Ken Nakagaki. 2020. Mechanical Shells: Physical Add-ons for Extending and Reconfiguring the Interactivities of Actuated TUIs. In Adjunct Publication of the 33rd Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST '20 Adjunct). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 151–156. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1145/3379350.3415801

Abstract

In this paper, I introduce a concept of mechanical shells, which are physical add-ons that can adaptively augment, extend, and reconfigure the interactivities of self-actuated tangible user interfaces (TUIs). While a variety of research explores actuated and shape-changing interfaces for providing dynamic physical affordance and tangible displays, the concept of mechanical shell intends to overcome the constraint of existing generic actuated TUI hardware thereby enabling greater versatility and expression. This paper overviews the mechanical shell concept, describes project examples, outlines a research framework, and suggests open space for future research.