Computing systems are routinely used to process a variety of information (such as to report, analyze, sort, aggregate the information). For example, computing systems may run collaborative applications that are designed to help persons involved in common tasks to achieve goals (such as to facilitate team working in modern organizations). Generally, the collaborative applications are used by persons in different locations (and particularly in remote locations that are dispersed geographically) to engage the collaborative applications in cooperative work. A typical example of a collaborative application is a tele-conference. The tele-conference allows persons participating in the tele-conference in different conference rooms to discuss topics of common interest by means of tele-communication techniques. For this purpose, each participant may speak in the tele-conference so as to be heard by all the other participants in the teleconference, which is generally accompanied by transmission of images relating to activities at the different locations (for example, an image of the participant that is currently speaking). Moreover, the tele-conference also allows sharing information among participants in the teleconference to support the discussion in the teleconference. For example, shared documents (such as texts) may be displayed to all of the participants. Each participant may also have a possibility of editing the shared documents, with every change in the shared documents propagated to all of the other participants. The video-conference brings the participants together virtually, without having the participants meet physically (thereby cutting travel costs).
The information processed in any computing system (including the information shared in any tele-conference) is in digital form. This information may be generated directly in digital form (for example, in case of word processor documents, spreadsheets, computer-graphic drawings). Otherwise, any physical object (i.e., a digital representation thereof) is to be imported in the computing system for allowing the physical object's processing. For example, a paper document may be scanned to obtain a digital image thereof, which is then saved in a corresponding digital document. However, the importing of the physical objects may be difficult. Indeed, the equipment required for the importing of the physical objects may be not available locally (or the required equipment may be not available at all).
Alternatively, “Multi-touch Table with Image Capturing, Jakub Husek, Proceedings of CESCG 2011: The 15th Central European Seminar on Computer Graphics” discloses a multi touch screen with an ability of taking pictures through the screen. U.S. Pat. No. 8,611,667 discloses a projection-vision system employing a camera and a projector (sitting off to the side of a projection surface) that can detect when an object is present on the projection surface, capture an image thereof and subsequently project the image back on the projection surface or onto other remotely connected display surfaces. EP-A-0622722 discloses a system for generating new documents from originals, wherein a camera captures various manual operations carried out by the user on an original paper document (representing manipulations of the document's text or images), and feedback to the user is provided by projection of an image onto the original paper document.
In any case, importing the physical objects is not completely natural and not intuitive. As a result, operations required to import the physical objects may be relatively time consuming (especially during a learning phase thereof), which is particularly annoying in case of a tele-conference. Indeed, in the tele-conference, the participants interact substantially in real-time. Therefore, any delay caused by importing a physical object may cause a corresponding stop of the tele-conference.