Tangible computing differs from many other areas of HCI research in that it often concerns the conversion of data and ideas between two realities—the user’s physical world and the intangible digital one. This process can involve many considerations which more traditional graphical user interfaces are able to often disregard. For example, the fact that a user might have to physically interact with an object immediately brings up concerns such as ergonomics (Is the interface comfortable to interact with?) and accessibility (Will everyone be able use this device, or—for example—is it only designed for right-handed users with all five digits available?). When designed and implemented effectively, however, tangible user interfaces and “graspables” can quite often be more intuitive and easier to manipulate than more traditional input methods such as touchscreens and computer mice. (Tuddenham, et al., 2010)

My first chosen paper, “Paperbox—A toolkit for exploring tangible interaction on interactive surfaces”, concerns the authors’ efforts to produce a tool to allow for the prototyping of tangible user interfaces. (Wiethoff, et al., 2013) While more traditional interfaces have a “well-established culture of early prototyping”—such as paper prototypes and wireframes—methods for prototyping TUIs are currently much more limited, with initial designs starting as 2D sketches and only becoming physical objects in later design stages. Their toolkit, Paperbox, provides a solution for low-fidelity prototyping of tangible interactions on interactive surfaces, with immediate access to digital interactivity. While Paperbox was only used with paper templates, the authors envision that future work could include expanding to other materials such as wood, metal or plastic—a material that has become far more useable for prototyping thanks to the popularity of 3D printers.

The second paper—“ToyVision: A Toolkit to Support the Creation of Innovative Board-Games with Tangible Interaction”—goes into details about a software toolkit designed to allow the creation of board games with tangible computing devices as game pieces. (Marco, et al., 2013)Their developed abstraction layer allows for the use of more complicated pieces than those seen in other similar systems (Such as the Skylanders videogames) which rely on simple data tags for their pieces, with devices able to be modified with additional modules (the example given is a soldier piece being upgraded with a sword).

The final paper—“Social Robot Toolkit: Tangible Programming for Young Children”—concerns a project which aids the education of programming in young children. (Gordon, et al., 2015) Through the use of vinyl stickers, children are able to make simple logic diagrams which are then interpreted and enacted by a robot. The interface’s simplicity and the system’s immediate output allowed the children to experiment and learn basic programming concepts in a short amount of time.

References

Gordon, Ackermann & Breazeal, 2015. Social Robot Toolkit: Tangible Programming for Young Children.

Marco, J., Baldassarri, S. & Cerezo, E., 2013. ToyVision: a toolkit to support the creation of innovative board-games with tangible interaction.

Tuddenham, Kirk & Izadi, 2010. Graspables Revisited: Multi-Touch vs Tangible Input for Tabletop Displays in Acquisition and Manipulation Tasks.

Wiethoff, A. et al., 2013. Paperbox – A toolkit for exploring tangible interaction on interactive surfaces.