Passive yet Expressive TouchTokens

Abstract

TouchTokens are passive tokens that can be recognized on any capacitive surface based on the spatial configuration of the fingers that hold them. However, interaction with these tokens is confined to the basic two-state model of touch interaction as the system only knows the tokens' position and cannot detect tokens that are not touched. We increase the expressive power of TouchTokens by introducing laser-cut lattice hinges in their design, so as to make them flexible. A new recognizer, that analyzes the micro-movements of the fingers that hold the tokens, enables the system to detect when a token is left on the surface rather than taken off it. It can also detect bend events that can be mapped to command triggers, and a squeezed state that can be used for quasi-modal interaction.

UltraPower: Powering Tangible & Wearable Devices with Focused Ultrasound

“…Tangible user interface objects can be active, utilising electrical components to actuate themselves for movement across a surface [15,49,57,60,63] and for interaction feedback across many output modalities [5,37,77]. These are a compelling alternative to traditional passive tangibles, which are typically only augmented by adjacent screens or projection surfaces (e.g., [35,53,54]). Active tangibles require power which increases their complexity and may constrain object form factor.…”

Custom-made tangible interfaces with touchtokens

“…The feedback that we collected could also help improve TouchTokenBuilder with, e.g., the ability to get a view of the SVG export at any time during the design, or the use of multi-touch input (when available) to position notches. Finally, we plan to extend TouchTokenBuilder in order to enable designers to easily make flexible versions of their tokens [20].…”

MobiLimb

“…For input, MobiLimb is related to projects augmenting the touchscreen with tangible objects providing both physical interaction and additional degrees of freedom. For instance, TouchToken [42] or GaussBricks [40] allow to move, squeeze and stretch tangibles at the surface of the screen, whereas Capstones [9] also provides an extra dimension by detecting stackable elements. Input methods external to the screen are also designed to interact with the back [5] or the sides of the mobile device [8].…”