NFCStack: Identifiable Physical Building Blocks that Support Concurrent Construction and Frictionless Interaction
Journal
Proceedings of the 35th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology
Pages
1-12
ISBN
9781450393201
Date Issued
2022-10-29
Author(s)
Abstract
In this paper, we propose NFCStack, which is a physical building block system that supports stacking and frictionless interaction and is based on near-field communication (NFC). This system consists of a portable station that can support and resolve the order of three types of passive identifiable stackable: bricks, boxes, and adapters. The bricks support stable and sturdy physical construction, whereas the boxes support frictionless tangible interactions. The adapters provide an interface between the aforementioned two types of stackable and convert the top of a stack into a terminal for detecting interactions between NFC-tagged objects. In contrast to existing systems based on NFC or radio-frequency identification technologies, NFCStack is portable, supports simultaneous interactions, and resolves stacking and interaction events responsively, even when objects are not strictly aligned. Evaluation results indicate that the proposed system effectively supports 12 layers of rich-ID stacking with the three types of building block, even if every box is stacked with a 6-mm offset. The results also indicate possible generalized applications of the proposed system, including 2.5-dimensional construction. The interaction styles are described using several educational application examples, and the design implications of this research are explained.
Event(s)
UIST 2022
Subjects
building blocks | NFC | stacking | tangible interaction
SDGs
Type
conference paper