Paper Reading #6: Tangible Interfaces for Download: Initial Observations from Users' Everyday Environments

Comments
Steven Hennessy
Miguel Cardenas


Reference Information
Title: Tangible Interfaces for Download: Initial Observations from Users' Everyday Environments
Authors: Enrico Costanza, Matteo Giaccone, Olivier Kung, Simon Shelley, Jeffrey Huang
When/Where: CHI 2010, Atlanta, Georgia

Summary
This article introduced a tangible user interface (TUI) system called Audio d-touch, a collection of tangible user interfaces for musical composition and performance, including a drum machine and a sequencer. The system was developed to be downloadable from their website, and low-cost with an easy setup. The system works on a sheet of paper, with folded paper with visual markers pasted on top acting as physical sliders on top of the paper board. A web-camera hangs above the paper board and tracks the position of the paper markers.

An example of the low-cost setup of Audio d-touch.

Most TUIs are expensive and only available in labs. The idea of Audio d-touch is to present an easily-available TUI for use by the general public, downloadable online, so that research can be done regarding large scale user tests of musical TUIs outside of the laboratory. This allowed a test of a large group of people, including musicians and non-musicians in various situations. Users were required to register on the website in order to log various information about them and keep track of repeated usage. Because of the logging of video and data, privacy was an issue with this study.

 After studying the usage and evaluation of the system, the results concluded that many people were enthusiastic and intrigued by the system. The low-cost nature of the system made it widely available and appreciated. Instructions and cutouts for setting up the interface were provided, and generally users had no problem with it, even expanding on it in some cases. Most users only created basic rythyms with the tool, and issues with recognizing the markers occurred, but the authors considered the study to be a success.

Discussion
I like that this system was designed with creating a large-scale, cheap user study in mind. Since this TUI was easily available, and could be constructed from common household items, many people were able to participate, allowing a wider range of results from the study. In addition, I think this system would be fun to play with. Like most people in the study, I don't have prior experience with TUIs, so the idea of a low-cost, downloadable TUI sounds like something I would use myself. However, I don't think I would have participated in the study, since the amount of information necessary and the logging of video from your personal work station or bedroom doesn't sound too appealing. The authors even mentioned in the article that some people commented on the privacy issue; however, it was explained in the download agreement, and was necessary for the research to occur.

Overall, I think it would be interesting to expand on the idea of a low-cost, easily-available TUI. I'm sure there are many other applications that something like this could be created for, and it could really help to expand the field of tangible user interfaces.