Poking fun at the surface: exploring touch-point overloading on the multi-touch tabletop with child users

In this paper a collaborative game for children is used to explore touch-point overloading on a multi-touch tabletop. Understanding the occurrence of new interactional limitations, such as the situation of touch-point overloading in a multi-touch interface, is highly relevant for interaction designers working with emerging technologies. The game was designed for the Microsoft Surface 1.0 and during gameplay the number of simultaneous touch-points required gradually increases to beyond the physical capacity of the users. Studies were carried out involving a total of 42 children (from 2 different age groups) playing in groups of between 5-7 and all interactions were logged. From quantitative analysis of the interactions occurring during the game and observations made we explore the impact of overloading and identify other salient findings. This paper also highlights the need for empirical evaluation of the physical and cognitive limitations of interaction with emerging technologies

An acoustic multi-touch sensing method using amplitude disturbed ultrasonic wave diffraction patterns

This paper proposes an acoustic multi-touch tactile sensing method. The proposed method is based on an amplitude disturbed ultrasonic wave diffraction pattern. An A0 Lamb wave transmitted in a thin finite copper plate is processed to provide tactile information, for one or two fingers. A touch event is localized by identifying the diffraction signals among a database of diffracted Lamb wave references. Statistic models are used to improve the localization reliability. An artificial silicone finger is used in the calibration procedure. This touch interface is evaluated as a 2-touch interface

Gestures and Interaction: exploiting natural abilities in the design of interactive systems

Collana seminari interni 2012, Number 20120606.This talk explores the role of gestures in computer supported collaboration. People make extensive use of non-verbal forms of communication when they interact with each other in everyday life: of these, gestures are relatively easy to observe and quantify. However, the role of gestures in human computer interaction so far has been focused mainly on using conventional signs like visible commands, rather than on exploiting all nuances of such natural human skill. We propose a perspective on natural interaction that builds on recent advances in tangible interaction, embodiment and computer supported collaborative work. We consider the social and cognitive aspects of gestures and manipulations to support our claim of a primacy of tangible and multi-touch interfaces, and describe our experiences focused on assessing the suitability of such interface paradigms to traditional application scenarios

TVTM: A case study and analysis of 3 virtual representations to support remote collaboration within the fashion industry

This paper investigates whether or not virtual representations can support remote collaboration within the fashion industry using a Textual Virtual Tangible Multi-touch (TVTM) system. The software interface for the TVTM system was developed from the results and feedback from a previous study. Two different types of multi-touch technology were deployed for the case study. The paper then covers the nature of the user testing and how it addresses the hypothesis developed from our pilot study, and team expectations of the participants’ selections of a variety of methods to complete their task. The paper presents the data we collected from the user testing including correlation between various different representations, time taken to finish the task and the difficulty ratings for the three levels of representation. The paper concludes by validating our hypothesis against our findings, and looks at some improvements to the current system and some potential features that might be considered for our next prototype

The cueTable Cooperative Multi-Touch Interactive Tabletop: Implementation and User Feedback

Es wurde ein multi-touch interaktives Tabletop als Basistechnologie zur Exploration neuer Interaktionskonzepte für kooperative multi-touch Anwendungen entwickelt. In dieser Publikation stellen wir vor, wie ein kooperatives multi-touch interaktives Tabletop basierend auf günstiger Standard-Hardware mit geringem Realisierungsaufwand gebaut werden kann. Wir präsentieren eine Software-Anwendung, die wir dafür entwickelt haben. And wir berichten über Benutzerkommentare zum Tabletop und der Anwendung.We developed a multi-touch interactive tabletop as a base technology to explore new interaction concepts for cooperative multi-touch applications. In this paper we explain how to build a cooperative multi-touch interactive tabletop with standard and low-budget hardware and little implementation effort. We present a software application we developed. And we report on user feedback to the tabletop and the application

Acoustic Wave Approach for Multi-Touch Tactile Sensing

International audienceIn this communication, we present a high resolution tactile plate that can localize one or two contact fingers. The localization principle is based on Lamb wave absorption. Fingers' contact will generate absorption signals while Lamb waves are propagating in a thin finite copper plate. These signals can be related to the contact positions and can be calibrated before the use of tactile plate. Fingers' contact positions are calculated by finding the closest calibration signal to the measured signal. Positions are carried out in less than 10 ms with a spatial resolution of 2 mm for one finger localization. Multi-points localization by this technology is developed and a two-point case is initialized and tested. Several optimization methods are also presented in this paper, as the double validation check which could improve the accuracy of single-point localization from 94.63% to 99.5%

Exploring virtual representations of physical artefacts on collaboration in the clothing industry

This paper explores the issues and potential future directions of remote collaboration within the field of clothing design and manufacturing. We examine the potential of developing a computer system that supports multiple levels of virtual representation (textual, visual and tangible). We first identified the methods and processes of collaboration within the manufacturing and design industries, and evaluate current methods of remote collaboration designed for these environments. From this we conducted an ethnographic study with fashion design students, to examine what forms of collaboration are important when discussing design and manufacturing techniques. From these findings, we have designed, developed and performed a pilot study with a multi-touch interface, utilizing a gestural interface (rather than a traditional GUI), to explore whether collocated natural interactions can be extended remotely via technology

KKse -包丁調理における児童の安全教育システム-

　本研究では,小学校低学年児童を対象に,包丁調理の安全教育システム,KKse(Kitchen Knife Safety Educator)を提案した.料理の初心者にとって安全の確保と安全に調理を行うための技能の習得は,最初に重要である.包丁調理は,安全の確保が必要な調理であるにもかかわらず,実体験を伴わず,安全に包丁調理を行うための技能を伝達することが難しい.何故ならば,包丁調理においては力加減など,言葉では伝達の難しい情報を扱う必要があるためである.　そこで,児童の安全が確保されたまま,体感的に包丁調理の危険行動を学習可能な KKse システムを提案した.具体的には安全な包丁調理方法として,押し出し切りと食材を安定して支える方法の 2 つを教示する.視覚的には認識できない,ユーザの包丁動作を包丁の刃先と食材との接触面圧力,また食材底面の圧力値変化を取得し分析することで明らかにした.　さらに,安全かつ直感的な学習を可能にするために,ユーザ動作の正誤に応じて,包丁で食材に切り込んだ時の触覚フィードバックを再現する,糸鋸型の包丁型デバイスを提案した.糸の張力を調整することで,包丁で食材を切る時の反力を提示することの出来る道具型デバイスは新しく今後安全調理学習以外にも,技術伝承やユーザインタフェース開発など様々な場面での応用が期待される.実験を通して提案システムの学習効果を検討したところ,児童は,KKse を通して,押し出し切りの体の動きを習得することが可能であることがわかった.しかし,現行のシステムでは,力加減のモデル化ができていないため,正しい力加減までは伝達できていない.これは今後改良の必要がある.さらに,食材の安定性を計測するデバイスについては,ユーザに対する実験を実施できていない.今後,実験を実施し,その効果と課題点を明らかにしていく必要がある.　今後はこれらの点について改善に努める.電気通信大学201