Paper Reading #11- Multitoe

Title: Multitoe
Reference Information:
Thomas Augsten, Konstantin Kaefer, Rene Meusel, Caroline Fetzer, Dorian Kanitz, Thomas Stoff, Torsten Becker, Christian Holz, and Patrick Baudisch, "Multitoe". UIST '10 Proceedings of the 23nd annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology ACM New York, NY ©2010.
Author Bios:
Thomas Augsten- Thomas Augsten is a master student
in IT systems engineering at Hasso Plattner Institute in Potsdam
Konstantin Kaefer-Konstantin develops web applications as a node.js adherent and currently works on mapping software at Development Seed. He is a full-time Master’s student studying IT systems engineering at Hasso Plattner Institute in Potsdam, Germany.
Rene Meusel- During her nine-month final project she worked with five other students of the Hasso Plattner Institute at the implementation of an interactive floor named Multitoe.
Caroline Fetzer-She studied software development at the Hasso Plattner Institute in Potsdam since 2007.
Torsten Becker- He is a graduate student at the Hasso Plattner Institute and holds a B.Sc. in IT Systems Engineering. For my Master's he specialized in human-computer interaction and mobile & embedded systems.
Christian Holz- PhD student with Patrick Baudisch since 2009, Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) group, Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI), University of Potsdam, Germany.
Patrick Baudisch- is a professor in Computer Science at Hasso Plattner Institute in Berlin/Potsdam and chair of the Human Computer Interaction Lab. His research focuses on the miniaturization of mobile devices and touch input.
Summary:

• Hypothesis: If a reasonably suitable design for a back-projected interactive floor can be constructed, then many technologies can build off of this because it is more advantageous than an interactive table top.
• Methods: Since users will be actively walking on the interaction surface, there were some factors that needed to be taken into account if they wanted this to be effective. These factors include inadvertant interactions, consistent interfacing, desired "parts" of the foot for interaction, and precision with feet. The authors also conducted a study in which they allowed users to dictate what the interaction area for their feet should be. The authors also conducted a study concerning the "hot spot" for their feet. Authors then decided to test their "customizable" hot spot by studying users interacting with "small", "medium", and "large" keyboards.
• Results: When looking at results from the study the authors conducted on users about what the contact area should be from their foot to the floor, the authors found that they did not match the FTIR contact model. Rather, users predominantly preferred a "projective" contact. Results from the second study concerning "hot spots" for a foot concluded that users had a wide range of "free choice" and would result in a large margain of error if a single, global hotspot on the foot was used to pinpoint interaction. In the third study about accuracy, the authors found that with the "small" keyboard, error rates were much higher and the time it took to accurately interact was about twice as long in comparison to the "large" keyboard. Users mostly perferred the medium keyboard because of its reachability over the large keyboard and its high degree of accuracy.
• Content: The authors wished to create some technology that was similar to a table-top interaction surface but capable of handling more tasks or objects. Through pressure recognition, FTIR, algorithms for determining inadvertant input, balance, "tapping vs walking", user studies, and appropriate local and consistent interfaces, the authors created "multitoe".

Discussion:
 I think the idea for this is really cool. I think it might take some time to learn all the neat things that you can do with this surface because it takes so many things into account like balance, pressure, and "intent". After you get learned on the technology, however, I think this would be really fun to play with. I also like how the "foot database" allows the floor to recognize you and your custom hotspots, etc. As far as applications for this floor go, I believe that anything you can do on a table-top surface can be easily moved to this multitoe surface. I believe the authors achieved their goals. They weren't looking to create some new device or a breakthrough invention- this was clearly an engineering experiment (is it possible? what is the best design? etc..).