Tangible+User+Interfaces+(TUIs)

toc =What has Haptics got to do with it?=

Touch, it’s a form of sensibility that we take for granted. Without the ability to sense touch, and consequently feel, our external reality would be a very bleak place. We would be lost indeed! As such, we as humans have sought to develop an understanding of this curious sense through the study of Haptics. Haptics, derived from the Greek word //haptikos// (to grasp) is the study of our tactile sense (perceiving and manipulating through touch). Though the sense of touch is more accurately a combination of sensations (perceptions of temperature, weight, hardness, etc.), the general loss of the sense is damaging to the human experience. Therefore, those who have lost the use of their auditory or visual senses benefit directly from the research developed through haptics technologies/systems (those who still retain their senses benefit indirectly through the development of multi-modal interfaces).

Human Computer Interaction (HCI) is an area of study that delves into the challenge of increasing the ease of which humans, disabled or not, may communicate with computers. HCI entwined with haptics has brought about the designing of interactive systems through Tangible User Interfaces (TUIs).

= = =Tangible User Interfaces (TUIs)=

(TUIs) Tangible User Interfaces (TUIs), as the name suggests, aim to have humans interact with technology through a tactile manner (solely or otherwise). What’s important to note is that TUIs do not strive to overrun Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) but merely add to the experience. In essence, the goal is to create a physical control surface, or object, that would translate it’s actions to the virtual environment found in the computer, or respective technology. In comparison to GUIs, which display graphical representations and the results of manipulating them with an extended device (keyboard, MIDI controller, etc), TUIs provide both the physical representation (graspable) view coupled with the digital representation (non-graspable) view.

=Examples of TUIs=

Bricks
Developed by George W. Fitzmaurice. William Buxton, and Hiroshi Ishii, this TUI or (Graspable User Interface as they refer to it) quite simply used the several brick like controls (handles) that were mapped to a digital representation of said surface. Direct physical movement of the bricks corresponded with an identical actuated virtual representation.

Illuminating Clay
While working on similar principles to that of the bricks system, the illuminating clay system is still quite different. In a landscape design situation, this system can be quite useful. Clay is physically molded by the user, which is then scanned for form and created in digital information for a piece of software to examine. Now that the landscape design is within the virtual environment, exactly as the user had molded it, the user has the option to project a variety of topographical effects (elevation, water flow, etc.) onto the physical clay. The landscape designer then has the ability to mold the clay, with the projected properties still visible on the physical clay, and the program than manipulate it’s data to form a new projection. This enables for a continuous physical manipulation and physical display of any change the user makes.

= = = = =Looking to The Future...=

As research and development continues with TUI, the ultimate goal of a completely manpiulatable control surface will be realized. That is, a surface that can actively be manipulated by the user and then manipulated again (independantly of the user) to display any desired changes/selections opted by the computer/program.

= = =More Resources=
 * [|General Information on TUIs]
 * [|Audio D-Touch: TUI for music.]
 * [|Emerging frameworks for tangible user interfaces]
 * [|Open Source TUI Project]

= = = = = = =References=


 * Benyon, David.,Turner, Phil., Turner, Susan. //Designing Interactive Systems: People, Activities, Contexts, Technologies.// England: Pearden Education Limited, 2005.
 * Ishii, Hiroshi., //Tangible User Interfaces//. December 1, 2006. 
 * Image of real and virtual hands: http://www.smpp.northwestern.edu/utilities/picture/haptics.jpg
 * Image of hands and TUI: http://tangible.media.mit.edu/projects/mediablocks/blocks2.jpg
 * Image of Illuminated Clay: http://tangible.media.mit.edu/projects/illuminatingclay/image_carlo2.gif