PINS push in and POUTS pop out: creating a tangible pin-board that ejects physical documents

There is an asymmetry in many tangible interfaces: while phicons can be used to manipulate digital information, the reverse is often not possible ? the digital world cannot push back. We describe a tangible pin-board that pushes back by physically ejecting paper documents when they are digitally deleted. This is realized using pouts, addressable pin-like devices that communicate with a Pin&Play board and that can eject themselves by contracting an internal Muscle Wire actuator to trigger a mechanical latch. To demonstrate and begin to evaluate the technology we have developed an initial application of pouts involving a game where online players vote to eject physical pictures from a pin-board. ACM Classification: H.5.2 [Information Interfaces and Presentation]: User Interfaces ? prototyping, interaction styles; H.5.1 [Multimedia Information Systems]: Artificial, augmented and virtual realities.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2005
• Where: CHI
• Authors: Kher Hui Ng, Steve Benford, Boriana Koleva
• Keywords: CHI 2005, Human Computer Interaction, Muscle Wire Actuator, Tangible Interfaces, Tangible Pin-board