Evin Schuchardt - http://csce436spring2011.blogspot.com/2011/01/paper-reading-4-shape-changing-mobiles.html
Vince Kocks - http://vincehci.blogspot.com/2011/01/paper-reading-4-cross-currents.html
Reference Information
Title: Shape-changing mobiles: tapering in two-dimensional deformational displays in mobile phones
Authors: Fabian Hemmert, Susann Hamann, Matthias Löwe, Josefine Zeipelt, Gesche Joost
Presentation Venue: CHI 2010: 28th ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems; April 10-15, 2010; Atlanta, GA, USA
Summary
This paper discusses applying two-dimensional shape change to mobile phones for different applications. The three applications the paper focused on were making it more ergonomic through its ability to change its shape, making it display internal contents and pointing to things outside of the device.
The researchers did some tests with users to see how accurately they could determine the angle between the prototype’s front plate and back plate. After a short training phase, they were asked to estimate the angle in fifteen different cases for both the X and Y axis. Between each test, the user had to put the prototype down so that they could not feel it change its angle.
After the tests, the researchers found that the users had a similar amount of error in estimating both the X and Y axis. Based on the amount of error in estimating the angles, they also believe it would be feasible to use the different angles as a means of informational display. Though it took an average of seven seconds to estimate the angle and they had an average error of 5.46 degrees on the X axis and 5.47 degrees on the Y axis, the researchers believe the results would have been better if the users had felt the movement of the plate like they would in real-world situations.
 |
| The prototype presented in the paper |
The researchers also compared this prototype with a weight-shifting mobile they have developed and found that the users tended to favor the shape-shifting mobile over the weight-shifting one. There were no major differences between the two devices when estimating the angle though the users seemed to find the shape-shifting mobile more ‘attractive’ than the weight-shifting one.
Though the device is not ready for the market, the researchers point out that shape-changing devices may be influential in the future of human-computer interaction.
Discussion
The paper does a fairly good job of presenting how their prototype works, and what this paper has done better than others I have read is report on the results after doing a user study.
Though the researchers specified their goals with this device, I wish they could have demonstrated exactly how the depth and tilting feature would help communicate more data to the user.
I’m most interested in the ergonomic aspect of their design. I know someone who actually got arthritis in their fingers from texting too much so perhaps this could help prevent that.
Future studies could include taking this to the next level. As pointed out in the paper, they need to incorporate the actual input and output into the device to determine how it would best be implemented to utilize the shape-changing.
While I find the concept interesting, I think this idea has a long way to go before it's feasible. First of all, I'm curious how high-resolution the display is, as well as its brightness. Second, did they say whether it was actually taking touch input, or was it just an angle sensor? Finally, I do have to agree that I wonder what use this would have, outside of more tactile input for the user.
ReplyDeleteOn the bright side though, having a flexible screen would be pretty cool if all of these concerns were met.