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Tanja Doering, Bastian Pfleging, Chris Kray, Albrecht Schmidt
Design by Physical Composition for Complex Tangible User Interfaces
In CHI '10 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA '10). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 3541-3546. DOI=http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/1753846.1754015 (bib)

In this paper, we present a novel approach to create devices with tangible user interfaces by physical composition. While the separation of the user interface from the application logic has a long tradition in software engineering, for products with tangible user interfaces there is no equivalent approach that realizes a true separation and flexible combination of interface components, underlying technology, and software parts. We propose a novel concept that is based on an inner Core for the basic technical and software platform of a product and an outer Shell that builds a flexible and exchangeable tangible user interface from passive components. Using vision-based tracking, we can realize a clear separation between the components. No wiring is necessary. This paper introduces our novel approach and presents a first working prototype as well as initial results from its application in a design workshop.