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Liquids, smoke, and soap bubbles: reflections on materials for ephemeral user interfaces

Authors:

Axel Sylvester,

Tanja Döring,

Albrecht SchmidtAuthors Info & Claims

TEI '10: Proceedings of the fourth international conference on Tangible, embedded, and embodied interaction

Pages 269 - 270

https://doi.org/10.1145/1709886.1709941

Published: 24 January 2010 Publication History

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Abstract

In this paper we inquire material qualities for tangible user interfaces and introduce the term "ephemeral user interface". We present an example user interface that employs fragile soap bubbles for human-computer interaction: the user has to move or blow bubbles over a dark liquid surface in order to interact with a computer system. Our installation uses liquid, smoke, and soap bubbles as unusual and transient materials that demand a very cautious and calm handling, and furthermore elude the complete control of users, as the bubbles inevitably burst after a short while. Thus, the soap bubble interface provokes thoughts about durability, control, and materiality of tangible user interfaces.

References

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Lee YLee C(2024)ICY Interfaces: Exploration of Ice’s Ephemeral Features for Digital Game User ExperienceProceedings of the 2024 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference10.1145/3643834.3660725(2107-2124)Online publication date: 1-Jul-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3643834.3660725
Gamboa MHendriks S(2024)In Praise of Shadows: Sensibility and Somaesthetic Appreciation for Shadows in Interaction DesignProceedings of the 2024 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference10.1145/3643834.3660679(3272-3286)Online publication date: 1-Jul-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3643834.3660679
Song KTung SKim APaulos E(2024)Füpop: "Real Food" Flavor Delivery via Focused UltrasoundProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642709(1-14)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
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Index Terms

Liquids, smoke, and soap bubbles: reflections on materials for ephemeral user interfaces
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Human computer interaction (HCI)
    1. Interaction devices
      1. Touch screens

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Published In

TEI '10: Proceedings of the fourth international conference on Tangible, embedded, and embodied interaction

January 2010

414 pages

ISBN:9781605588414

DOI:10.1145/1709886

Conference Chairs:
Marcelo Coelho
MIT Media Lab
,
Jamie Zigelbaum
MIT Media Lab, Oblong Industries
,
General Chairs:
Hiroshi Ishii
MIT Media Lab
,
Robert J.K. Jacob
Tufts University
,
Pattie Maes
MIT Media Lab
,
Program Chairs:
Thomas Pederson
IT University of Copenhagen
,
Orit Shaer
Wellesley College
,
Ron Wakkary
Simon Fraser University

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 24 January 2010

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TEI '10

Sponsor:

SIGCHI

TEI '10: Fourth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction

January 24 - 27, 2010

Massachusetts, Cambridge, USA

Acceptance Rates

Overall Acceptance Rate 393 of 1,367 submissions, 29%

Upcoming Conference

TEI '25

Sponsor:
sigchi

Nineteenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction

March 4 - 7, 2025

Bordeaux / Talence , France

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Cited By

View all

Lee YLee C(2024)ICY Interfaces: Exploration of Ice’s Ephemeral Features for Digital Game User ExperienceProceedings of the 2024 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference10.1145/3643834.3660725(2107-2124)Online publication date: 1-Jul-2024
Gamboa MHendriks S(2024)In Praise of Shadows: Sensibility and Somaesthetic Appreciation for Shadows in Interaction DesignProceedings of the 2024 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference10.1145/3643834.3660679(3272-3286)Online publication date: 1-Jul-2024
Song KTung SKim APaulos E(2024)Füpop: "Real Food" Flavor Delivery via Focused UltrasoundProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642709(1-14)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
Koike AMutlu B(2023)Exploring the Design Space of Extra-Linguistic Expression for RobotsProceedings of the 2023 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference10.1145/3563657.3595968(2689-2706)Online publication date: 10-Jul-2023
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