Ubi Edge: Authoring Edge-Based Opportunistic Tangible User
Interfaces in Augmented Reality
Fengming He, Xiyun Hu, Jingyu Shi, Xun Qian, Tianyi Wang, and Karthik Ramani. 2023. Ubi Edge: Authoring Edge-Based Opportunistic Tangible User
Interfaces in Augmented Reality. In Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’23), April 23–28, 2023, Hamburg, Germany. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 14 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3544548.3580704
Abstract
Edges are one of the most ubiquitous geometric features of physical objects. They provide accurate haptic feedback and easy-to-track features for camera systems, making them an ideal basis for Tangible User Interfaces (TUI) in Augmented Reality (AR). We introduce Ubi Edge, an AR authoring tool that allows end-users to customize edges on daily objects as TUI inputs to control varied digital functions. We develop an integrated AR device and an integrated vision-based detection pipeline that can track 3D edges and detect the touch interaction between fingers and edges. Leveraging the spatial-awareness of AR, users can simply select an edge by sliding fingers along it and then make the edge interactive by connecting it to various digital functions. We demonstrate four use cases including multi-function controllers, smart homes, games,
and TUI-based tutorials. We also evaluated and proved our system’s usability through a two-session user study, with positive qualitative and quantitative results.