BodyBug - Design of KinAesthetic Interaction

Proceedings of the 1st international conference on Tangible and embedded interaction - TEI '07, 2007

This paper argues that movement-based interaction should be designed from a non-technological, people-centered point of view in order to create embodied and engaging interaction experiences. Further, it discusses social and contextual aspects that need to be taken into account when designing for movement-based interaction. The paper presents the design process and user explorations of a wearable movement-based interaction concept that was created in order to explore full-body movement as interaction modality. The starting point was taken in people's own experiences of communication and interaction through bodily movements, inspired by methods and theories used within modern dance. As design guidelines for the prototyped interaction concept we used aspects on movement that were directly derived from field studies of physical expression. The user explorations of the concept show preliminary examples of how people engage in movement-based interaction and how they are affected by the social interaction context.

Human Technology, 2016

After a decade of movement-based interaction in human-computer interaction, designing for the moving body still remains a challenge. Research in this field requires methods to help access, articulate, and harness embodied experiences in ways that can inform the design process. To address this challenge, this article appropriates bodystorming, an embodied ideation method for movement-based interaction design. The proposed method allows for early consideration of the physical, collocated, and social aspects of a designed activity as illustrated with two explorative workshops in different application domains: interactive body games and interactive performances. Using a qualitative methods approach, we used video material from the workshops, feedback from participants, and our own experience as participants and facilitators to outline important characteristics of the bodystorming method in the domain of movement-based interaction. The proposed method is compared with previous ones and application implications are discussed.

This thesis introduces BodyScape, a body-centric framework that accounts for how users coordinate their movements within and across their own limbs in order to interact with a wide range of devices, across multiple surfaces. It introduces a graphical notation that describes interaction techniques in terms of (1) motor assemblies responsible for performing a control task (input motor assembly) or bringing the body into a position to visually perceive output (output motor assembly), and (2) the movement coordination of motor assemblies, relative to the body or fixed in the world, with respect to the interactive environment. This thesis applies BodyScape to 1) investigate the role of support in a set of novel bimanual interaction techniques for hand-held devices, 2) analyze the competing effect across multiple input movements, and 3) compare twelve pan-and-zoom techniques on a wall-sized display to determine the roles of guidance and interference on performance. Using BodyScape to characterize interaction clarifies the role of device support on the user's balance and subsequent comfort and performance. It allows designers to identify situations in which multiple body movements interfere with each other, with a corresponding decrease in performance. Finally, it highlights the trade-offs among different combinations of techniques, enabling the analysis and generation of a variety of multi-surface interaction techniques. I argue that including a body-centric perspective when defining interaction techniques is essential for addressing the combinatorial explosion of interactive devices in multi-surface environments.

Proceedings of the 20th Australasian Conference on Computer-Human Interaction Designing for Habitus and Habitat - OZCHI '08, 2008

Within the Human-Computer Interaction community there is a growing interest in designing for the whole body in interaction design. The attempts aimed at addressing the body have very different outcomes spanning from theoretical arguments for understanding the body in the design process, to more practical examples of designing for bodily potential. This paper presents Kinesthetic Interaction as a unifying concept for describing the body in motion as a foundation for designing interactive systems. Based on the theoretical foundation for Kinesthetic Interaction, a conceptual framework is introduced to reveal bodily potential in relation to three design themes -kinesthetic development, kinesthetic means and kinesthetic disorder; and seven design parameters -engagement, sociality, movability, explicit motivation, implicit motivation, expressive meaning and kinesthetic empathy. The framework is a tool to be utilized when analyzing existing designs, as well as developing designs exploring new ways of designing kinesthetic interactions.

The Workshop Call for …, 2011

The body remains to some degree an elusive entity in our understandings of human cognition and our evolving relations with technology. With the advent of mobile and wearable sensor technologies, the body is brought to the fore as the essential and defining site of interaction and experience. Devices hosted by and around the body, or distributed in the environment, are able to read, measure, track and provide feedback on our location, proximity, gestures, movement patterns, pulse, breathing, emotional state, gaze and so on. What and how we carry or wear and how we move through space in our daily interactions have distinct influences on our experiences of the world around us and of course, our agency to act in our everyday lives.

2012

Through a series of collaborative research projects usingOrient, a wireless, inertial sensor-based motion capture system,I have studied the requirements of musicians, dancers,performers and choreographers and identified various design strategies for the realization of Whole Body Interactive (WBI)performance systems. The acquired experience and knowledge led to the design and development of EnActor, prototypeWhole Body Interaction Design software. The software has been realized as a collection of modules that were proved valuable for the design of interactive performance systems that are directly controlled by the body.This paper presents EnActor's layout as a blueprint for the design and development of more sophisticated descendants.Complete video archive of my research projects in WBI performance systems at: http://www.inter-axions.com

2006

Our physical bodies play a central role in shaping human experience in the world, understanding of the world, and interactions in the world. This paper draws on theories of embodiment -from psychology, sociology, and philosophy -synthesizing five themes we believe are particularly salient for interaction design: thinking through doing, performance, visibility, risk, and thick practice. We introduce aspects of human embodied engagement in the world with the goal of inspiring new interaction design approaches and evaluations that better integrate the physical and computational worlds.

Design Strategies for Whole Body Interactive Performance Systems , 2012

"This practice-led research investigates a design framework within an artistic context for the implementation of Whole Body Interactive (WBI) performance systems that employ real-time motion capture technology. Following an Interaction Design perspective I engage in exploring the requirements for composers, dancers, musicians and performers and their expectations, within a series of transdisciplinary collaborative artistic projects. Integral to this investigation is a comprehensive review and analysis of the progression of interactivity in fine art, music, dance and performance practices, presented in this thesis. As I am particularly concerned with the seamless transfer of the tacit skills and the implicit knowledge of non-digital artists and practitioners to a WBI performance setting, my practical explorations emerged in the contexts of music improvisation - Untitled#1, contemporary dance - Untitled#2, contemporary music composition - Hiroshima, and traditional dance - Duende. Adopting a Holistic Design approach, the experience and knowledge gained from my first practical explorations led to the design and implementation of a WBI prototyping software environment called EnActor, used in tandem with the Orient wireless inertial motion capture system, developed by the Research Consortium in Speckled Computing, at the University of Edinburgh. EnActor provides a simple and effective solution to the problem of linking physical actions to rich digital media responses and can serve as a blueprint for the development of other WBI design software, since it has operated successfully as a prototype, addressing a wide range of WBI design briefs in various contexts. In this thesis I introduce the role of the WBI designer as a specialist interaction designer able to conceptualise WBI scenarios and implement complete systems that operate within various levels of body sensing and control. I also propose the development of WBI systems that are autonomous and unsupervised, and I explore various compositional concepts and mappings that are implemented as automatic, semi-automatic or manual modules and ultimately arranged into layers and to series of blocks that represent complete compositions. Following the understanding of interactivity as a property between systems, I identify the design of three basic types of WBI performance systems that differ in how a user engages with them: methodical, empirical and dialectic. Overall this research aims to facilitate designers and artists interested in the use of real-time motion capture systems in dance, music, theatre and performance art applications."

Proceedings of the 20th conference of the computer-human interaction special interest group (CHISIG) of Australia on Computer-human interaction: design: activities, artefacts and environments - OZCHI '06, 2006

This paper presents thoughts to extend our understanding of bodily aspects of technology interactions. The aim of the paper is to offer a way of looking at the role our kinaesthetic sense plays in human-computer interaction. We approach this issue by framing it around how our bodies establish relationships with things when interacting with technology. Five aspects of a conceptual tool, body-thing dialogue, potential for action, withinreach, out-of-reach and movement expression are introduced. We discuss the role this tool can play in our thinking about, further exploration and eventually our design for movement enabled technology interactions. The idea is that it can help us consider, not just how a design or a technology might look but also how it might feel to use.

This paper presents an ongoing doctoral project that concerns design and development of computer interfaces supporting full body movement interaction. It combines theories and experiences from dance education and HCI. The main aim is to try out a new approach to develop concepts of movement-based interaction. The work consists of an explorative case study aiming at describing the learning process that HCI students and professionals experience when attending a course in Physical Expression, based on modern dance and improvisation. A second aim is to describe the possible reflection of this experience in the design outcome. The third aim is to develop an example of a full body movement-based environment. The study is using a qualitative approach and makes use of data as interviews, video, texts and design mock-ups. Preliminary results show that the course provides new perspectives on bodily communication and may function as a “mind opener”.