Mohammadreza Khalilbeigi

FoldMe: interacting with double-sided foldable displays

In this paper, we present a novel device concept that features double-sided displays which can be folded using predefined hinges. The device concept enables users to dynamically alter both size and shape of the display and also to access the backside using fold gestures. We explore the design of such devices by investigating different types and forms of folding. Furthermore, we propose a set of interaction principles and techniques. Following a user-centered design process, we evaluate our device concept in two sessions with low-fidelity and high-fidelity prototypes.

PalmRC: imaginary palm-based remote control for eyes-free television interaction

User input on television (TV) typically requires a mediator device, such as a handheld remote control. While being a well-established interaction paradigm, a handheld device has serious drawbacks: it can be easily misplaced due to its mobility and in case of a touch screen interface, it also requires additional visual attention. Emerging interaction paradigms like 3D mid-air gestures using novel depth sensors, such as Microsofts Kinect, aim at overcoming these limitations, but are known to be e.g. tiring. In this paper, we propose to leverage the palm as an interactive surface for TV remote control. Our contribution is three-fold: (1) we explore the conceptual design space in an exploratory study. (2) Based upon these results, we investigate the effectiveness and accuracy of such an interface in a controlled experiment. And (3), we contribute PalmRC: an eyes-free, palm-surface-based TV remote control, which in turn is evaluated in an early user feedback session. Our results show that the palm has the potential to be leveraged for device-less and eyes-free TV remote interaction without any third-party mediator device.

Capricate: A Fabrication Pipeline to Design and 3D Print Capacitive Touch Sensors for Interactive Objects

3D printing is widely used to physically prototype the look and feel of 3D objects. Interaction possibilities of these prototypes, however, are often limited to mechanical parts or post-assembled electronics. In this paper, we present Capricate, a fabrication pipeline that enables users to easily design and 3D print highly customized objects that feature embedded capacitive multi-touch sensing. The object is printed in a single pass using a commodity multi-material 3D printer. To enable touch input on a wide variety of 3D printable surfaces, we contribute two techniques for designing and printing embedded sensors of custom shape. The fabrication pipeline is technically validated by a series of experiments and practically validated by a set of example applications. They demonstrate the wide applicability of Capricate for interactive objects.

Xpaaand: interaction techniques for rollable displays

We present a device concept and a prototype of a future mobile device. By featuring a rollable display, its display size and its form factor can be dynamically changed. Moreover, we investigate how physical resizing of the display can be used as an input technique for interacting with digital contents and present a set of novel interaction techniques. Evaluation results show that physical resizing of the display can improve the way we interact with digital contents on mobile devices.

Physical and digital media usage patterns on interactive tabletop surfaces

Concurrent interaction with physical and digital media is ubiquitous in knowledge work. Although tabletop systems increasingly support activities involving both physical and digital media, patterns of use have not been systematically assessed. This paper contributes the results of a study of spatial usage patterns when physical and digital items are grouped and sorted on a tabletop work surface. In addition, analysis reveals a dual character of occlusion, involving both inconvenient and desirable aspects. We conclude with design implications for hybrid tabletop systems.

Support for collaborative situation analysis and planning in crisis management teams using interactive tabletops

Crisis management requires the collaboration of a variety of people with different roles, often across organizational boundaries. It has been shown that geographic information systems can improve the efficiency of disaster management operations. However, workstation-based solutions fail to offer the same ease of collaboration as the large analog maps currently in use. Recent research prototypes, which use interactive tabletops for this purpose, often do not consider individual roles and the need for accountability of actions. In this paper, we present coMAP, a system built for interactive tabletops that facilitates collaborative situation analysis and planning in crisis management teams. Users can interact with coMAP using multi-touch as well as pen input. The latter is realized by new methods for the use of Anoto digital pens without the Anoto microdot pattern. A pen-optimized pie menu provides access to role-specific information and system functions. A combination of role-based access control and indoor tracking via Bluetooth is used to support accountability of actions while still allowing collaboration and information sharing. Initial user feedback for our system shows promising results.

Exploiting thermal reflection for interactive systems

Thermal cameras have recently drawn the attention of HCI researchers as a new sensory system enabling novel interactive systems. They are robust to illumination changes and make it easy to separate human bodies from the image background. Far-infrared radiation, however, has another characteristic that distinguishes thermal cameras from their RGB or depth counterparts, namely thermal reflection. Common surfaces reflect thermal radiation differently than visual light and can be perfect thermal mirrors. In this paper, we show that through thermal reflection, thermal cameras can sense the space beyond their direct field-of-view. A thermal camera can sense areas besides and even behind its field-of-view through thermal reflection. We investigate how thermal reflection can increase the interaction space of projected surfaces using camera-projection systems. We moreover discuss the reflection characteristics of common surfaces in our vicinity in both the visual and thermal radiation bands. Using a proof-of-concept prototype, we demonstrate the increased interaction space for hand-held camera-projection system. Furthermore, we depict a number of promising application examples that can benefit from the thermal reflection characteristics of surfaces.

ObjecTop: occlusion awareness of physical objects on interactive tabletops

In this paper, we address the challenges of occlusion created by physical objects on interactive tabletops. We contribute an integrated set of interaction techniques designed to cope with the physical occlusion problem as well as facilitate organizing objects in hybrid settings. These techniques are implemented in ObjecTop, a system to support tabletop display applications involving both physical and virtual objects. We compile design requirements for occlusion-aware tabletop systems and conduct the first in-depth user study comparing ObjecTop with conventional tabletop interfaces in search and layout tasks. The empirical results show that occlusion-aware techniques outperform the conventional tabletop interface. Furthermore, our findings indicate that physical properties of occluders dramatically influence which strategy users employ to cope with occlusion. We conclude with a set of design implications derived from the study.

A study on interpersonal relationships for social interactive television

This paper presents an explorative study investigating the social video watching experience. We particularly investigate the role of interpersonal relationships on social interaction while watching and its link to video genres. The results reveal that the desired relationship for social interactions around video content does not solely depend on strong relationship between viewers. Moreover, program genre plays an important role on social structure preferences for watching television as a shared activity. These results can have considerable impact on designing social interactive television systems to enhance social interactions between remote viewers.

PalmRC: leveraging the palm surface as an imaginary eyes-free television remote control

User input on television (TV) typically requires a mediator device such as a handheld remote control. While this is a well-established interaction paradigm, a handheld device has serious drawbacks: it can be easily misplaced due to its mobility and in case of a touch screen interface, it also requires additional visual attention. Emerging interaction paradigms such as 3D mid-air gestures using novel depth sensors (e.g. Microsoft Kinect), aim at overcoming these limitations, but are known to be tiring. In this article, we propose to leverage the palm as an interactive surface for TV remote control. We present three user studies which set the base for our four contributions: We (1) qualitatively explore the conceptual design space of the proposed imaginary palm-based remote control in an explorative study, (2) quantitatively investigate the effectiveness and accuracy of such an interface in a controlled experiment, (3) identified user acceptance in a controlled laboratory evaluation comparing PalmRC concept with two most typical existing input modalities, here conventional remote control and touch-based remote control interfaces on smart phones for their user experience, task load, as well as overall preference, and (4) contribute PalmRC, an eyes-free, palm-surface-based TV remote control. Our results show that the palm has the potential to be leveraged for device-less eyes-free TV remote interaction without any third-party mediator device.