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Editorial 397
J P Wilson, A S Fotheringham, and G J Hunter
Guest Editorial
Search Procedures for Geographers, By Geographers and Using Geographers 401
O McNoleg
Research Articles
Tangible User Interfaces (TUIs): A Novel Paradigm for GIS 407
C Ratti, Y Wang, H Ishii, B Piper, and D Frenchman
Using GIS to Model Incidence, Prevalence and Spread of Non-legal Drug Use 423
K Field and L Beale
Partitioning Spatial Model Uncertainty Based on Joint Spatial Simulation 441
G Z Gertner, S Fang, G Wang, and A Anderson
Data Integration Issues for a Farm Decision Support System 459
M Jones and G Taylor
Spatial Differences in Multi-Resolution Urban Automata Modeling 479
C Dietzel and K C Clarke
A Parameterized Representation of Uncertain Conceptual Spaces 493
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Vo l ume 8 I s s u e 4 O c t o b e r 2 0 04 I S SN 1 361 - 1 682
Editors:
John P Wilson, A Stewart Fotheringham, Gary J Hunter
tgis_v8_i4_ofbcover 9/1/04 9:28 PM Page 1

Transactions in GIS

, 2004, 8(4): 407–421
© Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 2004. 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and
350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA.

Research Article

Tangible User Interfaces (TUIs):
A Novel Paradigm for GIS

Carlo Ratti Yao Wang

SENSEable City Laboratory SENSEable City Laboratory
DUSP and Media Lab DUSP and Media Lab
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Hiroshi Ishii Ben Piper

Tangible Media Group, Media Lab Department of Architecture
Massachusetts Institute of Technology University of Cambridge

Dennis Frenchman

City Design and Development Group, DUSP
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Abstract

In recent years, an increasing amount of effort has gone into the design of GIS user
interfaces. On the one hand, Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) with a high degree of
sophistication have replaced line-driven commands of first-generation GIS. On the
other hand, a number of alternative approaches have been suggested, most notably
those based on Virtual Environments (VEs). In this paper we discuss a novel interface
for GIS, which springs from recent work carried out in the field of Tangible User
Interfaces (TUIs). The philosophy behind TUIs is to allow people to interact with
computers via familiar tangible objects, therefore taking advantage of the richness
of the tactile world combined with the power of numerical simulations. Two
experimental systems, named

Illuminating Clay

and

SandScape

, are described here
and their applications to GIS are examined. Conclusions suggest that these interfaces
might streamline the landscape design process and result in a more effective use of
GIS, especially when distributed decision-making and discussion with non-experts
are involved.
Address for correspondence: Carlo Ratti, SENSEable City Laboratory, Room 10-485,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
E-mail: ratti@mit.edu