Hidden Agenda: An interactive agenda was implemented on a digital tabletop with different sets of tangible artifacts representing appointments or tools for searching through the agenda. These two sets of artifacts were compared in a comparative evaluation, together with a third version combining the two sets. It turned out that the personality trait introversion-extraversion was related to the preference of the participants. Extravert personalities preferred the set representing the appointments, while the introvert personalities preferred the combination set.
Collaboration: Thierry Blanc (CS-M), Koen van Boerdonk (ID-M), Xavier Gachet (CS-M), Thomas de Wolf (ID-M), Elena Mugellini PhD (CS-staff) and Francois Kilchoer PhD (CS-staff)
Co-located Digital Photo Sharing: We found that when watching digital photos together with friends behind a pc the person owning the computer determines
what will be viewed and for how long, he is in control of the keyboard and mouse. This occurred in both situations: story-telling (when the visitor was not present when the photos were taken) and
reminiscing talk (when the visitor was present when the photo owner took the photo). To distribute control more evenly over photo owner and visitor with respect to the digital photo
sharing activity a tangible user interface was designed which requires input from both photo owner as well as visitor to move to the next or previous photo. In a user
study we found that this decreased the control of the photo owner and increased the control for the visitor, while increasing the fun for both parties in both types of photo
sharing.
Old Skool Games: This project analyzed the strengths of the age-old marble game, which is still popular today.
Knowing these strengths, e.g. the social interactions during the game, but also the possibility to improve your skills, several concepts were
created to enhance the traditional marble game. Through several user studies and design iterations, this resulted
in the Marbowl. This is a moving marble hole that can detect marbles entering the hole and from which direction. After a marble hits home the bowl starts
moving away from the direction where the marble came. Marbowl also contains light sensors and will steer away from obstacles. We found that this addition
of technology increased the fun experience but also opportunities for open-ended play.
Flourishing Future: Flourishing Future is a digital tabletop game for children built as a carrier for three studies.
One study looked at the potential of physical sounds, meaning tangible artifacts that make their own sounds (without using electronics, but
through physical elements inside the artifact that can move, collide, scrape). Physical sounds depend on the way the artifact is manipulated.
Another study looked at how two ways of designing the tangible play pieces can support collaborative interactions. One set of tangibles was
designed to support cooperative gestures and the other one not. We found that the first set resulted in more collaborative interactions between
the playing children. The third study focused on the design of an individual artifact and more specifically the effect of the hardness of the artifact
on the opinion the children had of the artifact. E.g. children think hard objects are more boring, sad and old-fashioned, while the soft objects are
more cute, speedy and warm.
Totti: This project consisted of two studies based on the design of the digital tabletop game Totti, which
was designed for children. One study focused on the design of the play pieces and the level of abstractness of these designs. It turned out
that children as well as adults understood the more abstract game artifacts better than the more realistic artifacts. The second study focused
on supporting children to collaborate during the game by increasing the level of collaboration needed when the game progresses. We showed that
children indeed used more collaborative interactions in later levels of the game, in particular verbal and gestural interactions. The children
did not look at each other more (another type of collaborative interaction), since their eyes were focused on the digital tabletop.
Touch me dare: This interactive installation was specifically designed to facilitate a meeting between two strangers
at a festival. If people on both sides of the installation touch the same location a music sample is played. By increasing the surface of contact
the music is influenced. We found that even though people cannot see each other, they still thought that after some interactions they really knew
the person on the other side.
Weathergods: The digital tabletop game Weathergods was implemented to study different designs of tangible interaction.
Two sets of physical play pieces were designed: iconic (there is a relation between the physical appearance and the associated digital information)
and symbolic (there is no relation between physical appearance and digital information). It turned out that the fun experience and understanding of
the game was similar for both sets, but the understanding of the play pieces was higher with the iconic play pieces and participants preferred to play
with the iconic play pieces.