Paper Reading #13: Multitoe: High-Precision Interaction with Back-Projected Floors Based on High-Resolution Multi-Touch Input

Comments:
Vince Kocks
Shena Hoffmann

Reference Information:
Title: Multitoe: High-Precision Interaction with Back-Projected Floors Based on High-Resolution     Multi-Touch Input
Authors: Thomas Augsten, Konstantin Kaefer, René Meusel, Caroline Fetzer, Dorian Kanitz, Thomas Stoff, Torsten Becker, Christian Holz, and Patrick Baudisch
Presentation Venue: UIST’10, October 3–6, 2010, New York, New York, USA
 
Summary:

Most multi-touch systems today are limited to what the user can reach in arm's length. This paper discusses a floor with high-resolution that a user can use their shoes to perform actions with the interface.

Hotspot example

Many factors had to be studied to make this as user friendly as possible. User studies for this project were conducted to make design decisions. A study was done to see what actions users preffered to interact with the floor. From this study the action of tapping, stomping, jumping, and double tapping were seen to be the most recurring. To select an option on the interface the user taps their foot. To invoke a menu the user must jump .A separate study was done to decide what most users considered to be the target area of their shoe. The study showed that most users used the projection of their shoe. The point of having a large display is to have more room for material. What if there are many buttons and they need to be scaled down to fit in the desired area? A last study was done to see what users considered to be a hotspot for their shoe. This is one little pressure spot that can be used for more precision. From the study it was decided to allow the user to personalize the hotspot used.

identifying a user

Different algorithms were discussed on how to identify users and how to distinguish walking vs tapping. A database of soles are kept to try and identify users who use the system. To check whether the user is walking or interacting the system compares pressure points to a "time line". If somebody is walking there is a general pattern for pressure on the foot. This can be seen in the picture below.

Pressure on somebodies foot as they walk

If the user is tapping then the time line would look like nothing, pressure on the ball, nothing.

Discussion:
This paper was cool to read and I enjoyed it because there wasn't too much technical involved. The idea of this kind of large scale multi-touch system sounds really cool but I'm not quite sure when it will be extremely useful. I think in certain environments, like a large corporation, this could be useful in some cases but for me to use this would take a lot of getting used to.

However, this system is not about trying to instantly get everybody to switch to a foot based multi-touch system. I feel its about trying to evolve the idea into something useful and more practical.