Tangible User Interfaces Research Papers (original) (raw)

Substantial stumbling blocks confront computer-illiterate elders. We introduce a novel user interface technology to lower these start up costs: the book as user interface, or BUI. Book pages contain both step-by-step instructions and tangible controls, turning a complex interaction into a walk-up-and-use scenario. The system expands support past the technical artifact to a go-to relationship. ElderMail users designate an internet-savvy trusted friend or relative to help with complex tasks. In this paper, we conduct a preliminary evaluation of a BUI-based email system, and report our findings. While research has augmented paper artifacts to provide alternate access into the digital world, we find that elders use the BUI as a way to circumvent the digital world.

- by
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- Human Computer Interaction, Ubiquitous Computing, Tangible User Interfaces

This article presents a paper-based Tangible User Interface (TUI) that facilitates the production of complex queries on a Cultural Heritage (CH) repository. The system helps to easily make use of the data elements and Boolean logic that describe the collections. This research presents a design methodology divided into two main phases: A User Experience (UX) and User Centred Design (UCD) where potential users’ behaviours are analysed, followed by the development and evaluation of the TUI prototype.
The TUI uses off the shelf electronics and a paper-based set of tokens to engage the user with the system, thus facilitating the exploration with CH collections through querying.

- by Javier Pereda
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- Cultural Heritage, User Experience (UX), Participatory Design, Constructivism

We consider how the application of AI in digital musical instruments might maximally support exploration of sound in performance. Live performance applications of AI and machine learning have tended to focus on score following and the development of machine collaborators. In our work we are interested in exploring the development of systems whereby the human performer interacts with a reactive and creative agent in the creation of a single sonic output. The intention is to design systems that foster exploration and allow for greater (than with acoustic instruments) opportunities for serendipitous musical encounters. An initial approach to the integration of autonomous agency, based on gesture reshaping schemes within the Reactable performance system, is first outlined. We then describe a simple platform based on the non-player characters within Pacman, which serves as a test bed for guiding further discussion on what musical machine collaboration at this level may entail. Pilot studies for both systems are outlined.

- by William Marley and +1
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- Artificial Intelligence, Tangible User Interfaces, Agency

We present a general model and information server for the digital annotation of printed documents. The resulting annotation framework supports both informal and structured annotations as well as context-dependent services. A demonstrator... more

- by Beat Signer
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- Information Systems, Engineering, Computer Science, Software Engineering
- by Raphael Grasset
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- Augmented Reality, Tangible User Interfaces, 3D User Interfaces
- by Chris Dobbyn and +3
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- Information Systems, Collaboration, New Musical Interfaces, Tangible User Interfaces
- by Raphael Grasset
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- Publishing, Augmented Reality, Tangible User Interfaces, Gaze Interaction

Many interactive experiences fail at the hardware level, from separating the area of visual focus from the input device. This chart attempts to define the most important needs in a successful interactive experience, with "must succeed"... more

- by Scott Traylor
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- New Media, Product Design, New Product Development, Computer Hardware

Computers have a direct impact on our lives nowadays. Human's interaction with the computer has modified with the passage of time as improvement in technology occurred the better the human computer interaction became. Today we are facilitated by the operating system that has reduced all the complexity of hardware and we undergo our computation in a very convenient way irrespective of the process occurring at the hardware level. Though the human computer interaction has improved but it's not done yet. If we come to the future the computer's role in our lives would be a lot more rather our life would be of the artificial intelligence. In our future the biggest resource would be component of time and wasting time for a key board entry or a mouse input would be unbearable so the need would be of the computer interaction environment that along with the complexity reduction also minimizes the time wastage in the human computer interaction. Accordingly in our future the computation would also be increased it would not be a simple operating system limited to a computer it would be computers managing our entire life activities hence fall out of domain of present computers electronic based architecture .In this research paper we propose a model that shall be meeting the future human computer interaction needs possessing linguistic human computer interference environment based on surface technology, automation and photonic computing, which would be reliable, efficient and quicker satisfying all the future artificial intelligence pre requisites.

We present ArtVis, an advanced user interface combining state-of-the-art visualisation techniques and tangible interaction to explore the Web Gallery of Art digital artwork collection consisting of almost 28000 European artworks. The graphical ArtVis interface contains three separate visualisation panels that allow users to temporally, semantically and geographically investigate the digital artwork collection. The goal of ArtVis is that users can gain new insights by visually analysing and exploring a large data set rather than to only provide detailed information about individual artworks. This explorative ArtVis interaction style is further fostered by a tangible user interface where physical artefacts can be used as simple handles to drive the faceted browsing of the rich digital information space.

- by Bruno Dumas and +2
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- Engineering, Computer Science, Software Engineering, Human Computer Interaction

The recent development of low cost tangible construction kits has lowered the barriers to entry for amateur and youth hardware designers. In this paper, we discuss the outcomes of a pilot study in which middle school youths set up a game arcade by remixing Scratch games and crafting physical game controllers using the MaKey MaKey and Play-Doh. The analyses focused on the youths’ designs and reflections on Scratch remixes, their game controllers, and the culminating arcade. Designing game controllers and setting up the arcade was a productive learning experience for the youths in which they were able to glean insights about how to improve their designs by watching younger students play their games. In the discussion we highlight the parts of the workshop that were most successful, address what we learned about the youths’ experiences, develop suggestions for the design of future workshops, and discuss the significance of authentic audience designs.

- by Veena Vasudevan and +1
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- Design, Video Games and Learning, Video Games, Tangible User Interfaces

The boundaries between “the digital” and our everyday physical world are dissolving as we develop more physical ways of interacting with computing. This forum presents some of the topics discussed in the colorful multidisciplinary field... more

We report the results of an extended empirical two-stage study on the aesthetics of hybrid objects that combine form and behaviour. By combining two shapes (spheres and cubes); two sizes (7.5cm and 15cm); two materials (fabric and plastic); and four behaviours (emitting light, emitting sound, vibrating or displaying no behaviour) we created 32 objects that differ for a single feature. In a between-participants study, 175 participants assessed and described the 32 objects. From this, seven dimensions were identified: pleasant; interesting; comfortable; playful; relaxing; special and surprising. In a second between-participants experiment 486 participants rated each object on the seven dimensions from the first study. Overall Spheres, Fabric, and Vibration were the preferred features, but for some of the dimensions specific combinations of features were rated more positively. This paper contribution is twofold: it provides a first study on the aesthetic of tangible interaction as a combination of form and behaviour outlining a potential instrument to measure it; and it provides empirical evidence of the value of experimenting with different forms (spheres) and material (fabric) even if they are difficult to create as they generate the strongest aesthetic effects.

- by Luigina Ciolfi and +1
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- Perception, Tangible User Interfaces, TEI (Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction)

Despite the increasing availability of various forms of digital maps and guides, paper still prevails as the main information medium used by tourists during city visits. The authors describe how recent technologies for digitally augmented paper maps can be used to develop interactive paper maps that provide value-added services for tourists through digital overlays. An initial investigation into the use of these maps to support visitors to the Edinburgh festivals is also presented.

- by Beat Signer
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- Information Systems, Engineering, Computer Science, Software Engineering

The distribution of vegetation within urban zones is well understood to be important for delivery of a range of ecosystem services. While urban planners and human geographers are conversant with methodologies for describing and exploring the volumetric nature of built spaces there is less research that has developed imaginative ways of visualising the complex spatial and volumetric structure of urban vegetation from the treetops to the ground. Using waveform LiDAR data to measure the three-dimensional nature of the urban greenspace, we explore different ways of virtually, and tangibly engaging with volumetric models describing the 3D distribution of urban vegetation. Using waveform LiDAR data processed into voxels (volumetric pixels) and experimenting with a variety of creative approaches to visualise the volumetric nature of the data, we describe the development of new methods for mapping the urban green volume, using a combination of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Minecraft, 3D printing and Computer Numerical Control (CNC) milling processes. We demonstrate how such methodologies can be used to reveal and explore the complex nature of the urban green volume. We also describe the outcome of using these models to engage diverse audiences with the volumetric data. We explain how the products could be used readily by a range of urban researchers and stakeholders: from town and city councils, to architects and ecologists.

- by Jo McCallum
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- LiDAR, 3D visualisation, Tangible User Interfaces, 3D printing

The Shadow Box is a tangible computing project
that exploits visual association and auditory clues to
teach children the representational relationship between
words and their meanings. The Shadow Box contains
three major components: the main box, picture blocks
and word blocks. The Shadow Box activates when a
block or a matching pair of blocks is placed inside. The
box prompts children to find matching blocks and
combine them together. When children successfully
combine the right word and picture, the box rewards
them with an animated video as if they had made the
objects come alive. An informal study shows that
children responded positively to the concept of the box.
They played with it for a length of time and engaged in a
collaborative learning process with other children.

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... more

- by Eva Hornecker
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- Tangible User Interfaces

An increasing number of today's consumer devices such as mobile phones or tablet computers are equipped with various sensors. The extraction of useful information such as gestures from sensor-generated data based on mainstream imperative languages is a notoriously difficult task. Over the last few years, a number of domain-specific programming languages have been proposed to ease the development of gesture detection. Most of these languages have adopted a declarative approach allowing programmers to describe their gestures rather than having to manually maintain a history of event data and intermediate gesture results. While these declarative languages represent a clear advancement in gesture detection, a number of issues are still unresolved. In this paper we present relevant criteria for gesture detection and provide an initial classification of existing solutions based on these criteria in order to foster a discussion and identify opportunities for future gesture programming languages.

- by Beat Signer
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- Engineering, Computer Science, Software Engineering, Programming Languages

Over the last few years, there has been a significant increase in the number of researchers dealing with the integration of paper and digital information or services. While recent technological developments enable new forms of paper-digital integration and interaction, some of the original research on interactive paper dates back almost twenty years. We give a brief overview of the most relevant past and current interactive paper developments. Then, based on our experience in developing a wide variety of interactive paper solutions over the last decade, as well as the results of other research groups, we outline future directions and challenges for the realisation of innovative interactive paper solutions. Further, we propose the definition of common data formats and interactive paper design patterns to ensure future cross-application and framework interoperability.

- by Beat Signer
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- Information Systems, Engineering, Computer Science, Software Engineering

This paper will discuss the role that tangible artefacts in the context of an interactive multi-device installation have as mediators between the physical visitor experience of an open-air museum and the layer of digital information that is available to them about the site. We will refer to the case study of an installation -"Reminisce"- that we have designed for an Irish open-air museum, Bunratty Folk Park, where participants could follow trails around the site on the footsteps of characters from Ireland's past. At different historic houses, visitors could collect "tokens" related to the characters both in digital and physical form: audio recordings of personal memories downloaded to a smart phone application, and physical tokens representing aspects of the characters' lives (such as traditional recipes, chunks of turf, hanks of wool, etc). The physical tokens had a double purpose: that of providing visitors with a physical "anchoring" to the houses and a tangible representation of their progress along the trail; and that of acting as "keys" to unlocking further digital content at a specific site. Concealed RFID tags were included in the tokens to enable this functionality. In the paper we will describe the installation in more detail and, by means of examples from the body of data documenting the visitors' experience of "Reminisce", we will discuss in detail the role that the tangible artefacts had in bridging the "digital" and "physical" spaces of the installation, as well as extracting some recommendations for designing installations in the setting of living history sites.

This paper explores some a novel approaches to harnessing the Internet-of-Things (IoT) as a teaching and research vehicle in education. For teaching we argue that the Internet-of-Things provides a highly motivating topic to capture students’ imaginations, and a perfect platform for teaching computer science. In addition, we explain the potential for entire campuses or buildings to be constructed from Internet-of-Things technologies and the potential for this infrastructure to act as a teaching platform. This proposition is perfectly captured by the axiom “The college building (or campus) is the lab”. This philosophy is part of a wider movement that started in the EU, called Living Labs. In achieving these aims, our work seeks to combine a number of concepts; first we utilise the Internetof- Things, second we incorporate Living Labs ideas, third we harness the iCampus vision, forth we use the ‘Smart Box’ concept and finally we implement the Pervasive-interactive-Programming (PiP) paradigm. We contend this approach can be used in various mixes to produce highly motivating and effective educational environments. We illustrate this work by describing the application of these ideas to a real-world venture, the Harlow UTC (in the UK). The main focus of this paper concerns the use of PiP, together with the Internet-of- Things, to teach elementary programming skills. In in support of this we present results of an evaluation of PiP with 18 participants (students and staff) of varied age and gender. The main conclusions of these evaluations were that PiP enabled students and staff, with diverse backgrounds, to quickly master the programming skills involved. The paper concludes by describing our future plans for this work.

Very young children (below three) are characterized by sensory motor exploration and pre-cognitive development. There is little work on interactive toys for this age group. This raises the question of what interactions are developmentally appropriate at this age. We here propose recommendations for designing meaningful interactive toys, gained from designing an interactive soft (textile) book prototype, testing it with children and discussion of observations with parents, as well as three expert interviews. Recommendations concern what types of interactions to implement (transparent and one-step), inviting full-body activity and exploration with all senses, what kind of effects to generate (appropriate for chil-dren's abilities, being predictable, with clear relation to real-world experiences, but also accounting for the needs of care-givers), and the importance of allowing for shared experience .

- by Eva Hornecker and +2
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- Early Childhood Education, Children and Media, Tangible User Interfaces, Smart Textiles

Touch-based interactions with computing technologies have become commonplace in the last few years, from mobile phones to tabletop surfaces. The sense of touch however is not limited to the hand; the entire skin surface of the body is available for tactile interaction. In architecture, researchers are now investigating the potential of interactive surfaces for future architectonic elements, such as walls, floors and ceilings. Apart from the traditional focus on the visual and spatial design considerations of such elements, tactile interaction with interactive surfaces is of growing interest. We present an interactive folded surface as a prototype of future interactive architectural surfaces. We explain how physiological understandings of touch and tactile interaction informed the design choices of the prototype. Our work contributes to understandings of how the material properties and interactive behaviours of these new surfaces will afford new kinds of human experience centred on the sense of touch.

Despite major advancements in digital document management , paper documents still play an important role in our daily work and are often used in combination with digital documents and services. Over the last two decades, we have seen a number of augmented reality solutions helping users in managing their paper documents in office settings. However , since data is mainly managed at the application layer, the use of multiple document tracking setups results in fragmented and inconsistent tracking data. Furthermore, existing tracking solutions often focus on the tracking of paper documents in organisational structures such as folders or filing cabinets without taking into account the flow of documents across these organisational structures. We present the Document Tracking (DocTr) framework for unifying existing document tracking setups and managing document metadata across organisational structures. The DocTr framework has been implemented based on a user-centric requirements analysis and simplifies the development of interactive computing systems for personal cross-media information management.

- by Beat Signer and +1
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- Information Systems, Engineering, Computer Science, Software Engineering

This book presents a new type of modeling environment where users interact with geospatial simulations using 3D physical models of studied landscapes. Multiple users can alter the physical model by hand during scanning, thereby providing input for simulation of geophysical processes in this setting.
The authors have developed innovative techniques and software that couple this hardware with open source GRASS GIS, making the system instantly applicable to a wide range of modeling and design problems. Since no other literature on this topic is available, this Book fills a gap for this new technology that continues to grow.
Tangible Modeling with Open Source GIS will appeal to advanced-level students studying geospatial science, computer science and earth science such as landscape architecture and natural resources. It will also benefit researchers and professionals working in geospatial modeling applications, computer graphics, hazard risk management, hydrology, solar energy, coastal and fluvial flooding, fire spread, landscape, park design and computer games.

- by Brendan A Harmon and +2
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- Human Computer Interaction, Digital Fabrication, Open Source Software, Open Source GIS

During the past two decades, information visualisation (InfoVis) re- search has created new techniques and methods to support data- intensive analyses in science, industry and government. These have enabled a wide range of analyses tasks to be executed, with tasks varying in terms of the type and volume of data involved. However, the majority of this research has focused on static datasets, and the analysis and visualisation tasks tend to be carried out by trained expert users. In more recent years, social changes and technological advances have meant that data have become more and more dynamic, and are consumed by a wider audience. Examples of such dynamic data streams include e-mails, status updates, RSS 1 feeds, versioning systems, social networks and others. These new types of data are used by populations that are not specifically trained in information visualization. Some of these people might consist of casual users, while others might consist of people deeply involved with the data, but in both cases, they would not have received formal training in information visualization. For simplicity, throughout this dissertation, I refer to the people (casual users, novices, data experts) who have not been trained in information visualisation as non-experts.
These social and technological changes have given rise to multiple challenges because most existing visualisation models and techniques are intended for experts, and assume static datasets. Few studies have been conducted that explore these challenges. In this dissertation, with my collaborators, I address the question: Can we empower non- experts in their use of visualisation by enabling them to contribute to data stream analysis as well as to create their own visualizations?
The first step to answering this question is to determine whether people who are not trained in information visualisation and the data sciences can conduct useful dynamic analysis tasks using a visualisation system that is adapted to support their tasks. In the first part of this dissertation I focus on several scenarios and systems where different sized crowds of non-InfoVis experts users (20 to 300 and 2 000 to 700 000 people) use dynamic information visualisation to analyse dynamic data.
Another important issue is the lack of generic design principles for the visual encoding of dynamic visualization. In this dissertation I design, define and explore a design space to represent dynamic data for non-experts. This design space is structured by visual tokens representing data items that provide the constructive material for the assembly over time of different visualizations, from classic represen- tations to new ones. To date, research on visual encoding has been focused on static datasets for specific tasks, leaving generic dynamic approaches unexplored and unexploited.
In this thesis, I propose construction as a design paradigm for non- experts to author simple and dynamic visualizations. This paradigm is inspired by well-established developmental psychological theory as well as past and existing practices of visualisation authoring with tangible elements. I describe the simple conceptual components and processes underlying this paradigm, making it easier for the human computer interaction community to study and support this process for a wide range of visualizations. Finally, I use this paradigm and tangible tokens to study if and how non-experts are able to create, discuss and update their own visualizations. This study allows us to refine our previous model and provide a first exploration into how non-experts perform a visual mapping without software. In summary, this thesis contributes to the understanding of dynamic visualisation for non-expert users.

- by Samuel Huron
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- Human Computer Interaction, Design, Constructivism, Information Visualization

Built heritage forms a unique asset by expressing the richness and diversity of our history, possessing vast amounts of information that varies from factual and explicit, to more tacit and embedded. Tacit knowledge of built heritage is typically more challenging to communicate to visitors in understandable and engaging ways due to its implicit and abstract character. Therefore, we investigate how built heritage information can be disclosed via simultaneous and integrated physical and digital means, and how this information can be communicated to visitors in more engaging, educational and meaningful ways. In this thesis we present the approach of “Phygital Heritage”, which entails how heritage information can be disclosed via simultaneous and integrated physical and digital means. We hypothesize that this approach forms a potential medium for more engaging and meaningful communication of heritage information to a broader public. It even enables heritage visitors to appreciate heritage in more experiential ways, and to raise community awareness about heritage assets.
Through a set of in-the-wild studies, in which interactive phygital prototypes were designed and deployed in real-world heritage and museum environments, we explore how the seamless integration of digital technology into physical reality facilitates the communication of built heritage information to museum visitors and how it affects user engagement.
• In Saqqara Entrance Colonnade, through a between-group comparative study in a real-world museum context, we examined how the tangible characteristics of an interactive museum prototype influence how visitors understand tacit knowledge of built heritage;
• In Nimrud Relief, through a field study in a real-world museum environment, we investigated how an augmented reality experience impacts the architectural contextualization of an isolated artifact from the Nimrud palace in Iraq;
• In Graethem Chapel, through an in-the-wild study, we investigated how an in-situ interactive projection mapping enables the communication of the spatiotemporal transformation of a medieval chapel that occurred during the last 850 years; and
• In Neferirtenef Tomb-Chapel, through a field study in a real-world museum environment, we investigated how a tangible gamification installation supports informal cultural learning of young museum visitors and how it encourages collaboration among them.
In summary, this thesis contributes to the knowledge about the communication of built heritage information by demonstrating how this information can be disclosed via simultaneous and integrated physical and digital means, enabling the broader public to appreciate heritage in more experiential ways.

- by Eslam Nofal
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- Human Computer Interaction, Communication, Museum Studies, Cultural Heritage

Aquatic waste has to be monitored with great interest to the ecosystems, marine life, human health, and water
transport. This paper presents the design and implementation of AQUABIN-a sustainable floating garbage bin that could collect
water borne plastics and trash 24 hours a day over time. Our approach is to provide practical solutions to reduce the plastics in
our oceans which are one of the world’s greatest environmental problems. For this purpose, we utilise a level sensor to identify
the level of waste present inside the device. Once the level is detected, the notification is sent to waste disposal unit using IOT for
disposal of the waste and reinstall the inner filter component for reuse. Once the notification is received, the waste present inside
is cleared and the water present inside the bin is pumped back into the ocean using a water pump. The various sensors and
driver circuits are placed in different sections in the device and the information is collected by using IOT.

Human movement is central to instrumental musical performance. Beyond the ap- parent connection between sound-producing actions and the sounds themselves, move- ment can communicate emotion, musical intention and structure. In designing an acoustic instrument, the requirements to support the vibration and manipulation of strings or membranes constrain the possibilities for action that facilitate performance. In Digital Musical Instrument (DMI) design, however, no specific physical require- ments for movements exist. Electronic sound production and sensing systems expand the possibilities for performance movement far beyond that typically associated with acoustic instruments. This is indicated by the DMI design community’s focus on sound synthesis and sound-gesture mapping; little attention is given to movement qualities of the performance interaction. This thesis seeks to redress this imbalance, by developing and testing a coherent method for installing bodily movement in DMI designs.
Upon considering existing frameworks for description of human movement, both generally and in musical performance specifically, Laban Movement Analysis (LMA) was identified as a suitable method for exploring and designing for movement. Laban’s theory of Effort was selected to observe and analyse existing Theremin performances, and, from this analysis, tested in a novel DMI, the Damper. Following this, further re-iterations of LMA observation and analysis were carried out to strengthen this de- scriptive method.
From these initial studies, and existing design theory, a formal movement-based iii
DMI design process was constructed, and implemented in the design of another novel DMI interface, the Twister. This interface was designed to the specific quality of movement, Carving, as defined by LMA. An observational analysis showed that naïve users did respond to the device with the intended movement qualities. This thesis therefore provides a procedural framework with which to design for movement in DMIs, and initial testing indicates that it is indeed possible to design DMI interfaces that invite desired movement qualities.

The next computing revolution‘s objective is to embed every street, building, room and object with computational power. Ubiquitous computing (ubicomp) will allow every object to receive and transmit information, sense its surroundings and act accordingly, be located from anywhere in the world, connect every person. Everyone will have the possibility to access information, despite their age, computer knowledge, literacy or physical impairment. It will impact the world in a profound way, empowering mankind, improving the environment, but will also create new challenges that our society, economy, health and global environment will have to overcome. Negative impacts have to be identified and dealt with in advance. Despite these concerns, environmental studies have been mostly absent from discussions on the new paradigm. This thesis seeks to examine ubiquitous computing, its technological emergence, raise awareness towards future impacts and explore the design of new interfaces and rich ...

This lecture forms part of the 'Next Generation User Interfaces' course given at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel.

- by Beat Signer
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- Computer Science, Human Computer Interaction, Knowledge Management, Multimedia
- by Katja Knecht and +1
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- Architecture, Tangible User Interfaces

PowerPoint is one of the most frequently used tools to present multimedia for educational purposes. Nevertheless, little is known about the users' needs when using PowerPoint during lecturing. Our study focused on the presenter's needs in this context of use. We interviewed nine university lecturers from the computer science department by means of a questionnaire. The results show that users require features that are not yet realised with PowerPoint. For example, the control and use of other media should be adequately integrated. Or the navigation within the slide collection should be improved to better meet the users' needs. Based on our findings, we outline required system features and suggest solutions in form of a prototype.

- by Beat Signer
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- Information Systems, Engineering, Computer Science, Human Computer Interaction

Les Technologies de l’Information et de la Communication pour l’Enseignement (TICE) peuvent transformer profondément les pratiques pédagogiques. Cependant, pour que ce bénéfice potentiel se réalise, il faut que les solutions produites en conception puissent à la fois s’intégrer à ces pratiques et être sources d’innovation potentielles, en termes de plus-values pour les activités d’enseignement et d’apprentissage. L’objectif de cette thèse est de mettre en avant des facteurs de conception qui permettent d’articuler ces enjeux dans le cadre d’un projet de conception sur technologie émergente pour l’enseignement. Ainsi, la recherche s’intéresse à une démarche participative mise en œuvre dans la conception conjointe d’un système technique (l’application sur table interactive) et des pratiques enseignantes (par l’intermédiaire de scénarios pédagogiques). Nos hypothèses concernent les effets de différents facteurs sur l’élaboration d’un compromis entre des enjeux d’intégration et d’innovation : implication de futurs utilisateurs « pionniers » ; opportunités de confrontation de leurs hypothèses de conception ; cadrage du champ des possibles. Les analyses portent sur l’ensemble de la démarche de conception, afin de caractériser ces effets d’un point de vue longitudinal en les situant par rapport aux différentes méthodes mobilisées et à l’avancement des solutions de conception. En particulier, les justifications des choix de conception relatifs à certaines composantes de l’artefact en cours d’élaboration sont étudiées pour caractériser, d’une part, les facteurs de la conception qui ont contextualisé ces choix et, d’autre part, leurs liens avec les enjeux d’innovation ou d’intégration, voire les deux. Les résultats montrent que : (i) la mobilisation et la redéfinition des scénarios pédagogiques, l’implication d’enseignants en tant que co-concepteurs, la confrontation des solutions de conception sur prototype et en simulation et enfin le recueil des besoins favorisent la définition de caractéristiques techniques et l’intégration du système technique ; (ii) la définition des caractéristiques techniques de l’application, l’implication d’enseignants pionniers, l’identification de leurs besoins et la simulation des solutions favorisent l’adaptation des pratiques enseignantes aux caractéristiques de la technologie en vue d’optimiser son intégration ; (iii) les différentes formes de confrontation à la nouvelle technologie ainsi que les apprentissages mutuels en conception participative vis-à-vis du potentiel technique et interactif des tables interactives contribuent à l’exploitation de ce potentiel par les concepteurs ; (iv) les caractéristiques innovantes des tables interactives, l’anticipation de leurs usages potentiels en salle de classe, la mise en œuvre des solutions de conception en situation réelle, la participation d’enseignants futurs utilisateurs leur permettant de s’approprier la nouvelle technologie et l’identification de leurs difficultés actuelles favorisent l’innovation dans les scénarios pédagogiques et l’amélioration des activités d’enseignement et d’apprentissage.

Man, even though he may sometimes dream of being a pure spirit free from all material constraints, actually exists as a body in a world which is itself essentially constructed as a spatialized system of bodies; and in this constructed world features such as resistance, impenetrability, inertia, weight and forces are not accidents or exceptions but the rule.
The reflexions presented in this work aim at elucidating on a phenomenological level the relation that man entertains with the tangible aspects of his environment, and the function that this relation plays in the construction of the different sectors of his existence. The first of the sectors is perception: the opening on an ambient world that is pregnant with organisation and meaning. On the one hand, we shall take into account and conceptualize the way in which the tangibility of the world (the testing experience that the individual can have of resistance of his environment in the frame of a direct bodily relation with that environment, but more generally the understanding that the individual possesses of the very possibility of such a relation) participates in setting up the rationality by which man renders his world intelligible. On the other hand, we shall identify the structures of “subjectivity” (to speak the language of psychology, the structures of cognition) which make possible the specific way in which man constructs his experience and understanding of tangible resistance – whether this resistance is perceived in the context of an actual bodily engagement, or whether it is envisaged “indirectly” in the guise of a “simple” possibility.
We shall show here, on the basis of phenomenological analyses as well as elements coming from empirical psychology (experimental psychology as well as neuropsychology), that the relation that man has with the resistance of his ambient world depends on an opening towards the possible; and that the organisation of the ambient world in the form of a space which can contain material structures, or structures capable of opposing a resistance to the body, depends on a rationality which consists of making phenomena intelligible by interpreting them with reference to those capacities for action and for passion which the body confers on us, to the power that the body provides us with and the constraints to which it submits us.
Thus, even though the realm of material things – tangible objects, bodies – functions as an archetype of “presence” and of “being” (indeed, what is more “real” than a body?), in the last resort it gains its phenomenal character from the fact that it crystallizes for the person who perceives it a stream of virtual possibilities; hence, the here-and-now presence of the “tangible world” is in an essential way indebted to the realm of that which is not actually realized.

- by Gunnar Declerck
- •
- Cognitive Psychology, Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind, Philosophy of Science

HAID'12.
Even though multisensory environments (MSE) incorporate artifacts and technology to provide sensory stimuli, most of these artifacts are non-interactive. Twenty-four children with profound developmental disabilities from three MSE institutions have been involved in a research study. A handful of interactive design artifacts, which have been developed as a tool for ideation and to enhance the use of MSE by promoting children’s engagement are presented. With these artifacts the children have shown us a vast topology of interaction and bodily engagement, showing a potential for haptic and audio interactive design fields to contribute to a more participatory MSE practice.

El diseño y construcción de instrumentos musicales se ha desarrollado de múltiples formas a través del tiempo, muchos de estos instrumentos han evolucionado hasta llegar a consolidarse de tal modo que se satisfagan las necesidades del compositor e intérprete. En el caso particular de los instrumentos informáticos, es decir aquellos que usan tecnologías electrónicas y digitales, la evolución se ha desarrollado a una gran velocidad si se compara con el recorrido evolutivo de un instrumento clásico de los empleados actualmente. Este documento aborda principalmente el contexto de los instrumentos musicales informáticos desde un análisis que comprende referentes históricos, desarrollos de las últimas décadas, tecnologías usadas en el campo, además de el análisis del compositor, intérprete e instrumento desde el contexto informático. Dicho análisis aborda con detalle el sistema Ableton-Launchpad desde la realización de un estudio de caso que permitió cuestionar, tomando como base una serie de entrevistas realizadas en el proceso, diferentes elementos en cuanto a su diseño, la relación de los elementos que lo conforman y el entendimiento de este como instrumento o no; además de analizar su pertinencia desde la mirada de distintos autores y campos artísticos musicales o sonoros.

The proliferation of virtual museums, on line and built inside a museum's collections, stimulates new challenges for research and public education. This happens through multimodal applications and methods, such as augmented reality, virtual storytelling, virtual reality, computer graphics and haptic applications. This paper discusses a haptic approach with a hybrid solution, able to virtualize tangible objects in a physical space and digital models in a cyber space. The main goal of this approach is to propose alternative ways to experience an object, an artifact, a site or an entire collection. In particular, the hands-on experience is very important, for having tangible feedback from objects and to generate a visual narrative, by touching and combining physical/virtual interaction simultaneously, to customize the visit according to the experience and empathy generated by the unique artifacts. The Tangible Interactive Table for Archeology (TITA) is a open-source prototype of a digital-haptic device, designed for museums and in general for the digital communication of archaeological artifacts, monuments and sites. The intention is to lower the bar of entry for this type of technology in the cultural heritage community, to enable further research and exploration of its affordances, by initiating a community open design project, which provides the digital fabrication files and specifications to produce, test, extend and hybridize such a device, and mechanisms for sharing mutual hardware and software development projects. Such efforts to combine virtual reality and tangible 3d printed artifacts, also entails a rethinking of the production pipeline of digitally reconstructing 3d environments and their constituent elements, where 3d digital models need to be at turns both " lightweight " , visually accurate yet low-poly for real-time, game engine applications, and high-fidelity and well formed as 3d printed artifacts.

- by Todd Berreth
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- Archaeology, Cultural Heritage, Digital Fabrication, Haptics

This lecture forms part of the 'Next Generation User Interfaces' course given at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel.

- by Beat Signer
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- Information Systems, Engineering, Computer Science, Human Computer Interaction