During the subject of Tangible Media I have grown a much wider appreciation for the breadth and scope of Human User Interface development. The study of Hiroshi Ishii's design philosophy along with other TUI researchers, has led to a new interest in studying the natural ways that humans relate physically and socially to their environment in order to spot possible behaviors that can be leveraged for computer input. Through the course of the semester I have become increasingly more aware and observant of these sorts of possibilities as they present themselves in mundane circumstances! I remember a key moment in tutorials when we were having a discourse on the goal of tangible media, and it really clicked that its all about changing the mindset from humans adapting to technology, to embracing a design practice of adapting technology to suit human physical and psychological behavior. I've understood this at a basic level in the past, but this unit has helped me to see the principal in its fullness, and that was a foundational change in thinking for me, and one which will no doubt effect my design practice dramatically.


FOUNDATIONS
I also remember the day I read Brygg Ullmer and Hiroshi Ishii's article “Emerging Frameworks for Tangible User Interfaces“. In it I found they succinctly summed up 4 key aspects of Tangible Media, and these aspects have really stuck with me and effected my design approach since I read the article:

1. Physical representations are computationally coupled to underlying digital information.
2. Physical representations embody mechanisms for interactive control.
3. Physical representations are perceptually coupled to actively mediated digital representations.
4. Physical state of tangibles embodies key aspects of the digital state of a system.
(Ullmer Ishii, 2000)


SOCIAL TUIs
Out of the many case studies and examples that we examined, I have become particularly interested in pursuing TUI's that facilitating public social engagement and interaction, using curious Tangible interfaces. As an example, a new shopping center down the road has just opened, and I’ve noticed it features a kids area with a top down projected soccer field where you can kick a projected soccer ball around to score goals against your opponent. Kids and even young adults who normally would have no engagement with other were coming together through the facility of this TUI. Finally I was able to explain to the friend I was with what we actually study at uni! I can see massive potential for these public HCIs, particularly as being an avenue by which the benefits of computing can be applied more and more to the playful social side of human life, rather than remaining for the most part work-orientated, as it currently still is.

This is the field of practice within TUIs that my design practice has emerged within. In recent times this field has evidenced itself most commonly within Japanese malls and shopping centers, although it is slowly becoming a sought after feature in public places. I really like the idea of building provocative on location TUIs to implicate strangers in shared experiences, thus breaking down barriers and bringing people together. Particularly if these shared experiences are able to reflect popular cultural experiences, which can further reinforce similarities between people and strengthen cultural expression. I suspect community and government agencies would implement this sort of product in high profile public places if presented with some exciting prototypes.

SHARED EXPERIENCE
I am also interested in embodied interaction and engagement coupled with impartation of meaningful profound statements, as exemplified in the Elastic Text concept. I feel if you can get a user physically engaged with an object, when that object then presents meaning to the user, an interesting transaction or moment of realization can occur. Bringing multiple users into this embodied experience can create shared moments like these, which can bring people together around common meaning.



SPIRITUAL INTERACTION
Finally, because of my living faith in Jesus Christ, my practice will go on to reflect themes of spiritual interaction and experience. Having conducted an independent QUT study in 2006 of interaction design within worship environments, I am interested in expanding my TUI design practice to this realm of spiritual expression and corporate shared experience. In my prior study, I focused on all the major sensory agents at work within traditional and contemporary Christian worship environments, and critiqued their effectiveness in engaging younger emerging generations in shared experience; however I have not yet explored the concept of computer mediated environments. Although there is a great interested in the sacred and in ancient symbolism, because of the way the new generations tend to receive and express information, traditional and modern worship expression must be reviewed. I am interested in continuing to look at this, as I feel computer mediated interfaces within worship environments could offer some pretty cool possibilities. This means of expression and shared experience could help a younger generation, who are so seeking of a new spiritual expression and so craving of a spiritual relationship with a Loving God in the seeming absence of a loving world.



CONCLUSION
I hope this discussion has briefly outlined some key developments in my design practice throughout the course of this subject, and located it within the expanding field of Tangible Media. I must say I have thoroughly enjoyed studying this unit, and thank the staff for their careful input into our development as practitioners within this field.

~Steven Packer.

REFERENCES

Ullmer, B., Ishii, H. (2000). Emerging Frameworks for Tangible User Interfaces IBM Systems Journal, Vol. 39, No. 3/4, 2000. Retrieved September 14, 2007 from: http://alumni.media.mit.edu/~ullmer/papers/tui-millenium-chapter.pdf