OUR RESEARCH

Slideshow Commander: On with the Show

Slideshow Commander, featuring the work of Human-Computer Interaction Institute (HCII) Senior Research Scientist Brad Myers and his students, enables presenters to control PowerPoint slideshow presentations with a hand-held Palm organizer.

Not long ago, presentations were delivered via flipcharts and overhead projectors. Today, a myriad of products like laptops and slideshow software makes giving presentations more convenient—and more effective—than ever before. Software developed by Carnegie Mellon researchers has taken this convenience one step further.

Slideshow Commander, featuring the work of Human-Computer Interaction Institute (HCII) Senior Research Scientist Brad Myers and his students, enables presenters to control PowerPoint slideshow presentations with a hand-held Palm organizer.

Slideshow Commander frees PowerPoint users from having to stay next to their laptops. As they control their talks via a Palm or a Microsoft Pocket PC device, they can move around and easily change slides.

Presenters can see on their Palm a thumbnail picture and the notes for the current slide. In addition, they can see the list of all the slides in the presentation as well as the time. By scribbling information on a slide, they can cause the writing to appear on the screen for the entire audience to see.

Myers, who heads the Pebbles research project in HCII, says Slideshow Commander is the product of three years of research into how hand-held computers and PCs can work effectively together.

“Most people are looking at how you can use handhelds when you don’t have the desktop computer nearby,” said Myers. “But we see them working in conjunction as machines communicate wirelessly more and more.”

HCII offers interdisciplinary research and education programs within Carnegie Mellon’s School of Computer Science. By exploring how people work, play, learn and interact with each other, HCII develops technologies and tools to support these human activities.

The Slideshow Commander software was licensed from the university and commercialized earlier this year by New York City-based Synergy Solutions, Inc., a subsidiary of BarPoint.com, Inc. The product is becoming available at CompUSA stores.

Reprinted with kind permission from Lisa Kulick, Carnegie Mellon associate director of public relations - Web development