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We present the Rizzo, a multi-touch virtual mouse that has been designed to provide the fine grained interaction for information visualization on a multi-touch table. Our solution enables touch interaction for existing mouse-based visualizations. Previously, this transition to a multi-touch environment was difficult because the mouse emulation of touch surfaces is often insufficient to provide full information visualization functionality. We present a unified design, combining many Rizzos that have been designed not only to provide mouse capabilities but also to act as zoomable lenses that make precise information access feasible. The Rizzos and the information visualizations all exist within a touch-enabled 3D window management system. Our approach permits touch interaction with both the 3D windowing environment as well as with the contents of the individual windows contained therein. We describe an implementation of our technique that augments the VisLink 3D visualization environment to demonstrate how to enable multi-touch capabilities on all visualizations written with the popular prefuse visualization toolkit.

Multi-touch surfaces and tabletops present new challenges and possibilities for text input. By basing designs on established theoretical models of bimanual interaction, it is possible to evaluate the best choice of bimanual technique for a novel form of text input. As a first step, we propose an asymmetric bimanual text entry method for the purpose of evaluation. Early results indicate that text entry performance improves more quickly using the novel method, while overall speed is very similar.

BendDesk is a curved interactive display that merges a vertical and a horizontal multi-touch surface with a curve. Users sitting at the table can perform multi-touch input on the entire surface. This demo shows the capabilities and potential applications of such a setup. We also present Bend Invaders, one of the first arcade games on a curved interactive surface. Our demo intends to encourage the discussion about the future of multi-touch in desk environments.

The potential of tabletops to enable simultaneous interaction and face-to-face collaboration can provide novel learning opportunities. Despite significant research in the area of collaborative learning around tabletops, little attention has been paid to the integration of multi-touch surfaces into classroom layouts and how to employ this technology to facilitate teacher-learner dialogue and teacher-led activities across multi-touch surfaces. While most existing techniques focus on the collaboration between learners, this work aims to gain a better understanding of practical challenges that need to be considered when integrating multi-touch surfaces into classrooms. It presents a multi-touch interaction technique, called TablePortal, which enables teachers to manage and monitor collaborative learning on students' tables. Early observations of using the proposed technique within a novel classroom consisting of networked multi-touch surfaces are discussed. The aim was to explore the extent to which our design choices facilitate teacher-learner dialogue and assist the management of classroom activity.

We present PhysicsBox, a collection of three multi-touch, physics-based, educational games. These games, based on concepts from elementary science have been designed to provide teachers with tools to enrich lessons and support experimentation. PhysicsBox combines two current trends, the introduction of multi-touch tabletops into classrooms and research on the use of simulated physics in tabletop applications. We also provide a Java library that supports hardware independent multi-touch event handling for several tabletops.

Our demo's objective is to let the audience compare the efficiency of 3D manipulation techniques. The demo consists in building a 3D house made of simple pieces (roof, wall and floors) by translating and rotating each piece at the right location. We implemented techniques from the literature as well as a new technique. A physics engine handles the collision between elements to increase realism of the scene.

We propose a slim tabletop interface based on high resolution LCD screens with multiple cameras. In order to perceive multi-touch inputs, we adopt the FTIR (Frustrated Total Internal Reflection) method. Dual LCD panels are used to construct a slim and wide output screen of the tabletop interface. The height of the tabletop interface is 20 cm and dual cameras with dual mirrors are used. Our proposed interface is more flexible and more extensible comparing to previous tabletop interfaces.

We present BendDesk, a hybrid interactive desk system that combines a horizontal and a vertical interactive surface via a curve. The system provides seamless touch input across its entire area. We explain scalable algorithms that provide graphical output and multi-touch input on a curved surface. In three tasks we investigate the performance of dragging gestures across the curve, as well as the virtual aiming at targets. Our main findings are: 1) Dragging across a curve is significantly slower than on flat surfaces. 2) The smaller the entrance angle when dragging across the curve, the longer the average trajectory and the higher the variance of trajectories across users. 3) The curved shape of the system impairs virtual aiming at targets.

Though many tabletop applications allow users to interact with the application using complex multi-touch gestures, automated tool support for testing such gestures is limited. As a result, gesture-based interactions with an application are often tested manually, which is an expensive and error prone process. In this paper, we present TouchToolkit, a tool designed to help developers automate their testing of gestures by incorporating recorded gestures into unit tests. The design of TouchToolkit was informed by a small interview study conducted to explore the challenges software developers face when debugging and testing tabletop applications. We have also conducted a preliminary evaluation of the tool with encouraging results.

Sensing the depth (distance from the surface) of fingers/hands near a tabletop is very important. It allows us to use three-dimensional (3D) gesture interaction in multi-touch applications as we do in the real world. We introduce Z-touch, a multi-touch table that can sense the approximate postures of fingers or hands in the proximity of the tabletop's surface. Z-touch uses a vision-based posture sensing system. Multilayered infrared (IR) laser planes are synchronized with shutter signals from a high-speed camera, which captures each layer of the laser images. A depth map is obtained by using the captured image. Our prototype works at ~30 fps. Z-touch not only uses with the finger/hand contact points but also the angle of the hovering fingers. The interaction with the finger angles is unique and allows users to control multiple parameters by using a single finger. In this study, we introduce the principle of the method of finger detection and its applications (e.g., drawing, map zooming viewer, Bezier curve control).

This project addresses the design of interaction techniques for the creation and manipulation of node-link diagrams on multi-touch and pen enabled displays. Analysis and creation of node-link diagrams is an important activity, and one that can benefit greatly from the enhanced interaction bandwidth and collaborative affordances of interactive tabletops. The applications that we will demonstrate implement a broad set of novel interaction techniques for editing and manipulating node-link diagrams. Some techniques have been implemented with hybrid input (pens + touch). They allow flexible creation and manipulation of diagram elements by sketching and structural editing. This includes connecting and copying nodes by bimanual input and changing types of edges by gestures. Other techniques are meant to support users in analyzing diagrams. For example, by strumming or bundling edges, it is easy to see what nodes are connected by the edges.

The introduction of interaction technology in museum settings requires special care in different aspects including the relations with the different participants (public, artists, and curators), and the ability of the technology to provide rewarding experiences over extended periods of time for a demanding audience. This paper describes a hardware and software multi-touch table deployed in a contemporary art exhibition with many visitors. The design requirements are discussed and presented along with the development process. The paper also focuses on the different interaction and navigation mechanisms available and how they are used by the visitors and participants.

In consideration of the rapid development of displays and multi-touch technologies, many workspaces could feature integrated multi-touch displays in the near future and therefore the possibility of using them as input devices for other computers needs to be reviewed. The idea is, to get rid of many different input devices (e.g. keyboard, mouse, multi-touch-pad) by using a single multi-touch display. Furthermore the display can be used as an additional monitor to show e.g. toolbars, which can be directly manipulated through multi-touch gestures. In this demo, an adaptive keyboard (different layouts, shortcut icons) and a multi-touch-pad, shown on a large-scale multi-touch device, can be used to control a standard windows laptop. The device works also as a second monitor where direct touch input can be used.

The TouchLab is an all-in-one, ready-to-use marketing touch-table for presenting products, concepts or ideas in an interactive 3D-environment using sound, light, multi-touch technology and innovative gestures.

In this demonstration video, we show an approach, how IT based composition of electronic music can be supported with a collaborative application on a tabletop interface, mediating between single-user style music composition tools and co-located collaborative music improvisation. We explain how to create the compositional structures, as well as how to add note-events and synthesizers. Thereby we focus on the general and on the collaborative aspects of the application.

Precise alignment of graphical objects and creating proper layouts is crucial in many domains, such as graphic design or graph editing. In this paper we are presenting a multi-touch alignment guide for interactive displays. It allows adjusting the alignment and spacing of graphical objects by multi-touch input and bimanual interaction.

Multi-touch is a technology which offers new styles of interaction compared to traditional input devices like keyboard and mouse. Users can quickly manipulate objects or execute commands by means of their fingers and hands. Current multi-touch frameworks offer a set of standard gestures that are easy to use when developing an application. In contrast, defining new gestures requires a lot of work involving low-level recognition of touch data. To address this problem, we contribute a discussion of strategies towards a formalization of gestural interaction on multi-touch surfaces. A test environment is presented, showing the applicability and benefit within multi-touch frameworks.

The digital workflow of the conception of a newspaper or a magazine involves several tasks. While professional solutions like QuarkXpress or Adobe InDesign combined with InCopy only offer the possibility for one person to modify a document at the same time, we have developed a concept in form of a prototype that will help journalists and the editorial staff to work collaboratively together using a touch-based table with a new approach of pagination and text editing through multitouch gestures.

Touch has become a common interface for human computer interaction. From portable hand held devices like smart phones to tabletops, large displays and even devices that project on arbitrary surfaces support touch interface. However, at the end, it is the applications that bring meaning for these technologies to people. Incorporating a touch interface in application requires translating meaningful touches into system recognizable events. This process often involves complex implementations that are sometimes hard to fine tune. Due to the lack of higher-level frameworks, developers often end up writing code from scratch to implement touch interactions in their application. To address this, we present a domain-specific language to define multi-touch interaction that hides the low level implementation complexities from application developers. This allows them to focus on designing touch interactions that are natural and meaningful to the application context without worrying about implementation complexities.

This work presents eGrid, a software environment designed for utility companies to enable the collaboration of control center team members in their daily tasks of analyzing and managing the electrical grid of a city. Despite the recent advances in geospatial data analysis applications, the need still arises for the design of innovative applications which facilitate the collaboration of control center team members in discussing problems and finding solutions, eliminating the headache of synchronizing paper maps frequently to reflect the changes made daily in electricity circuits. eGrid utilizes multi-touch digital table-top hardware to allow multiple users to interact concurrently with domain specific geographic information system (GIS) using finger touches and natural hand gestures. It is an advanced prototype of an actual application of tabletop technology in a non-trivial domain. The development of eGrid shows strong buy-in from the intended end-user community.

Interactive node-link diagrams are useful for describing and exploring data relationships in many domains such as network analysis and transportation planning. We describe a multi-touch interaction technique set (IT set) that focuses on edge interactions for node-link diagrams. The set includes five techniques (TouchPlucking, TouchPinning, TouchStrumming, TouchBundling and PushLens) and provides the flexibility to combine them in either sequential or simultaneous actions in order to address edge congestion.

Multi-touch surfaces are predestined to be used by many users at the same time. However, most systems are not able to distinguish touches of different users. This paper presents ongoing work on using wristbands, equipped with infrared LEDs, to provide touches with identities. The LEDs transmit coded light pulses as an identifier. We are using a specific blinking-pattern to determine the orientation of the wristband in order to reliably associate corresponding touches.

We present initial results of SimMed, an ongoing interdisciplinary project for the use of interactive tables in medical education. The project is motivated by the need of combining theoretical knowledge with practice in medical education and the time-consuming task of finding appropriate patients for teaching. Students in medicine are able to interact realistically with a virtual patient displayed on the interactive table to diagnose and cure illnesses. The project is still under development.

The radarTOUCH demo presents a sensor device dedicated to detect multitouch interaction on or in front of large planar surfaces. The device uses a rotating IR laser range finder to detect obstacles. Based on the laser technology used in this project the device allows to scan large interaction spaces (up to 25 m) and even to provide touchless interaction in 2D space. A custom-built driver connects the device to any TUIO-based application or to simulate mouse events (move, click, scroll) by means of gestures. We will present a set of selected application scenarios taken from the area of fair exhibitions and from design review presentations of mechatronic systems to illustrate the applicability of our sensor device.

Waves is a multi-touch interface for VJing (the live performance of visual media). The system allows performers to interact with a range of visual media by manipulating spline curves on an interactive surface. Interaction is highly visible to the audience and as such the contribution of the performer may be understood. Furthermore, the spline curves provide metonymical interaction, and as such give the performer the ability to perceive and directly manipulate the underlying properties of visual media.

In this paper, we describe methods and challenges regarding the conception and prototypical implementation of a business application that uses multi-touch technology in its input device. We illustrate the use of a new conception and specification approach called DESIGNi and our experiences using the new Microsoft Expression Studio, which is specifically intended to support the development of commercial multi-touch software. We focused on the redesign of an application called "Graphical Knowledge Editor" (GKE), which is used to model processes and workflows of a call center. This system was evaluated in a study that showed how the users perceived the quality of the new software.