User Interaction with self-supporting free-form physical objects

该项目的主要目标是通过利用声学悬浮原理悬浮和移动大量轻质3D物体，通过动态创建和操纵物理形状来增强人机交互。所提出的想法如图1所示，其中一个超声波换能器被放置在地板垫上，一大群聚苯乙烯珠子形成了可以摇尾巴的狗的形状。这将使我们能够以物理形式表示复杂的数据集，并允许用户动态地操作它。我们现在正从传统的人机交互技术，如按键、键盘和鼠标转向触摸（如智能手机和多点触摸手势）和非触摸交互（如Kinect和Leap Motion控制器）。具有讽刺意味的是，这些新形式的互动的限制因素是，缺乏任何实体和任何共同定位的反馈。人们没有控制器或界面元素来进行物理触摸和交互，并且可能可用的视觉反馈与手势的位置断开。在我们的愿景中，计算机将控制由“悬浮原子”组成的复杂悬浮物体的存在、形式和外观。用户可以触摸到悬浮的物体，感受它，操纵它，并听到他们如何根据悬浮物体在半空中的位置产生的所有反馈使其变形，就像现实生活中的物体一样。这将改变人们使用技术的方式，因为他们可以像在自然环境中与真实物体互动一样与技术互动。我们看到了物理化对个人和社会的许多可能的好处：它们通过利用我们的感知探索技能，通过主动感知、深度感知、非视觉感官和多式联运感知，使数据更容易获得；为视障人士提供新的探索机会；通过直接操作实物的认知益处来支持学习；将数据带到现实世界进行交流和展示；最后，作为吸引观众的工具。

The primary goal of this project is enhance human-computer interaction by dynamically creating and manipulating physical shapes by levitating and moving a large collections of lightweight 3D objects using principles of acoustic levitation. The proposed idea is illustrated in Figure 1 where one ultrasound transducers is placed as a floor mat and a large collection of polystyrene beads create the shape of a dog that can wag its tail. This will enable us to represent complex datasets in a physical form and allow users to dynamically manipulate it. We are now moving away from traditional human-computer interaction techniques like buttons, keyboards and mice to touch (e.g., Smartphones and multi-touch gestures) and touchless interactions (as with the Kinect and Leap Motion controllers). The limiting factor in these new forms of interactions is, ironically, the lack of any physicality and lack of any co-located feedback. One has no controller or interface element to physically touch and interact with and the visual feedback that may be available is disconnected from the location of the gesture.In our vision, the computer will control the existence, form, and appearance of complex levitating objects composed of "levitating atoms". Users can reach into the levitating matter, feel it, manipulate it, and hear how they deform it with all feedback originating from the levitating object's position in mid-air, as it would with objects in real life. This will change how people use technology as they can interact with technology in the same way they would with real objects in their natural environment.We see many possible benefits of physicalisations for the individual and society: they make data more accessible by leveraging our perceptual exploration skills via active perception, depth perception, non-visual senses, and intermodal perception; give novel exploration possibilities to the visually impaired; support learning via cognitive benefits of direct manipulation of physical artefacts; bring data to the real world for communication and exhibition and; and finally act as tools for engaging audiences with information.