Abstract :-

We have built haptic interfaces featuring smartphones and tablets that use magnetometer-derived orientation sensing to modulate virtual displays. Embedding such devices into swinging affordances allows “padiddle”-style interfaces, spinning a flatish object, and “poi”-style interfaces, whirling a tethered device, for novel interaction techniques. Either static (pointing) or dynamic (twirling) modes can be used to modulate multimodal displays, including panoramic (“panos”) imagery and object movies (“turnos”), spatial sound, and the positions of avatars and objects in virtual environments. Whirling can also sequence musical streams, playing a song as if operating an exotic, score-following “orgel” music box. A unique feature of our rigging is that the avatars are ambidextrous: although a human player typically uses a particular hand (usually the right), as the viewpoint moves between reflected, frontal ”mirror” and projected, dorsal perspectives, the puppet dynamically switches hands, even while the prop is whirling. These active “exertoys” represent physical affordances for whole body interaction, “practically panoramic” multimodal interfaces that can be enjoyed as location-based entertainment systems for cross-platform, “mobile ambient” applications and experience.