Swarm User Interfaces allow dynamic arrangement of user environments through the use of multiple mobile robots, but their operational range is typically confined to a single plane due to constraints imposed by their two-wheel propulsion systems. We present corobos, a proof-of-concept design that enables these robots to cooperatively transition between table (horizontal) and wall (vertical) surfaces seamlessly, without human intervention. Each robot is equipped with a uniquely designed slope structure that facilitates smooth rotation when another robot pushes it toward a target surface. Notably, this design relies solely on passive mechanical elements, eliminating the need for additional active electrical components. We investigated the design parameters of this structure and evaluated its transition success rate through experiments. Furthermore, we demonstrate various application examples to showcase the potential of corobos in enhancing user environments.

The imperceptible color vibration method, which embeds imperceptible patterns in display images through rapid chromatic changes, enables the presentation of information to machines while maintaining the viewing experience of users. However, when markers are embedded in video images, decoding becomes challenging during periods with significant interframe differences, which adds noise to the decoding. In this study, we enhanced the signal-point distance by embedding two quadrature chromatic changes within the color space across the entire image. Additionally, we employed soft-decision decoding, which involves accumulating multiple confidence values per pixel, thereby enabling robust decoding during periods with significant interframe differences in video images. Our evaluation confirmed that the proposed method significantly improves the decoding rate compared to conventional techniques. Furthermore, we measured the time required for decoding and verified the effectiveness of the proposed soft-decision decoding method.

We present PneuModule, a tangible interface platform that enables users to reconfigure physical controls on pressure-sensitive touch surfaces using pneumatically-actuated inflatable pin arrays. PneuModule consists of a main module and extension modules. The main module is tracked on the touch surface and forwards continuous inputs from attached multiple extension modules to the touch surface. Extension modules have distinct mechanisms for user input, which pneumatically actuates the inflatable pins at the bottom of the main module through internal air pipes. The main module accepts multi-dimensional inputs since each pin is individually inflated by the corresponding air chamber. Also, since the extension modules are swappable and identifiable owing to the marker design, users can quickly customize the interface layout. We contribute to design details of inflatable pins and diverse pneumatic input control design examples for PneuModule. We also showcase the feasibility of PneuModule through a series of evaluations and interactive prototypes.

We present ForceStamps, fiducial markers for supporting rapid prototyping of physical control interfaces on pressure-sensitive touch surfaces. We investigate marker design options for supporting various physical controls, with focusing on creating dedicated footprints and maintaining the structural stability. ForceStamps can be persistently tracked on surfaces along with the force information and other attributes. Designers without knowledge of electronics can rapidly prototype physical controls by attaching mechanisms to ForceStamps, while manipulating the haptic feedback with buffer materials. The created control widgets can be spatially configured on the touch surface to make an interface layout. We showcase a variety of example controls created with ForceStamps. In addition, we report on our analysis of a two-day musical instrument design workshop to explore the affordances of ForceStamps for making novel instruments with diverse interaction designs.

TelemetRing is a batteryless and wireless ring-shaped keyboard that supports command and text entry in daily lives by detecting finger typing on various surfaces. The proposed inductive telemetry approach eliminates bulky batteries or capacitors from the ring part. Each ring consists of a sensor coil (the ring part itself), 1-DoF piezoelectric accelerometer, and varactor diode; moreover, it has different resonant frequencies. Typing shocks slightly shift the resonant frequency, and these are detected by a wrist-mounted readout coil. 5-bit chord keyboard is realized by attaching five sensor rings on five fingers. Our evaluation shows that the prototype achieved the tiny (6 g, 3.5 cm^3) ring sensor and 89.7% of typing detection ratio.