FLIPCLOAK

The Window Manager System for Overlapping Windows with Vacuum Metaphor

of Visualizations

Ryutaro Motora

, Toshiyuki Masui

and Michiaki Yasumura

Graduate School of Media and Governance, Keio University, Kanagawa, Japan

Faculty of Environment and Information Studies, Keio University, Kanagawa, Japan

Keywords:

Window Management, SmartPhone, Gestural Interaction, Vacuum Metaphor of Visualizations.

Abstract:

Overlapping windows prevent us from ﬁnding the target window immediately. They reduce the operability

and the visibility so that it is important issue how to visualize and manage the windows on a desktop. In this

research we propose the new window management method that uses combinational operation with a personal

computer and a smartphone. Then we prototype the application called the FlipCloak. The FlipCloak is the

system that controls transfer of windows on the desktop between devices with simple gestural interaction.

Using the FlipCloak we can manage windows on a desktop efﬁciently by putting the low-priority window in

the other device temporarily as putting one’s stuff in the cloakroom.

1 INTRODUCTION

It is a important issue how to visualize overlapping

windows on a desktop. Development of the informa-

tion processing technology allows us to open many

application windows simultaneously. Though it helps

us to work on a computer comfortably by multitask-

ing, it harms the both operability and visibility, be-

cause desktop has limited space. We often have an

experience which cannot ﬁnd the target window im-

mediately from a overlapping windows.

There are some existing functions on operating

systems or each applications to help for task manage-

ment and documentcomparisonsuch as minimization,

alt-tab/command-tab, tab-window system, spaces or

expose. Furthermore Robertson made a system called

the Task Gallery, a window manager that uses in-

teractive 3D graphics (Robertson, 2000). Yamanaka

proposed a method that the user slides the mouse

cursor under the windows (Yamanaka, 2011). Then

Dragicevic proposed a technique, called ”fold-and-

drop”, uses a natural metaphor that makes it possi-

ble to seamlessly drag and drop objects from a win-

dow to any window underneath with the paper-based

metaphors (Dragicevic, 2004).

Both existing functions and related works enhance

the speed of the window management. However it

is not the system that reduce the number of the win-

dow on a desktop. They visualize the many windows

efﬁciently by thumbnailing or abbreviating the title.

Therefor the more window we open, the less the op-

erability and the visibility are reduced.

In this paper we explain the system called the Flip-

Cloak, that solves the issues discussed above by com-

binational operation with a personal computer and a

smartphone.

2 FLIPCLOAK

The FlipCloak is the system that controls transference

of windows on the desktop between devices with sim-

ple gestural interaction. While working on a computer

with the FlipCloak, if we tip a mouse, the target win-

dow on the desktop of the personal computer transfers

to the display of the smartphone (Figure 1). And if we

tip the smartphone to the personal computer, the tar-

get window on the smartphone returns to the personal

computer. Putting the low-priority windows in other

devices temporarily with simple gesture, we can man-

age windows on a desktop efﬁciently, as putting one’s

stuff in the cloakroom. Then we describe details of

the system.

2.1 The Cloak Function

Using the Cloak function, we can put windows in ot-

791

Motora R., Masui T. and Yasumura M..

FLIPCLOAK - The Window Manager System for Overlapping Windows with Vacuum Metaphor of Visualizations.

DOI: 10.5220/0003926907910794

In Proceedings of the International Conference on Computer Graphics Theory and Applications (IVAPP-2012), pages 791-794

ISBN: 978-989-8565-02-0

 2012 SCITEPRESS (Science and Technology Publications, Lda.)

Figure 1: The image of the system: When we tip a mouse,

the target window on the personal computer transfers to the

smartphone (above). When we tip the smartphone, the tar-

get window on the smartphone return to the personal com-

puter (Bottom).

her devices with grouping. There are three cloaks in

the smartphone (Cloak-A, B and C). We select one of

them at a time we ﬂip the mouse (Figure 2). Then we

can check the windows in each group on the smart-

phone with tapping on the cloak button.

2.2 The Whole Selection Function

Normally when we tip the smartphone to the personal

computer, only the top window return to the personal

computer. However, using the Whole Selection func-

tion by longtapping on the each cloak button, we can

bring back whole windows in the cloak to the personal

computer. If we select the Cloak-A, that contains four

windows, as a whole, four windows return to the per-

sonal computer when we tip the smartphone.

2.3 The Devices Selection Function

We can choose devices to which transfer from the

main device with the Device Selection function. The

FlipCloak can transfer windows not only the main

personal computer to the prepared smartphone but

also the main computer to the other smartphone or

the smartphone to the other smartphones by register-

ing each time.

Figure 2: The image of the Cloak function: We can select

the cloak by clicking the button on the right (above). We can

check inside of the cloak tapping the cloak button (bottom).

3 IMPLEMENTATION

In this chapter we explain about the implementation

of the FlipCloak.

3.1 System Architecture

Figure 3 shows the image of the system architecture

of the FlipCloak. The user needs to use the special

mouse which has the Phighets Acceleration Sensor in-

side. The user also needs to install the FlipCloak Ap-

plication both in the personal computer and the smart-

phone.

The FlipCloak Application for the personal com-

puter is implemented by the Adobe Air and the Flip-

Cloak Application for the smartphone is implemented

by the Google android2.1. When the mouse gets

particular acceleration the top window information is

send to the data server and the window is killed with

special animation. At a time the the data in the server

has changed, it shows the target window on the smart-

phone.

IVAPP 2012 - International Conference on Information Visualization Theory and Applications

792

Figure 3: The image of the system architecture: The Flip-

Cloak consists the PC application, the smartphone applica-

tion, the data server and the mouse with acceleration sensor.

3.2 Vacuum Metaphor of Visualizations

The features of this system are simple gestural inter-

action and window animation at the time transfer to

the other device. Figure 4 is the screenshot of the mo-

ment of the transference. The window on the desktop

is killed with the animation that is like getting sucked

into the smartphone. It helps users to understand the

transference of the windows into the other device us-

ing vacuum metaphor.

Figure 4: The Screenshot of the moment of the transference.

The window transfers to the smartphone as like vacuumed.

4 USE CASE

In this chapter we show some examples of use cases

of the FlipCloak.

4.1 Selecting the Plan with Grouping

We can select the information with grouping. While

searching the restaurant or trip plan on the internet,

we can put prospectives on the smartphone tempo-

rally with the Cloak function. For example at the

time we search the restaurant, we can put the restau-

rants good for its price in the Cloak A, the restaurants

good for its location in the Cloak B, and the restau-

rants good for its reputation in the Cloak C (Figure

5). It helps us comparing the plans.

4.2 Transfer with the Article with

Different Devices

For example if we ﬁnd the remarkable articles on the

web news at home, we can put the article in the smart-

phone only with tipping and can check it in the train.

Then if you arrive the ofﬁce with unread articles, we

can read it on the desktop computer in the ofﬁce only

with tipping the smartphone with the Device Selection

function.

4.3 Exchanging the Information Easily

We can exchange the information without mailing its

URL, uploading, or using QR code. We just tip smart-

phone each other with the Devise Selection function.

5 DISCUSSION

The FlipCloak has been nominated the top twenty-

ﬁve on the ﬁve hundred applications at the MashUp

Awards 7 (http://ma7.mashupaward.jp/), one of the

largest competition of mashupped web applications

in Japan. We got many comments at the screening

from judges and also got many feedbacks from engi-

neers, designers and directors. They were sympathize

with the necessity for the FlipCloak. Then all feed-

backs are positive about the animation of the transfer-

ence. However some of them gave us the feedback

that not to use the spacial device which is the mouse

with acceleration sensor. We completely agree with

the feedback. Therefore it is our future task to imple-

ment mouse function on a smartphone.

6 CONCLUSIONS

In this research we propose the new window manage-

ment method that uses combinational operation with a

FLIPCLOAK - The Window Manager System for Overlapping Windows with Vacuum Metaphor of Visualizations

793

Figure 5: The image of searching the restaurant with group-

ing using the Cloak function.

personal computer and a smartphone. Then we proto-

type the application called FlipCloak. The FlipCloak

is the system that controls transference of windows

on the desktop between devices with simple gestural

interaction. It is difﬁcult to ﬁnd the target window

immediately from overlapping windows on a desk-

top. Using the FlipCloak we can manage windows on

a desktop efﬁciently by putting the low-priority win-

dow in the other device temporarily as like putting

one’s stuff in the cloakroom. The FlipCloak obtained

good results in the competition in its concept and its

visualization.

REFERENCES

Dragicevic, P. (2004). Combining crossing-based and

paper-based interaction paradigms for dragging and

dropping between overlapping windows. In Proceed-

ings of the 17th annual ACM Symposium on UIST ’04,

pages 193–196.

Mashup Awards 7 (2011). http://ma7.mashupaward.jp/.

Robertson, G., Dantzich, M., Robbins, D., Czerwinski, M.,

Hinckley, K., Risden, K., Thiel, D., and Gorohovsky,

V. (2000). The task gallery: A 3d window manager.

In Proceedings of CHI ’00, pages 494–501.

Yamanaka, S. and Miyashita, H. (2011). A mouse cursor

operation for overlapped windowing. Technical re-

port, IPSJ SIG.

IVAPP 2012 - International Conference on Information Visualization Theory and Applications

794