Computing’s forgotten sense: a short exploration of tangible computing in HCI

Tangible computing is a domain of HCI that looks into how digital information can be given physical form and presented and manipulated through tangible objects. Tangible user interfaces (TUIs) differ from graphical user interfaces (GUIs) in that the information is communicated through physical interaction, for example through a haptic display, as opposed to just viewed on a screen. Long before GUIs became commonplace, systems relied upon physical interaction – such as the early computer developed during World War 2.

Fig 1: Programming the ENIAC, the world’s first general purpose electronic computer (http://s3v.computerhistory.org)

Modern computers came to be essentially ‘graphical metaphors’ of physical desktops and interaction with systems required the use of intermediary devices such as keyboards and mice [1]. GUI systems were revered as innovative, uncomplicated and consumer-friendly; for these reasons, GUIs feature in the vast majority of people’s experience of and interactions with computers [2]. However, TUIs offer alternative ways to ‘weave digital technology into the fabric of the physical environment’ in ways that GUIs cannot and move a step closer to Weiser’s vision of invisible computing [2] [3].

TUI differs from other research into HCI as it focuses exclusively on the physical embodiment of systems, which is likely to bring computer scientists ‘out of their comfort zone’ by forcing them to consider in greater depth issues of form, materials and product or industrial design [4].

A seminal example of tangible computing coming out of the Tangible Media Group at MIT is the Urban Planning Workbench, which enabled users to configure the placement of building models according to where the computer simulated and projected shadow placement. A more advanced urban planning tool, Tangible CityScape was developed by the same group to assist planners in visualising urban massing through a “2.5 dimension” interface.

 

 

The three papers I have chosen for the Theory and Philosophy session of our conference originate from past proceedings of the International Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction (TEI), the leading conference in this field. My choices are:

• Nam and Nitsche’s 2014 paper Interactive Installations as Performance: Inspiration for HCI, which proposes a theoretical framework for interactive installations;

• Tasa and Yurtsever’s 2011 paper A Sufism-Inspired Model for Embodied Interaction Design, which draws on somatic and religious readings to conceptualise embodiment; and

• Macaranas et al’s 2012 paper Bridging the Gap: Attribute and Spatial Metaphors for Tangible Interface Design, which explores the currency of Conceptual Metaphor Theory in designing relations between physical objects and abstract representations.

I feel that these three papers all delve into Theory and Philosophy in unique ways and would all be worthy inclusions on our conference programme.

 

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[1] Ishii, H. and Ullmer, B. (1997) Tangible Bits: Towards Seamless Interfaces between People, Bits and Atoms. CHI 97, 22-27 March 1997, New York: ACM, pp. 234-241.

[2] Ishii, H (2008) The tangible user interface and its evolution. Communications of the ACM – Organic user interfaces 51(6): 32-36, New York: ACM.

[3] Weiser, M. (1991), The Computer for the 21st Century, Scientific American, pp94-104.

[4] Hornecker, E. (n.d.). Tangible Interaction. In Soegaard, M. and Dam, R. F. (eds) The Glossary of Human Computer Interaction [online]. Available at https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/book/the-glossary-of-human-computer-interaction [accessed 7 November 2016].