The system
known as CoSearch uses readily available devices such as
mice and mobile phones to aid in traditional shared computer tasks. The main benefit of the system was that although
the group members were gathered around the same computer, they each had facility to control it while at the same time
maintaining group communication and awareness. Thus, all
members of the group could a) see the same collaborative
document and b) make changes to it. This is similar in part
to what we are trying to achieve with our iPad system. The
difference here is the interaction side: we want all users to
feel they are working on their own copy of a document (hence
the individual iPads) while at the same time allowing them
real-time access to others notes.