Blog - Paper Reading #12

Enabling Beyond-Surface Interactions for Interactive Surface with An Invisible Projection

Authored by Li-Wei Chan, Hsiang-Tao Wu, Hui-Shan Kao, Ju-Chun Ko, Home-Ru Lin, Mike Y. Chen, Jane Hsu, and Yi-Ping Hung.

Hsu and Hung are professors at the National Taiwan University. The remaining authors are all students at NTU. This paper was published at the UIST '10 Proceedings of the 23nd annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology.

Summary

Hypothesis
The authors hypothesized that their infrared tools could be used to interact with display surfaces supporting multi-touch interaction.

Methods
The team used a variety of tools. They used an infrared lamp, a flashlight, and a 3D image viewer implemented on a tablet pc. They had several users utilize their tools to inspect a map on an interactive surface. These tools could be used to reveal hidden detail in the maps or to view available photos for certain areas.

Results
The team stated that results were positive, but most of what was listed were complaints. Users found the flashlight difficult to use, as the height was not fixed. Additionally they wanted to be able to view 3D images at higher elevations, which was not supported. The design did work as they planned however, the infrared tools allowed viewers to examine hidden elements on the map without interfering with touch based manipulation.

Content
The paper begins by describing the technical details of the implementation of their setup. They describe how the surface was put together and what each of the infrared tools are composed of. Towards the end there is a small user study with vague feedback. 

Discussion

I do not feel the authors completed their objective. It may be in part because I do not clearly understand what their objective was. The paper is too technical, and has very little detail when it comes to the actual user study. This may be a significant development, but I fail to see how. I don't know what use handheld devices would have for infrared markers on interactive surfaces. The examples they used to demonstrate their product seemed to be more effective when using the interactive surface as it was intended. The infrared tools did not seem to bring anything new to the table. Future work is questionable.