SIX: A Tangible Interface for Television

Introduction The TV remote control is a common electronic device that is part of everyday life. However, the experience of using it is not always intuitive and efficient, it usually lacks affordance. Basic tasks as switching channels can become confusing and difficult for many people, mostly seniors, since its motricity is, sometimes, compromised (trembling hands and having imprecise movements), in addition to that, seniors usually suffer from visual impairing that makes it hard for them to see the small inscriptions on the keys of TV remotes [1]. The challenge of the present work is to design and create a tangible interface for changing channels that is easy to perceive, use and manipulate, which meets the needs of the largest group of users and adapts to the purposes of Universal Design. Description and User Scenario The SIX intends to be a tangible interface for changing TV channels. The cube name (SIX), simply referring the number 6 and invoking the six degrees of freedom (6dof) in which an object can move in a threedimensional space. The cube (Fig. 1) consists of six acrylic faces, measuring 8,5 cm on each edge. One face corresponds to the standby function and the remaining five to different channels customized by the user. The electronic parts of the cube are integrated inside it. The user activates the desired channel on TV by manipulating the cube and putting the corresponding face turned upwards. The object is also physically customizable by the user who can write the channel name or draw on each of its faces through paper labels on the transparent acrylic. Other materials can be used to wrap around Abstract This poster presents and describes the SIX, a tangible interface for changing TV channels. The SIX is a product developed under the POTI (Personal Objects as Tangible Interfaces) project, which aims to convert everyday objects and actions into interfaces in the digital world. The cube consists of six acrylic faces, one of which corresponds to the standby function and the remaining five to different channels customized by the user. The SIX promotes the accessibility and inclusion of seniors. One of the aims of the SIX is the resolution of seniors difficulties when they interact with a TV remote control, namely switching channels and while doing so, it improves their quality of life. the cube, such as rubber, plastic or padded fabric. For example, the cube’s faces can be embossed with the numbers 1 to 6in rubber or plastic, helping seniors with visual problems to identify each face. Therefore, instead of associating buttons with numbers to TV channels, the user can move the cube and this action results in a channel change (causal reasoning), which makes their interaction experience more natural. Here is one example of user scenario about the details of how this cube system might be interpreted, experienced and used: Mrs. Robinson is a senior who has vision problems and trembling hands. As a hobby, Mrs. Robinson likes to watch television but she has difficulty in using the remote control. Her son, recognizing his mother’s limitation, decides to offer her the SIX. He only had to add his mother’s four favorite TV channels (free-to-air) to the cube’s faces. He printed the channels logo in a bigger size, almost covering the entirety of the cube’s face, so his mother can recognize better to which channel a face corresponds. Now, Mrs. Robinson can enjoy zapping and choose easily the program of her choice. Conceptual Model and System Architecture The tangible interface of the SIX is in line with the TUI’s approach that is based on the Model-View-Controller (MVC) pattern, in which the physical object is simultaneously an input (control) and an output (representation) of the system [2].The cube allows the user to send information of the wanted channel and to know what channel is displayed on TV by observing the top face of the cube. Opposite to the SIX, the conventional TV remote control is based on the Model-ControlRepresentation (MCR) interaction, in which the user input and the corresponding output can diverge both spatially and temporally. In a conventional TV remote control, the user is aware of the system status (selected channel, volume, etc.) through representations (outputs) that are not directly related to the TV remote control. Inside the SIX, a microcontroller, through an Inertial Motion Unit (IMU), recognizes in real time its orientation in space and sends to the STB an HTTP GET request with the key code that corresponds to the function, depending on the face that is facing up. The chosen microcontroller was the Arduino mini 3.3v, due to accessible programming and the existence of a miniaturized microcontroller model on a printed circuit board (PCI) with small size. The cube orientation detection is performed from the integrated data of a gyroscope and an accelerometer that are sensitive to the 3 axes (UC2, Fig. 2). The chosen unit was the IMU 6DOF –Ultra Thin that includes the gyroscope and the accelerometer in a single PCI of small dimensions. In the version presented here only the data from the accelerometer was considered, however, the integration of the gyroscope will create, in the future, analogue inputs (as volume control or image contrast) by the precise rotation of the cube. The system incorporates a WiFi Module ESP8266 that allows sending HTTP GET requests to the STB through a serial protocol based on AT commands (UC3, Fig. 2). The SIX was developed for the IPTV service MEO, but can easily be adapted to other TV services and STB. Final remarks and future work At the moment, the SIX is a prototype and regarding the work to be done in the future, a test with seniors (pilot experiment) will be performed. The methodological approach will be based on User Experience (UX) and Usability tests in order to understand the user’s expectations and needs as well as to identify the dimension of affordance of the SIX. References 1. Lessiter, J., Freeman, J., Miotto, A. and Ferrari, E.: A Comparative Study of Remote Controls for Digital TV Receivers. In: Proceedings of the EUROITV '08. Springer-Verlag, pp. 318-322 (2008). 2. Ishii, H.: Tangible bits: beyond pixels. In: Proceedings of the 2nd international conference on Tangible and embedded interaction. ACM, New York, xv-xxv (2008). Fig.2 Electronic circuit diagram of the SIX Fig.1 The SIX with personalized paper labels (standby symbol and channels logos) SIX A Tangible Interface for Television Mário Vairinhos, Óscar Mealha e Ana Patrícia Oliveira DeCA/ DigiMedia, University of Aveiro