Prototyping is an important part in research and development of tangible user interfaces (TUIs). On the way from the idea to a working prototype, new hardware prototypes usually have to be crafted repeatedly in numerous iterations. This brings us to think about virtual prototypes that exhibit the same functionality as a real TUI, but reduce the amount of time and resources that have to be spent. Building upon existing open-source software - the middleware Robot Operating System (ROS) and the 3D simulator Gazebo - we have created a toolkit that can be used for developing and testing fully functional implementations of a tangible user interface as a virtual device. The entire interaction between the TUI and other hardware and software components is controlled by the middleware, while the human interaction with the TUI can be explored using the 3D simulator and 3D input output technologies. We argue that by simulating parts of the hardware-software co-design process, the overall development effort can be reduced.
The @cite_14 toolkit enables to build tangible interfaces using computer vision, electronic tags, and bar codes. Owners of a Vicon Tracking system can make use of the rapid prototyping workbench @cite_17 . It allows designing functional interfaces on 3D physical objects of any shape. Other commonly used hardware toolkits are Arduino http: www.arduino.cc , last accessed May ,6, 2014 , Phidgets http: www.phidgets.com , last accessed May ,6, 2014 or iStuff @cite_11 .
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Tangible user interfaces (TUIs) augment the physical world by integrating digital information with everyday physical objects. Currently, building these UIs requires "getting down and dirty" with input technologies such as computer vision. Consequently, only a small cadre of technology experts can currently build these UIs. Based on a literature review and structured interviews with nine TUI researchers, we created Papier-Mâche, a toolkit for building tangible interfaces using computer vision, electronic tags, and barcodes. Papier-Mache introduces a high-level event model for working with these technologies that facilitates technology portability. For example, an application can be prototyped with computer vision and deployed with RFID. We present an evaluation of our toolkit with six class projects and a user study with seven programmers, finding the input abstractions, technology portability, and monitoring window to be highly effective. The iStuff toolkit of physical devices, and the flexible software infrastructure to support it, were designed to simplify the exploration of novel interaction techniques in the post-desktop era of multiple users, devices, systems and applications collaborating in an interactive environment. The toolkit leverages an existing interactive workspace in-frastructure, making it lightweight and platform independent. The supporting software framework includes a dynamically configurable intermediary to simplify the mapping of devices to applications. We describe the iStuff architecture and provide several examples of iStuff, organized into a design space of ubiquitous computing interaction components. The main contribution is a physical toolkit for distributed, heterogeneous environments with run-time retargetable device data flow. We conclude with some insights and experiences derived from using this toolkit and framework to prototype experimental interaction techniques for ubiquitous computing environments. This paper introduces DisplayObjects, a rapid prototyping workbench that allows functional interfaces to be projected onto real 3D physical prototypes. DisplayObjects uses a Vicon motion capture system to track the location of physical models. 3D software renditions of the 3D physical model are then texture-mapped with interactive behavior and projected back onto the physical model to allow real- time interactions with the object. We discuss the implementation of the system, as well as a selection of one and two-handed interaction techniques for DisplayObjects. We conclude with a design case that comments on some of the early design experiences with the system.