A Demonstration of Haptic Retargeting: Dynamic Repurposing of Passive Haptics for Enhanced Virtual Reality Experiences

Musician creating music in the 3D interactive space.

The paper describes a toolkit that integrates spatially-aware multi-surface systems with mixed-reality approaches to create immersive collaborative environments. The toolkit integrates multiple digital displays and multiple Microsoft HoloLens devices with multiple Kinects. The HoloLens allow several users to look at the same virtual hologram while the Kinects enable them to use body movements to interact with these holograms as well as with other digital surfaces in a space. Effectively, the toolkit enables its users to build collaborative applications that utilize digital displays as well as the space between them to interact with information. Our approach also facilitates the management of virtual objects and overcomes gesture restrictions of HoloLens. We use the toolkit in a prototype application for improving the efficiency and response time in emergency management.

ABOVE WATER is a game that disseminates information about Clinical Anxiety Disorders, particularly Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Panic Disorder. This game focuses on teaching players about treatments as well as providing a safe space for discussion of personal experiences. This game focuses on using the physical world (physical space, physical and tangible cards) and the digital world (accessible by any phone or tablet with a modern web browser) as part of its gameplay.

Actibles are an open source hardware/software platform for creating active tangibles. Actibles contain a smartwatch core, which eases both hardware and software development, and enables application developers to leverage various web technologies. The smartwatch core is augmented by custom hardware that enables an expanded set of tangible interactions, including shaking, tilting, stacking and neighbouring, as well as on-screen gestures and integrated LED feedback. Actibles can be used both independently or in conjunction with other devices, such as interactive tabletops. We describe the Actible's technical specifications and demonstrate several example applications.

We present BacPack for New Frontiers, an interactive museum exhibit that introduces core synthetic biology concepts to visitors through tangible, multi-touch, and physical interaction. The exhibit engages users in the design and engineering of bacteria, which are helpful in extreme environments like Mars. This project aims to allow museum visitors to play and tinker with biology through tangible and multi-touch interactions that bridge size and time scales. Here we present the design, implementation, and preliminary evaluation of this exhibit.

CHI PLAYGUE is a conference game designed to facilitate interaction among strangers and encourage social networking to create a community.

ControllAR facilitates the appropriation of rich visual feedback on control surfaces through remixing of graphical user interfaces and augmented reality display.

We explore the design of a wearable computing solution for first responders. Wearable devices have many uses, but commercial devices are not suitable for emergency response. First responders face high risk and volatile situations, and wearables possess significant potential to keep responders safe. A lack of understanding exists when designing wearables for first responders. Existing research focuses on the physical implementation of various sensors, rather than usability. Combining literature and extensive interviews, we devise design guidelines for responder-oriented wearable systems. We propose a prototype system, and discuss early feedback from responders.

Biological data is becoming so complex, it is difficult for scientists and other professionals to interpret and understand it. New tools are needed to better support the manipulation and understanding of data in order to improve analyses and the formation of new hypotheses. Tangible mtDNA is an active tangible and tabletop system that allows multiple users with diverse expertise to collaborate in exploring and understanding mitochondrial DNA sequencing data in breast cancer patients. In an evaluation of the system, 5 expert biologists found it to be effective for data exploration and useful in supporting understanding, collaboration and discussion of DNA datasets.

Our system based on a tablet computer and a stylus for learning the experts’ skill.

Large interactive displays presenting useful content responding to users' actions are becoming ubiquitous in public places such as museums and campuses. Being an integral part of the surrounding environment, a major design challenge is to first attract passersby's attention and entice them to interact. One promising approach is to incorporate proxemics parameters to guide how the content are visually presented. In this paper we describe the design of a field experiment using user-display distances in determining how visual content was displayed, and its deployment at a university campus with frequent foot traffic. We also offer some selection criteria for reference when conducting a field experiment with public large interactive displays.

We present a scientific outreach game designed, developed, and deployed to support an open house event at an Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC). This demo accompanies our ISS 2016 paper.

Rapid selection with HM-Finger by chunking two sequential actions.

Tunnel Divisions is designed for transitory public spaces, as shown above. In these spaces it augments the experience by using movement in a space to generate a sound composition.