Student Project
December 2004

Towards a Playful User Interface for Home Entertainment Systems

Florian Block
Supervisor: Albrecht Schmidt

Abstract

In my work I propose a tangible cube as an input device for playfully changing between different TV-channels. First I consider several design approaches and compare them. Based on a cube that has embedded gravity sensing and wireless communication capabilities a prototype is implemented. A 3D graphical representation of the cube is shown on the television screen. On each face of the cube a TV stream is rendered. The motion of the cube on the screen is connected to the rotation the user performs using the real tangible cube. I report on a user study in witch I found out that users can easily use the cube without instructions and, despite technical limitations, see it as an improvement of current systems. Finally I discuss the issues that emerged from user’s feedback.

Overview

1.         Introduction
2.         Idea and Initial User Feedback
3.         Implementation
3.1.      System Architecture
3.2.      Tangible UI and Receiver Unit
3.2.1.    Original hardware and first driver implementation
3.2.2.    Y-Rotation and missing sensing capabilities
3.2.3.    Customized hardware and matched driver implementation
3.3.      Screen Interface and Visualization
4.         Usage of the system
5.         User Study
5.1.      Participants
5.2.      Measurements
5.3.      Procedure
5.4.      Data collection
5.5.      Results
5.5.1.    Independent rating scale
5.5.2.    Dependent rating scale
5.5.3.    Post test questionnaire
5.5.4.    Summary
6.         Discussion
7.         Acknowledgement

Download Paper

Here you can download the full paper.

Code Downloads

My C# Complete Library for Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003 (needed for all the following applications, including classes for serial IO, real time graphs, extended collections, stream parsers etc.)
Cube3A Analyzer (Real time analysis of accelerometers data via serial port)
Cube3A Media Application (Media application using the cubicle as input device to create a 3D screen interface to zap between 6 media streams. Media files not included)

All the applications need a valid reference pointing to the Complete Library.

Contact

If you have any problems or issues concerning my project just send me an e-mail to block@informatik.uni-muenchen.de.

Student Project December 2004

Towards a Playful User Interface for Home Entertainment Systems Florian Block Supervisor: Albrecht Schmidt