ConsulTable for this purpose: it allows meetings and consultations to be carried out around it, with participants either sitting or standing. Displays are flush-integrated into the timelessly elegant tables. Digital documents may be presented and modified jointly on these displays in an informal atmosphere. A light touch with a finger or a pen is all that is required to rotate the information on the screen and position it in front of the person opposite. This horizontal integration provides participants not only with a shared visual and work surface, but it also ensures privacy without any additional measures having to be taken: those not sitting or standing at the table and therefore only able to see the display from a low angle, cannot read the data. With NoTables for consulting and meeting processes, you will be able to combine requirements made on modern customer consulting, with focus on customer relations, in a simple and efficient manner.

Roomware Components in detail:

• InteracTable® (design: Wilkhahn, Fraunhofer-IPSI, Andreas Störiko): the InteracTable is a high table that is 220 cm wide, 120 cm deep and 90 cm high, with a 50" touch-sensitive display, particularly suitable for informal cooperation of four to eight persons. It specifically promotes participation, creativity and spontaneous interaction. The display is set in a wide frame which allows participants to confer while standing around the InteracTable. The result is that those involved participate much more actively in such a confidential atmosphere, and "standing" sessions are generally more efficient than sitting. With its typical frame design and the integral impact-resilient profile edging, the InteracTable blends perfectly with Wilkhahn furnishing concepts for teamwork environments.
  
  
• InterWall® (design: Wilkhahn, Fraunhofer-IPSI, wiege): the vertical counterpart to the InteracTable is the mobile InterWall. The 67" holographic display panel, 137 cm wide, 104 cm high and 1.4 cm thick, provides a large, optionally interactive presentation and work surface, for example for preparing action plans and project plans. Rear projection, with great light-transmitting capacity and independent of available light, is carried out via a digital projector firmly integrated into the frame and a retractable arm with a tilted mirror. It is therefore possible to work directly on the glass panel without any shadows being cast. Folded up, the InterWall is only 85 cm deep. It has a filigree, transparent design that blends with almost any interior. Four double swivel castors mean fast relocation and allocation to different work groups. Additional functions, such as video conferencing, can be easily integrated.
  
  
• CommBoard (design: Wilkhahn, wiege): the CommBoard, 395 cm wide, 108 cm high and only 23 cm deep, transforms the wall into a medium for presentation, visualization and work for application in a modern conference. It links up to three touch-sensitive 50" plasma displays with a silver-colour frame and storage console (optionally with sound system) in order to present and work on even different data sets in parallel. For example, a presentation can be shown in one field, in a second field Internet research can be carried out and comments can be entered in a third field. Three participants can therefore work at the CommBoard simultaneously, without any shadows being cast or any glare. Compared with rear projection, there are considerable advantages due to the efficient method of wall attachment and the economical amount of floor space required: the CommBoard is simply mounted on a (stable) wall.
  
  
• NoTable® (design: Wilkhahn, Andreas Störiko): at the NoTable, conference participants can work both "publicly" and "privately": they can follow presentations on their own display, make notes, agree on digital documents presented on the table, on records and statements or also annotate a general presentation from their individual places. Depending on the size of the table segments, two to three 15" touch-sensitive displays are flushed integrated into the table top.frames.ioMain. If the display is to be used to follow a presentation or read documents, it is raised out of the table top to an angle of 30° by slightly touching the frame, thus enabling conference participants to view the display Comfortably. 
  
  
• ConsulTable® (design: Wilkhahn, wiege): the ConsulTable is for consultation discussions, with two or four participants, either sitting or standing. The horizontal integration of the 15" touch-sensitive display into the round table tops promotes a confidential atmosphere and active involvement on the part of the customer or other conference partners. By lightly touching the touchscreen, the contents of the screen can be rotated by 180°. The high-quality pedestal tables have high stability. They have a diameter of 90 cm and are available with a height of either 73 cm or 105 cm, optionally also with infinitely variable height adjustment. Various table and frame finishes allow exact coordination with individual interior design.

Faster, better, more efficiently - suitable for any IT environment

What makes Roomware special is the integration of displays of varying size into furniture and wall structures, integration that focuses on team processes and human requirements - and the intuitive operation using a pen or a finger that makes it accessible to every participant.

This offers key advantages for conference work and teamwork:

• Start-up time for conference and project interiors for visualizing presentations is as quick as a "mouse-click". 
• All participants can see the digital surfaces at the same time and work on them jointly. Results are immediately available and can be sent, further worked on and filed via the Intranet, Internet, etc. - allowing coherent process design in one medium.
• Combined with video-conferencing, this opens up additional, new dimensions: teams at different locations can now not only see and hear one another, but also work synchronously on shared, "virtual" work surfaces.

Like any other conventional monitor, Roomware Components may be operated with any customary hardware and software systems. This applies not only to the keyboard and CPU ports, but also to the simple integration into existing system environments and EDP networks.

The Wilkhahn Stand "Future Work Environments" was a project of the IF Design of Messe AG.
In cooperation with Lohoff & Partner (www.lohoff-partner.com), there was an application-oriented demonstration as to how joint work on digital process models can be supported by means of Roomware Components.
The Fraunhofer-IPSI will show the next steps of the Roomware concept with the further development of
the cooperative "Beach" software, which may now also used for programmes as Windows (www.ipsi.fraunhofer.de/ambiente).

Bad Münder, March 2002

Wilkhahn
Wilkening + Hahne GmbH
Communications + Corporate Development
Fritz-Hahne-Straße 8
31848 Bad Münder
Germany
burkhard.remmers@wilkhahn.de

In case of queries regarding Roomware®, please contact: frank.sonder@wilkhahn.de