Active forms for responsive environments

Scott-Harden, Simon (2012) Active forms for responsive environments. In: ACM International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces, 19-22 March 2012, Santa Monica, California.

Full text not available from this repository. (Request a copy)

Abstract

Active Forms are interactive artefacts that are a focal point of attention for the user. Such devices are interactive and can change shape. They are embedded with both sensors and actuators and are a visualisation and embodiment of some application or service. To be more specific, Active Forms are defined as interactive products or devices that can render content thanks to perceptible changes to their physical form and appearance. We see Active Forms as ideal gateway for the interaction with and the control of Responsive Environments (RE) as defined in [1].

Tangible interaction is the precursor of Active Forms, it was essentially about coupling digital content and physical elements of an interface in an integrating combination. The content is about the internal state of the products and about some of the application(s) and service(s) they support. The tangible interaction focuses on the interface or systems that are physically embodied in the physical artifact. Tangible User Interfaces (TUI) are reactive devices that require a user input to change shape. Active Forms, on the other hand are interactive devices that change shape and appearance. The changes in the Active Forms are a result of either, user actions or internal actuators, both the physical form, such as shape or size, and the appearance, such as colour or temperature, can change.

Within Active Forms, there is a balance to be had between the cognitive load on the user, the selection of modalities, the media bandwidth and the user attention. The aim being to have the Active Forms as the user focus of interaction and attention. We have listed below some of the key features of Active Forms:

- Active Forms are interactive devices that are both reactive to user actions and proactive in displaying information.
- Active Forms are a gateway to applications or services within the RE and there is a change to the internal state of the device.
- The user actions and the device reactions of an Active Form are merged and are spatially co-located.
- Active Forms act as their embodiment, as physical objects, Active Forms also have aesthetic value per se.

The changes in the Active Forms are a result of either, user actions or internal actuators, both the physical form, such as shape or size, and the appearance, such as colour or temperature, can change.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Subjects:	G400 Computer Science G900 Others in Mathematical and Computing Sciences W200 Design studies
Department:	Faculties > Arts, Design and Social Sciences > Design
Depositing User:	Ellen Cole
Date Deposited:	13 Dec 2012 10:09
Last Modified:	10 Oct 2019 23:01
URI:	http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/10705

Downloads