Raf Ramakers (Hasselt University)

Paddle is a highly deformable device that can be transformed to different shapes. Paddle bridges the gap between differently sized mobile available devices nowadays, such as phones and tablets. Additionally, Paddle demonstrates a novel opportunity for deformable devices to transform into differently shaped physical controls that provide clear physical affordances for the task at hand. Physical controls have the advantage of exploiting people's innate abilities for manipulating physical objects in the real world. We designed and implemented a prototyped system of which the engineering principles are based on the design of the Rubik's magic, a folding plate puzzle. This talk elaborates on the novel interaction techniques enabled by Paddle and the benefits over traditional touch interaction techniques.

For more information, see this CHI 2014 paper.