Abstract:
Copyright 2016 ACM. Tangibles provide a way to bridge the gap between on-screen content and the real world. However most communication between the tangibles and the virtual world is unidirectional from the tangible to the virtual world. We propose the concept of Smart Tangibles: tangibles that provide smart feedback to the user and investigate the effectiveness of these tools. To do this, we developed an Air hockey game on an interactive tabletop with custom 3D printed mallets. With a smartphone attached, the mallets provide vibrio-haptic feedback when the mallet collides with the virtual puck. Our user study shows that all the participants felt that the smart tangibles had a positive impact on the immersiveness of the game.