Tangible Sounds: An Audio System for Interactive Tabletops

Abstract

One of the most interesting features of the interactive tabletops is their capacity to provide multimodal interaction. Multimodality allows to create attractive and immersive applications for these devices which have been used in many different setups (museums, restaurants, music composition, schools...). Multimodality is also the key to accessible digital content, as it allows people with disabilities to use their preferred medium to get access to the information. However, most retail available interactive tabletops lack from one of the multimodality most multimedia devices have: audio output. Previous works emphasized on the importance to design a specific audio system dedicated to interactive tabletops in order to provide a satisfying user experience. In this paper, we propose a new audio output system, based on the use of tangible objects.