Vertibles: using vacuum self-adhesion to create a tangible user interface for arbitrary interactive surfaces

Abstract

We present Vertibles, a set of Tangible User Interface (TUI) objects employing a vacuum-based adhesion effect. This effect allows attaching them to arbitrarily inclined surfaces, bringing the benefit of TUIs to vertical interactive surfaces. In contrast to other vertically attachable TUIs, Vertibles stick to a wide range of surface materials and work with optical as well as electric object tracking techniques for interactive surfaces. We present an overview of approaches for sticking objects onto vertical surfaces, describe the technical principle and properties of our solution, and document implementation details of a number of Vertibles prototypes.