Mediated tabletop interaction in the biology lab: exploring the design space of the rabbit

Interactive surfaces like diffuse illumination tabletops (DIT) identify and track objects using multiple techniques like shape and color recognition, fiducial markers, electronic components, and RFID tags. However, tracking becomes more complex when dealing with multiple small objects of similar form. We propose to use tangible mediators for integrating such objects to tabletops. This paper reports on our initial explorations of mediated tabletop interaction consisting of a mediator prototype and a design space definition. We built a mediator, the Rabbit, a device that translates the value of an RFID tag into a visual 2D code. The Rabbit rests on the interactive surface, holds the object, reads its passive RFID tag, and converts the read value into a 2D code that can be read by the DIT’s built-in camera. When handling multiple objects, the Rabbit iterates through the generated 2D codes. Through a series of participatory activities with end users (molecular biologists), we collecte...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2011
• Where: HUC
• Authors: Juan David Hincapié-Ramos, Aurélien Tabard, Jakob E. Bardram
• Keywords: Diffuse Illumination, HUC 2011, Human Computer Interaction, Initial Explorations, Interactive Surfaces