Merry Go Round: a physical, virtual, physical… toy

Publicado em: "ACE 2014 : proceedings of the 11th Conference on Advances in Computer Entertainment Technology". ISBN 978-1-4503-2945-3We present a mixed-reality interface, in which a carrousel-like platform carries a set of wooden figures from the physical world into a game running inside a tablet, bringing them back to the physical world again by further rotating the platform. The wooden figurines allow young children to manipulate and play with them, working at the same time as characters of a game. Along the interaction, users are confronted with different problem solving situations that they can solve with the help of the wooden characters.FCT – Portuguese Foundation for the Science and the Technology within the Projects: PTDC/CCI-COM/119030/2010, and PEstOE/EEI/UI0319/2014.FEDER through the Operational Competitiveness Factors Programme - COMPET

Interacting with mobile devices using magnetic fields

Enhancing the user experience in mobile devices by taking advantage of embedded sensors has become an increasingly popular research field. In this thesis we investigate how magnetic sensors together with magnets can be exploited to create a new type of input device for current smartphones. In particular we use a small, yet varied in shape and strength, set of magnets and an Android powered smartphone. We alter the magnetic field sensed by the magnetometer by moving a magnet close to it in different ways, then we try to identify a recurring pattern and associate it with a predefined action. We created an open-source Android application to show the possible interactions on and around the device. Readings from the sensor were filtered and displayed in a number of different and more convenient ways. We conclude our work with a list of possible scenarios that could benefit from this approach

Hybrid Playful Experiences : Playing between Material and Digital - Hybridex Project, Final Report

Some of the future’s most important product innovations will be made at the borderline of physical and immaterial realities. New technologies enable development where immaterial products become materialized in novel ways, while material products and environment will be augmented with digital services. In this evolution immaterial, digital services will form multifaceted value networks with material products. The creative and playful design solutions and user cultures will form the basis for the utilization of these novel potentials in design of innovative and engaging experiences

Bridging the Gap Between People, Mobile Devices, and the Physical World

Human-computer interaction (HCI) is being revolutionized by computational design and artificial intelligence. As the diversity of user interfaces shifts from personal desktops to mobile and wearable devices, yesterday’s tools and interfaces are insufficient to meet the demands of tomorrow’s devices. This dissertation describes my research on leveraging different physical channels (e.g., vibration, light, capacitance) to enable novel interaction opportunities. We first introduce FontCode, an information embedding technique for text documents. Given a text document with specific fonts, our method can embed user-specified information (e.g., URLs, meta data, etc) in the text by perturbing the glyphs of text characters while preserving the text content. The embedded information can later be retrieved using a smartphone in real time. Then, we present Vidgets, a family of mechanical widgets, specifically push buttons and rotary knobs that augment mobile devices with tangible user interfaces. When these widgets are attached to a mobile device and a user interacts with them, the nonlinear mechanical response of the widgets shifts the device slightly and quickly. Subsequently, this subtle motion can be detected by the Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs), which is commonly installed on mobile devices. Next, we propose BackTrack, a trackpad placed on the back of a smartphone to track finegrained finger motions. Our system has a small form factor, with all the circuits encapsulated in a thin layer attached to a phone case. It can be used with any off-the-shelf smartphone, requiring no power supply or modification of the operating systems. BackTrack simply extends the finger tracking area of the front screen, without interrupting the use of the front screen. Lastly, we demonstrate MoiréBoard, a new camera tracking method that leverages a seemingly irrelevant visual phenomenon, the moiré effect. Based on a systematic analysis of the moiré effect under camera projection, MoiréBoard requires no power nor camera calibration. It can easily be made at a low cost (e.g., through 3D printing) and ready to use with any stock mobile device with a camera. Its tracking algorithm is computationally efficient and can run at a high frame rate. It is not only simple to implement, but also tracks devices at a high accuracy, comparable to the state-of-the-art commercial VR tracking systems

Designing tangible magnetic appcessories

Tangible interaction allows the control of digital information through physical artifacts - virtual data is tied to real-world objects. Sensing and display technologies that enable this kind of functionality are typically complex. This represents a barrier to entry for researchers and also restricts where these interaction techniques can be deployed. Addressing these limitations, recent work has explored how the touch screens on mobile devices can be used as sensing and display platforms for tangible interfaces. This paper extends this work by exploring how magnets can be employed to achieve similar ends. To achieve this, it describes the design and construction of eight magnetic appcessories. These are cheap, robust physical interfaces that leverage magnets (and the magnetic sensing built into mobile devices) to support reliable and expressive tangible interactions with digital content