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1. Envisioning tangibles and display-rich interfaces for co-located and distributed genomics collaborations

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3321335.3324953  

   Konkel, M.K.; Ullmer, B.; Shaer, O.; Mazalek, A. (January 2019, Pervasive Displays)

   null (Ed.)

   We explore how pervasive displays could offer unique opportunities for enhancing discovery and learning with “big data”. In 2012-2014, our collaboration across three universities undertook a series of design exercises investigating approaches for collaborative, interactive, tangibles, and multitouch-engaged visualizations of genomic and related scientific datasets. These exercises led to several envisionments of tangible interfaces that employ active to- kens and interactive surfaces to facilitate colocated and distributed engagement with large datasets. We describe some of the motivation and background for these envisioned interfaces; consider key aspects linking and distinguishing the designs; and relate these to the present and near-future state of the art for tangible and multitouch engagement with pervasive displays toward collaborative science. 

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2. Engaging families around museum exhibits: comparing tangible and multi-touch interfaces

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3392063.3394443  

   Horn, Michael; Banerjee, Amartya; Bar-El, David; Wallace, Izaiah (June 2020, IDC '20: Proceedings of the Interaction Design and Children Conference)

   null (Ed.)

   Over the last decade, large multitouch displays have become commonplace in museums and other public spaces. While there is preliminary evidence that exhibits based on tangible technologies can be more attractive and engaging for visitors than displays alone, very little empirical research has directly compared tangible to large multitouch displays in museums. In this paper, we present a study comparing the use of a tangible and a multitouch tabletop interface in an exhibit designed to explore musical rhythms. From an observation pool of 791 museum visitors, a total of 227 people in 82 groups interacted with one of the two versions of our exhibit. We share the exhibit design, experimental setup, and methods and measures. Our findings highlight advantages of tangible interaction in terms of attracting and engaging children and families. However, the two exhibits were equally effective at supporting collaborative interaction within visitor groups. We conclude with a discussion of the implications for museum exhibit design vis-à-vis visitor engagement and learning. 

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3. Marking Material Interactions with Computer Vision

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3544548.3580643  

   Gyory, Peter; Bae, S. Sandra; Yang, Ruhan; Do, Ellen Yi-Luen; Zheng, Clement (April 2023, ACM)

   The electronics-centered approach to physical computing presents challenges when designers build tangible interactive systems due to its inherent emphasis on circuitry and electronic components. To explore an alternative physical computing approach we have developed a computer vision (CV) based system that uses a webcam, computer, and printed fiducial markers to create functional tangible interfaces. Through a series of design studios, we probed how designers build tangible interfaces with this CV-driven approach. In this paper, we apply the annotated portfolio method to reflect on the fifteen outcomes from these studios. We observed that CV markers offer versatile materiality for tangible interactions, afford the use of democratic materials for interface construction, and engage designers in embodied debugging with their own vision as a proxy for CV. By sharing our insights, we inform other designers and educators who seek alternative ways to facilitate physical computing and tangible interaction design. 

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4. Negotiating the Creative Space in Human-Robot Collaborative Design

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3322276.3322343  

   Law, Matthew V.; Jeong, JiHyun; Kwatra, Amritansh; Jung, Malte F.; Hoffman, Guy (January 2019, Proceedings of the 2019 ACM Conference on Designing Interactive Systems)

   We describe a physical interactive system for human-robot collaborative design (HRCD) consisting of a tangible user interface (TUI) and a robotic arm that simultaneously manipulates the TUI with the human designer. In an observational study of 12 participants exploring a complex design problem together with the robot, we find that human designers have to negotiate both the physical and the creative space with the machine. They also often ascribe social meaning to the robot's pragmatic behaviors. Based on these findings, we propose four considerations for future HRCD systems: managing the shared workspace, communicating preferences about design goals, respecting different design styles, and taking into account the social meaning of design acts. 

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5. Directing Tangible Controllers with Computer Vision and Beholder

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3550471.3564764  

   Gyory, Peter; Ranjan, Krithik; Yong, Zhen Zhou; Zheng, Clement; Do, Ellen Yi-Luen (November 2022, ACM)

   We present Beholder, a computer vision (CV) toolkit for building tangible controllers for interactive computer systems. Beholder facilitates designers to build physical inputs that are instrumented with CV markers. By observing the properties of these markers, a CV system can detect physical interactions that occur. Beholder provides a software editor that enables designers to map CV marker behavior to keyboard events; thus connecting the CV-driven tangible controllers to any software that responds to keyboard input. We propose three design scenarios for Beholder—controllers to support everyday work, alternative controllers for games, and transforming physical therapy equipment into controllers to monitor patient progress. 

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