“PocoPoco: a tangible device that allows users to play dynamic tactile interaction” by Kanai, Kikukawa, Suzuki, Baba and Kushiyama

Today a tremendous amount of audio and visual information is stuffed onto the flat displays of smart phones. It is no doubt a very convenient age, but a little bit uniform. Our research focuses on interfaces with dynamic movements and interfaces that can change their own shape dynamically [1][2]. We have developed a box-shaped device called PocoPoco which controls the movement of columnar units with built-in solenoid actuators and utilizes them to give users dynamic tactile sensations (see Figure 1). PocoPoco is an input/output device that can be used without visual information, because it can indicate all input/output information through tactile sensations. This device is a versatile interface that can be used in a wide range of applications including games, telecommunication, and musical performance. It was conceived as a “new kind of interface which can be used by both people with visual impairments and people with normal vision”.

1. Baba, T., Ushiama, T., and Tomimatsu, K. 2008. Emerging keys: interactive electromagnetic levitation keys. In ACM SIGGRAPH 2008 Posters (Los Angeles, California, August 11–15, 2008). SIGGRAPH ’08. ACM, New York, NY, 1-1.
2. Michelitsch, G., Williams, J., Osen, M., Jimenez, B., and Rapp, S. 2004. Haptic chameleon: a new concept of shape-changing user interface controls with force feedback. In CHI ’04 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (Vienna, Austria, April 24–29, 2004). CHI ’04. ACM, New York, NY, 1305–1308.