Picto: Crafting Remote Tangible Gestures via Recordable, Replayable, and Shareable Motions

Abstract

We introduce Picto, a paired tangible interface that enables intimate dyads to co-create shared kinetic messages, fostering playful remote communication beyond temporal and physical constraints. Picto’s two modular units—a knob for rotational motion and a slider for linear motion—allow users to craft personalized motions and shapes symbolizing their significant other. Presence can be conveyed in real-time or asynchronously through record, replay, and share features. Picto empowers users to express abstract ideas through iconic gestures and non-verbal cues. Using a bistable composite tape-spring structure, we developed a novel mechanism for programming dynamic shape variations and motions. Picto’s control system records, stores, and shares motion-based interactions. A user study with intimate dyads evaluates Picto’s usability and its potential as a remote story-sharing platform and ambient presence media enhanced by metaphorical and beat gestures. The results highlight its potential to enrich and sustain intimate relationships, supporting social presence across distances.