Shared Design Space: Sketching ideas using digital pens and a large augmented tabletop setup Michael Haller 1 , Peter Brandl 1 , Daniel Leithinger 1 , Jakob Leitner 1 , Thomas Seifried 1 , and Mark Billinghurst 2 1 Digital Media, Upper Austria University of Applied Sciences, Austria 2 HITLabNZ, University of Canterbury, New Zealand coeno@fh-hagenberg.at Abstract. Collaborative Augmented Reality (AR) setups are becoming increas- ingly popular. We have developed a collaborative tabletop environment that is designed for brainstorming and discussion meetings. Using a digital pen, partic- ipants can annotate not only virtual paper, but also real printouts. By integrating both forms of physical and digital paper, we combine virtual and real 2d draw- ings, and digital data which are overlaid into a single information space. In this paper, we describe why we have integrated these devices together in a unique way and how they can be used efficiently during a design process. 1 Introduction In recent years, Augmented Reality applications have been developed for many dif- ferent platforms, such as mobile phones and handheld devices and also tabletop envi- ronments. Kiyokawa et al. describe the communication behaviors in a tabletop collab- orative AR interface setup and they present several ways to improve the face-to-face collaboration by using AR [1]. In this paper, we describe a novel tabletop AR environ- ment suitable for enhancing face to face collaboration, especially in the design process. Designers and people who are discussing and brainstorming usually work in a studio surrounded with sketches, which are either pinned on a wall or placed on large surfaces. Currently, new sketches are mainly created directly on paper on the drafting table before developing a digital mock-up model on the computer. With new technology if may be possible to enhance this process. Blinn [2] postulates that the creative process is a two-phase process: firstly, moving from chaos to order and secondly, from ideation to implementation. Most computer-based design tools are primarily focussed on the second phase, and there is limited support for digital tools where people can play with ideas in a free form manner. Digital tabletop setups would be an ideal interface for sketching out a crude version of an idea. In the creative process, people still prefer using paper and large tables to capture their ideas. Therefore, the table still remains the main interaction device during the creative process. Augmented with virtual elements, a tabletop setup becomes an ideal input and output device around which people can share a wide range of verbal and non-verbal cues to collaborative effectively (cf. figure 1). In this paper, we describe the combination of different hardware devices that can be combined to develop an AR-based tabletop environment for creating efficient applica- tions [3]. Now, that it is technically possible to develop large augmented surfaces, it is