Preliminary evaluation of a remote mobile collaborative environment

MCEs (Mobile Collaborative Environments) are systems designed to allow users to collaborate any time and anywhere using wireless networks and mobile devices. In this paper we report on our findings from the development and testing of a fully functional MCE photo-conferencing service that enables seamless synchronous collaboration between remote mobile users over existing 3G cellular networks. Key to the development of MCEs is an understanding of the effects of remote gestural interactions between mobile participants. We report on the results of an initial evaluation of our photo-conferencing service, examining the effects of two remote gestural interactions, 'Pointing' and 'Scaling', assessing their impact on performance measurements. Our findings begin to inform the design of future mobile collaborative environments.