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

Using Design Fiction to Inform Shape-Changing Interface Design and Use

Shape-changing interfaces are tangible, physically dynamic devices which enable user-experience beyond 2D screens. Within Human Computer Interaction, researchers are developing these from low-resolution, low-fidelity prototypes, toward a vision of a truly malleable world. The main focus is in producing and testing hardware, and basic user interactions, which leaves the question unanswered: what are shape-changing interfaces good for? In response, we propose the use of design fiction to investigate potential applications for this technology: to create and analyse artifacts relating to future use-scenarios for shape-change. Whilst research within shape-change often proposes future use-cases for prototypes during discussion, they are seldom in a form that presents them as everyday artifacts. Here, we present and discuss a printed game-play instruction manual for a truly high resolution shape-changing game entitled First Hand, which aims to draw parallels between current gaming practices and the tangible nature of shape-changing interfaces

Using Design Fiction to Inform Shape-Changing Interface Design and Use

Shape-changing interfaces are tangible, physically dynamic devices which enable user-experience beyond 2D screens. Within Human Computer Interaction, researchers are developing these from low-resolution, low-fidelity prototypes, toward a vision of a truly malleable world. The main focus is in producing and testing hardware, and basic user interactions, which leaves the question unanswered: what are shape-changing interfaces good for? In response, we propose the use of design fiction to investigate potential applications for this technology: to create and analyse artifacts relating to future use-scenarios for shape-change. Whilst research within shape-change often proposes future use-cases for prototypes during discussion, they are seldom in a form that presents them as everyday artifacts. Here, we present and discuss a printed game-play instruction manual for a truly high resolution shape-changing game entitled First Hand, which aims to draw parallels between current gaming practices and the tangible nature of shape-changing interfaces

Using Design Fiction to Inform Shape-Changing Interface Design and Use

Shape-changing interfaces are tangible, physically dynamic devices which enable user-experience beyond 2D screens. Within Human Computer Interaction, researchers are developing these from low-resolution, low-fidelity prototypes, toward a vision of a truly malleable world. The main focus is in producing and testing hardware, and basic user interactions, which leaves the question unanswered: what are shape-changing interfaces good for? In response, we propose the use of design fiction to investigate potential applications for this technology: to create and analyse artifacts relating to future use-scenarios for shape-change. Whilst research within shape-change often proposes future use-cases for prototypes during discussion, they are seldom in a form that presents them as everyday artifacts. Here, we present and discuss a printed game-play instruction manual for a truly high resolution shape-changing game entitled First Hand, which aims to draw parallels between current gaming practices and the tangible nature of shape-changing interfaces

Levitate: Interaction with Floating Particle Displays

This demonstration showcases the current state of the art for the levitating particle display from the Levitate Project. In this demonstration, we show a new type of display consisting of floating voxels, small levitating particles that can be positioned and moved independently in 3D space. Phased ultrasound arrays are used to acoustically levitate the particles. Users can interact directly with each particle using pointing gestures. This allows users to walk-up and interact without any user instrumentation, creating an exciting opportunity to deploy these tangible displays in public spaces in the future. This demonstration explores the design potential of floating voxels and how these may be used to create new types of user interfaces

Comparing Graphical and Tangible User Interfaces for a Tower Defense Game

This paper presents the design and test results of a tabletop Tangible User Interface (TUI) for a real-time strategy game. An experiment was conducted comparing the TUI and Graphical User Interface (GUI) versions of the same tower defense game application. The results show that users performed better with the GUI and found it easier to use, but reported more interest and enjoyment with the TUI. Overall, however, preference was split evenly between the two interface types. Analysis of qualitative user feedback provided further insight into these results, and based on this, suggestions are made for future research in the area of Tangible User Interfaces

Situating approaches to museum guides for families and groups

In this paper, we analyze the current state of museum guide technologies and applications in order to develop an analytical foundation for our future research in an adaptive museum guide for families. We have focused our analysis on three critical areas of interest in considering group and social interaction in museums: tangibility, the role of tangible user interfaces; interaction, visit types and visit flows; adaptivity, user modeling approaches

Do you think what I think? Strategic ways to design product-human conversation

This contribution vets into Tangible User Interfaces (TUI) and objects’ smart attitudes as emerging contemporary practices. We investigate and discuss the process behind the design and implementation of a product conceived following an idea of intuitive, gesture-based interaction, unpacking and critically analyzing how TUIs are perceived by users. We analyze what it means to experience artifacts whose interactions are triggered by an interface embedded in an object apparently static, but actually technologically augmented and interactive. Through a specific case study, we unfold the results from a qualitative inquiry conducted on a community of prosumers revealing how such interfaces can be misleading. Emerged design issues became challenges for designers and researchers, in a strategic, designerly-ways-of-knowing logic, which led to improving the product keeping into consideration users’ expectancies and their actual interactions/behaviors with the product. In conclusion, we reflect on how designers can benefit from extrapolating users’ habits and cognitive processes from data, in order to be strategically instrumental in defining future design implementations, features, products, services, and even systems.Keywords: Tangible User Interfaces, IoT, interaction design, user centered design, user behaviour, design process, gesture-based interaction, embodied interface

Situating approaches to interactive museum guides

This paper examines the current state of museum guide technologies and applications in order to develop an analytical foundation for future research on an adaptive museum guide for families. The analysis focuses on three critical areas of interest in considering group and social interaction in museums: tangibility the role of tangible user interfaces; interaction visit types and visit flows; and adaptivity user modeling approaches. It concludes with a discussion of four interrelated trajectories for interactive museum guide research including embodied interaction, gameplay, transparent and opaque interaction and the role of personal digital assistants