Kinetic User Interfaces: Physical Embodied Interaction with Mobile Ubiquitous Computing Systems

Introduction

Internet and mobile computing technology is changing the way users access information and interact with computers and media. Personal Computing in its original form is fading and shifting towards the ubiquitous (or pervasive) computing paradigm (Want et al., 2002). Ubiquitous Computing systems are made up of several interconnected heterogeneous computational devices with different degrees of mobility and computing power. All of these devices and appliances are embedded in everyday objects, scattered in space, capable of sensing the environment and of communicating with each other, and carried or exchanged by people. Therefore, we are facing a new ecology of computing systems that poses new issues in their integration and usability. Human-computer interfaces that were designed for desktop personal computers must be re-conceived for this new scenario. Due to the different capabilities of mobile and embedded devices, the pervasive computing infrastructure, and the nature of their expected usage, it is apparent that new types of user interfaces are needed in order to unleash the usability of new generation distributed computing applications (see (Rukzio, 2006) for a classification of mobile devices interfaces). Additionally, the concept of user interface itself seems to be no longer adequate to cope with ubiquitous computing systems. Rather, it is the concept of interaction and user experience that will take over (Beaudouin-Lafon, 2004).