Authored by Malte Weiss, FLorian SChwarz, Simon Jakubowski, Jan Borchers
Summary
Hypothesis
The authors hypothesize that tangible madgets will provide a useful way of interacting with widgets on an led surface. They also felt they could achieve a design that was simple to prototype and required no internal power supply.
Methods
For the display a TFT panel backlit by electroluminescent foil was used. The acryclic surface reflects diffused IR light into fiber optic cables to detect touch. Electromagnets positioned underneath the surface are wrapped in custom made shields to control their interaction with madgets.
Results
Using their design specifications the authors were able to create a flexible, lightweight widget that took less than an hour to manufacture. Their implementation for magnetic actuation was fully functional. They also designed a toolkit to ease integration of new actuated widgets into use with interactive surfaces.
Content
The focus of this paper is the design of madgets. It discusses anecdotal work that influenced the project, before detailing the construction of their surface. The paper then addresses the design constraints for the madgets themselves before discussing their construction. It then examines the uses of madgets through several models designed in the lab.
Discussion
I believe the authors achived their aims. Madgets are exceedingly easy to construct and are simply activated on the interactive surface. The paper lacked user studies, but this was more of a concept project. I do find it interesting that the authors hoped to design a product that could be manufactured on the fly for immediate use with an interactive tabletop. The thought of being able to design my own physical tools for use with a computer is quite intriguing. I would have liked to have seen more testing being done on the practical use of madgets, but I suppose that falls to future work.
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