Ricardo Langner

SleeD: Using a Sleeve Display to Interact with Touch-sensitive Display Walls

We present SleeD, a touch-sensitive Sleeve Display that facilitates interaction with multi-touch display walls. Large vertical displays allow multiple users to interact effectively with complex data but are inherently public. Also, they generally cannot present an interface adapted to the individual user. The combination with an arm-mounted, interactive display allows complex personalized interactions. In contrast to hand-held devices, both hands remain free for interacting with the wall. We discuss different levels of coupling between wearable and wall and propose novel user interface techniques that support user-specific interfaces, data transfer, and arbitrary personal views. In an iterative development process, we built a mock-up using a bendable e-Ink display and a fully functional prototype based on an arm-mounted smartphone. In addition, we developed several applications that showcase the techniques presented. An observational study we conducted demonstrates the high potential of our concepts.

Stackables: combining tangibles for faceted browsing

We introduce Stackables: tangibles designed to support faceted information seeking in a variety of contexts. We are faced, more than ever, with tasks that require us to find, access, and act on information by ourselves or together with others. Current interfaces for browsing and search in large data spaces, however, largely focus on the support of either individual or collaborative activities. Stackables were designed to bridge this gap and be useful in meetings, for sharing results from individual search activities, and for realistic datasets including multiple facets with large value ranges. Each Stackable tangible represents search parameters that can be shared amongst collaborators, modified during an information seeking process, and stored and transferred. We describe Stackables, their flexible and expressive combination to formulate queries, and the underlying interaction concept in detail. An evaluation provides initial evidence of their usability in targeted and exploratory information seeking tasks.

Grids & guides: multi-touch layout and alignment tools

Precise alignment of graphical objects and the creation of accurate layouts are crucial activities in many applications, such as graphics design tools, presentation software or graph editors. Surface computing is very promising for these application domains but not fully explored yet. In this paper we contribute two tools which support layout tasks on interactive displays: interactive grids and multi-touch alignment guides. Both tools allow the precise positioning of graphical objects in a flexible and fluent way by multi-touch input. Direct bimanual interaction and physical metaphors are applied to arrange objects along straight lines and curves. A formative user evaluation showed promising results with regard to a productive and easy use of the tools.

Neat: a set of flexible tools and gestures for layout tasks on interactive displays

Creating accurate layouts of graphical objects is an important activity in many graphics applications, such as design tools, presentation software or diagram editors. In this paper, we are contributing Natural and Effective Layout Techniques (Neat). The system provides a consistent set of multi-touch tools and gestures for aligning and distributing graphical objects on interactive surfaces. NEAT explicitly considers expert requirements and supports a rich and consistent set of layout functions. Amongst others, it minimizes visual distraction by layout tools, combines separate steps of interaction to compound ones and allows effective interaction by combining multi-touch and pen input. Furthermore, Neat provides a set of bimanual gestures for achieving layout tasks in a quick and effective way without explicitly invoking any tools. From initial expert user feedback we derive several principles for layout tools on interactive displays.

CubeQuery: Tangible Interface for Creating and Manipulating Database Queries

We demonstrate CubeQuery, a tangible user interface providing a physical way to both create and manipulate basic database queries. This interactive installation is designed for individual faceted browsing and allows users to explore contents of a database, i.e., a music library. While each tangible represents an individual search parameter of a search request, the physical arrangement of multiple tangibles permits the combination of search parameters by utilizing basic logical operators. Goal of this research is to explore the practicality of spatial arrangement of tangibles to ease the process of faceted browsing.

V is T iles : Coordinating and Combining Co-located Mobile Devices for Visual Data Exploration

We present VisTiles, a conceptual framework that uses a set of mobile devices to distribute and coordinate visualization views for the exploration of multivariate data. In contrast to desktop-based interfaces for information visualization, mobile devices offer the potential to provide a dynamic and user-defined interface supporting co-located collaborative data exploration with different individual workflows. As part of our framework, we contribute concepts that enable users to interact with coordinated & multiple views (CMV) that are distributed across several mobile devices. The major components of the framework are: (i) dynamic and flexible layouts for CMV focusing on the distribution of views and (ii) an interaction concept for smart adaptations and combinations of visualizations utilizing explicit side-by-side arrangements of devices. As a result, users can benefit from the possibility to combine devices and organize them in meaningful spatial layouts. Furthermore, we present a web-based prototype implementation as a specific instance of our concepts. This implementation provides a practical application case enabling users to explore a multivariate data collection. We also illustrate the design process including feedback from a preliminary user study, which informed the design of both the concepts and the final prototype.

Investigating the Use of Spatial Interaction for 3D Data Visualization on Mobile Devices

Three-dimensional visualizations employing traditional input and output technologies have well-known limitations. Immersive technologies, natural interaction techniques, and recent developments in data physicalization may help to overcome these issues. In this context, we are specifically interested in the usage of spatial interaction with mobile devices for improved 3D visualizations. To contribute to a better understanding of this interaction style, we implemented example visualizations on a spatially-tracked tablet and investigated their usage and potential. In this paper, we report on a qualitative study comparing spatial interaction with inplace 3D visualizations to classic touch interaction regarding typical visualization tasks: navigation of unknown datasets, comparison of individual data objects, and the understanding and memorization of structures in the data. We identify several distinct usage patterns and derive recommendations for using spatial interaction in 3D data visualization.

Content Sharing Between Spatially-Aware Mobile Phones and Large Vertical Displays Supporting Collaborative Work

Large vertical displays are increasingly widespread, and content sharing between them and personal mobile devices is central to many collaborative usage scenarios. In this chapter we present FlowTransfer, bidirectional transfer techniques which make use of the mobile phone’s position and orientation. We focus on three main aspects: multi-item transfer and layout, the dichotomy of casual versus precise interaction, and support for physical navigation. Our five techniques explore these aspects in addition to being contributions in their own right. They leverage physical navigation, allowing seamless transitions between different distances to the display, while also supporting arranging content and copying entire layouts within the transfer process. This is enabled by a novel distance-dependent pointing cursor that supports coarse pointing from distance as well as precise positioning at close range. We fully implemented all techniques and conducted a qualitative study documenting their benefits. Finally, based on a literature review and our holistic approach in designing the techniques, we also contribute an analysis of the underlying design space.

PhysicsBox: playful educational tabletop games

We present PhysicsBox, a collection of three multi-touch, physics-based, educational games. These games, based on concepts from elementary science have been designed to provide teachers with tools to enrich lessons and support experimentation. PhysicsBox combines two current trends, the introduction of multi-touch tabletops into classrooms and research on the use of simulated physics in tabletop applications. We also provide a Java library that supports hardware independent multi-touch event handling for several tabletops.

A multi-touch alignment guide for interactive displays

Precise alignment of graphical objects and creating proper layouts is crucial in many domains, such as graphic design or graph editing. In this paper we are presenting a multi-touch alignment guide for interactive displays. It allows adjusting the alignment and spacing of graphical objects by multi-touch input and bimanual interaction.