Scratch Surface Applications

CMU researcher Chris Harrison is heading to SIGGRAPH this summer to showcase some of his cool interface work. His has done lots of research into touch screen & tactile interfaces, much of it very interesting. At this years conference he will be displaying his surface scratch input.

This interface works by recording and interpreting the audio that is caused by running your fingernail along a surface. I think it’s an interesting concept, but I was a bit underwhelmed by the use-case scenarios that were presented in the video. Writing an “S” on the table doesn’t seem like less effort than hitting the “Cancel” button on my phone (assuming my phone is right next to me as in the video).

Then I saw CRISTAL, a tabletop universal remote. The concept behind this piece is clever, but I the the execution is a bit off. I’d love to be able to control all of my surrounding devices from sitting on my couch. But who really wants an overhead video playing on their coffee table? If I’m watching a movie and have kids playing, a dog running around or I simply reach to grab some pop-corn, all of that movement will be displayed real time and become a distraction. I don’t adjust the lighting or turn on my ceiling fan often enough to warrant a real time video display placed directly in my line of sight. Not to mention I use my coffee table and it usually has all kinds of stuff sitting on it.

The universal tabletop remote is an ideal candidate for scratch surface interface because it has a minimal (read: no) visual footprint. All of the functionality of the remote, adjusting volume & lighting, ability to toggle things on & off, and song/movie/channel selection all lend themselves to a touchscreen interface. The final concept would have to be a marriage between the two. Selecting a movie or CD to play might require a visual sorting method, but after the selection has been chosen it would then fade out returning the table to normal. I could then fast forward or skip through the movie/song by scratching or tapping the surfaces of the table.