Bits are Cheap, Atoms are Expensive: Critiquing the Turn Towards Tangibility in HCI

Lars Holmquist

doi:10.1145/3544549.3582744

Bits are Cheap, Atoms are Expensive: Critiquing the Turn Towards Tangibility in HCI

Lars Holmquist^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Design Department

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review

8 Citations (Scopus)

23 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Ever since the introduction of the desktop interface, HCI has strived to develop alternatives that make interacting with computers more physical, embodied and ubiquitous. In particular, the vision of tan- gible user interfaces (TUI) has had a large impact and inspired an extensive body of research over the last 25 years. However, de- spite strong interest from the research community, commercial success has been limited. We argue that the reason is that whereas graphical user interfaces are inherently cheap, physical interfaces are expensive: to create; to control; to modify; to maintain; and to mass-produce and distribute. This also leads to TUIs being highly problematic from a sustainability viewpoint. Finally, as a way to combine the best of both worlds, we introduce a vision of liber- ated pixels, which are visual output elements that are perceivable, addressable, and persistent in the physical world.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Extended Abstracts of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA ’23)
Editors	Albrecht Schmidt, Kaisa Väänänen, Tesh Goyal, Per Ola Kristensson, Anicia Peters
Place of Publication	New York, US
Publisher	ACM
Pages	1-8
Number of pages	8
ISBN (Electronic)	9781450394222
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/3544549.3582744
Publication status	Published - 19 Apr 2023
Event	ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 2023 (CHI23) - Congress Center Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany Duration: 23 Apr 2023 → 28 Apr 2023 https://chi2023.acm.org/

Conference

Conference	ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 2023 (CHI23)
Abbreviated title	CHI23
Country/Territory	Germany
City	Hamburg
Period	23/04/23 → 28/04/23
Internet address	https://chi2023.acm.org/

Keywords

Tangible user interfaces
embodied interaction
ubiquitous computing
future of HCI
sustainability
liberated pixels

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

10.1145/3544549.3582744

chiea23-157Accepted author manuscript, 245 KB

Cite this

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title = "Bits are Cheap, Atoms are Expensive: Critiquing the Turn Towards Tangibility in HCI",

abstract = "Ever since the introduction of the desktop interface, HCI has strived to develop alternatives that make interacting with computers more physical, embodied and ubiquitous. In particular, the vision of tan- gible user interfaces (TUI) has had a large impact and inspired an extensive body of research over the last 25 years. However, de- spite strong interest from the research community, commercial success has been limited. We argue that the reason is that whereas graphical user interfaces are inherently cheap, physical interfaces are expensive: to create; to control; to modify; to maintain; and to mass-produce and distribute. This also leads to TUIs being highly problematic from a sustainability viewpoint. Finally, as a way to combine the best of both worlds, we introduce a vision of liber- ated pixels, which are visual output elements that are perceivable, addressable, and persistent in the physical world.",

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Holmquist, L 2023, Bits are Cheap, Atoms are Expensive: Critiquing the Turn Towards Tangibility in HCI. in A Schmidt, K Väänänen, T Goyal, PO Kristensson & A Peters (eds), Extended Abstracts of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA ’23)., 409, ACM, New York, US, pp. 1-8, ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 2023 (CHI23), Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany, 23/04/23. https://doi.org/10.1145/3544549.3582744

Bits are Cheap, Atoms are Expensive: Critiquing the Turn Towards Tangibility in HCI. / Holmquist, Lars.
Extended Abstracts of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA ’23). ed. / Albrecht Schmidt; Kaisa Väänänen; Tesh Goyal; Per Ola Kristensson; Anicia Peters. New York, US: ACM, 2023. p. 1-8 409.

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review

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