Exploring and manipulating complex virtual objects is challenging due to limitations of conventional controllers and free-hand interaction techniques. We present the TanGi toolkit which enables novices to rapidly build physical proxy objects using Composable Shape Primitives. TanGi also provides Manipulators allowing users to build objects including movable parts, making them suitable for rich object exploration and manipulation in VR. With a set of different use cases and applications we show the capabilities of the TanGi toolkit, and evaluate its use. In a study with 16 participants, we demonstrate that novices can quickly build physical proxy objects using the Composable Shape Primitives, and explore how different levels of object embodiment affect virtual object exploration. In a second study with 12 participants we evaluate TanGi's Manipulators, and investigate the effectiveness of embodied interaction. Findings from this study show that TanGi's proxies outperform traditional controllers, and were generally favored by participants.
In the Internet of Things era, an increasing number of household devices and everyday objects are able to send to and retrieve information from the Internet, offering innovative services to the user. However, most of these devices provide only smartphone or web interfaces to control the IoT object properties and functions. As a result, generally, the interaction is disconnected from the physical world, decreasing the user experience and increasing the risk of isolating the user in digital bubbles. We argue that tangible interaction can counteract this trend and this paper discusses the potenti…
Digital devices are now ubiquitous and have the potential to be used to support positive changes in human lives and promote psychological well-being. This paper presents three interactive systems that we created focusing on introspection activities, leveraging tangible interaction and spatial augmented reality. More specifically, we describe anthropomorphic augmented avatars that display the users' inner states using physiological sensors. We also present a first prototype of an augmented sandbox specifically dedicated to promoting mindfulness activities.
The last two decades have seen the emergence and steady development of tangible user interfaces. While most of these interfaces are applied for input - with output still on traditional computer screens - the goal of programmable matter and actuated shape-changing materials is to directly use the physical objects for visual or tangible feedback. Advances in material sciences and flexible display technologies are investigated to enable such reconfigurable physical objects. While existing solutions aim for making physical objects more controllable via the digital world, we propose an approach whe…
Digital interaction with everyday objects has become popular since the proliferation of camera-based systems that detect and augment objects "just-in-time". Common systems use a vision-based approach to detect objects and display their functionalities to the user. Sensors, such as color and depth cameras, have become inexpensive and allow seamless environmental tracking in mobile as well as stationary settings. However, object detection in different contexts faces challenges as it highly depends on environmental parameters and the conditions of the object itself. In this work, we present three…
During the last years, the emerging field of Augmented and Virtual Reality (AR-VR) has seen tremendous growth. An interface that has also become very popular for the AR systems is the tangible interface or passive-haptic interface. Specifically, an interface where users can manipulate digital information with input devices that are physical objects. This work presents a low cost Augmented Reality system with a tangible interface that offers interaction between the real and the virtual world. The system estimates in real-time the 3D position of a small colored ball (input device), it maps it to…
This paper presents a research through design exploration using tangible interactions in order to seamlessly integrate technology in a historical house museum. The study addresses a longstanding concern in museum exhibition design that interactive technologies may distract from the artifacts on display. Through an iterative design process including user studies, a co-creation workshop with museum staff and several prototypes, we developed an interactive installation called The Diary of Niels that combines physical objects, RFID sensors and an elaborate fiction in order to facilitate increased …
This paper outlines the development of a sensory feedback device providing a tangible interface for controlling digital environments, in this example a flight simulator, where the intention for the device is that it is relatively low cost, versatile and intuitive. Gesture based input allows for a more immersive experience, so rather than making the user feel like they are controlling an aircraft the intuitive interface allows the user to become the aircraft that is controlled by the movements of the user's hand. The movements are designed to allow a sense of immersion that would be difficult t…
Digitalization is penetrating every aspect of everyday life including a human's heart beating, which can easily be sensed by wearable sensors and displayed for others to see, feel, and potentially "bodily resonate" with. Previous work in studying human interactions and interaction designs with physiological data, such as a heart's pulse rate, have argued that feeding it back to the users may, for example support users' mindfulness and self-awareness during various everyday activities and ultimately support their wellbeing. Inspired by Somaesthetics as a discipline, which focuses on an apprecia…
This paper introduces a computational composite material comprising layers for actuation, computation and energy storage. Key to its design is inexpensive materials assembled from traditionally available fabrication machines to support the rapid exploration of applications from computational composites. The actuation layer is a soft magnetic sheet that is programmed to either bond, repel, or remain agnostic to other areas of the sheet. The computation layer is a flexible PCB made from copper-clad kapton engraved by a fiber laser, powered by a third energy-storage layer comprised of 0.4mm-thin …
Post-Lecture Interactive Environments for Conceptual Learning: A Randomized Comparison of Mixed Reality and Tangible Instruction in Undergraduate STEM Education
IIIT-Delhi（德里英迪拉甘地信息技术学院）；University of Calgary（卡尔加里大学）
This paper introduces Teachable Reality, an augmented reality (AR) prototyping tool for creating interactive tangible AR applications with arbitrary everyday objects. Teachable Reality leverages vision-based interactive machine teaching (e.g., Teachable Machine), which captures real-world interactions for AR prototyping. It identifies the user-defined tangible and gestural interactions using an on-demand computer vision model. Based on this, the user can easily create functional AR prototypes without programming, enabled by a trigger-action authoring interface. Therefore, our approach allows t…
A Meat-Summer Night's Dream: A Tangible Design Fiction Exploration of Eating Biohybrid Flying Robots
Chalmers University of Technology（查尔姆斯理工大学）；University of Luxembourg（卢森堡大学）；University at Buffalo（布法罗纽约州立大学）；alter+ (Alter Plus)（alter+（Alter Plus））；King’s College London（伦敦国王学院）；University of Bergen（卑尔根大学）
Mixed reality head-mounted displays (mxdR-HMD) have the potential to visualize volumetric medical imaging data in holograms to provide a true sense of volumetric depth. An effective user interface, however, has yet to be thoroughly studied. Tangible user interfaces (TUIs) enable a tactile interaction with a hologram through an object. The object has physical properties indicating how it might be used with multiple degrees-of-freedom. We propose a TUI using a planar object (PO) for the holographic medical volume visualization and exploration. We refer to it as mxdR hologram slicer (mxdR-HS). Us…
The University of Tokyo（东京大学）；University of Calgary（卡尔加里大学）；IIIT-Delhi（德里印度理工学院）；University of Chicago（芝加哥大学）
This paper introduces Sketched Reality, an approach that combines AR sketching and actuated tangible user interfaces (TUI) for bidirectional sketching interaction. Bi-directional sketching enables virtual sketches and physical objects to "affect" each other through physical actuation and digital computation. In the existing AR sketching, the relationship between virtual and physical worlds is only one-directional -- while physical interaction can affect virtual sketches, virtual sketches have no return effect on the physical objects or environment. In contrast, bi-directional sketching interac…
Going Down the Abstraction Stream with Augmented Reality and Tangible Robots: the Case of Vector Instruction
CHILI Lab Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne（CHILI实验室 雅各布·冯·利希滕堡联邦理工学院）；School of Computing & Information Systems University of Melbourne（计算与信息系统学院 澳大利亚墨尔本大学）
VR/AR technology is a key enabler for new ways of immersively experiencing cultural heritage artifacts based on their virtual counterparts obtained from a digitization process. In this paper, we focus on enriching VR-based object inspection by additional haptic feedback, thereby creating tangible cultural heritage experiences. For this purpose, we present an approach for interactive and collaborative VR-based object inspection and annotation. Our system supports high-quality 3D models with accurate reflectance characteristics while additionally providing haptic feedback regarding the object sh…
In gaming, customizing individual characters, can create personal bonds between players and their characters. Hence, character customization is a standard component in many games. While mobile Augmented Reality (AR) games become popular, to date, no 3D character editor for AR games exists. We investigate the feasibility of 3D character customization for smartphone-based AR in an iterative design process. Specifically, we present findings from creating AR prototypes in a handheld AR setting. In a first user study, we found that a tangible AR prototype resulted in higher hedonistic measures than…
This paper suggests that recent developments in video game technology have occurred in parallel to play being moved from public into private spaces, which has had impact on the way people interact with games. The paper also argues and that there is potentially value in the creation of public play spaces to create opportunities to utilise both technology and body for the benefit of community culture and experiences through gaming. Co-located social gaming coupled with tangible interfaces offer alternative possibilities for the local video game scene. This paper includes a descriptive account of…
We contribute MolecuSense, a virtual version of a physical molecule construction kit, based on visualization in Virtual Reality (VR) and interaction with force-feedback gloves. Targeting at chemistry education, our goal is to make virtual molecule structures more tangible. Results of an initial user study indicate that the VR molecular construction kit was positively received. Compared to a physical construction kit, the VR molecular construction kit is on the same level in terms of natural interaction. Besides, it fosters the typical digital advantages though, such as saving, exporting, and s…
We propose a new approach for interaction in Virtual Reality (VR) using mobile robots as proxies for haptic feedback. This approach allows VR users to have the experience of sharing and manipulating tangible physical objects with remote collaborators. Because participants do not directly observe the robotic proxies, the mapping between them and the virtual objects is not required to be direct. In this paper, we describe our implementation, various scenarios for interaction, and a preliminary user study.
