Any object is a PC controller

Abstract

Computer technology continuously evolves at an incredible pace, with today's machines being barely recognizable when compared to the first computers ever created. Despite this, and in spite of the many advances in human-machine interactions, the main method for interfacing with computers has remained the same for several decades. Tangible User Interfaces (TUI) are an interesting alternative to the classical Graphics User Interfaces (GUI) that dominate the field. This type of interface seeks to bridge the gap between the physical and virtual worlds by binding virtual data to physical objects. This allows users to directly manipulate digital information with more natural and intuitive gestures, simply by interacting with the corresponding objects. This concept provides a wide world of possibilities to create more engaging and immersive interfaces capable of greatly improving user experience. The work herein presented tackles this problem and proposes the creation of a framework, capable of enabling the activation of everyday objects as controllers for diverse applications. The framework should make use of an accessible sensor such as a camera, to detect objects and assign them tasks. Direct manipulation of objects by the users should generate an event. Events should be able to be communicated in a clear way to client applications connected to the system. A demo application is described to demonstrate practical applications for the proposed system.