• 한국CDE학회논문집
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• 제16권4호
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• pp.277-284
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• 2011

In tangible augmented reality (AR) environments for virtual prototyping, the user interacts with virtual products by manipulating tangible objects with his or her hands, but the user often encounter awkward situations in which his or her hands are occluded by augmented virtual objects, which reduces both immersion and ease of interaction. In this paper, we present how to resolve such hand region occlusion in order to enhance natural interaction and immersive visualization. In the AR environment considered, we use two types (product-type and pointer-type) of tangible objects for tangible user interaction with a virtual product of interest. Holding the tangible objects with his or her hands, the user can create input events by touching specified regions of the product-type tangible object with the pointer-type tangible object. We developed a method for resolving hand region occlusion frequently arising during such user interaction, It first detect hand region in a real image and refines the rendered image of the virtual object by subtracting the hand region from the rendered image, Then, it superimposes the refined image onto the real image to obtain an image in which the occlusion is resolved. Incorporated into tangible AR interaction for virtual prototyping of handheld products such as cellular phones and MP3 players, the method has been found by a preliminary user study that it is not only useful to improve natural interaction and immersive visualization of virtual products, but also helpful for making the users experience the products' shapes and functions better.

• 한국CDE학회논문집
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• 제18권5호
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• pp.374-383
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• 2013

Various interaction techniques have been studied for providing the feeling of touch and improve immersion in augmented reality (AR) environments. Tangible AR interaction exploiting two types (product-type and pointer-type) of simple objects has earned great interest for cost-effective design evaluation of digital handheld products. When the sizes of markers attached to the objects are kept big to obtain better marker recognition, the pointer-type object frequently and significantly occludes the product-type object, which deteriorates natural visualization and level of immersion in an AR environment. In this paper, in order to overcome such problems, we propose tangible AR interaction using fingertip touch combined with small-sized markers. The proposed approach facilitates the use of convex polygons to recover the boundaries of AR markers which are partially occluded. It also properly enlarges the pattern area of each AR marker to reduce the sizes of AR markers without sacrificing the quality of marker detection. We empirically verified the quality of the proposed approach, and applied it in the process of design evaluation of digital products. From experimental results, we found that the approach is comparably accurate enough to be applied to the design evaluation process and tangible enough to provide a pseudo feeling of manipulating virtual products with human hands.

• 한국CDE학회논문집
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• 제13권2호
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• pp.77-88
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• 2008

Nowadays personal users create a variety of multi-media contents and share them with others through various devices over the Internet since the concept of user created content (UCC) has been widely accepted as a new paradigm in today's multi-media market, which has broken the boundary of contents providers and consumers. This paradigm shift has also introduced a new business model that makes it possible for them to create their own multi-media contents for commercial purpose. This paper proposes a tangible virtual studio using augmented reality to author multi-media contents easily and intuitively for personal broadcasting and personal content generation. It provides a set of tangible interfaces and devices such as visual markers, cameras, movable and rotatable arms carrying cameras, and miniaturized set. They can offer an easy-to-use interface in an immersive environment and an easy switching mechanism between tangible environment and virtual environment. This paper also discusses how to remove inconsistency between real objects and virtual objects during the AR-enabled visualization with a context-adaptable tracking method. The context-adaptable tracking method not only adjusts the locations of invisible markers by interpolating the locations of existing reference markers, but also removes a jumping effect of movable virtual objects when their references are changed from one marker to another.

• 한국CDE학회논문집
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• 제17권6호
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• pp.417-425
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• 2012

In recent years, great attention has been paid to using simple physical objects as tangible objects to improve user interaction in augmented reality (AR) environments. In this paper, we address AR-based user interaction using tangible objects, which has been used as a key component for virtual design evaluation of engineered products including digital handheld products. We herein consider the use of two types (product-type and pointer-type) of tangible objects. The user creates input events by touching specified parts of the product-type object with the pointer-type object, and the virtual product reacts to the events by rendering its visual and auditory contents on the output devices. The product-type object is used to reflect the geometric shape of a product of interest and to determine its position and orientation in the AR environment. The pointer-type object is used to recognize the reference position of the pointer (or finger) in the same environment. The rapid prototype of the product is employed as a good alternative to the product-type object, but various alternatives to the pointer-type object can be considered according to fabrication process and touching mechanism. In this paper, we present four alternatives to the pointer-type object and investigate their strong and weak points by performing experimental comparison of their various aspects including interaction accuracy, task performance, and qualitative user experience.

• 한국CDE학회논문집
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• 제16권1호
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• pp.1-10
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• 2011

In this paper, we propose an AR-based tangible interaction using a finger fixture for virtual evaluation of digital handheld products. To realize tangible interaction between a user and a product in a computer-vision based AR environment, we uses two types of tangible objects: a product-type object and a finger fixture. The product-type object is used to acquire the position and orientation of the product, and the finger fixture is used to recognize the position of a finger tip. The two objects are fabricated by RP technology and AR markers are attached to them. The finger fixture is designed to satisfy various requirements with an ultimate goal that the user holding the finger fixture in his or her index finger can create HMI events by touching specified regions (buttons or sliders) of the product-type object with the finger tip. By assessing the accuracy of the proposed interaction, we have found that it can be applied to a wide variety of digital handheld products whose button size is not less than 6 mm. After performing the design evaluation of several handheld products using the proposed AR-based tangible interaction, we received highly encouraging feedback from users since the proposed interaction is intuitive and tangible enough to provide a feeling like manipulating products with human hands.

• Journal of Computational Design and Engineering
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• 제1권4호
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• pp.289-297
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• 2014

Although big-sized markers are good for accurate marker recognition and tracking, they are easily occluded by other objects and deteriorate natural visualization and level of immersion during user interaction in AR environments. In this paper, we propose an approach to exploiting the use of rectangular markers to support tangible AR interaction based on fingertip touch using small-sized markers. It basically adjusts the length, width, and interior area of rectangular markers to make them more suitably fit to longish objects like fingers. It also utilizes convex polygons to resolve the partial occlusion of a marker and properly enlarges the pattern area of a marker while adjusting its size without deteriorating the quality of marker detection. We obtained encouraging results from users that the approach can provide better natural visualization and higher level of immersion, and be accurate and tangible enough to support a pseudo feeling of touching virtual products with human hands or fingertips during design evaluation of digital handheld products.

• 한국정보과학회논문지:소프트웨어및응용
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• 제31권10호
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• pp.1356-1363
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• 2004

본 논문에서는 미디어 컨텐츠를 직관적으로 조작할 수 있는 새로운 형태의 감각형 미디어 제어 시스템(TMCS: Tangible Media Control System)을 제안한다. 현재 대부분의 사용자들은 키보드와 마우스를 사용하여 디지털 미디어 컨텐츠를 접하고 있으나 이는 사용자가 미디어 컨텐츠를 조작하는 데 있어서 직관적이지 못한 단점을 가진다. 제안된 시스템은 키보드와 마우스를 대신하여 일상 생활의 오브젝트에 RFID 태그와 트래커를 내장시킨 감각형 오브젝트를 이용하여 사용자가 직관적으로 미디어 컨텐츠를 접근하고 제어할 수 있는 감각적인 인터페이스를 제공한다. 그리고 사용자의 기호에 따라 미디어 컨텐츠들을 합성하거나 조작할 수 있는 기능을 제공함으로써 미디어 컨텐츠와 다양한 상호 작용을 지원한다. 또한 사용자 및 상황 정보를 이용하여 사용자의 기호에 따른 개인화 된 미디어 컨텐츠를 제공함으로서 사용자의 욕구를 충족 시켜 줄 수 있는 환경을 제공한다. 더 나아가 이러한 장점을 기반으로 하여 인터렉티브 멀티미디어 재생기 및 제작기, 그리고 멀티미디어 기반의 교육 및 오락 프로그램 등 다양한 분야에 적용할 수 있다.

• Educational Technology International
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• 제19권2호
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• pp.199-228
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• 2018

The main purposes of this study were (a) to analyze the research trend of educational use of tangible technology, (b) to identify tangible learning mechanisms, and potential benefits of learning with tangible technology, and (c) to provide references and future research directions. We conducted a systematic literature review to search for academic papers published in recent five years (from 2013 to 2017) in the major databases. Forty papers were coded and analyzed by the established coding framework in four dimensions: (a) basic publication information, (b) learning context, (c) learning mechanism, and (d) learning benefits. Overall, the results show that tangible technology has been used more for young learners in the kindergarten and primary school contexts mainly for science learning, to achieve both cognitive and affective learning outcomes, by coupling tangible objects with tabletops and desktop computers. From the synthesis of the review findings, this study suggests that the affordances of tangible technology useful for learning include embodied interaction, physical manipulations, and the physical-digital representational mapping. With such technical affordances, tangible technologies have the great potential in three particular areas in education: (a) learning spatial relationships, (b) making the invisible visible, and (c) reinforcing abstract concepts through the correspondence of representations. In conclusion, we suggest some areas for future research endeavors.

• 재활치료과학
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• 제8권1호
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• pp.51-62
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• 2019

목적: 본 연구의 목적은 다양한 인지기능 수준을 가진 고령자를 위한 실감객체 기반 인지재활시스템을 개발하고, 사용성을 검증하는 것이다. 방법: 사용성 연구는 시스템의 강점과 약점을 확인하기 위해 15명의 환자 집단과 4명의 작업치료사 집단에 설문조사를 실시하였으며 응답에 근거한 수정을 통해 시스템을 보완 및 개선하였다. 응답자들은 세 종류의 훈련-실행기능 훈련, 기억력 훈련, 집중력 훈련을 20분~30분간 경험해본 후, 구조화된 설문에 응답하였으며 설문의 영역은 각 훈련 영역별 콘텐츠, 중앙처리장치이자 화면 제시 매체인 태블릿 PC 및 실감객체를 포함하는 하드웨어, 시스템 이용에 따른 만족도로 구성되었다. 결과: 설문 응답 결과 환자 집단과 작업치료사 집단 모두에게 가장 흥미로웠던 영역은 실행기능으로 나타났고 가장 흥미롭지 않은 영역은 집중력으로 나타났다. 하드웨어 사용성 설문에서 태블릿 PC의 화면의 크기가 부적절하다는 응답이 6건, 실감객체의 크기가 부적절하다는 응답이 5건으로 나타났다. 시스템 이용에 대한 만족도 설문에서 전체 응답자의 40%가 시스템에 만족하는 것으로 응답하였다. 결론: 본 시스템은 훈련과제를 수행하기 위해 필요한 실감객체 도구의 조작이 용이하다는 점과 사용자의 요구에 따라 인지훈련의 영역을 쉽게 선택하여 훈련할 수 있다는 점, 사용자의 수행도에 의해 난이도가 자동으로 조정된다는 점을 특징으로 갖는다. 본 시스템에서 입력장치로 사용되는 실감객체도구는 양손에 쥐고 사용함으로써 훈련환경을 자연스러운 일상에서의 도구 사용과 유사하도록 고안하였다. 본 시스템은 지역사회 인지 재활전문가 부족의 대안으로 사용가능 할 것으로 기대된다.

• 한국CDE학회논문집
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• 제13권3호
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• pp.209-216
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• 2008

This paper presents a novel approach to design evaluation of portable consumer electronic (PCE) products using augmented reality (AR) based tangible interaction and functional behavior simulation. In the approach, the realistic visualization is acquired by overlaying the rendered image of a PCE product on the real world environment in real-time using computer vision based augmented reality. For tangible user interaction in an AR environment, the user creates input events by touching specified regions of the product-type tangible object with the pointer-type tangible object. For functional behavior simulation, we adopt state transition methodology to capture the functional behavior of the product into a markup language-based information model, and build a finite state machine (FSM) to controls the transition between states of the product based on the information model. The FSM is combined with AR-based tangible objects whose operation in the AR environment facilitates the realistic visualization and functional simulation of the product, and thus realizes faster product design and development. Based on the proposed approach, a product design evaluation system has been developed and applied for the design evaluation of various PCE products with highly encouraging feedbacks from users.