Tangible Interaction in Mixed Reality Systems

In this chapter, we discuss the design of tangible interaction techniques for Mixed Reality environments. We begin by recalling some conceptual models of tangible interaction. Then, we propose an engineering-oriented software/hardware co-design process, based on our experience in developing tangible user interfaces. We present three different tangible user interfaces for real-world applications, and analyse the feedback from the user studies that we conducted. In summary, we conclude that, since tangible user interfaces are part of the real world and provide a seamless interaction with virtual words, they are well-adapted to mix together reality and virtuality. Hence, tangible interaction optimizes a users' virtual tasks, especially in manipulating and controlling 3D digital data in 3D space.