Keywords: inTouch

Two separate objects, consisting of three cylindrical rollers mounted on a base. The two sets behave as if corresponding rollers are physically connected.

The idea behind inTouch is to create the illusion that two people, separated by distance, are interacting with a shared physical object. The presence of the other person is thus made tangible.

With inTouch, the idea is not to create a device to represent the physical form of the user at the other end, but rather to create a physical link by providing a mechanism for translating the movements or gestures of that person. The physical form that the user perceives to be interacting with is thus not a simulation of the other user, but the device itself. The richness of the interaction then comes not from the representation of form but from the representation of movement as mediated through the form of the coupled objects. This is interesting in that it places great importance on the physical design of the device.

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Why rollers?
- can be rotated either in a clockwise or counterclockewise direction
- affort fluid and continuous strokes
- unlike joysticks, the movement of rollers is not bounded
- allow both active and pasive interaction between the two users


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See also:
BRA1997:01 - inTouch short paper presented at CHI '97
BRA1998:01 - inTouch full paper presented at CSCW '98
BRA1997:01VIDEO - High Resolution MPEG [352x240]