This document discusses tangible user interfaces (TUIs) and provides examples of TUI projects. It begins by describing how TUIs can help bridge the gap between the digital and physical worlds by bringing digital information into the physical realm. It then summarizes several TUI examples, including the Marble Answering Machine, Tangible Magic Lens, Sifteo Cubes, and studies on natural interaction with TUIs. The document outlines different visions of interaction from GUIs to TUIs to radical atoms and discusses key concepts in TUI development like embodying digital information physically and balancing the rigidity of physical objects with the fluidity of digital information.

1. Tangible Interaction & Interfaces
Marie Schacht | DAI Labor TU Berlin | November 27th 2013
// a brief introduction

2. From the isolation of our workstations
we try to interact with our surrounding
environment, but the two worlds have
little in common. How can we escape
from the computer screen and bring
these worlds together?
[Mackay, Wellner,Gold, 1993]

3. Marble Answering Machine [Bishop 1992]
TUI example
http://vimeo.com/19930744

4. Tangible Magic Lens [Spindler, Dachselt 2010]
TUI example
http://vimeo.com/7685006

5. Classification of explorable Information Spaces:
[Spindler, Dachselt 2010]
TUI example
Tangible Magic Lens

6. Sifteo Cubes [MIT, Softpedia, Merill 2008]
TUI example
http://alumni.media.mit.edu/~dmerrill/siftables.html

7. [Schacht, 2010]

8. [Schacht, 2010]
Natural Interaction with Tangible User Interfaces
Study Thesis
http://vimeo.com/29426366
https://mg.inf.tu-dresden.de/sites/mg.inf.tu-dresden.de/files/belegarbeit_marie-
schacht.pdf

9. TUI Design Space
[Schacht, 2010]Study Thesis

10. TUI Design Space
[Schacht, 2010]Study Thesis

11. TUI Design Space
[Schacht, 2010]Study Thesis

13.  a vast ocean of digital bits
 a landmass of physical atoms
 Human body
 prisoner of the land
but its visual & auditory senses
• already immersed into the sea
The Iceberg metaphor for TUIs [Ishii, 2008]
 Iceberg: gives physical shape to digital water
 brings digital bits to the surface
 makes them graspable and manipulable for the human hand

14. Visions [MITTangible Media Group]
GUI TUI Radical Atoms
http://tangible.media.mit.edu

15. Visions [MITTangible Media Group]
GUI [1973]
A graphical user interface only
lets us see information and
interact with it indirectly, as if
we were looking through the
surface of the water to
interact with the forms below.

16. Visions [MITTangible Media Group]
TUI [1997]
A tangible user interface is
like an iceberg: there is a
portion of the digital that
emerges beyond the surface
of the water—into the
physical realm—so that we
may interact directly with it.
GUI [1973]

17. TUIs expand the affordances of physical objects,
surfaces, and spaces so they can support direct
engagement with the digital world.
[Ishii, Ullmer 1997]

18. Visions [MITTangible Media Group]
GUI [1973]
Radical Atoms [2012]
Radical Atoms describes
our vision for the future of
interaction, in which all
digital information has
physical manifestation so
that we can interact directly
with it—as if the iceberg
had risen from the depths
to reveal its sunken mass.
TUI [1997]

19.  AR instead of VR
 appreciated dual meaning of “graspable”
 “Tangible Bits”(TUI) instead of “Painted Bits”(GUI)
 physical embodiment of digital information
 but: TUIs are limited by the rigidity of “atoms”
in comparison with the fluidity of “bits”
 limited ability to change the form or properties of physical objects in real time
 can lead to inconsistency with underlying digital models
 seamless -> seamful (2012)
Tangible User Interfaces
[Mackay, Wellner,Gold 1993]
[Ullmer, Ishii 1997]
[Ullmer, Ishii, Hornecker, …]
[Ishii 2012]
[Ullmer, Ishii 1997] [Hornecker 2013]
[Buxton, Henseler, …]

20. MaKey MaKey [MIT, Rosenbaum, Silver, 2012]
TUI example
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/joylabs/makey-makey-an-invention-
kit-for-everyone