People often use mobile devices to access information during conversations in casual settings, but mobile devices are not well suited for interaction in groups. Large situated displays promise to better support access to and sharing of information in casual conversations. This paper presents the LunchTable, a multi-user system based on semi-public displays that supports such casual group interactions around a lunch table. We describe our design goals and the resulting system, as well as a weeklong study of the interaction with the system in the lunch space of a research lab. Our results show substantial use of the LunchTable for sharing visual information such as online maps and videos that are otherwise difficult to share in conversations. Also, equal simultaneous access from several users does not seem critical in casual group interactions.
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