Digital Vibrons: Understanding Users' Perceptions of Interacting with Invisible, Zero-Weight Matter

Abstract

We investigate in this work users´ perceptions of interacting with invisible, zero-weight digital matter for smart mobile scenarios. To this end, we introduce the concept of a digital vibron as vibrational manifestation of a digital object located outside its container device. We exemplify gesture-based interactions and show how thinking interactions in terms of digital vibrons leads to new experiences in the mixed physical-digital space. We present results of a user study showing high scores on users´ perceived experience. We also discuss the results of an elicitation study for collecting users´ preferences for vibration patterns to inform design of vibrotactile feedback for digital vibrons. We hope that our results on this first exploration of digital vibrons will inspire researchers and practitioners to further develop our concept and design localized vibrotactile feedback for digital objects outside their smart devices toward new interactive experiences in the physical-digital space.