Hiroshi%20Ishii

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Tangible Bits Next Generation HCI
April 23, 2006 CHI 2006 Workshop Montreal, Canada

• Hiroshi Ishii
• Tangible Media Group
• MIT Media Laboratory

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What drives Design?

• Technology Driven Design
• begin with an innovative technology, apply it
  in an application/field
• Need Driven Design
• identify an existing problem/set of problems,
  shape process around solving these problems
• Concept / Vision Driven Design
• define a new concept, design artifacts which
  embody that concept, and test it

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Defy Gravity ( Pixels)

• GUI TUI
• Visual Tactile
• General Special Purpose Purpose
• Remote Direct and Control Collaborative
  Manipulation

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Abacus Origin of Tangible Bits

• Hiroshi ISHII, born 2/4/56 Alisa ISHII, born
  9/1/04

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Painted Bits (GUI) andTangible Bits (TUI)

• Graphical User Interface
• Intangible representation (pixels on a screen)
• Generic input devices as remote-controllers
• Tangible User Interface
• Tangible representation as interactive control
  mechanism to manipulate the information and
  computation
• Continuity between physical and digital
  representation in design

Xerox Star
Urp running on the Sensetable
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TUI Key Properties

1. Computational coupling of tangible
   representations to underlying digital information
   and computation
2. Embodiment of mechanisms for interactive control
   with tangible representations
3. Perceptual coupling of tangible representations
   to dynamic intangible representations

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Models of GUI and TUI

• GUI

TUI Computational coupling of tangible
representations to underlying digital information
and computation
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TUI Contributions

• Double Interactions Loop immediate tactile
  feedback
• Persistency of tangibles
• Coincidence of Input and Output Spaces
• Special Purpose vs. General Purpose
• Space-Multiplexed Input

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TUIs Double Interaction Loops

• GUI TUI

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Seamless transitions of attention between Center
and Periphery

• to grasp manipulate bits in the center of
  user's focus by coupling bits with physical
  objects and surfaces, and
• to be aware of bits at the periphery using
  ambient display media such as light, sound,
  airflow, and water movement.

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Invisible interface?extension of body - good fit

• customize
• personalize
• adapt
• co-evolve

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Visiblecenter of focus - goal of task

• Critical representation of task
• Ball has to be always visible in the foreground
  with a table as reference
• You need an interface (paddle) to control the
  ball

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Visual Thinking

• Seeing
• Drawing
• Imagining
• Robert McKim Thinking Visually

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Tangible Thinking Mechanical Representation of
Knowledge