TAGGED HANDLES (2000)

Tagged Handles: Merging Discrete and Continuous Control

Discrete and continuous modes of manual control are fundamentally different: buttons select or change state, while handles persistently modulate an analog parameter. User interfaces for many electronically aided tasks afford only one of these modes when both are needed. This research describes an integration of two kinds of physical interfaces—tagged objects and force feedback—that enable seamless execution of multimodal tasks while applying the benefits of physicality. The research also demonstrates application scenarios with conceptual and engineering prototypes with an emphasis on sharing insights gained in a design case study and expert user reactions.

Publications

Maclean, K., Snibbe, S., and Levin, G., Tagged Handles: Merging Discrete and Continuous Control. ACM CHI Proceedings April 2000.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This research was conducted at Interval Research Corporation. We are grateful to the Haptics and Tangible Interfaces teams for their support, and in particular to Eric Dishman, Terry Winograd, Bill Verplank, Cy De Groat, John Anany, Brad Niven and Mark McCabe.