Tangible views for information visualization

Abstract

In information visualization, interaction is commonly carried out by using traditional input devices, and visual feedback is usually given on desktop displays. By contrast, recent advances in interactive surface technology suggest combining interaction and display functionality in a single device for a more direct interaction. With our work, we contribute to the seamless integration of interaction and display devices and introduce new ways of visualizing and directly interacting with information. Rather than restricting the interaction to the display surface alone, we explicitly use the physical three-dimensional space above it for natural interaction with multiple displays. For this purpose, we introduce tangible views as spatially aware lightweight displays that can be interacted with by moving them through the physical space on or above a tabletop display's surface. Tracking the 3D movement of tangible views allows us to control various parameters of a visualization with more degrees of freedom. Tangible views also facilitate making multiple -previously virtual -views physically "graspable". In this paper, we introduce a number of interaction and visualization patterns for tangible views that constitute the vocabulary for performing a variety of common visualization tasks. Several implemented case studies demonstrate the usefulness of tangible views for widely used information visualization approaches and suggest the high potential of this novel approach to support interaction with complex visualizations.

Embodied lenses for collaborative visual queries on tabletop displays

“…On the topic of tangible lenses for visualization, Spindler et al [48,49] study the use of the 3D space above a tabletop, projecting dynamic imagery onto a tracked piece of cardboard using a projector. They propose to use this for volumetric data, layers, sampling, zooming, and slicing, etc, and their approach includes an interaction vocabulary for how these cardboard lenses can be used to explore the data.…”

“…Given this trend, it is not clear how widely applicable these results will be on the field as a whole. On the other hand, recent developments in visualization for tabletop computing, such as [19,27,49,52], suggest that this state of affairs may very well change in the future.…”

“…Our approach is similar to Spindler et al [49] and Koike et al [28] in that we bridge virtual objects on the tabletop display with lens manifestations in physical space. However, we continue the physical metaphor further by allowing users to overlap the lenses in physical space to control object composition in virtual space.…”

Exploring the Potential of Physical Visualizations

“…By moving the tangibles, it is possible to explore different alternatives of urban planning and to simulate effects of changes in real-time. The center image of Figure 4.6 displays the project "Tangible Views" by Spindler et al [2010]. With lightweight displays that can be moved through the physical space on or above a tabletop, this introduced new ways of visualizing and directly interacting with information by no longer restricting the interaction to the display surface alone.…”

“…As the image demonstrates simple data The urban planning tool "Urp" by Underkoffler and Ishii [1999]. Center: "Tangible Views" for InfoVis by Spindler et al [2010]. Right: The shape-changing display "inFORM" by representations such as dynamic bar charts are already realizable with such techniques.…”