Interaction with the Internet of Tangible Things (IoTT)
  Leonardo Angelini                   Nadine Couture               Omar Abou Khaled                  Elena Mugellini
  HumanTech Institute                     ESTIA                    HumanTech Institute             HumanTech Institute
       HES-SO                        LaBRI, UMR 5800                     HES-SO                          HES-SO
 Fribourg, Switzerland                 Bidart, France              Fribourg, Switzerland           Fribourg, Switzerland
leonardo.angelini@hes-               nadine.couture@u-            omar.aboukhaled@hes-            elena.mugeullini@hes-
         so.ch                          bordeaux.fr                        so.ch                           so.ch
ABSTRACT                                                          WORKSHOP SCHEDULING
The aim of this workshop, held during the third European          The workshop will be articulated in the following phases:
Tangible Interaction Studio (ETIS’17) in Luxembourg, is to
individuate the benefits of tangible interaction applied to         • Introduction to the workshop and problem statement
the Internet of Things. Indeed, the participants will                 (about 20 minutes)
individuate which tangible interaction properties can be            • Group definition (ensure mixed background) and
exploiter to design richer interactions with IoT objects.             theme choice (10 minutes)
                                                                    • First brainstorming and sketching of a storyboard (30
Author Keywords                                                       minutes)
Internet of Things (IoT); tangible interaction; Tangible User       • Storyboard presentations (15 minutes)
Interfaces (TUI); Internet of Tangible Things (IoTT).               • Idea refinement and paper prototyping (40 minutes)
ACM Classification Keywords                                         • Paper prototype presentation (15 minutes)
H.5.m. Information interfaces and presentation (e.g., HCI):
Miscellaneous.                                                    A second workshop, organized by Moll et al. [3] during the
                                                                  same event, will investigate how the proposed paper
INTRODUCTION                                                      prototypes and tangible properties can be translated into
In the Internet of Things (IoT) era, more and more everyday       functioning prototypes, implemented with an IoT platform.
objects are able to collect information and share it with
                                                                  REFERENCES
other connected objects and people. Most IoT objects allow
users to access this information through smartphone or web        1.   Treffyn Lynch Koreshoff, Toni Robertson, and Tuck
apps [1], providing full control on the object behavior just           Wah Leong. 2013. Internet of things: a review of
with the swipe of one finger. However, at the same time,               literature and products. In Proc. OzCHI '13, ACM,
most of these objects are losing localized tangible controls,          335-344.
obliging users to keep out their phone from their pocket          2.   Second European Tangible Interaction Studio (ETIS);
even for the simplest actions, such as switching on a light.           http://www.etis.estia.fr/etis-2016/articles/program-etis-
Interactions on smartphones often hinder collaboration and             2016.html
sharing with co-located people, enclosing users in digital        3.   Christian Moll, Johannes Hermen, Valérie Maquil,
bubbles. Within this context, tangible interaction could               Henrique Rangel, John-Nathan Hill. 2017. Prototyping
bring back to the physical world the interaction with IoT              Connected Tangible Interactions with Kniwwelino.
objects, providing a richer user experience compared to                CEUR Workshop Proceedings of the Third European
traditional interfaces. Inspired by the talk of Sarah                  Tangible Interaction Studio (ETIS).
Gallacher during the second edition of the ETIS [2], we call
this research field Internet of Tangible Things (IoTT),
aiming at a paradigm shift in the design of interactions with
IoT. Therefore, the purpose of the workshop is to
understand whether tangible interfaces can provide better
representations and controls for IoT object parameters and
functions, with a special focus on peculiarities of IoT, such
as control and representation of activity status, connectivity,
information acquisition and sharing. To this purpose, the
workshop will discuss how tangible interaction properties
can exploited for IoT object design, throughout different
phases of idea generation, interaction sketching and rapid
prototyping. During the last phase, the participants will
materialize the conceived design with paper prototyping.
All the activities will be carried out in small groups, in
order to facilitate exchanges and idea generation.