NONUI

The basic research project non-intrusive user interfaces tries to find new ways of computer-human interaction for publicly accessible installations and non-expert users. At the moment when VR (or any software) installations are opened to public a completely new set of constraints has to be met. The system has to be robust, intuitive, user-friendly�, and common VR interfaces are just the opposite.VR often requires a complicated and intrusive hardware for perceiving and interacting with the environment: head-mounted displays, magnetical trackers, and wires to and from every part of the user, limited working volumes and viewing angles. Our goal is to provide an underlying set of methods which can be used to build user-friendly publicly accessible installations. The project is not intended to develop new highly sophisticated VR devices, but to concentrate more on tangible user interfaces, and usability, and innovative use of of the shelf products. So far we have started to build a framework for testing and implementing various interaction paradigms. The framework makes it possible to connect and test various input devices, such es RFID tags (Radio Frequency ID tag), barcodes,... . The idea is that all components exchange messages via common infrastructure, which makes it possible to quickly test new devices, by simply letting them send appropriate messages. The first prototype, Texture Brush, was build using the framework. It uses only a real brush as an interface. Tangible Image Query, our last year's prototype, was also connected to the framework. All connected components can exchange data, so it is possible to use, for example, tangible image query, as a texture selection tool for texture brush. This linking of various prototypes opens new possibilities and will be further exploited in the future.

Solution/Newness