Tangible user interfaces : past, present and future directions

In the last two decades, Tangible User Interfaces (TUIs) have emerged as a new interface type that interlinks the digital and physical worlds. Drawing upon users' knowledge and skills of interaction with the real non-digital world, TUIs show a potential to enhance the way in which people interact with and leverage digital information. However, TUI research is still in its infancy and extensive research is required in or- der to fully understand the implications of tangible user interfaces, to develop technologies that further bridge the digital and the physical, and to guide TUI design with empirical knowledge. This paper examines the existing body of work on Tangible User In- terfaces. We start by sketching the history of tangible user interfaces, examining the intellectual origins of this field. We then present TUIs in a broader context, survey application domains, and review frame- works and taxonomies. We also discuss conceptual foundations of TUIs including perspectives from cognitive sciences, phycology, and philoso- phy. Methods and technologies for designing, building, and evaluating TUIs are also addressed. Finally, we discuss the strengths and limita- tions of TUIs and chart directions for future research

Low-fi skin vision: A case study in rapid prototyping a sensory substitution system

We describe the design process we have used to develop a minimal, twenty vibration motor Tactile Vision Sensory Substitution (TVSS) system which enables blind-folded subjects to successfully track and bat a rolling ball and thereby experience 'skin vision'. We have employed a low-fi rapid prototyping approach to build this system and argue that this methodology is particularly effective for building embedded interactive systems. We support this argument in two ways. First, by drawing on theoretical insights from robotics, a discipline that also has to deal with the challenge of building complex embedded systems that interact with their environments; second, by using the development of our TVSS as a case study: describing the series of prototypes that led to our successful design and highlighting what we learnt at each stage

Haptic rules! augmenting the gaming experience in traditional games: the case of Foosball

Haptic sensations are a crucial aspect of everyday interaction. We touch, lift, move, and probe objects in our everyday activities. However, whilst the importance of haptic feedback has often been emphasized in gaming, haptics has been rarely used to enhance the experience in traditional (non-digital) games. In the last 50 years, technological advancement has allowed an easier access to haptic feedback. Digital games have exploited such access mainly (1) to enhance visual and acoustic feedback, and (2) to reproduce realistic feedbacks in augmented and virtual environments. Here, we re-think haptic feedback by focusing on game augmentation to enrich the gaming experience and gameplay in non-technological games. We describe the design process that led us to define the concept of “haptic rules” as haptic-based enhancement in interference play, where haptic feedback is delivered by users to users within the game as a further mode of interaction. We apply the idea of haptic rules to the game of foosball, evaluating the effect on the gameplay and user experience

Introduction to location-based mobile learning

[About the book] The report follows on from a 2-day workshop funded by the STELLAR Network of Excellence as part of their 2009 Alpine Rendez-Vous workshop series and is edited by Elizabeth Brown with a foreword from Mike Sharples. Contributors have provided examples of innovative and exciting research projects and practical applications for mobile learning in a location-sensitive setting, including the sharing of good practice and the key findings that have resulted from this work. There is also a debate about whether location-based and contextual learning results in shallower learning strategies and a section detailing the future challenges for location-based learning

Enhancing information-based spaces using IoT and multimedia visualization - a case study

O principal objetivo desta pesquisa é fazer uma exploração em torno das estruturas conceituais, estado da arte e aplicações plausíveis da Internet de Coisas Multimédia em serviços distribuídos com para a criação de ambientes aumentados que contribuam a melhorar a experiência coletiva e participação das pessoas assistentes a conferências profissionais, reuniões grupais e espaços públicos em geral. Assim, a metodologia será baseada em uma revisão do estado da arte das tecnologias de IoT aplicáveis a coisas de multimédia e visualização de informação, especialmente no contexto de espaços públicos aumentados, onde o acesso a informação de alta qualidade possa ser possível sem influenciar negativamente a interação no mundo real entre os participantes, assim como melhorar a experiência global dos mesmos, considerando também soluções tecnológicas projetadas para os eventos de prazos limitados.The main objective of this research is to make an exploration around conceptual frameworks, state of the art and plausible applications of the Internet of Multimedia Things in distributed services for creating augmented environments that contribute to enhance the collective experience and participation of people attending professional conferences, group meetings and public spaces in general. Thus, the methodology will be based on a review of the state of the art of IoT technologies applicable for multimedia things and information visualization, specially in the context of augmented public spaces, where the access of high-quality data can be possible without preventing real-world interaction among attendants, as well as improving the overall experience of participants, considering also technological solutions designed for the events of limited time-frames