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Ubicomp to the masses: a large-scale study of two tangible interfaces for download

Published: 26 September 2010 Publication History

Abstract

Tangible user interfaces have been promoted and discussed in the Ubicomp and HCI communities for 15 years. In TUIs physical objects are used for the control and representation of digital information, similarly to how icons are used in graphical user interfaces for the same purpose. Most reported TUI systems have the nature of research prototypes, available in laboratories or museums. This paper reports an attempt to understand the impact of TUIs in users' everyday environments through 2 low-cost simple set-up tangible interfaces for music that can be freely downloaded from a website. The systems are based on computer vision, printed paper and audio output. A few hundreds of users downloaded them and played with them. We logged users interaction with the interfaces and analysed content posted by them on our own and other web sites to observe and evaluate how they relate to such novel systems, taking measures to protect their privacy. Both the interaction logs and the users' comments indicate that the tangible interfaces were accepted as normal: they were perceived just as interfaces to make music rather than esoteric systems. Its time to bring Ubicomp technology to the masses!

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  • (2024)Variations on a Hexagon: Iterative Design of Interactive Cyberphysical Tokens and ConstraintsProceedings of the Eighteenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction10.1145/3623509.3633354(1-17)Online publication date: 11-Feb-2024
  • (2020)TIP-Toy: a tactile, open-source computational toolkit to support learning across visual abilitiesProceedings of the 22nd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility10.1145/3373625.3417005(1-14)Online publication date: 26-Oct-2020
  • (2018)Realizing Loose Communication with Tangible Avatar to Facilitate Recipient’s ImaginationInformation10.3390/info90200329:2(32)Online publication date: 1-Feb-2018
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    cover image ACM Conferences
    UbiComp '10: Proceedings of the 12th ACM international conference on Ubiquitous computing
    September 2010
    366 pages
    ISBN:9781605588438
    DOI:10.1145/1864349
    Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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    Publication History

    Published: 26 September 2010

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    Author Tags

    1. TUI
    2. d-touch
    3. drum machine
    4. massive user observation
    5. musical instrument
    6. sequencer
    7. user generated content

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    Ubicomp '10
    Ubicomp '10: The 2010 ACM Conference on Ubiquitous Computing
    September 26 - 29, 2010
    Copenhagen, Denmark

    Acceptance Rates

    UbiComp '10 Paper Acceptance Rate 39 of 202 submissions, 19%;
    Overall Acceptance Rate 764 of 2,912 submissions, 26%

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    Cited By

    View all
    • (2024)Variations on a Hexagon: Iterative Design of Interactive Cyberphysical Tokens and ConstraintsProceedings of the Eighteenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction10.1145/3623509.3633354(1-17)Online publication date: 11-Feb-2024
    • (2020)TIP-Toy: a tactile, open-source computational toolkit to support learning across visual abilitiesProceedings of the 22nd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility10.1145/3373625.3417005(1-14)Online publication date: 26-Oct-2020
    • (2018)Realizing Loose Communication with Tangible Avatar to Facilitate Recipient’s ImaginationInformation10.3390/info90200329:2(32)Online publication date: 1-Feb-2018
    • (2016)Exploring Low-Cost, Internet-Free Information Access for Resource-Constrained CommunitiesACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction10.1145/299049823:6(1-34)Online publication date: 3-Dec-2016
    • (2015)Physical Construction Toys for Rapid Sketching of Tangible User InterfacesProceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction10.1145/2677199.2687900(643-648)Online publication date: 15-Jan-2015
    • (2015)PaperChainsProceedings of the 18th ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing10.1145/2675133.2675138(383-392)Online publication date: 28-Feb-2015
    • (2014)AudioCanvasProceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/2556288.2556993(3735-3738)Online publication date: 26-Apr-2014
    • (2014)Tangible displays for the massesPersonal and Ubiquitous Computing10.1007/s00779-013-0730-718:5(1213-1225)Online publication date: 1-Jun-2014
    • (2013)Studying a Head Tracking Technique for First-Person-Shooter Games in a Home SettingHuman-Computer Interaction – INTERACT 201310.1007/978-3-642-40498-6_18(246-263)Online publication date: 2013
    • (2012)Understanding domestic energy consumption through interactive visualisationProceedings of the 2012 ACM Conference on Ubiquitous Computing10.1145/2370216.2370251(216-225)Online publication date: 5-Sep-2012
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