[Paper] A Proposal of Future Electronic Paper in the Office

—Electronic Paper as a Special-Purpose Device Cooperating with Other Devices—

抄録

This paper explores how electronic paper should be used in office work in the future. Nine participants used an A4-size electronic paper device in their actual work. The results revealed that the electronic paper device is easy to handle as a device and it was well suited to support reading and writing activities which includes frequent hand-using actions such as moving, holding, and pointing the device. However, participants felt difficulty in page navigation and overviewing documents and these features are inevitable to support document-related work in the office. To resolve this, we suggest that electronic paper should focus on its strengths and make other devices compensate for its weaknesses. In this framework, multiple devices support a single activity together by making use of strengths of each device. We also discuss three application domains: active reading, collaborative work using documents, and note-taking in the field.