About the author

Picture of Eva Hornecker. © Eva Hornecker
Eva Hornecker is Assistant Professor at the University of Strathclyde. She has worked at several places before, including the UK's Open University, Sussex University, the Vienna University of Technology, following her PhD in Bremen, Germany. Eva's research focus is on 'Beyond the Desktop' Interaction Design. She researches in the intersections of UbiComp, tangible interfaces/interact...   
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May 16

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Tangible Interaction

 

Tangible Interaction has come to be the 'umbrella term' used to describe a set of related research and design approaches which have emerged in several disciplines. It became noticeable as a research topic in the late 90s and then rapidly grew into a research area.

Broadly, Tangible Interaction encompasses user interfaces and interaction approaches that emphasize

  • tangibility and materiality of the interface
  • physical embodiment of data
  • whole-body interaction
  • the embedding of the interface and the users' interaction in real spaces and contexts.

Tangible Interaction is a very interdisciplinary area. It spans a variety of perspectives, such as HCI and Interaction Design, but specializes on interfaces or systems that are in some way physically embodied - be it in physical artefacts or in environments. Furthermore it has connections with product/industrial design, arts and architecture. Finally, new developments in Ubiquitous Computing, Actuation, Sensors, Robotics and Mechanics contribute through enabling technologies to the field of Tangible Interaction.

A history of Tangible Interaction: influences, perspectives, and influential prototype systems

Tangible Interaction has been influenced by work from different disciplines, in particular Computing, HCI, and Product/Industrial Design. For Computing and HCI, the notion of a ‘Tangible User Interface’ (as it was originally conceived in the mid/late 90s) constituted an alternative vision for computer interfaces that brings computing back ‘into the real world’ (Wellner, Mackay, Gold 1993; Ishii, Ullmer 1997). A general dissatisfaction with traditional screen-based interfaces and with Virtual Reality, which were seen as estranging people from ‘the real world’, motivated the development of the first prototypes, while technological innovations enabled building these (e.g. RFID technology). In contrast, the field of Industrial Design came to engage with Tangible Interaction out of necessity, as increasingly appliances contain electronic and digital components and become ‘intelligent’. For designers, this constituted new challenges as well as new opportunities (Djajadiningrat, Overbeeke, Wensveen 2000; Djajadiningrat et al 2004).

An interesting point is that challenges and established skills are complementary for the above mentioned disciplines: Where considerations of physical form factors, choice of materials and so on forced computer scientists and HCI researchers out of their comfort zone, industrial designers now had to focus on designing complex behaviour that is digitally controlled and has no inherent relationship to product form.

These practice and research fields had no common discussion forum and only intersected occasionally or through personal contacts, with e.g. particular product ideas and sketches inspiring the notion of a Tangible User Interface. The Marble Answering Machine, devised by Durrell Bishop while studying design at the Royal College of Art, is one such sketch that used marbles to represent incoming messages. The marbles fall out of the machine and can be played by placing them into a mould on the machine (Poynor 1995). Generalizing this design yielded the idea of representing data through physical objects and of manipulating the data by physical handling of the objects – Ishii’s Tangible Bits vision (Ishii, Ullmer 1997).

In the early years of the new century researchers with a design background more frequently participated at HCI-related conferences, starting a dialogue. From about the same time, the number of workshops addressing Tangible User Interfaces or Tangible Interaction (a term which was proposed by parts of the design community) as a topic increased steadily.  From this grew an interdisciplinary research community that adopted the term ‘Tangible Interaction’ to describe its shared focus, and has its own conference since 2007.

With emerging technologies coming quickly onto the market, the field has become more diverse (e.g. some systems involve actuation, some rely on complex sensor-based data-collection, some are based on conductive fabrics etc.) and also more inclusive, as it has become easier and cheaper to build working prototypes and functioning systems. Whereas in the late 90s, specialized hardware and expertise was required to build a prototype with comparatively simple functionality, in 2009 this has become a standard project assignment in many industrial or interaction design courses. 

The following gives an overview of the major influencing perspectives. As much of the conceptual and visionary development went hand in hand with the building of prototype systems, this is very much in the style of ‘a history through examples’.

HCI and Computing: Tangible User Interfaces

Within Computing and HCI Tangible Interaction first became prominent with the notion of 'Tangible User Interfaces' (TUIs) proposed by Hiroshi Ishii and his group at the MIT Media Lab in 1997 (Ishii, Ullmer 1997). This work built on prior work by George Fitzmaurice in collaboration with Bill Buxton and Ishii himself (Fitzmaurice, Ishii, Buxton 1995). Fitzmaurice's PhD thesis (1996) explored the use of graspable bricks as a more direct input mechanism for the interaction with graphical representations. It further suggested employing multiple graspable objects that are distributed in space, with strong-specific functionality, instead of the generic input device we know as a mouse, which distributes input over time. The bricks were laid on top of graphics (displayed on a horizontal screen), which then got anchored to them. Moving a brick thus moved the graphics, and moving two corners of a triangle apart with two bricks would stretch the triangle correspondingly.

Tangible User Interfaces were envisioned as an alternative to graphical displays that would bring some of the richness of interaction we have with physical devices back into our interaction with digital content (Ishii, Ullmer 1997). It was proposed to represent digital content through tangible objects, which could then be manipulated via physical interaction with these tangibles. The core idea was to quite literally allow users to grasp data with their hands and to unify representation and control. Digital representations were thought to be closely coupled, usually through graphical projections on and around the tangible objects, which came to be referred to as 'tokens'.

One of the first examples developed by the MIT's Tangible Media Group was a map that was manipulated by placing iconic representation of central buildings on it and moving these apart. Later-on the research group developed Urp, a system that supports urban planning (Underkoffler, Ishii 1999). Urp integrates a physical model with an interactive simulation of the effects of building placement on sunlight and wind flow. The tangible models of buildings cast (digital) shadows that are projected onto the surface. Simulated wind flow is projected as lines onto the surface. Several tools are available to probe e.g. the wind speed or the distance between points in space, and to change the properties of buildings (glass or stone walls) or the time of day, resulting in shadows moving. Over the years, a series of related systems have been built, and the notion of TUIs was taken up by many other research groups worldwide.

Influences from other disciplines: Product/Industrial Design and the Arts

Within other disciplines, the merging of physical form with digital contents and behaviors occurred alike. Product Design increasingly concerns complex computational behavior and designers need to rethink how to make IT-related appliances legible and usable. Some design researchers have come to investigate how form and digital behavior can be more closely coupled and how users could interact in richer ways with digital products (Djajadiningrat et al 2004; Jensen, Buur, Djajadiningrat 2005). The Marble Answering Machine is an early example of this endeavour. The term 'Tangible Interaction' originated in this context.

Djajadiningrat et al (2004) describe a concept sketch for a videodeck that integrates the physical controls within the mechanism of the mechanical device, creating physical legibility of the controls. For example the contours of the device are broken where there is interaction with the outside world. The eject button has turned into a ribbon which lies under the tape and is pulled outward. They further describe the concept design of a digital camera that attempts to replace all of the typical menu functions and identically looking buttons with physical manipulations of the camera. Here, the user e.g. slides the screen towards the memory card in order to save an image and slides the screen towards the lens to go into ready mode again.  

A further merging of digital and physical design can be seen in the emergence of 'Physical Computing' within design worldwide through a culture of tinkering and making things (cp. Igoe and O'Sullivan 2004). Physical Computing involves fast prototyping with electronics, and often reuses and scavenges existing technology (tinkering). It is defined as the design of interactive objects, which are controlled by software, and that people interact with via sensors and actuators.

Within the interactive arts a related development can be seen. Many installations employ 'interactive spaces' which are sensorized to track users' behavior and integrate tangible objects into the installation (see e.g. Bongers 2002). Often, whole-body movement is used to interact within these environments. Interaction designers have also developed an interest in bodily interaction, which can be pure movement (gestures, dance) or is related to physical objects (Hummels, Overbeeke, Klooster 2007).

In a sense, whole-body interaction and interactive spaces is thinking of Tangible Interaction on another scale - instead of interacting with small objects that we can grab and move around within arms reach (this is more the focus of Tangible User Interfaces and Product Design) we interact with large objects within a large space and therefore need to move around with our whole body. 

‘Tangible Interaction’ brought different perspectives under one umbrella

The term 'Tangible Interaction' has come to embrace all these developments. As argued by Hornecker and Buur (2006), the field prioritizes as principles of design:

  • tangibility  and materiality
  • physical embodiment of data
  • bodily interaction
  • embeddedness in real spaces and contexts.

Hornecker and Buur argue that the original definition of Tangible User Interfaces excludes many interesting developments and systems from product design and the arts and therefore suggest using a more inclusive, less strictly defined term. The shift in phrasing from Tangible Interface to Tangible Interaction was intentional, similar to the distinction between Interface and Interaction Design. It places the focus on the design of the interaction instead of the visible interface. This puts the qualities of the interaction into the foreground of attention, and requires system designers to think about what people actually do with the system (see also: Djajadiningrat, Overbeeke, Wensveen 2000; Jensen, Buur, Djajadiningrat 2005). It further encourages thinking of the tangible system as part of a larger ecology and as located in a specific context. This has been described as the 'practice turn' by Fernaeus et al (2008), with newer conceptualizations of Tangible Interaction focusing on human action, control, creativity and social action instead of the representation and transmission of information.

The adoption of ‘Tangible Interaction’ as umbrella term has supported the development of a larger interdisciplinary research community (the TEI conference series), but as a downside, results in some tension/ambivalence as to where to draw the line between Tangible Interaction and other areas. For a report on discussions during the TEI 2007 and TEI 2008 panel discussions see Hornecker et al (2008). For example it remains open whether a car is a Tangible Interface and whether gesture-based interaction can be considered tangible interaction. Different people in the research community would answer this question in different ways.

Tangible Interaction therefore overlaps at its fringes with a range of other research areas, summarized in this encyclopedia entry under ‘Related Topics’. Whether a particular paper is framed as ‘tangible’ or e.g. as gesture-based interaction often depends on the conference or journal that it is submitted to. The research community seems well aware of this ambivalence, but has decided to embrace it: The TEI conference in 2010 changed its name from ‘Tangible and Embedded’ to ‘Tangible Embedded and Embodied Interaction’ in order to more explicitly invite research on whole-body or gestural interaction.

Research directions

Tangible Interaction is a growing research area. Its commercial relevance is still somewhat unclear (if we disregard standard product design for a moment). Yet companies like Philips Design and Microsoft Research increasingly invest in research in this area, and TEI 2009 was hosted by Microsoft Research in Cambridge, UK.

Furthermore there are an increasing number of spin-off companies that market systems in this area. The system currently probably best known to the public and the media is the ReacTable (http://mtg.upf.es/reactable/ and http://www.reactable.com/, see Jordá et al 2007) from the Universitat Pompeu Fabra. This is a table-based music performance instrument combining tangible input (movement of tagged objects on a flat surface) with multitouch interaction on the surface, enabling users to manipulate the graphics projected around the tangible input objects with their fingers. It was used by Björk during her 2007 world tour, won the Prix Ars Electronica Nica in 2008, and is now being marketed for museums and – soon – for musicians and DJs.

Application areas for Tangible Interaction are diverse. Many projects are aimed at supporting learning and education. This is where so far the most systems have been employed outside of the lab. Common are also domestic appliances, interactive music installations or instruments, museum installations, and tools to support planning and decision making.

Research still needs to tease apart what exactly are the advantages of tangible interaction systems and for which contexts and application areas they are the most suitable. While there is good evidence that tangibles tend to support collaboration and social interaction (Hornecker, Buur 2006), it is, for example, less clear what kinds of tangibles are most effective in supporting learning (see Marshall 2007). Related to this question, design knowledge and guidelines are still scarce.

The availability of toolkits for physical computing has made it significantly easier to develop systems, contributing to the interdisciplinarity of the field.

An exciting new direction for evolving work lies in the use of actuation. While with Tangible User Interfaces initially only input was tangible, actuation allows for tangible system output beyond visual and auditory feedback.

Relevant conference series

TEI (Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction) is the first conference series that is dedicated to Tangible Interaction. It took place first in 2007, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. TEI is a yearly conference with proceedings published in the ACM DL and in 2010 is now organized in collaboration with ACM SigCHI.

Other conferences such as CHI, NordiCHI, OzCHI, DPPI, Interact, IDC, Pervasive, UbiComp, DesForm, DIS (Designing Interactive Systems), and IEEE Tabletop also tend to invite submissions on Tangible Interaction or Tangible Interfaces. In general, most conferences in the HCI or (Interaction) design area nowadays consider tangible interaction a standard topic. The same holds for journals, with Personal and Ubiquitous Computing being the most prominent, and featuring the first special issue on ‘Tangible User Interfaces in Perspective’ in 2004.

Before TEI was established, tangible interaction had been a focus or was listed as a topic of several workshops, for example

  • Look mama, with hands!: on tangible interaction, gestures and learning (ACM DIS 2002)
  • Designing Tangible User Interfaces to Support Participation (Participatory Design Conference 2002)
  • Toolkit Support for Interaction in the Physical World (Pervasive 2004)
  • Workshop on Real World User Interfaces (PI03)
  • Tangible Interfaces for Playful Learning: past, present, and future (IDC 2005)
  • What is the Next Generation of Human-Computer Interaction? (CHI 2006)

Related Topics

Given the field of Tangible Interaction is still developing and has multiple origins and inspirations, there are numerous related topics, which are only loosely demarcated from Tangible Interaction.

Among the closely related areas there are, for example, Physical Computing (a term made popular by Tom Igoe and employed by designer/artist makers), Tangible User Interfaces (see Ishii 2007), Graspable User Interfaces (cf. Fitzmaurice et al 1995), physical-digital appliances (a focus on designing interactive intelligent products), interactive spaces (as discussed early, important inspiration for Tangible Interaction came from interactive spatial art installations), and Tangible Augmented Reality (which employs principles of tangible input in an Augmented Reality context).

Somewhat wider related areas are, for example, Appliance Design, Whole-Body Interaction and Movement-Interaction (which rely less on tangible objects), Interactive Tabletops/Surfaces (which might feature tangible input elements, but may just rely on pure touch), Embodied Interfaces, Ambient Technology, Ubiquitous and Pervasive Computing, Interactive Buildings and Interactive Furniture, or Organic Interfaces. As fields these have less of a focus on tangibility, albeit example systems from these areas might very well fit within the area of Tangible Interaction.

What do you think?

Voice your opinition or make additions to this entry in the comments further down the page.

Suggestions for further reading

 what's this?

Djajadiningrat, Tom, Wensveen, Stephan, Frens, Joep and Overbeeke, Kees (2004): Tangible Products: redressing the balance between appearance and action. In Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, 8 (5) pp. 294-309.

Dourish, Paul (2001): Where the Action Is: The Foundations of Embodied Interaction. MIT Press

Computer science as an engineering discipline has been spectacularly successful. Yet it is also a philosophical enterprise in the way it represents the world and creates and manipulates models of reality, people, and action. In this book Paul Dourish addresses the philosophical bases of human-computer interaction. He looks at how what he calls "embodied interaction" -- an approach to interacting with software systems that emphasizes skilled, engaged practice rather than disembodied rationality -- reflects the phenomenological approaches of Martin Heidegger, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and other twentieth-century philosophers. The phenomenological tradition emphasizes the primacy of natural practice over abstract cognition in everyday activity. Dourish shows how this perspective can shed light on the foundational underpinnings of current research on embodied interaction. He looks in particular at how tangible and social approaches to interaction are related, how they can be used to analyze and understand embodied interaction, and how they could affect the design of future interactive systems.

© All rights reserved Dourish and/or MIT Press


Fernaeus, Ylva, Tholander, Jakob and Jonsson, Martin (2008): Towards a new set of ideals: consequences of the practice turn in tangible interaction. In: Proceedings of the 2nd international conference on Tangible and embedded interaction 2008, Bonn, Germany. pp. 223-230. Available online

Fitzmaurice, George W. (1996). Graspable User Interfaces (Ph.D. Thesis). Retrieved [Date unavailable] from http://www.dgp.toronto.edu/~gf/papers/PhD%20-%20Graspable%20UIs/Thesis.gf.html

Fitzmaurice, George W., Ishii, Hiroshi and Buxton, William (1995): Bricks: Laying the Foundations for Graspable User Interfaces. In: Katz, Irvin R., Mack, Robert L., Marks, Linn, Rosson, Mary Beth and Nielsen, Jakob (eds.) Proceedings of the ACM CHI 95 Human Factors in Computing Systems Conference May 7-11, 1995, Denver, Colorado. pp. 442-449. Available online

We introduce the concept of Graspable User Interfaces that allow direct control of electronic or virtual objects through physical handles for control. These physical artifacts, which we call "bricks," are essentially new input devices that can be tightly coupled or "attached" to virtual objects for manipulation or for expressing action (e.g., to set parameters or for initiating processes). Our bricks operate on top of a large horizontal display surface known as the "ActiveDesk." We present four stages in the development of Graspable UIs: (1) a series of exploratory studies on hand gestures and grasping; (2) interaction simulations using mock-ups and rapid prototyping tools; (3) a working prototype and sample application called GraspDraw; and (4) the initial integrating of the Graspable UI concepts into a commercial application. Finally, we conclude by presenting a design space for Bricks which lay the foundation for further exploring and developing Graspable User Interfaces.

© All rights reserved Fitzmaurice et al. and/or ACM Press

Hornecker, Eva and Buur, Jacob (2006): Getting a grip on tangible interaction: a framework on physical space and social interaction. In: Proceedings of ACM CHI 2006 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 2006. pp. 437-446. Available online

Our current understanding of human interaction with hybrid or augmented environments is very limited. Here we focus on 'tangible interaction', denoting systems that rely on embodied interaction, tangible manipulation, physical representation of data, and embeddedness in real space. This synthesis of prior 'tangible' definitions enables us to address a larger design space and to integrate approaches from different disciplines. We introduce a framework that focuses on the interweaving of the material/physical and the social, contributes to understanding the (social) user experience of tangible interaction, and provides concepts and perspectives for considering the social aspects of tangible interaction. This understanding lays the ground for evolving knowledge on collaboration-sensitive tangible interaction design. Lastly, we analyze three case studies, using the framework, thereby illustrating the concepts and demonstrating their utility as analytical tools.

© All rights reserved Hornecker and Buur and/or ACM Press

Hummels, Caroline, Overbeeke, Kees and Klooster, Sietske (2007): Move to get moved: a search for methods, tools and knowledge to design for expressive and rich movement-based interaction. In Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, 11 (8) pp. 677-690. Available online

Igoe, Tom and O'Sullivan, Dan (2004): Physical Computing: Sensing and Controlling the Physical World with Computers. Course Technology

Igoe, Tom and O'Sullivan, Dan (2004): Physical Computing: Sensing and Controlling the Physical World with Computers. Course Technology

Ishii, Hiroshi (2007): Tangible User Interfaces. In: Sears, Andrew and Jacko, Julie A. (eds.). "The Human-Computer Interaction Handbook: Fundamentals, Evolving Technologies and Emerging Applications (2nd Edition)". Lawrence Erlbaum Associatespp. 469-487

Ishii, Hiroshi and Ullmer, Brygg (1997): Tangible Bits: Towards Seamless Interfaces between People, Bits and Atoms. In: Pemberton, Steven (ed.) Proceedings of the ACM CHI 97 Human Factors in Computing Systems Conference March 22-27, 1997, Atlanta, Georgia. pp. 234-241. Available online

This paper presents our vision of Human Computer Interaction (HCI): "Tangible Bits." Tangible Bits allows users to "grasp&manipulate" bits in the center of users' attention by coupling the bits with everyday physical objects and architectural surfaces. Tangible Bits also enables users to be aware of background bits at the periphery of human perception using ambient display media such as light, sound, airflow, and water movement in an augmented space. The goal of Tangible Bits is to bridge the gaps between both cyberspace and the physical environment, as well as the foreground and background of human activities. This paper describes three key concepts of Tangible Bits: interactive surfaces; the coupling of bits with graspable physical objects; and ambient media for background awareness. We illustrate these concepts with three prototype systems -- the metaDESK, transBOARD and ambientROOM -- to identify underlying research issues.

© All rights reserved Ishii and Ullmer and/or ACM Press

Shaer, Orit and Hornecker, Eva (2010): Tangible User Interfaces: Past, Present and Future Directions. In Foundations and Trends in Human-Computer Interaction, 3 (1) pp. 1-138. Available online

In the last two decades, Tangible User Interfaces (TUIs) have emerged as a new interface type that interlinks the digital and physical worlds. Drawing upon users' knowledge and skills of interaction with the real non-digital world, TUIs show a potential to enhance the way in which people interact with and leverage digital information. However, TUI research is still in its infancy and extensive research is required in order to fully understand the implications of tangible user interfaces, to develop technologies that further bridge the digital and the physical, and to guide TUI design with empirical knowledge. This paper examines the existing body of work on Tangible User Interfaces. We start by sketching the history of tangible user interfaces, examining the intellectual origins of this field. We then present TUIs in a broader context, survey application domains, and review frameworks and taxonomies. We also discuss conceptual foundations of TUIs including perspectives from cognitive sciences, psychology, and philosophy. Methods and technologies for designing, building, and evaluating TUIs are also addressed. Finally, we discuss the strengths and limitations of TUIs and chart directions for future research.

© All rights reserved Shaer and Hornecker and/or Now Publishers

Ullmer, Brygg and Ishii, Hiroshi (2001): Emerging Frameworks for Tangible User Interfaces. In: Carroll, John M. (ed.). "Human-Computer Interaction in the New Millennium". Addison-Wesley Publishingpp. 579-601

Extended literature list

 what's this?

Bongers, Bert (2002): Interactivating Spaces. In: Proceedings of the the 4th Annual Symposium on Systems Research in the Arts 2002. .

Djajadiningrat, J. P., Overbeeke, Kees and Wensveen, Stephan (2000): Augmenting fun and beauty: a pamphlet. In: Designing Augmented Reality Environments 2000 2000. pp. 131-134. Available online

Hornecker, Eva, Jacob, Robert J. K., Hummels, Caroline, Ullmer, Brygg, Schmidt, Albrecht, Hoven, Elise van den and Mazalek, Ali (2008): TEI goes on: Tangible and Embedded Interaction. In IEEE Pervasive Computing, 7 (2) pp. 91-96. Available online

published as part of a larger section titled 'Advances in Tangible Interaction and Ubiquitous Virtual Reality'

© All rights reserved Hornecker et al. and/or IEEE Computer Society

Jensen, Mads Vedel, Buur, Jacob and Djajadiningrat, Tom (2005): Designing the user actions in tangible interaction. In: Bertelsen, Olav W., Bouvin, Niels Olof, Krogh, Peter Gall and Kyng, Morten (eds.) Proceedings of the 4th Decennial Conference on Critical Computing 2005 August 20-24, 2005, Aarhus, Denmark. pp. 9-18. Available online

Jordà, Sergi, Geiger, Günter, Alonso, Marcos and Kaltenbrunner, Martin (2007): The reacTable: exploring the synergy between live music performance and tabletop tangible interfaces. In: Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Tangible and Embedded Interaction 2007. pp. 139-146. Available online

In recent years we have seen a proliferation of musical tables. Believing that this is not just the result of a tabletop trend, in this paper we first discuss several of the reasons for which live music performance and HCI in general, and musical instruments and tabletop interfaces in particular, can lead to a fertile two-way cross-pollination that can equally benefit both fields. After that, we present the reacTable, a musical instrument based on a tabletop interface that exemplifies several of these potential achievements.

© All rights reserved Jordà et al. and/or ACM Press

Marshall, Paul (2007): Do tangible interfaces enhance learning?. In: Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Tangible and Embedded Interaction 2007. pp. 163-170. Available online

Conceptual work on tangible interfaces has focused primarily on the production of descriptive frameworks. While this work has been successful in mapping out a space of technical possibilities and providing a terminology to ground discussion, it provides little guidance on the cognitive or social effects of using one type of interface or another. In this paper we look at the area of learning with tangible interfaces, suggesting that more empirically grounded research is needed to guide development. We provide an analytic framework of six perspectives, which describes latent trends and assumptions that might be used to motivate and guide this work, and makes links with existing research in cognitive science and education.

© All rights reserved Marshall and/or ACM Press

Poynor, R. (1995): The Hand That Rocks the Cradle. In I.D. The International Design Magazine, pp. 60-65.

Underkoffler, John and Ishii, Hiroshi (1999): Urp: A Luminous-Tangible Workbench for Urban Planning and Design. In: Altom, Mark W. and Williams, Marian G. (eds.) Proceedings of the ACM CHI 99 Human Factors in Computing Systems Conference May 15-20, 1999, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. pp. 386-393. Available online

We introduce a system for urban planning -- called Urp -- that integrates functions addressing a broad range of the field's concerns into a single, physically based workbench setting. The I/O Bulb infrastructure on which the application is based allows physical architectural models placed on an ordinary table surface to cast shadows accurate for arbitrary times of day; to throw reflections off glass facade surfaces; to affect a real-time and visually coincident simulation of pedestrian-level windflow; and so on. We then use comparisons among Urp and several earlier I/O Bulb applications as the basis for an understanding of luminous-tangible interactions, which result whenever an interface distributes meaning and functionality between physical objects and visual information projectively coupled to those objects. Finally, we briefly discuss two issues common to all such systems, offering them as informal thought-tools for the design and analysis of luminous-tangible interfaces.

© All rights reserved Underkoffler and Ishii and/or ACM Press

Wellner, Pierre, Mackay, Wendy E. and Gold, Rich (1993): Computer-Augmented Environments: Back to the Real World - Introduction to the Special Issue. In Communications of the ACM, 36 (7) pp. 24-26.

 

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Comment Jorge Peregrin (info(at)jorgeperegrin(dot)com) says: Sep 2nd, 2009
#1
Interesting summary, thanks for posting it here.

Some time ago I came across a very interesting paper I miss here: "The case of Sculpting Atmospheres...." by P. Ross and D. Keyson (2007).
 
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References

 what's this?

Bongers, Bert (2002): Interactivating Spaces. In: Proceedings of the the 4th Annual Symposium on Systems Research in the Arts 2002. .

Djajadiningrat, Tom, Wensveen, Stephan, Frens, Joep and Overbeeke, Kees (2004): Tangible Products: redressing the balance between appearance and action. In Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, 8 (5) pp. 294-309.

Djajadiningrat, J. P., Overbeeke, Kees and Wensveen, Stephan (2000): Augmenting fun and beauty: a pamphlet. In: Designing Augmented Reality Environments 2000 2000. pp. 131-134. Available online

Dourish, Paul (2001): Where the Action Is: The Foundations of Embodied Interaction. MIT Press

Computer science as an engineering discipline has been spectacularly successful. Yet it is also a philosophical enterprise in the way it represents the world and creates and manipulates models of reality, people, and action. In this book Paul Dourish addresses the philosophical bases of human-computer interaction. He looks at how what he calls "embodied interaction" -- an approach to interacting with software systems that emphasizes skilled, engaged practice rather than disembodied rationality -- reflects the phenomenological approaches of Martin Heidegger, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and other twentieth-century philosophers. The phenomenological tradition emphasizes the primacy of natural practice over abstract cognition in everyday activity. Dourish shows how this perspective can shed light on the foundational underpinnings of current research on embodied interaction. He looks in particular at how tangible and social approaches to interaction are related, how they can be used to analyze and understand embodied interaction, and how they could affect the design of future interactive systems.

© All rights reserved Dourish and/or MIT Press


Fernaeus, Ylva, Tholander, Jakob and Jonsson, Martin (2008): Towards a new set of ideals: consequences of the practice turn in tangible interaction. In: Proceedings of the 2nd international conference on Tangible and embedded interaction 2008, Bonn, Germany. pp. 223-230. Available online

Fitzmaurice, George W. (1996). Graspable User Interfaces (Ph.D. Thesis). Retrieved [Date unavailable] from http://www.dgp.toronto.edu/~gf/papers/PhD%20-%20Graspable%20UIs/Thesis.gf.html

Fitzmaurice, George W., Ishii, Hiroshi and Buxton, William (1995): Bricks: Laying the Foundations for Graspable User Interfaces. In: Katz, Irvin R., Mack, Robert L., Marks, Linn, Rosson, Mary Beth and Nielsen, Jakob (eds.) Proceedings of the ACM CHI 95 Human Factors in Computing Systems Conference May 7-11, 1995, Denver, Colorado. pp. 442-449. Available online

We introduce the concept of Graspable User Interfaces that allow direct control of electronic or virtual objects through physical handles for control. These physical artifacts, which we call "bricks," are essentially new input devices that can be tightly coupled or "attached" to virtual objects for manipulation or for expressing action (e.g., to set parameters or for initiating processes). Our bricks operate on top of a large horizontal display surface known as the "ActiveDesk." We present four stages in the development of Graspable UIs: (1) a series of exploratory studies on hand gestures and grasping; (2) interaction simulations using mock-ups and rapid prototyping tools; (3) a working prototype and sample application called GraspDraw; and (4) the initial integrating of the Graspable UI concepts into a commercial application. Finally, we conclude by presenting a design space for Bricks which lay the foundation for further exploring and developing Graspable User Interfaces.

© All rights reserved Fitzmaurice et al. and/or ACM Press

Hornecker, Eva and Buur, Jacob (2006): Getting a grip on tangible interaction: a framework on physical space and social interaction. In: Proceedings of ACM CHI 2006 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 2006. pp. 437-446. Available online

Our current understanding of human interaction with hybrid or augmented environments is very limited. Here we focus on 'tangible interaction', denoting systems that rely on embodied interaction, tangible manipulation, physical representation of data, and embeddedness in real space. This synthesis of prior 'tangible' definitions enables us to address a larger design space and to integrate approaches from different disciplines. We introduce a framework that focuses on the interweaving of the material/physical and the social, contributes to understanding the (social) user experience of tangible interaction, and provides concepts and perspectives for considering the social aspects of tangible interaction. This understanding lays the ground for evolving knowledge on collaboration-sensitive tangible interaction design. Lastly, we analyze three case studies, using the framework, thereby illustrating the concepts and demonstrating their utility as analytical tools.

© All rights reserved Hornecker and Buur and/or ACM Press

Hornecker, Eva, Jacob, Robert J. K., Hummels, Caroline, Ullmer, Brygg, Schmidt, Albrecht, Hoven, Elise van den and Mazalek, Ali (2008): TEI goes on: Tangible and Embedded Interaction. In IEEE Pervasive Computing, 7 (2) pp. 91-96. Available online

published as part of a larger section titled 'Advances in Tangible Interaction and Ubiquitous Virtual Reality'

© All rights reserved Hornecker et al. and/or IEEE Computer Society

Hummels, Caroline, Overbeeke, Kees and Klooster, Sietske (2007): Move to get moved: a search for methods, tools and knowledge to design for expressive and rich movement-based interaction. In Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, 11 (8) pp. 677-690. Available online

Igoe, Tom and O'Sullivan, Dan (2004a): Physical Computing: Sensing and Controlling the Physical World with Computers. Course Technology

Igoe, Tom and O'Sullivan, Dan (2004b): Physical Computing: Sensing and Controlling the Physical World with Computers. Course Technology

Ishii, Hiroshi (2007): Tangible User Interfaces. In: Sears, Andrew and Jacko, Julie A. (eds.). "The Human-Computer Interaction Handbook: Fundamentals, Evolving Technologies and Emerging Applications (2nd Edition)". Lawrence Erlbaum Associatespp. 469-487

Ishii, Hiroshi and Ullmer, Brygg (1997): Tangible Bits: Towards Seamless Interfaces between People, Bits and Atoms. In: Pemberton, Steven (ed.) Proceedings of the ACM CHI 97 Human Factors in Computing Systems Conference March 22-27, 1997, Atlanta, Georgia. pp. 234-241. Available online

This paper presents our vision of Human Computer Interaction (HCI): "Tangible Bits." Tangible Bits allows users to "grasp&manipulate" bits in the center of users' attention by coupling the bits with everyday physical objects and architectural surfaces. Tangible Bits also enables users to be aware of background bits at the periphery of human perception using ambient display media such as light, sound, airflow, and water movement in an augmented space. The goal of Tangible Bits is to bridge the gaps between both cyberspace and the physical environment, as well as the foreground and background of human activities. This paper describes three key concepts of Tangible Bits: interactive surfaces; the coupling of bits with graspable physical objects; and ambient media for background awareness. We illustrate these concepts with three prototype systems -- the metaDESK, transBOARD and ambientROOM -- to identify underlying research issues.

© All rights reserved Ishii and Ullmer and/or ACM Press

Jensen, Mads Vedel, Buur, Jacob and Djajadiningrat, Tom (2005): Designing the user actions in tangible interaction. In: Bertelsen, Olav W., Bouvin, Niels Olof, Krogh, Peter Gall and Kyng, Morten (eds.) Proceedings of the 4th Decennial Conference on Critical Computing 2005 August 20-24, 2005, Aarhus, Denmark. pp. 9-18. Available online

Jordà, Sergi, Geiger, Günter, Alonso, Marcos and Kaltenbrunner, Martin (2007): The reacTable: exploring the synergy between live music performance and tabletop tangible interfaces. In: Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Tangible and Embedded Interaction 2007. pp. 139-146. Available online

In recent years we have seen a proliferation of musical tables. Believing that this is not just the result of a tabletop trend, in this paper we first discuss several of the reasons for which live music performance and HCI in general, and musical instruments and tabletop interfaces in particular, can lead to a fertile two-way cross-pollination that can equally benefit both fields. After that, we present the reacTable, a musical instrument based on a tabletop interface that exemplifies several of these potential achievements.

© All rights reserved Jordà et al. and/or ACM Press

Marshall, Paul (2007): Do tangible interfaces enhance learning?. In: Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Tangible and Embedded Interaction 2007. pp. 163-170. Available online

Conceptual work on tangible interfaces has focused primarily on the production of descriptive frameworks. While this work has been successful in mapping out a space of technical possibilities and providing a terminology to ground discussion, it provides little guidance on the cognitive or social effects of using one type of interface or another. In this paper we look at the area of learning with tangible interfaces, suggesting that more empirically grounded research is needed to guide development. We provide an analytic framework of six perspectives, which describes latent trends and assumptions that might be used to motivate and guide this work, and makes links with existing research in cognitive science and education.

© All rights reserved Marshall and/or ACM Press

Poynor, R. (1995): The Hand That Rocks the Cradle. In I.D. The International Design Magazine, pp. 60-65.

Shaer, Orit and Hornecker, Eva (2010): Tangible User Interfaces: Past, Present and Future Directions. In Foundations and Trends in Human-Computer Interaction, 3 (1) pp. 1-138. Available online

In the last two decades, Tangible User Interfaces (TUIs) have emerged as a new interface type that interlinks the digital and physical worlds. Drawing upon users' knowledge and skills of interaction with the real non-digital world, TUIs show a potential to enhance the way in which people interact with and leverage digital information. However, TUI research is still in its infancy and extensive research is required in order to fully understand the implications of tangible user interfaces, to develop technologies that further bridge the digital and the physical, and to guide TUI design with empirical knowledge. This paper examines the existing body of work on Tangible User Interfaces. We start by sketching the history of tangible user interfaces, examining the intellectual origins of this field. We then present TUIs in a broader context, survey application domains, and review frameworks and taxonomies. We also discuss conceptual foundations of TUIs including perspectives from cognitive sciences, psychology, and philosophy. Methods and technologies for designing, building, and evaluating TUIs are also addressed. Finally, we discuss the strengths and limitations of TUIs and chart directions for future research.

© All rights reserved Shaer and Hornecker and/or Now Publishers

Ullmer, Brygg and Ishii, Hiroshi (2001): Emerging Frameworks for Tangible User Interfaces. In: Carroll, John M. (ed.). "Human-Computer Interaction in the New Millennium". Addison-Wesley Publishingpp. 579-601

Underkoffler, John and Ishii, Hiroshi (1999): Urp: A Luminous-Tangible Workbench for Urban Planning and Design. In: Altom, Mark W. and Williams, Marian G. (eds.) Proceedings of the ACM CHI 99 Human Factors in Computing Systems Conference May 15-20, 1999, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. pp. 386-393. Available online

We introduce a system for urban planning -- called Urp -- that integrates functions addressing a broad range of the field's concerns into a single, physically based workbench setting. The I/O Bulb infrastructure on which the application is based allows physical architectural models placed on an ordinary table surface to cast shadows accurate for arbitrary times of day; to throw reflections off glass facade surfaces; to affect a real-time and visually coincident simulation of pedestrian-level windflow; and so on. We then use comparisons among Urp and several earlier I/O Bulb applications as the basis for an understanding of luminous-tangible interactions, which result whenever an interface distributes meaning and functionality between physical objects and visual information projectively coupled to those objects. Finally, we briefly discuss two issues common to all such systems, offering them as informal thought-tools for the design and analysis of luminous-tangible interfaces.

© All rights reserved Underkoffler and Ishii and/or ACM Press

Wellner, Pierre, Mackay, Wendy E. and Gold, Rich (1993): Computer-Augmented Environments: Back to the Real World - Introduction to the Special Issue. In Communications of the ACM, 36 (7) pp. 24-26.

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        All trademarks, logos, service marks, collective marks, design rights, personality rights or similar rights that are mentioned, used or cited on Interaction-Design.org are the property of their respective owners. The use of any trademark on Interaction-Design.org does not vest in the author or The Interaction-Design.org Foundation any trademark ownership rights in such trademarks, nor does the use of such trademarks imply any affiliation with or endorsement of The Interaction-Design.org Foundation and its authors by such owners. As such The Interaction-Design.org Foundation can not grant any rights to use any otherwise protected materials. Your use of any such or similar incorporeal property is at your own risk.

In addition, content linked from a page is not covered by one of our licenses unless specifically noted. For example, pages may link to videos or slide decks that are not covered. The design of Interaction-Design.org (graphics, html, client-side scripts, etc.) is copyright of Mads Soegaard.

iv. The Site Terms and Conditions

Please read these terms and conditions (the "Terms") carefully before using Interaction-Design.org. By using Interaction-Design.org you signify your consent to these Terms. If you do not agree to the Terms please do not use Interaction-Design.org. The Terms addresses your legal rights and obligations and includes important disclaimers and choice of law and forum provisions. Please read carefully.

1. Ownership of Interaction-Design.org

Interaction-Design.org is owned and operated by The Interaction-Design.org Foundation, a privately held corporation incorporated under the laws of Denmark, with office in Aarhus, Denmark.

Address:
The Interaction-Design.org Foundation
Att: Mads Soegaard
Chr. Molbechs Vej 4
DK-8000 Aarhus C.
Denmark

2. Choice of Law and Forum Provisions

Interaction-Design.org is run by The Interaction-Design.org Foundation, a privately held corporation residing in Aarhus, Denmark. You agree that these Terms and your use of Interaction-Design.org are governed by the laws of Denmark. You hereby consent to the exclusive jurisdiction and venue of the courts, tribunals, agencies and other dispute resolution organizations in Denmark in all disputes

  1. arising out of, relating to, or concerning Interaction-Design.org, The Interaction-Design.org Foundation, and/or these Terms
  2. in which Interaction-Design.org, The Interaction-Design.org Foundation, and/or these Terms is an issue or a material fact
  3. or in which Interaction-Design.org, The Interaction-Design.org Foundation, and/or these Terms is referenced in a paper filed in a court, tribunal, agency or other dispute resolution organization.

The Interaction-Design.org Foundation has endeavoured to comply with all legal requirements known to it in creating and maintaining Interaction-Design.org, but makes no representation that materials on Interaction-Design.org are appropriate or available for use in any particular jurisdiction. You are responsible for compliance with applicable laws. Any use in contravention of this provision or any provision of these Terms is at your own risk and, if any part of these Terms is invalid or unenforceable under applicable law, the invalid or unenforceable provision will be deemed superseded by a valid, enforceable provision that most closely matches the intent of the original provision and the remainder of these Terms shall govern such use.

3. Liability

Your use of and browsing Interaction-Design.org is at your own risk. The Interaction-Design.org Foundation does not warrant that the software used for Interaction-Design.org, and the information, material, and content on it, or any other services provided by means of Interaction-Design.org are error-free, or that their use will be uninterrupted. The Interaction-Design.org Foundation expressly disclaims all warranties related to the above-mentioned subject matter, including, without limitation, those of accuracy, condition, merchantability and fitness for particular purpose. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary on Interaction-Design.org, in no event shall The Interaction-Design.org Foundation be liable for any loss of profits, revenues, indirect, special, incidental, consequential, or other similar damages arising out of or in connection with Interaction-Design.org or out of the use of any of the services proposed by means of Interaction-Design.org.

4. Updates

The Interaction-Design.org Foundation reserves the unilateral right to update, modify, change and alter its Site Terms and Conditions as well as Copyright Terms at any time. All such updates, modifications, changes and alterations are binding on all users and browsers of Interaction-Design.org and will be posted here.

5. Legal Disclaimer

The Interaction-Design.org Foundation and its authors make no representations as to accuracy, completeness, currentness, suitability, or validity of any information, material, or content on Interaction-Design.org.

THE MATERIAL AND CONTENT POSTED ON INTERACTION-DESIGN.ORG ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS WARRANTY OR IMPLIED WARRANTY OF ANY KIND INCLUDING WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, NON-INFRINGEMENT OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, OR FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE INTERACTION-DESIGN.ORG FOUNDATION BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER (INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF PROFITS, BUSINESS INTERRUPTION, LOSS OF INFORMATION) ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF OR INABILITY TO USE THE MATERIALS, EVEN IF THE INTERACTION-DESIGN.ORG FOUNDATION HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

Because some jurisdictions prohibit the exclusion or limitation of liability for consequential and or incidental damages, the above limitation may not apply to you. Furthermore, The Interaction-Design.org Foundation does not warrant the accuracy or completeness of information of links or other items contained within these materials that have been provided by third parties.

6. Provision regarding change in attribution of copyrighted materials

Please contact us at mads@interaction-design.org if you, or your organization, wish to correct or change attribution or presentation of any image/material used on Interaction-Design.org, which you, or your organization, are the rightful copyright holder of. We will request that you submit proof of your ownership of the copyright on this material but will act immediately on any reasonable request.

7. Notice and prodecure for claims of copyright infringement

Every effort has been made by the individual contributing authors as well as The Interaction-Design.org Foundation to discover and contact copyright holders of artwork/illustrations/content used on Interaction-Design.org. To the extent that a copyright holder could not be found or an inadvertent permissions or copyright error was made, The Interaction-Design.org Foundation stands ready to remove content upon notice and request by a copyright holder. In the case that you believe that any content or other material provided through Interaction-Design.org infringes your copyright, you should notify The Interaction-Design.org Foundation of your infringement claim in accordance with the procedure set forth below.

We will process each notice of alleged infringement which The Interaction-Design.org Foundation receives and take appropriate action in accordance with applicable intellectual property laws. A notification of claimed copyright infringement should be emailed to mads@interaction-design.org (subject: "Takedown Request"). You may also contact us by mail at:

The Interaction-Design.org Foundation
Att: Mads Soegaard
Chr. Molbechs Vej 4
DK-8000 Aarhus C.
Denmark

To be effective, the notification must be in writing and contain the following information:

  1. an electronic or physical signature of the copyright owner or the person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright interest
  2. a description of the copyrighted work that you claim has been infringed
  3. a description of where the material that you claim is infringing is located on Interaction-Design.org that is reasonably sufficient to enable us to identify and locate the material;
  4. how The Interaction-Design.org Foundation can contact you, such as your address, telephone number, and email address
  5. a written statement by you that you have a good faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law
  6. if you represent a publisher, a written statement by you that you have a good faith belief that the material has not been placed in the public domain, or licenced under another licence, before you acquired the copyright as this would possibly invalidate your copyright
  7. and a statement by you, made under penalty of perjury, that the above information in your notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or authorized to act on the copyright owner's behalf.

8. Trademarks and other rights

All trademarks, logos, service marks, collective marks, design rights, personality rights or similar rights that are mentioned, used or cited on Interaction-Design.org are the property of their respective owners. The use of any trademark on Interaction-Design.org does not vest in the author or The Interaction-Design.org Foundation any trademark ownership rights in such trademarks, nor does the use of such trademarks imply any affiliation with or endorsement of The Interaction-Design.org Foundation and its authors by such owners. As such The Interaction-Design.org Foundation can not grant any rights to use any otherwise protected materials. Your use of any such or similar incorporeal property is at your own risk.

9. Screenshots

Screenshots of copyrighted computer software, for which the copyright is held by the author(s) or the company that created the software, is believed to fall under the fair use doctrine in the US (and similar laws in other countries). It is believed that reproduction for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, or research is not copyright infringement. If you reuse screenshots, as well as any other information on Interaction-Design.org, you do so at your own risk and under the copyright laws of your country.

10. Copyright of Abstracts

Abstracts in the Wiki Bibliography (/references/) are submitted by their authors who use the wiki to make their research as accessible as possible. When a page on Interaction-Design.org cites/references/lists a work from the bibliography, its abstract is included. However, abstracts have varying copyrights depending which publisher the work is published through. You should assume that an abstract is copyright, all rights reserved, of its publisher and/or author and therefore always use/cite abstracts according to Fair Use. You may visit the publisher's website to learn about the specific copyright terms (e.g. ACM, IEEE, or Springer) or contact the author directly. Bottom line: Cite/use abstracts according to the principles of fair use as it may otherwise be construed as a copyright infringement and subject to legal action.

11. User Submissions / User Content

You understand and acknowledge that additions to the Wiki Bibliography (including article abstracts), additions the Conference Calendar (including conference descriptions), user-contributed notes on each page (including text, photographs, graphics), or other materials posted by users on Interaction-Design.org ("Content") are the sole responsibility of the person from whom such Content originated. This means that you, and not The Interaction-Design.org Foundation, are entirely responsible for all Content that you upload, post or otherwise make available to other users of Interaction-Design.org.

When submitting content to Interaction-Design.org, you agree to not:

  1. impersonate any person or entity or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity;
  2. upload, post or otherwise make available any Content that you do not have a right to make available under any law or under contractual or fiduciary relationships (such as inside information, proprietary and confidential information learned or disclosed as part of employment relationships or under nondisclosure agreements);
  3. upload, post or otherwise make available any Content that infringes any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other proprietary rights ("Rights") of any party;
  4. upload, post or otherwise make available any Content that is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortious, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libelous, invasive of another's privacy, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable;

You acknowledge that The Interaction-Design.org Foundation shall have the right to remove any Content that violates these Site Terms and Conditions or is otherwise objectionable.

12. Third Party Websites

If we provide links or pointers to other websites, no inference or assumption should be made that The Interaction-Design.org Foundation operates, controls, or is otherwise connected with these websites. When you click on a link within Interaction-Design.org, we will not warn you that you have left a Site and are subject to the terms and conditions (including privacy policies) of the destination website. In some cases it may be less obvious than others that you have left a Site and reached another website. Please be careful to read the terms of use and privacy policy of any website before you provide any confidential information or engage in any transactions. You should not rely on these Terms for another website. The Interaction-Design.org Foundation is not responsible for the content or practices of any other website. By using Interaction-Design.org, you acknowledge and agree that The Interaction-Design.org Foundation is not responsible or liable to you for any content or other materials hosted and served from any third party website.

13. Email communication: Confidential and proprietary information notice

Email messages sent from members of The Interaction-Design.org Foundation, including emails generated from the use of the interaction-design.org website, are proprietary to The Interaction-Design.org Foundation, and are intended solely for the use of the individual to whom they are addressed. Such messages may contain privileged or confidential information and should not be circulated or used for any purpose other than for what they are intended. If you receive a message from a member of The Interaction-Design.org Foundation in error, please notify the sender immediately. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that you are strictly prohibited from using, copying, altering, or disclosing the contents of the message. The Interaction-Design.org Foundation accepts no responsibility for loss or damage arising from the use of the information transmitted by email message including damage from virus.

14. Usage conditions

Please make sure that you understand that the information provided by The Interaction-Design.org Foundation is being provided freely, and that no kind of agreement or contract is created between you and the owners, partners, users, or authors of this site, the owners of the servers upon which it is housed, the individual contributors of the The Interaction-Design.org Foundation, any project administrators, sysops or anyone else who is in any way connected with this project. If you choose to use or copy anything from from this site it does not create or imply any contractual or extracontractual liability on the part of The Interaction-Design.org Foundation or any of its members, partners, sponsors, contributors or other users. Your use of any such or similar incorporeal property is at your own risk.

15. Legal Disputes

Any dispute arising from the use of Interaction-Design.org or the interpretation of the terms is governed by the laws of Denmark, and shall be settled by the courts of Denmark. All communications regarding legal matters must be made in writing to

The Interaction-Design.org Foundation
Att: Mads Soegaard
Chr. Molbechs Vej 4
DK-8000 Aarhus C.
Denmark


 

About the author

Picture of Eva Hornecker. © Eva Hornecker
Eva Hornecker is Assistant Professor at the University of Strathclyde. She has worked at several places before, including the UK's Open University, Sussex University, the Vienna University of Technology, following her PhD in Bremen, Germany. Eva's research focus is on 'Beyond the Desktop' Interaction Design. She researches in the intersections of UbiComp, tangible interfaces/interact...   
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