Guillaume Rivière

GeoTUI: a tangible user interface for geoscience

GeoTUI is a system designed for geophysicists that provides props as tangible user interface on a tabletop vision-projection system for the selection of cutting planes on a geographical map of a subsoil model. Our GeoTUI system allows the geophysicists to manipulate in the same action and perception space since the movement of the physical artifacts is done on the tabletop and thus constrained to two dimensions. Consequently, it combines the advantages of the spontaneous conditions of user interaction that the geophysicists are commonly used to in their classical paper/pen/ruler environment with the advantages of the use of powerful geological simulation software. We conducted an extensive user study in the workplace of the geophysicists that clearly revealed that using a tangible interaction performs better than using the standard mouse/keyboard GUI for the cutting line selection task on a geographical subsoil map. Consequently, it increases the efficiency for the real-world trade task of hypothesis validation on a subsoil model. Moreover, this geological user case is complex enough to confirm the hypothesis that in space-multiplex conditions, specialized devices perform better than generic ones.

ArcheoTUI - a tangible user interface for the virtual reassembly of fractured archeological objects

Cultural objects of archeological findings are often broken and fractured into a large amount of fragments, and the archeologists are confronted by 3D puzzles when reassembling the fractured objects. Scanning the fragments and reassembling the corresponding 3D objects virtually is an elegant (and sometimes the only) solution. An efficient user interaction for the complex task to orientate or position two 3D objects relative to each other is essential, eventually in addition to automatic matching techniques. In this paper, we present ArcheoTUI, a new tangible user interface for the efficient assembly of the 3D scanned fragments of fractured archeological objects. The key idea is to use tangible props for the manipulation of the vir- tual fragments. In each hand, the user manipulates an electromagnetically tracked prop, and the translations and rotations are directly mapped to the corresponding virtual fragments on the display. For each hand, a correspond- ing foot pedal is used to clutch the movements of the hands. Hence, the hands of the user can be repositioned, or the user can be switched. The software of ArcheoTUI is designed to easily change assembly hypotheses, beyond classical undo/redo, by using a scene graph. We designed ArcheoTUI on the demand of archeaologists and in a direct collaboration with them, and we con- ducted a user study on site at their workplace. This user study revealed that the interface, and especially the foot pedal, was accepted, and that all the users managed to solve simple assembly tasks. In a case study, we show the assembly of one of their fractured archeological findings.

Casier: structures for composing tangibles and complementary interactors for use across diverse systems

Casiers are a class of tangible interface elements that structure the physical and functional composition of tangibles and complementary interactors (e.g., buttons and sliders). Casiers allow certain subsets of interactive functionality to be accessible across diverse interactive systems (with and without graphical mediation, employing varied sensing capabilities and supporting software). We illustrate examples of casiers in use, including iterations around a custom walk-up-and-use kiosk, as well as casiers operable across com- mercial platforms of widely varying cost and capability.

ArcheoTUI—Driving virtual reassemblies with tangible 3D interaction

ArcheoTUI is a new tangible user interface for the efficient assembly of the 3D scanned fragments of fractured archeological objects. An efficient user interaction for the complex task to orientate or position two 3D objects relative to each other is essential, eventually in addition to automatic matching techniques. Our key idea is to use tangible props for the manipulation of the virtual fragments. In each hand, the user manipulates an electromagnetically tracked prop, and the translations and rotations are directly mapped to the corresponding virtual fragments on the display. For each hand, a corresponding foot pedal is used to clutch the movements of the hands. Hence, the users hands can be repositioned, or the user can be switched. The software of ArcheoTUI is designed to easily change assembly hypotheses, beyond classical undo/redo, by using a scene graph. We designed ArcheoTUI on the demand of archeaologists and in a direct collaboration with them, and we conducted two user studies on site at their workplace. The first user study revealed that the interface, and especially the foot pedal, was accepted, and that all the users managed to solve simple assembly tasks. In a second user study, we compare a different clutching mechanism with buttons on the props to the foot pedal mechanism. This second user study revealed that the movement of the hands is more similar to real-world assembly scenarios when using the foot pedals, and that the users can keep on concentrating on the actual assembly task. Finally, we show how the virtual assembly is used for a fractured archeological finding.

ArcheoTUI - tangible interaction with foot pedal declutching for the virtual reassembly of fractured archeological objects

In this demonstration, we present ArcheoTUI, a new tangible user interface for the efficient assembly of the 3D scanned fragments of fractured archeological objects. The key idea is to use tangible props for the manipulation of the virtual fragments. In each hand, the user manipulates an electromagnetically tracked prop, and the translations and rotations are directly mapped to the corresponding virtual fragments on the display. For each hand, a corresponding foot pedal is used to clutch the movements of the hands. Hence, the hands of the user can be repositioned, or the user can be switched. The software of ArcheoTUI is designed to easily change assembly hypotheses, beyond classical undo/redo, by using a scene graph.

Tangible Interaction in Mixed Reality Systems

In this chapter, we discuss the design of tangible interaction techniques for mixed reality environments. We begin by recalling some conceptual models of tangible interaction. Then, we propose an engineering-oriented software/hardware co-design process, based on our experience in developing tangible user interfaces. We present three different tangible user interfaces for real-world applications and analyze the feedback from the user studies that we conducted. In summary, we conclude that since tangible user interfaces are part of the real world and provide a seamless interaction with virtual words, they are well adapted to mix together reality and virtuality. Hence, tangible interaction optimizes users’ virtual tasks, especially in manipulating and controlling 3D digital data in 3D space.

Designing an Expandable Illuminated Ring to Build an Actuated Ring Chart

Data physicalizations are growing popular in many societal domains which indicates a strong potential for fostering public engagement thanks to public exhibition (e.g. in train stations, in airports, on roundabouts, and in enterprises). We focus on dynamic physical charts for visualizing renewable energy forecasts in public spaces. To get charts readable from any point of view around, we propose a physical ring chart inspired by stone cairns. To build this physical chart, we designed an expandable and stackable illuminated ring. In this paper, we describe the design process and the limitations of the first prototype of such a ring.

Tangible User Interfaces for geosciences

Graphical User Interfaces (GUI) are widely used for interacting with complex geosciences software such as interpretation tools or 3D model visualization programs. Despite their well designed protocol of interaction, through the mouse or the keyboard, the user is absent-minded from the main task of interpretation or visualization when applying the protocol. Furthermore collaborative work of more than two users is difficult with a standard computer configuration. As an alternate way of interacting with software, Tangible User Interfaces (TUI) are designed to simplify the actions of the user by utilizing common props (i.e. physical objects) such as rulers or pucks. Actions take place in front of a camera whose images are interpreted by software and the desired result is rendered on a desk by a projector. The user manipulates props on the projected images in front of the camera to interact with the geosciences software. Finally the collaboration of several users is made very comfortable around the desk. The GeoTUI system is developed to combine the working practice of geoscientists on desk with the use of graphical workstation. Several experiments on a workplace allowed to evaluate the advantages of TUI over GUI through the manipulation of different props.

CAIRNS: an ambient tangible interface for shifting energy demand at work

In the past 10 years, interactive systems have been designed to encourage users in using energy when there is plenty of renewable energy. In this paper, we propose to shift the energy demand of laptops in the workplace. Using a tools we developed, we define instructions for helping employees in this task. In order to help employees applying these instructions, we propose to use a physical histogram for visualizing renewable energy forecasts. In result of several user studies, we converge to a circular horizontal physical histogram, interpretable by the user independently of his position around the physical histogram. Finally, we evoke the design and the study of CAIRNS, an ambient shape-changing interface using illuminated extensible disks, for representing this kind of physical histogram.

An analysis of persuasive technologies for energy demand side management

The past ten years, at the intersection between psychological persuasion and human-computer interaction, some interactive systems have been designed with the aim to reach energy efficiency and sufficiency. We question the types of user interfaces of these systems, the persuasion steps covered, and the spaces targeted by these systems. We have built a corpus, meant to be exhaustive, of systems dedicated to electricity and filled out a matrix to analyze the corpus according to 15 criteria. Two main types of interfaces emerge and none are covering all the persuasion steps. We also open new prospects for the field by observing that the active tangible manipulation and the copresent collaboration (e.g. the tabletops) are under-represented in the corpus.