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Kickables: tangibles for feet

Published: 26 April 2014 Publication History

Abstract

We introduce the concept of tangibles that users can manipulate with their feet. We call them kickables. Unlike traditional tangibles, kickables allow for very large interaction surfaces as kickables reside on the ground. The main benefit of kickables over other foot-based modalities, such as foot touch, is their strong affordance, which we validate in two user studies. This affordance makes kickables well-suited for walk-up installations, such as tradeshows or museum exhibits.
We present a custom design as well as five families of standard kickables to help application designers create kickable applications faster. Each family supports multiple standard controls, such as push buttons, switches, dials, and sliders. Each type explores a different design principle, in particular different mechanical constraints. We demonstrate an implementation on our pressure-sensing floor.

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    cover image ACM Conferences
    CHI '14: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
    April 2014
    4206 pages
    ISBN:9781450324731
    DOI:10.1145/2556288
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    Published: 26 April 2014

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    Author Tags

    1. affordance.
    2. foot-based interaction
    3. interactive floor
    4. tangibles

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    April 26 - May 1, 2014
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    • (2024)Exploring the Design Space of Input Modalities for Working in Mixed Reality on Long-haul FlightsProceedings of the 2024 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference10.1145/3643834.3661560(2267-2285)Online publication date: 1-Jul-2024
    • (2023)ThrowIO: Actuated TUIs that Facilitate “Throwing and Catching” Spatial Interaction with Overhanging Mobile Wheeled RobotsProceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3544548.3581267(1-17)Online publication date: 19-Apr-2023
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    • (2021)Elevate: A Walkable Pin-Array for Large Shape-Changing TerrainsProceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3411764.3445454(1-11)Online publication date: 6-May-2021
    • (2021)Towards On-the-wall Tangible Interaction: Using Walls as Interactive, Dynamic, and Responsive User InterfaceExtended Abstracts of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3411763.3451586(1-6)Online publication date: 8-May-2021
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