Course Overview
Tangible user interfaces emerge as a novel human-computer interaction style that interlinks the physical and digital worlds. Extending beyond the limitations of the computer mouse, keyboard and monitor, Tangible user interfaces allow users to interact with digital information through grasping and manipulating physical objects, and through gestures. By allowing users to draw on their natural skills for interacting with digital information, tangible user interface could reduce the cognitive load required for performing a computetional task, and offer an intuitive and collbaorative interface to support activities such as learning, problem solving, design, and entertainment.
Building a tangible user interface (TUI) is a complex process that encompasses multidisciplinary knowledge including computer science, art, and social sciences. Successful design depends on many factors including physical form, social settings,and aesthetics, in addition to well-designed software and electronics. Students will be introduced to conceptual frameworks of tangible interaction, the latest research in the field, and a variety of techniques for designing and building tangible user interfaces including programming a multi-touch surface (Microsoft Surface) and a variety of microcontrollers. Students will work in a team of three to invent and build a novel tangible user interface.
Prerequisite: CS220 or CS215 or CS230, or Permission of instructor.
Topics List
- Introduction to tangible interaction
- Application domains
- Framworks and taxonomies
- Gestural interfaces
- Surface computing
- Physical computing: microcontrollers, sensors, and actuators
- Rapid prototyping
- Iterative design techniques
Reading Materials
As tangible interaction is an emerging field of research, there is no text book for this course. We will handout research papers, articles, and manuals during the course. All reading materials will be available through the course E-Reserve folder.
Course Requirements
In addition to hands-on activities during class time, you will be asked to complete several homework assignments. Assignments will typically involve presenting points raised in readings, reflecting and expanding on work done in class, or documenting stages in the design and construction of your tangible user interface.
In addition to these homework assignments you will work in a team of three to design and build a novel tangible user interface. We will introduce a theme for the projects in class, then each team should brainstorm about a project that is fun, exciting, and challenging.
When forming teams for your project, it is wise to choose teammates with complementary strengths. For example, it's good to have members with programming experience, artistic sense, and good writing and presentation skills.
As part of your group tangible user interface project, you will be expected to do the following:
As a group:
• Develop a conceptual design for your tangible user interface, including sketches,story board, and specification of behavior.
• Build the tangible user interface you have designed. This is an iterative process in which you will re-design, build, and evaluate several times.
• Document your tangible user interface with pictures, video, diagrams, and text in a web page that will remain a part of the Tangible User Interface Course online gallery.
•Present the tangible user interfave you have built at the course open house.
As an individual:
• Document the design and implementation of the tangible user interface in your blog. In particular you should try to highlight your contributions to the project.
Individual Blogs
Each student is required to maintain an individual blog to document her journey through
the course. An idvidiual blog should contain all of the following:
• Questions, observations, thoughts or sketches inspired by lectures, readings or hands-on activities.
• Documentation detailing the design and construction of your final project, including text, diagrams, images, sketches, and code.
• Reflections on your project development process. For example, how your design leverages frameworks that were discussed in class, what are the strengths and weaknesses of your design, how is your learning from the development process relates to what you're learning in other ways (e.g. readings and lectures).
We encourage you to use a blogging application to create and maintain your blog. We will examine your blog three times throughout the course (see schedule). We will evaluate your blog for both breadth (the number of entries and the diversity of topics discussed) and depth (the ideas you develop and the connections you make within each entry). We expect that your blog will contain at least 8 entries that are spread throughout the semester.
For inspiration check out blogs from previous semesters: http://cs.wellesley.edu/~tui/blogs.html
Grades
Your grade for the course will be determined by three factors:
1. Your blog, which includes your insights from the course and your individual
documentation of your group final project (%10).
2. Your group tangible user interface project (%40).
3. Your homework assignments (%25).
4. Midterm exam (%25).
Collaboration Policy
We strongly encourage you to get to know all of your classmates and to collaborate extensively with them. Because of the interdisciplinary nature of this course, you may be strong in some areas but weak in others. Please share your strengths, and feel free to ask others for help.
In your blog and homework assignments, all observations, reflections, and documentation should be in your own words.
Laboratory and Computing Environment
Classes will be held in Science Center room 173; the nearby room SCI E160A will
also be used as additional laboratory space. You will have access to these rooms 24 hours a day, 7 days a week during the semester; details will be announced in class. Science Center policy requires that every student have a "buddy" when working after hours.
The lab is equipped with 6 PC computers, a mac, and a Microsoft Surface computer. If you have a PC or Mac OS X laptop you can use it for this class if you like. We will primarily use the following applications during the course:
- Microsoft Surface SDK
- Lego Mindstorms NXT
- Arduino development environment
- Phidgets development environment
- DreamWeaver
Each student should back up her work onto memory sticks and/or their FirstClass accounts.
Each final project team will be given a computer account on the CS file server where all project files (code, web pages, pictures, video) should be stored. Details on this account will be provided in class. In addition each final project team will be given a sub-conference within the course FirstClass conference.
Schedule
| Date | Topics | Reading and Assignments |
|---|---|---|
| Tue, 8/30 | Introduction and historic overview of TUIs, course logistics |
Shaer & Hornecker Chap. 1, 2 (e-reserve) HW1 out |
| Fri, 9/2 | Survey of TUIs, mapping the design space |
Tangible Bits (e-reserve) |
| Tue, 9/6 | Introduction to Physical Computing | Shaer & Hornecker Chap. 7 (e-reserve) send the instructor a link to your blog |
| Fri, 9/9 | Sensors Lab | HW1B in, P0 out |
| Tue, 9/13 | Ideation Lab | send the instructor a list of your team members (before class) |
| Fri, 9/16 | Sensors Lab |
|
| Tue, 9/20 | Conceptual development lab | Tangible Interaction (Hornecker & Buur e-reserve), Solid diagrams. P0 in, P1 out Blog check-up |
| Fri, 9/23 | Introduction to surface computing | Informing the Design of Direct Touch Tabletops (e-reserve) |
| Tue, 9/27 | Surface lab | Users defined gestures for Surface Computing (e-reserve) |
| Fri, 9/30 | Prototyping lab | Developing for MS Surface chap. 0 and 3, Controls and XAML (e-reserve) |
| Tue, 10/4 | Surface lab | |
| Fri, 10/7 | Prototyping lab | Developing for MS Surface chap. 5 and 7 |
| Tue, 10/11 | Fall break (no class) | |
| Fri, 10/14 | Prototyping lab | |
| Tue, 10/18 | Surface lab | |
| Fri, 10/21 | Conceptual design presentations |
|
| Tue, 10/25 | Surface Lab
|
The state-transition model of input (e-reserve)
|
| Fri, 10/28 | Prototyping lab | Shaer & Hornecker Chap. 6 |
| Tue, 11/1 | Tanner (no class) | Shaer & Hornecker Chap. 3, 5 (e-reserve) |
| Fri, 11/4 | Conceptual foundations | |
| Tue, 11/8 |
Proof of concept presentations Prototyping |
The computer of the 21st century P2 in, HW3 Out |
| Fri, 11/11 | GHC (prototyping lab) |
Move to Design / Design to Move: A Conversation About Designing for the Body (e-reserve) |
| Tue, 11/15 | Prototyping lab |
|
| Fri, 11/18 | Midterm exam (in class) | |
| Tue, 11/22 | Rapid prototyping technologies | project check-up, substraction, addition (e-reserve) |
| Fri, 11/25 | Thanksgiving (no class) | |
| Tue, 11/29 | Actuation | HW3 in |
| Fri, 12/2 | Future directions |
|
| Tue, 12/6 | Final presentations - class starts at 12:30 pm | Class starts at 12:30, lunch will be served P3 in |