Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Interaction on the Tabletop: Bringing the Physical to the Digital

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Tabletops - Horizontal Interactive Displays

Part of the book series: Human-Computer Interaction Series ((HCIS))

Abstract

Current tabletop applications, which go beyond mouse-like input, mostly use gestures and/or tangible objects. Gestures are mostly recognized by matching input to a given set of predefined (scripted) gestures, and tangible input is implemented by recognizing shapes or markers. While this allows exactly the interactions foreseen by the programmer, it can be observed in the real world, that physical artefacts are used much more flexibly and often in unforeseen ways. We describe two of our explorations into tabletop interaction styles, discuss their respective strengths and shortcomings, and then derive a new model for tabletop interaction based on a physics simulation and rich multi touch input. Interaction with this model achieves a very high fidelity to the physical world and allows appropriation of the interface, i.e., the development of individual and unforeseen interactions with the system. We have evaluated our model in different variations and believe that it holds a strong promise for future, highly flexible tabletop interfaces.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Han JY (2005) Low-cost multi-touch sensing through frustrated total internal reflection. In: Proceedings of the 18th annual ACM symposium on user interface software and technology (UIST ’05), ACM Press, New York, pp 115–118, doi: 10.1145/1095034.1095054

    Google Scholar 

  2. Wilson AD (2005) PlayAnywhere: A compact interactive tabletop projection-vision system. In: Proceedings of the 18th annual ACM symposium on user interface software and technology (UIST ’05), ACM Press, New York, pp 83–92, doi: 10.1145/1095034.1095047

    Google Scholar 

  3. Wilson AD (2004) Touchlight: An imaging touch screen and display for gesture-based interaction. In: Proceedings of the 6th international conference on multimodal interfaces (ICMI ’04), ACM Press, New York, pp 69–76, doi: 10.1145/1027933.1027946

    Google Scholar 

  4. Dietz P, Leigh D (2001) Diamondtouch: A multi-user touch technology. In: Proceedings of the 14th annual ACM symposium on user interface software and technology (UIST ’01), ACM Press, pp 219–226, doi: 10.1145/502348.502389

    Google Scholar 

  5. Microsoft (2008) Microsoft Surface. http://www.microsoft.com/surface/, accessed 19.09.2008

  6. Rekimoto J (2002) Smartskin: An infrastructure for freehand manipulation on interactive surfaces. In: Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems (CHI ’02), ACM Press, New York, pp 113–120, doi: 10.1145/503376.503397

    Google Scholar 

  7. Wigdor D, Penn G, Ryall K, Esenther A, Shen C (2007) Living with a tabletop: Analysis and observations of long term office use of a multi-touch table. In: Proceedings of the second IEEE international workshop on horizontal interactive human-computer systems (TABLETOP ’07), IEEE Computer Society, Los Alamitos, CA, pp 60–67, doi: 10.1109/TABLETOP.2007.33

    Google Scholar 

  8. Morris MR, Paepcke A, Winograd T, Stamberger J (2006) TeamTag: Exploring centralized versus replicated controls for co-located tabletop groupware. In: Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems (CHI ’06), ACM Press, New York, pp 1273–1282, doi: 10.1145/1124772.1124964

    Google Scholar 

  9. Kruger R, Carpendale S, Scott SD, Tang A (2005) Fluid integration of rotation and translation. In: Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems (CHI ’05), ACM Press, New York, pp 601–610, doi: 10.1145/1054972.1055055

    Google Scholar 

  10. Moscovich T, Hughes JF (2006) Multi-finger cursor techniques. In: Proceedings of the conference on graphics interface (GI ’06), Canadian Information Processing Society, Toronto, ON, pp 1–7

    Google Scholar 

  11. Benko H, Wilson AD, Baudisch P (2006) Precise selection techniques for multi-touch screens. In: Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems (CHI ’06), ACM Press, New York, pp 1263–1272, doi: 10.1145/1124772.1124963

    Google Scholar 

  12. Lee SK, Buxton W, Smith KC (1985) A multi-touch three dimensional touch-sensitive tablet. In: Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems (CHI ’85), ACM Press, New York, pp 21–25, doi: 10.1145/317456.317461

    Google Scholar 

  13. Hodges S, Izadi S, Butler A, Rrustemi A, Buxton B (2007) Thinsight: Versatile multi-touch sensing for thin form-factor displays. In: Proceedings of the 20th annual ACM symposium on user interface software and technology (UIST ’07), ACM Press, New York, pp 259–268, doi: 10.1145/1294211.1294258

    Google Scholar 

  14. Jordà S, Geiger G, Alonso M, Kaltenbrunner M (2007) The reacTable: Exploring the synergy between live music performance and tabletop tangible interfaces. In: TEI ’07: Proceedings of the first international conference on tangible and embedded interaction, ACM Press, New York, pp 139–146, doi: 10.1145/1226969.1226998

    Google Scholar 

  15. Hinckley K, Sinclair M (1999) Touch-sensing input devices. In: Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems (CHI ’99), ACM Press, New York, pp 223–230, doi: 10.1145/302979.303045

    Google Scholar 

  16. Morris MR, Cassanego A, Paepcke A, Winograd T, Piper AM, Huang A (2006) Mediating group dynamics through tabletop interface design. IEEE Computer Graphics & Applications: Special Issue on Interacting with Digital Tabletops 26(5):65–73, doi: 10.1109/MCG.2006.114

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. SMART (2009) SMART Technologies, SMART Table. http://www2.smarttech.com/st/en-US/Products/SMART+Table/, accessed 21.01.2009

  18. Wu M, Balakrishnan R (2003) Multi-finger and whole hand gestural interaction techniques for multi-user tabletop displays. In: Proceedings of the 16th annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology (UIST ’03), ACM Press, New York, pp 193–202, doi: 10.1145/964696.964718

    Google Scholar 

  19. Shen C, Lesh N, Moghaddam B, Beardsley P, Bardsley RS (2001) Personal digital historian: User interface design. In: Extended abstracts on Human factors in computing systems (CHI ’01), ACM Press, New York, pp 29–30, doi: 10.1145/634067.634090

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  20. Shen C, Lesh N, Vernier F (2003) Personal digital historian: Story sharing around the table. Interactions 10(2):15–22, doi: 10.1145/637848.637856

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Morris MR, Paepcke A, Winograd T (2006) Teamsearch: Comparing techniques for co-present collaborative search of digital media. In: Proceedings of the first IEEE international workshop on horizontal interactive human-computer systems (TABLETOP ’06), IEEE Computer Society, Washington, DC, pp 97–104, doi: 10.1109/TABLETOP.2006.32

    Google Scholar 

  22. Morris MR, Huang A, Paepcke A, Winograd T (2006) Cooperative gestures: Multi-user gestural interactions for co-located groupware. In: Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems (CHI ’06), ACM Press, New York, pp 1201–1210, doi: 10.1145/1124772.1124952

    Google Scholar 

  23. Wobbrock JO, Morris MR, Wilson AD (2009) User-defined gestures for surface computing. In: Proceedings of the 27th international conference on human factors in computing systems (CHI ’09), ACM Press, New York, pp 1083–1092, doi: 10.1145/1518701.1518866

    Google Scholar 

  24. Fitzmaurice GW, Ishii H, Buxton WAS (1995) Bricks: Laying the foundations for graspable user interfaces. In: Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems (CHI ’95), ACM Press/Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., New York, pp 442–449, doi: 10.1145/223904.223964

    Google Scholar 

  25. Ullmer B, Ishii H (1997) The metaDESK: Models and prototypes for tangible user interfaces. In: Proceedings of the 9th annual ACM symposium on user interface software and technology (UIST ’97), ACM Press, New York, pp 223–232, doi: 10.1145/263407.263551

    Google Scholar 

  26. Underkoffler J, Ishii H (1999) Urp: A luminous-tangible workbench for urban planning and design. In: Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems (CHI ’99), ACM Press, New York, pp 386–393, doi: 10.1145/302979.303114

    Google Scholar 

  27. Rekimoto J, Ullmer B, Oba H (2001) DataTiles: A modular platform for mixed physical and graphical interactions. In: Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems (CHI ’01), ACM Press, New York, pp 269–276, doi: 10.1145/365024.365115

    Google Scholar 

  28. Mazalek A, Reynolds M, Davenport G (2006) Tviews: An extensible architecture for multiuser digital media tables. IEEE Computer Graphics & Applications: Special Issue on Interacting with Digital Tabletops 26(5):47–55, doi: 10.1109/MCG.2006.117

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Amabile TM (1996) Creativity in context: Update to “the social psychology of creativity”. Westview Press, Boulder, CO

    Google Scholar 

  30. Boring S, Hilliges O, Butz A (2007) A wall-sized focus plus context display. In: Proceedings of the fifth annual IEEE conference on pervasive computing and communications (PerCom ’07), White Plains, New York

    Google Scholar 

  31. Sellen AJ, Harper RHR (2003) The myth of the paperless office. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA

    Google Scholar 

  32. Hilliges O, Terrenghi L, Boring S, Kim D, Richter H, Butz A (2007) Designing for collaborative creative problem solving. In: Proceedings of the 6th international conference on creativity & cognition, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  33. Hinrichs U, Hancock M, Collins C, Carpendale S (2007) Examination of text-entry methods for tabletop displays. In: Proceedings of the second IEEE international workshop on horizontal interactive human-computer systems (TABLETOP ’07), pp 105–112, doi: 10.1109/TABLETOP.2007.10

    Google Scholar 

  34. Hilliges O, Baur D, Butz A (2007) Photohelix: Browsing, sorting and sharing digital photo collections. In: Proceedings of the second IEEE international workshop on horizontal interactive human-computer systems (TABLETOP ’07), IEEE Computer Society, Los Alamitos, CA, pp 87–94, doi: 10.1109/TABLETOP.2007.14

    Google Scholar 

  35. Weiss M, Wagner J, Jansen Y, Jennings R, Khoshabeh R, Hollan JD, Borchers J (2009) Slap widgets: Bridging the gap between virtual and physical controls on tabletops. In: Proceedings of the 27th international conference on human factors in computing systems (CHI ’09), ACM Press, New York, pp 481–490, doi: 10.1145/1518701.1518779

    Google Scholar 

  36. Hilliges O, Kirk D (2009) Getting sidetracked: Display design and occasioning photo-talk with the photohelix. In: Proceedings of the 27th international conference on human factors in computing systems (CHI ’09), ACM Press, New York, pp 1733–1736, doi: 10.1145/1518701.1518967

    Google Scholar 

  37. Chang F, Chen CJ, Lu CJ (2004) A linear-time component-labeling algorithm using contour tracing technique. Computer Vision and Image Understanding 93(2):206–220, doi: 10.1016/j.cviu.2003.09.002

    Article  Google Scholar 

  38. Gonzalez RC, Woods RE (2006) Digital image processing (3rd Edition). Prentice-Hall, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ

    Google Scholar 

  39. Agarawala A, Balakrishnan R (2006) Keepin’ it real: Pushing the desktop metaphor with physics, piles and the pen. In: Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems (CHI ’06), ACM Press, New York, pp 1283–1292, doi: 10.1145/1124772.1124965

    Google Scholar 

  40. Barron JL, Fleet DJ, Beauchemin SS (1994) Performance of optical flow techniques. International Journal of Computer Vision 12(1):43–77, doi: 10.1007/BF01420984

    Article  Google Scholar 

  41. Robertson G, Czerwinski M, Larson K, Robbins DC, Thiel D, van Dantzich M (1998) Data mountain: Using spatial memory for document management. In: Proceedings of the 11th annual ACM symposium on user interface software and technology (UIST ’98), ACM Press, New York, pp 153–162, doi: 10.1145/288392.288596

    Google Scholar 

  42. Harrison C, Hudson SE (2009) Texture displays: A passive approach to tactile presentation. In: Proceedings of the 27th international conference on human factors in computing systems (CHI ’09), ACM Press, New York, pp 2261–2264, doi: 10.1145/1518701.1519047

    Google Scholar 

  43. Harrison C, Hudson SE (2009) Providing dynamically changeable physical buttons on a visual display. In: Proceedings of the 27th international conference on human factors in computing systems (CHI ’09), ACM Press, New York, pp 299–308, doi: 10.1145/1518701.1518749

    Google Scholar 

  44. SMART (2003) SMART Technologies DViT. http://www.smarttech.com/DViT/, accessed 12.09.2009

  45. Smith JD, Graham TCN, Holman D, Borchers J (2007) Low-cost malleable surfaces with multi-touch pressure sensitivity. In: Proceedings of the second IEEE international workshop on horizontal interactive human-computer systems (TABLETOP ’07), pp 205–208, doi: 10.1109/TABLETOP.2007.28

    Google Scholar 

  46. Hilliges O, Kim D, Izadi S (2008) Creating malleable interactive surfaces using liquid displacement sensing. In: Proceedings of the third IEEE international workshop on horizontal interactive human-computer systems (TABLETOP ’08), pp 157–160, doi: 10.1109/TABLETOP.2008.4660199

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Microsoft Research Cambridge, CB3 0FB, Cambridge, UK

    Andreas Butz

  2. University of Munich, Munich, Germany

    Andrew D. Wilson

Authors
  1. Otmar Hilliges
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Andreas Butz
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Shahram Izadi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Andrew D. Wilson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Otmar Hilliges .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Mosman St. 2/6A, Mosman, 2088, Australia

    Christian Müller-Tomfelde

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2010 Springer-Verlag London

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Hilliges, O., Butz, A., Izadi, S., Wilson, A.D. (2010). Interaction on the Tabletop: Bringing the Physical to the Digital. In: Müller-Tomfelde, C. (eds) Tabletops - Horizontal Interactive Displays. Human-Computer Interaction Series. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84996-113-4_9

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84996-113-4_9

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-84996-112-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-84996-113-4

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation