Embodied Interaction

Project Overview

Are tangible and whole body interfaces more natural and intuitive? Such claims rely on several premises. One premise is that leveraging metaphorical mappings between an image (embodied) schematic action and metaphorically related system response should improve performance and learning with such interfaces. The second premise suggests that learning a new system interface may be simplified by offloading memory from the purely cognitive realm to the realm of interactions between the body and environment. The body may remember where the mind does not. These three projects explore these and other premises of embodied interaction in tangible and interactive environments.

Springboard Studies: Connecting Body Balance with Meanings of Balance

This project involves a set of studies in which we explore the usability and user experience benefits of using image schema-based conceptual metaphors of BALANCE to structure the relation between input actions and digital representations of abstract concepts in whole body environments. Springboard’s interaction layer was designed to connect spatial-balance and body-balance with meanings of balance in social justice and math. As the user moves their body in and out of balance, they affect the display of digital images and sounds that represent different concepts of balance.

MoSo Tangibles Study

MoSo Tangibles are a set of nine tangible sound making objects faciliate the exploration of the benefits of various embodied schemata that structure understandings of musical sound parameters (e.g., volume, tempo, pitch).

Sound Maker Studies

Sound Maker is an interactive environment that faciliates the exploration of the benefits of various embodied schemata that structure understandings of musical sound parameters (e.g., volume, tempo, pitch).

December 2007: These videos show short segments of pairs of adult participants exploring and/or succeeding at various sound making pattern tasks using the third prototype of The SoundsMaker (aka Beatniks) System.

  • Speed-Tempo1. Descriptor: Exploring Speed-Tempo relationship in the inuitive system. [.M4V video 2.2MB]
  • Speed-Tempo2. Descriptor: Demonstrating Speed-Tempo relationship in the inuitive system. [.M4V video 1.7MB]
  • Proximity-Pitch. Descriptor: Exploring Proximity-Pitch (Discoverable) in the inuitive system. [.M4V video 664KB]
  • Flow-Rhythm. Descriptor: Exploring Flow (Synchronous & smooth verus Asynchronous & choppy)-Rhythm in the inuitive system. [High resolution Quicktime 200MB]
  • Spatial Mental Models. Descriptor: Particpants verbally and gesturally make spatial references in nonintuitive system. [.M4V video 2.1MB]

Publications

Aaron May. 2015. Eliciting user-sourced interaction mappings for body-based interfaces. Master's thesis. Simon Fraser University, Surrey, Canada.

Alissa, N. Antle, Greg Corness, and Allen Bevans. 2013. Balancing justice: Comparing whole body and controller-based interaction for an abstract domain. International Journal of Arts and Technology 6, 4 (2013), 388-409.

Macaranas, Anna, Alissa N. Antle, and Bernhard E. Riecke. 2012. Bridging the gap: Attribute and spatial metaphors for tangible interface design. In Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction(TEI’12). ACM New York, NY, USA, 161-168.

Bakker, Saskia, Alissa N. Antle, and Elise Van Den Hoven. 2012. Embodied metaphors in tangible interaction design. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing. ACM 16, 4 (April 2012), 433-449.

Alissa, N. Antle, Greg Corness, and Allen Bevans. 2011. Springboard: Designing image schema based embodied interaction for an abstract domain. In Whole Body Interaction . Springer, London.

Droumeva, Milena, Alissa N. Antle, Greg Corness, and Allen Bevans. 2009. Springboard: Exploring embodied metaphor in the design of sound feedback for physical responsive environments. In Proceedings of International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD ’09). Georgia Tech SMARTech,1-4.

Bakker, Saskia, Alissa N. Antle, and Elise Van Den Hoven. 2009. Identifying embodied metaphors in children's sound-action mappings. In Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children (IDC ’09). ACM,140-149.

Antle, A.N., Fernaeus, Y. and Marshall, P. (2009) Embodied child computer interaction: Seeking common ground for research, Proceedings of Interaction Design for Children (IDC '09),ACM Press (Lake Como, Italy, June 3-5, 2009), 306-308

Antle, Alissa N., Greg Corness, and Milena Droumeva. 2009. Springboard: exploring embodiment, balance and social justice. In CHI'09 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA’09). ACM, 3961-3966.

Alissa, N. Antle, Greg Corness, and Milena Droumeva. 2009. What the body knows: Exploring the benefits of embodied metaphors in hybrid physical digital environments. Interacting with Computers. Oxford University Press 21,1-2 (Jan. 2009), 66-75. [No.6 journal in HCI in Google Scholar metrics, h5 factor 32]

Alissa N. Antle. 2009. LIFELONG INTERACTIONS: Embodied child computer interaction: Why embodiment matters. Interactions. ACM 16, 2 ( March + April 2009), 27-30.

Alissa, N. Antle, Greg Corness, and Milena Droumeva. 2009. Human-computer-intuition? Exploring the cognitive basis for intuition in embodied interaction. International Journal of Arts and Technology. Inderscience Enterprises Ltd., 2, 3 (2009), 235-254. [New high quality journal]

Alissa N. Antle, Greg Corness, Saskia Bakker, Milena Droumeva, Elise Van Den Hoven, and Allen Bevans. 2009. Designing to support reasoned imagination through embodied metaphor. In Proceedings of the Seventh ACM Conference on Creativity and Cognition. ACM, 275-284.

Alissa N. Antle, Milena Droumeva, and Greg Corness. 2008. Playing with the sound maker: Do embodied metaphors help children learn?. In Proceedings of Conference on Interaction Design for Children (IDC ’08). ACM press,178-185.