A Mixed Reality Space for Tangible User Interaction

Recent developments in the field of semi-immersive display technologies provide new possibilities for engaging users in interactive three-dimensional virtual environments (VEs). For instance, combining low-cost tracking systems (such as the Microsoft Kinect) and multi-touch interfaces enables inexpensive and easily maintainable interactive setups. The goal of this work is to bring together virtual as well as real objects on a stereoscopic multi-touch enabled tabletop surface. Therefore, we present a prototypical implementation of such a mixed reality (MR) space for tangible interaction by extending the smARTbox. The smARTbox is a responsive touch-enabled stereoscopic out-of-the-box system that is able to track users and objects above as well as on the surface. We describe the prototypical hard- and software setup which extends this setup to a MR space, and highlight design challenges for the several application examples.

@InProceedings\{FTCSWBPLS12,
  author       = "Fischbach, Martin and Treffs, Christian and Cyborra, David and Strehler, Alexander and Wedler, Thomas and Bruder, Gerd and Pusch, Andreas and Latoschik, Marc E. and Steinicke, Frank",
  title        = "A Mixed Reality Space for Tangible User Interaction",
  booktitle    = "Proceedings of the GI Workshop on Virtual and Augmented Reality (GI VR/AR)",
  pages        = "25--36",
  year         = "2012",
  url          = "http://basilic.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/Publications/2012/FTCSWBPLS12"
}