Pickcells: A physically reconfigurable cell-composed touchscreen

Goguey, Alix; Steer, Cameron; Lucero, Andrés; Nigay, Laurence; Sahoo, Deepak Ranjan; Coutrix, Céline; Roudaut, Anne; Subramanian, Sriram; Tokuda, Yutaka; Neate, Timothy; Pearson, Jennifer; Robinson, Simon; Jones, Matt

Abstract

Touchscreens are the predominant medium for interactions with digital services; however, their current fixed form factor narrows the scope for rich physical interactions by limiting interaction possibilities to a single, planar surface. In this paper we introduce the concept of PickCells, a fully reconfigurable device concept composed of cells, that breaks the mould of rigid screens and explores a modular system that affords rich sets of tangible interactions and novel across-device relationships. Through a series of co-design activities – involving HCI experts and potential end-users of such systems – we synthesised a design space aimed at inspiring future research, giving researchers and designers a framework in which to explore modular screen interactions. The design space we propose unifies existing works on modular touch surfaces under a general framework and broadens horizons by opening up unexplored spaces providing new interaction possibilities. In this paper, we present the PickCells concept, a design space of modular touch surfaces, and propose a toolkit for quick scenario prototyping.

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (published)
• Conference Name: Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
• Online Publication Date: May 2, 2019
• Publication Date: May 2, 2019
• Deposit Date: Oct 5, 2023
• Pages: 1-14
• Book Title: CHI '19: Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
• ISBN: 9781450359702
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3290605.3300503
• Keywords: Touchscreen, shape changing interface, modular
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/11128933