Designing Spatially-Aware Indoor Visual Interfaces and Systems

Abstract

The environments in which people interact with displays and other devices are changing. Interactions are not longer constrained by displays being tethered to a desk. As the variety and complexity of interactive environments increases, so does the importance of spatial aspects of interactions and the physical and visual constraints of people and other interactive entities. This thesis examines spatial relationships between entities and other characteristics of interactions through the lens of the Interaction Relationship Entity model, also introduced here. Moreover, the thesis demonstrates the viability of low-cost, high-availability hardware and software for exploration of novel interactive systems through a set of algorithms that can be used for spatial tracking. The presented work also includes three case studies, each of which explores different aspects of spatial interactions with displays. The first case study investigates the use of displays capable of simultaneously showing two different views from different angles for creating spatial interactions that do not require active tracking. The second case study explores dynamic manipulation of on-display content and prototyping spatial interactions with large displays. The third case study considers how visual changes on displays in a multi-display environment can be tracked during periods of inattention.