Even ceilings may someday function as
an information display.
munication (such as a handshake). Tangible UIs are
more logical, or manipulation-oriented, whereas
organic UIs are more emotional, or communication-oriented, though more real-world experience is
needed for a rigorous comparison.
Other modalities for interaction. In organic UIs,
hands are still the primary body parts for interaction.
But we should be able to use other parts, as we do in
our natural communications. Eye gaze is one possibility. Another is blowing, which is useful for manipulation because it is controllable while also conveying
emotion during interaction; a technique developed in
[ 6] determines the direction of a blow based on an
acoustic analysis. The BYU-BYU-View system adds
the sensation of air movement to the interaction
between a user and a virtual environment to add reality for telecommunications by delivering information
directly to the skin [ 9].
INTERACTION BETWEEN REAL WORLD AND
COMPUTER
In the context of traditional human-computer
interaction, the term “interaction” generally means
information exchange between a human and a computer. In the near future, interaction will also
involve more physical experience (such as illumination, air, temperature, humidity, and energy). The
interaction concept is thus no longer limited to
interaction between humans and computers but
can be expanded to cover interaction between the
physical world and computers. For example, future
interactive wall systems will react to human gesture,
be aware of the air in the room, and be able to stabilize conditions (such as temperature and humidity) in the same way a cell membrane maintains the
stability of a cell environment. Interactive walls may
also be able to control sound energy to dynamically
create silent spaces. Even ceilings may someday
function as an information display. In this way,
future interactive systems may more seamlessly
interact with and control our physical environments. c
44 June 2008/Vol. 51, No. 6 COMMUNICA TIONS OF THE ACM
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JUN REKIMOTO ( rekimoto@acm.org) is a professor in the Interfac-ulty Initiative in Information Studies at The University of Tokyo and a
director of the Interaction Laboratory at Sony Computer Science
Laboratories, Inc. in Tokyo.
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