An augmented workplace for enabling user-defined tangibles.

In this work, we introduce a novel setup for an augmented workplace, which allows for defining and interacting with user-defined tangibles. State-of-the-art tangible user interface systems equip both the underlying surface and the tangible control with sensors or markers. At the workplace, having one unique tangible for each available action results in confusion. Furthermore, tangible controls mix with regular objects and induce a messy desk. Therefore, we introduce the concept of user-defined tangibles, which enable a spontaneous binding between physical objects and digital functions. With user-defined tangibles the need for specially designed tangible controls disappears and each physical object on the augmented workplace can be turned into a tangible control. We introduce a prototypical system and outline an interaction concept.