Bringing Clay and Sand into Digital Design — Continuous Tangible user Interfaces

Tangible user interfaces (TUIs) provide physical form to digital information and computation, facilitating the direct manipulation of bits. Our goal in TUI development is to empower collaboration, learning, and decision-making by using digital technology and at the same time taking advantage of huma...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inBT technology journal Vol. 22; no. 4; pp. 287 - 299
Main Authors Ishii, H, Ratti, C, Piper, B, Wang, Y, Biderman, A, Ben-Joseph, E
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Ipswich British Telecommunications PLC 01.10.2004
Subjects
Architects
Collaboration
Decision making
Design
Designers
Digital imaging
Efficiency
Feedback
Geographic information systems
Landscape architecture
Mathematical models
Planning
Professionals
Simulation
Studies
Systems development
User interface
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Summary:Tangible user interfaces (TUIs) provide physical form to digital information and computation, facilitating the direct manipulation of bits. Our goal in TUI development is to empower collaboration, learning, and decision-making by using digital technology and at the same time taking advantage of human abilities to grasp and manipulate physical objects and materials. This paper presents a new generation of TUIs that enable dynamic sculpting and computational analysis using digitally augmented continuous physical materials. These new types of TUI, which we have termed 'Continuous TUIs', offer rapid form giving in combination with computational feedback. Two experimental systems and their applications in the domain of landscape architecture are discussed here, namely 'Illuminating Clay' and 'SandScape'. Our results suggest that by exploiting the physical properties of continuous soft materials such as clay and sand, it is possible to bridge the division between physical and digital forms and potentially to revolutionise the current design process. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]
ISSN:1358-3948
1573-1995
DOI:10.1023/B:BTTJ.0000047607.16164.16