Paper Reading #11: Multitoe: High-Precision Interaction with Back-Projected Floors Based on High-Resolution Multi-Touch Input

• Title:
• Multitoe: High-Precision Interaction with Back-Projected Floors Based on High-Resolution Multi-Touch Input
• Reference Information:
• Thomas Augsten, Konstantin Kaefer, Ren\&\#233; Meusel, Caroline Fetzer, Dorian Kanitz, Thomas Stoff, Torsten Becker, Christian Holz, and Patrick Baudisch. 2010. Multitoe: high-precision interaction with back-projected floors based on high-resolution multi-touch input.  In <em>Proceedings of the 23nd annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology</em> (UIST '10). ACM, New York, NY, USA,  209-218. DOI=10.1145/1866029.1866064 http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1866029.1866064
• UIST 2010 New York, New York.
• Author Bios:
• Thomas Augsten is a masters student at the Hasso Plattner Institute in Potsdam Germany.
• Konstantin Kaefer develops web applications.  Kaefer is a full time student at the Hasso Plattener Institute.
• Rene Meusel is a student at the Hasso Plattner Institute who develops various projects, such as a construction game for the iPhone.  Meusel is also interested in photography.
• Caroline Fetzer is another student at the Hasso Plattner Institute.  This paper was her first publication.
• Dorian Kanitz researcher at the Hasso Plattner Institute.  
• Thomas Stoff researcher at the Hasso Plattner Institute, first publication.
• Torsten Becker a graduate student at the Hasso Plattner Institute.  Specializes in human-computer interaction as well as mobile and embedded devices.
• Christian Holz a Ph.D. student in Germany.  Recently published a paper titled "Imaginary Phone" to appear in UIST 11.
• Patrick Baudisch earned his PhD in Computer Science from Darmstadt University of Technology in Germany.  Prior to becoming a professor at Hasso Plattner Institute, Baudisch reasearched adaptive systems and interactions at both Microsoft Research and Xerox PARC.
• Summary
• Hypothesis:
• The researchers hypothesized that an interactive display can be created to handle tens of thousands of items in a way that maintained accurate and convenient input methods.  In particular, they desired to create a floor that both displayed information as well as accepted input in the form of foot gestures and postures.  Additionally, they wanted to avoid awkward interactions with the device, such as walking across the entire surface to reach a menu or creating walking paths to avoid unwanted input.
• Methods
• The floor is composed of a screen, followed by a layer of acrylic with 34mm glass below that.  The glass installed in the lab was 1.2 tons and they only installed one small section for testing purposes.  They utilized frustrated total internal reflection for the input detection.  The researchers held a few small studies in order to better understand potential interactions utilizing feet.  For example, they had a study to help determine appropriate 'selection' gestures.
• Results
• Based on the studies, the researchers developed appropriate software solutions for various problems.  Selection of a context menu occurred when a user jumped on the floor.  Selection 'points' are set by the user, allowing them to select items as naturally as possible.  Virtual keyboards do not have to have extremely large buttons, this would actually make the typing process more uncomfortable for users since they have to reach to get to the key they want.
• Contents
• The paper demonstrated several features of the interactive device.  One of these features were additional degrees of freedom, effectively partitioning the foot into additional sections (as opposed to simply 'ball' and 'heel' sections).  When this is done it allows for a much greater array of input gestures.  So many, in fact, that researchers enabled users to play a first person shooter game using only their feet as input for the game.  This paper lays the foundation for the development of extremely large interactive displays that are not possible utilizing traditional touch input methods alone.
• Discussion
• The researchers certainly accomplished their goal with this paper.  They have continued their research by building an alternative, and larger, version of the floor.  Demonstration videos posted online show some of the features discussed in the paper, such as typing on a keyboard. Allowing users to stroll freely across displays without the fear of accidentally interacting with them is a powerful development and is essentially the key for achieving their goals.  Personally, I am just curious about alternative input methods.  I like what the researchers have done, but I don't feel as if foot interaction is always appropriate.  Allowing various input methods in additional to the feet gestures would, in my opinion, make this an even more powerful device.

Picture Source: " Multitoe: High-Precision Interaction with Back-Projected Floors Based on High-Resolution Multi-Touch Input"