NIPUI

Natural Interaction with Projected User Interfaces

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'The overall aim of NIPUI is the development of ways of interacting more naturally with computers, using projected user interfaces. Building on the proposed fellow's research expertise in augmented reality, the project will develop interfaces based on virtual information projected on real objects (such as sheets of paper), and interaction modalities based on projected virtual characters. The project has three principal objectives: Development of a projected user interface to enable cooperative working and linking to content in the context of multiparty meetings. The host group has a large research effort in the automatic interpretation and extraction of information from multiparty meetings. In NIPUI, we shall combine the fellow's expertise in augmented reality and projected interfaces, with the host's expertise in speech recognition and content extraction. Development of controllable projection units for the projection of virtual documents onto real paper - handheld, as well as on the tabletop. Projecting virtual documents onto real paper could be a useful alternative to projecting them onto the tabletop. As people subconsciously pick up a piece of paper to have a closer look if they think the content is interesting, this feature could make interaction more intuitive and at the same time provide valuable feedback to the system. Enhancement of projected user interfaces to involve the projection of virtual characters onto room surfaces using controllable projectors. Virtual characters may provide a novel, powerful and fun user interface, particularly when combined with speech technologies such as speech recognition, speech synthesis, spatial audio using microphone arrays and directional speakers, and spoken dialogue systems. Interfaces based on virtual characters have the potential to engage people in more personal interactions than is possible with a conventional GUI.'

Introduzione (Teaser)

Researchers are investigating how projected user interfaces can help make business meetings and art exhibitions more interactive.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

Scientists at the University of Edinburgh in the UK have developed interfaces based on real objects, such as sheets of paper, and interaction modalities fashioned on projected virtual characters, namely animals that crawl on walls, to enliven participation at business meetings and for use in creative industries and exhibitions.

Through the 'Natural interaction with projected user interfaces' (NIPUI) project, they have created controllable projection units for the projection of virtual documents on to real paper. However, having succeeded in building a prototype of such an interface, it quickly became clear that the resolution of the projectors used was not sufficient to be able to project documents as virtual sheets of A4 papers in a way that they were readable. They have since improved this design by using a high-definition projector in a second prototype.

The Edinburgh team also looked at enhancing projected user interfaces to allow virtual characters to be projected on to room surfaces. They believe that virtual characters can provide a 'novel, powerful and fun' user interface, in particular when combined with speech technologies.

Therefore, during the project they developed a system that allows them to model the room as a set of surfaces representing the physical surfaces on which the characters live. They used cartoon versions of animals that can crawl on walls - geckos in particular - as characters, and to further increase credibility, they simulated their motion, in particular that of their feet, on the surface. To let the character 'talk', they used speech synthesis which means the character's lips move synchronously with the speech output. They also used a hypersonic sound speaker, which is a directional speaker system which can be described as a spotlight for sound, to make the sound seem to appear from the character's mouth.