Creativity Support and Multimodal Pen-based Interaction

Abstract

Creativity as a skill is associated with a potential to drive both productivity and psychological wellbeing. Since multimodality can foster cognitive ability, multimodal digital tools should also be ideal to support creativity as an essentially cognitive skill. In this paper, we explore this notion by presenting a multimodal pen-based interaction technique and studying how it supports creativity. The multimodal solution uses microcontroller-technology to augment a digital pen with RGB LEDs and a Leap Motion sensor to enable bimanual input. We report on a user study with 26 participants demonstrating that the multimodal technique is indeed perceived as supporting creativity significantly more than a baseline condition. We conclude with a critical discussion of our results, considering implications for creativity support through multimodal interaction techniques and the culture and materiality surrounding lived practices of pen-based sketching. To this end, we utilize insights based on our own experience observing and engaging with various sketching communities in our town, including the urban sketchers.

HyperBrush: Exploring the Influence of Flexural Stiffness on the Performance and Preference for Bendable Stylus Interfaces

“…Research prototypes and consumer electronic products can feature additional degrees of freedom to provide a larger input vocabulary, and have exhibited positive results: tip pressure [34,36], tilting in a direction [43], rolling with the fingers [6], or tapping the barrel [19,40]. One can use these extra degrees of freedom to create variable brushstroke sizes [3,15], manipulating the orientation and positioning of models, selecting items [18], and operating menus [4,51]. The initial goal behind having additional inputs is to increase productivity, efficiency, and promote creativity [3].…”

The Influence of Flexural Stiffness on the Performance and Preference of Bendable Stylus Interfaces

“…We followed a study design similar to Aslan et al that instructed participants to draw an illustration for both input types [5]. We instructed participants to draw two illustrations (cityscape and landscape), one per input type (bend and pressure), in which the order was reversed per participant.…”

“…Research prototypes and consumer electronic products can feature additional degrees of freedom to provide a larger input vocabulary: tip pressure [45,46], tilting in a direction [56], rolling of with the fingers [8], or tapping the barrel have exhibited positive results [21,53]. One can use these extra degrees of freedom to create variable brushstroke sizes [5,18], manipulating the orientation and positioning of models, selecting items [20], and operating menus [6,63]. The initial goal behind having additional inputs is to increase productivity, efficiency, and promote creativity [5].…”

“…One can use these extra degrees of freedom to create variable brushstroke sizes [5,18], manipulating the orientation and positioning of models, selecting items [20], and operating menus [6,63]. The initial goal behind having additional inputs is to increase productivity, efficiency, and promote creativity [5]. Such research has attempted to simulate the experience of using non-digital tools such as the pencil [14] or paintbrush [5,18].…”

“…The initial goal behind having additional inputs is to increase productivity, efficiency, and promote creativity [5]. Such research has attempted to simulate the experience of using non-digital tools such as the pencil [14] or paintbrush [5,18]. While these inputs can be of great benefit to stylus-based applications, there are still some limitations posed to each.…”