1. Tangible Bits Next Generation HCI
April 23, 2006
CHI 2006 Workshop
Montreal, Canada
Hiroshi Ishii
Tangible Media Group
MIT Media Laboratory

2. What drives Design? • Technology Driven Design
begin with an innovative technology, apply it in an application/field
Need Driven Design
identify an existing problem/set of problems, shape process around solving these problems
• Concept / Vision Driven Design
define a new concept, design artifacts which embody that concept, and test it

3. Defy Gravity (= Pixels)
GUI TUI
Visual Tactile
General Special Purpose Purpose
Remote Direct and Control Collaborative Manipulation

4. Abacus: Origin of Tangible Bits
Hiroshi ISHII, born 2/4/56 Alisa ISHII, born 9/1/04

5. Painted Bits (GUI) and Tangible Bits (TUI)
Graphical User Interface
Intangible representation (pixels on a screen) +
Generic input devices as “remote-controllers”
Tangible User Interface
Tangible representation as interactive control mechanism to manipulate the information and computation
Continuity between physical and digital representation in design
Xerox Star
Urp running on the Sensetable

6. TUI Key Properties
Computational coupling of tangible representations to underlying digital information and computation
Embodiment of mechanisms for interactive control with tangible representations
Perceptual coupling of tangible representations to dynamic intangible representations
We live between two worlds: our physical environment and cyberspace. The absence of seamless couplings between these parallel existences leaves a great divide between physical world and HCI.
Tangible Bits is a research effort aiming at seamless couplings of physicality and virtuality by changing "painted bits" into "tangible bits."

7. Models of GUI and TUI GUI TUI
digital information
output
physical
digital
e.g. video projection of digital shadow
e.g. building model
Input/
control
tangible
representation
intangible
digital information
remote
control
input
output
pixels
sound
physical
digital
intangible
representation
GUI
TUI
Computational coupling of tangible representations to underlying digital information and computation

8. TUI Contributions
Double Interactions Loop – immediate tactile feedback
Persistency of tangibles
Coincidence of Input and Output Spaces
Special Purpose vs. General Purpose
Space-Multiplexed Input
We live between two worlds: our physical environment and cyberspace. The absence of seamless couplings between these parallel existences leaves a great divide between physical world and HCI.
Tangible Bits is a research effort aiming at seamless couplings of physicality and virtuality by changing "painted bits" into "tangible bits."

9. TUI’s Double Interaction Loops
information / computation
physical
digital
tangible
representation
= control
intangible
(video/audio feedback)
sensing
2nd loop
through digital computation
display
1st loop
with immediate tactile feedback
GUI TUI

10. Seamless transitions of attention between Center and Periphery
to grasp & manipulate bits in the center of user's focus by coupling bits with physical objects and surfaces, and
to be aware of bits at the periphery using ambient display media such as light, sound, airflow, and water movement.
This slide illustrates the framework of “center and periphery” of human perceptions. The ambientROOM was designed to achieve two goals:
1) to grasp & manipulate bits in the center of user's focus by coupling bits with physical objects and surfaces, and 2) to be aware of bits at the periphery using ambient display media such as light, sound, airflow, and water movement.
We get information in two main ways. First, we get information from what we are focusing on, where our center of attention is directed. But at the same time, we also get information from ambient sources.
We may have a sense of the weather outside from ambient cues such as light, temperature, sound, and air flow from the open windows. We may also have an idea of the activities of our colleagues from the ambient sound and the shadows of passers-by.
Our brain is not only capable of processing this ambient information while maintaining a focus elsewhere, but will naturally shift such information to our foreground when our subconscious deems it important. By using ambient media, we can take advantage of our brain's abilities as both a parallel processor and an attention manager.
Current HCI research is primary focusing on foreground activity and neglecting the background. We would like to support seamless transitions of the user's focus of attention between the periphery (background) and the center (foreground) of human awareness.

11. Invisible interface? extension of body - good fit
customize
personalize
adapt
co-evolve

12. Visible center of focus - goal of task
Critical representation of task
Ball has to be always visible in the foreground with a table as reference
You need an interface (paddle) to control the ball

13. Visual Thinking Seeing Drawing Imagining
Robert McKim “Thinking Visually”

14. Tangible Thinking Mechanical Representation of Knowledge