Embodied user interfaces will become a part of everyday life

Hand gestures to control televisions, computers and screens

At the Housing Fair in Tampere, Professor Markku Turunen showed how you can learn to chop wood interactively with the help of a gestural user interface.

Embodied user interfaces are set to become a part of everyday life and make the one-way information flow interactive. The first televisions and computers with an embodied user interface have become available in Finland this year.

The next step will be taken in public and semi-public spaces. Researchers at the University of Tampere have observed that people are interested in these devices but hesitant to use them. Almost 150,000 people at the Housing Fair in Tampere had the opportunity to test a system that demonstrated how home energy solutions can be controlled with a gestural interface. 

– People are afraid to use such a device in public; they think that it’s embarrassing. If they can get over that hurdle and find that it’s easy to operate the device and that it looks modern, the device can make a breakthrough. Then we can get to the real benefits, says Markku Turunen, Professor of Interactive Technology.

Menus in no time

The research group will next test the embodied interface in a university setting. There is a plan to install an interactive information screen next to the Minerva cafeteria in the Pinni B building this autumn. The customers can use the screen to browse the menus and the University’s coming-events calendar or give feedback about the services and events. Three people can use the screen at the same time, each doing something different.

– We have high expectations. This is a quite practical and clear-cut application. The point is that the screen will provide people with more information and be interactive in a nice way, says Turunen.

The problem is getting people to communicate with the screen in a public space using hand gestures.

– This is the basic problem. Our challenge is to get people to come aboard, Turunen says.

He thinks that caution may be typical for Finns. People are inquisitive and they come to see the new devices, but they are afraid to embarrass themselves.

– We think that these systems are the future, but how can we break through with this idea, and how should we research it? This is what we’ve been trying to find out, says Turunen.

Electronic information screens are getting increasingly common in public spaces, such as in shopping centres or roadsides. The researchers see great potential in the screens, as they make one-way communication interactive. The embodied user interface is a good tool in this change.

– This is contrary to mobile technology, which is about differentiation. Embodied user interface technology is aimed at sharing and supporting such systems where people can look at things together. ‘Me and technology’ thinking is replaced by a connection of ‘us and technology’, Turunen explains.

People do not know enough to make a wish

One research strand is to apply the embodied user interface to teaching.

– We are thinking about how to make teaching facilities more inviting. Normal class and meeting rooms are still being used for teamwork, but these rooms do not have equipment that would support the work or a sense of community.

Turunen envisions a workspace where ideas could be worked on using a shared screen instead of putting up post-it notes. For example, the screen could cover a desk so that each team member can work on his or her own part of the task.

– It is not interesting what surface the information will be projected onto. What is interesting is the cooperation, drafting and planning where everyone works together.

The research group has mapped out the seminar rooms and facilities needs at the University of Tampere. According to Turunen, people are not very good at voicing their needs.

– It is a challenge; this is like shooting in the dark. The user perspectives and needs are thought to be important at the planning stage. However, the further we are away from these modern tools, the harder it is to get the people to voice their wishes. People do not know how to say what they want if they don’t know what’s available. This is a very difficult dialogue.

A television that made people gape

Samsung televisions that use gesture and voice control have been in the shops in Finland for some months now. Professor Turunen knows this technology well, as his research group has conducted related user experience evaluation.

About five years ago, the group tested a television model that was controlled by gestures and voice at the Rupriikki Media Museum. Back then the television still made people gape in astonishment.

– At the time, it was self-evident that this kind of technology was coming. The question was only when it would happen. It didn’t take too long; less than five years. It is a challenge when there are so many technological possibilities. Which ones will become commercially viable?

In the development of educational ICT it all comes down to what the universities and schools of the future will be like.

– It’s extremely difficult to predict which technology will really make a breakthrough and how much time it will take, says Turunen.

Embodied interface solutions have been researched in Turunen’s group together with multiple partners for example in projects entitled ‘DREX – Space, Theatre & Experience – Novel Forms of Evental Space’, ‘EnergyLand’ and ‘RYM-IE – Indoor Environment Program’ all of which received funding from TEKES, the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation.

Text: Heikki Laurinolli

This story was originally published in Finnish in Aikalainen 13/2012