Help Not long ago, presentations were delivered via flipcharts and overhead projectors. Software developed by Carnegie Mellon researchers has taken this convenience one step further. 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. 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 .