Coupling interaction resources: an analytical model

This paper addresses the problem of coupling interaction resources. Coupling is the action of binding two entities so that they can operate together to provide a new set of functions. For example, coupling a piece of cardboard with a steerable camera-projector pair results in a portable interactive surface. Although coupling is not a new phenomenon, recent research demonstrates that coupling opens the way to unbounded forms of interaction. Because the risk of introducing complexity is high, we propose an analytical model that can serve two purposes: the model can be used to inform the design of novel user interfaces; the computational version of the model can be used at run time as a mechanism to evaluate candidate solutions when dynamic adaptation to the context of use must be undertaken. We illustrate the contribution of the model with three chosen running examples.