Tailored Controls: Creating Personalized Tangible User Interfaces from Paper

Abstract

User interfaces rarely adapt to the specific user preferences orthe task at hand. We present a method that allows to quickly and inexpensively create personalized interfaces from plain paper. Users can cut out shapes and assign control functions to these paper snippets via a simple configuration interface. After configuration, control takes place entirely through the manipulation of the paper shapes, providing the experience ofa tailored tangible user interface. The shapes and assignments can be dynamically changed during use. Our system is based on markerless tracking of the user’s fingers and the paper shapes on a surface using an RGBD camera mounted above theinteraction space, which is the only hardware sensor required. Our approach and system are backed up by two studies where we determined what shapes and interaction abstractions users prefer, and verified that users can indeed employ our system to build real applications with paper snippet interfaces.