Blurring the Boundaries : Spatial Tangible User Interfaces for Cognitive Assessment

Human computer interaction (HCI) research is a multi-disciplinary effort struggling to study and remove the barriers between people and the computers they use. As computer technology augments more and more of human activity, HCI research becomes ever more essential. A crucial aspect of HCI research is directed at the exploitation of our innate tactile and spatial abilities. An extremely successful outcome of this effort is the common mouse. Recently, the notion of a tangible user interface (TUI) has emerged, suggesting more elaborate use of physical objects as computer interfaces. Our work represents one of the very first attempts to move TUIs beyond conceptual prototypes into meaningful applications. The uniqueness of TUIs lies in their spatiality. We discuss a subset of TUIs which we define as spatial TUIs. We propose and use a practical set of heuristics for developing good TUI applications and for evaluating existing ones. Following these heuristics, we designed and tested two novel TUIs for cognitive assessment: Cognitive Cubes, for assessing threedimensional (3D) constructional ability, and the Cognitive Map Probe (CMP) for assessing cognitive mapping ability. In testing, both TUIs were confirmed to be sensitive to factors known to affect cognitive performance. Cognitive Cubes and the CMP are the first systems to automate fully these 3D neuropsychological tests, increasing the potential for better assessment’s consistency, flexibility, reliability, sensitivity and control. Cognitive Cubes and the CMP are the first experimentally tested 3D TUI applications.