Tailored Controls

Abstract

a) (b) (c) Figure 1. We present a concept and a prototype of a system for creating personalized user interfaces from paper. Users can cut out preferred shapes from paper and add interaction functionalities to them. The paper shapes and the user's fingers are tracked by an RGBD camera mounted above the interaction surface ( Figure 1a). Our processing pipeline recognizes and measures manipulations of the shapes (Figure 1b), such as movements and touches, which can be mapped to certain functions according to the assigned interactions, e.g. for controlling a toy rover as illustrated in Figure 1c. ABSTRACTUser interfaces rarely adapt to the specific user preferences or the task at hand. We present a method that allows to quickly and inexpensively create personalized interfaces from plain paper. Users can cut out shapes and assign control functions to these paper snippets via a simple configuration interface. After configuration, control takes place entirely through the manipulation of the paper shapes, providing the experience of a tailored tangible user interface. The shapes and assignments can be dynamically changed during use. Our system is based on markerless tracking of the user's fingers and the paper shapes on a surface using an RGBD camera mounted above the interaction space, which is the only hardware sensor required. Our approach and system are backed up by two studies where we determined what shapes and interaction abstractions users prefer, and verified that users can indeed employ our system to build real applications with paper snippet interfaces.

Impacts of Handcrafting Tangible Communication Avatars on the Communication Partners and Creative Experiences

“…As a result of user study, the users showed very positive impressions, e.g., enjoyment with the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) process. Becker, et al investigated the Tailored Controls approach that allows end-users to create personalized tangible user interfaces (TUIs) [10], in which the interface elements were made from plain paper while allowing the users to interact with software. The user study showed that the approach offered enjoyable and exciting experiences to the users.…”