InterCUBE: A study into merging action and interaction spaces

Abstract

We describe the development of a novel tangible interface we call the InterCUBE, a cube-shaped device with no external buttons or widgets. We study the implications of such a shape in terms of interactions, notably the degrees of freedom available and the manipulations possible. We also explain and investigate the merging of the action, perception and interaction spaces, and we design the InterCUBE interaction accordingly. To investigate the system we have implemented a demonstration application: a shopping menu, in which users can navigate through a menu simply by turning the cube in either one of the four possible directions. We have evaluated the InterCUBE in comparison to an equivalent mouse based interface and discuss the results. © IFIP International Federation for Information Processing 2007.