TRANS-DOCK: Expanding the interactivity of pin-based shape displays by docking mechanical transducers

Abstract

© 2020 Association for Computing Machinery. This paper introduces TRANS-DOCK, a docking system for pin-based shape displays that enhances their interaction capabilities for both the output and input. By simply interchanging the transducer module, composed of passive mechanical structures, to be docked on a shape display, users can selectively switch between different configurations including display sizes, resolutions, and even motion modalities to allow pins moving in a linear motion to rotate, bend and inflate. We introduce a design space consisting of several mechanical elements and enabled interaction capabilities. We then explain the implementation of the docking system and transducer design components. Our implementation includes providing the limitations and characteristics of each motion transmission method as design guidelines. A number of transducer examples are then shown to demonstrate the range of interactivity and application space achieved with the approach of TRANS-DOCK. Potential use cases to take advantage of the interchangeability of our approach are discussed. Through this paper we intend to expand expressibility, adaptability and customizability of a single shape display for dynamic physical interaction. By converting arrays of linear motion to several types of dynamic motion in an adaptable and flexible manner, we advance shape displays to enable versatile embodied interactions.