HoberUI: An Exploration of Kinematic Structures as Interactive Input Devices

Deployable kinematic structures can transform themselves from a small closed configuration to a large deployed one. These structures are widely used in many engineering fields including aerospace, architecture, robotics and to some extent within HCI. In this paper, we investigate the use of a symmetric spherical deployable structure and its application to interface control. We present HoberUI, a bimanual symmetric tangible interface with 7 degrees of freedom and explore its use for manipulating 3D environments. We base this on the toy version of the deployable structure called the Hoberman sphere, which consists of pantographic scissor mechanisms and is capable of homogeneous shrinkage and expansion. We first explore the space for designing and implementing interactions through such kinematic structures and apply this to 3D object manipulation. We then explore HoberUI’s usability through a user evaluation that shows the intuitiveness and potential of using instrumented kinematic structures as input devices for bespoke applications.