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Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference: EP/H036423/1
Title: Interaction with Projector Phones
Principal Investigator: Rukzio, Dr E
Other Investigators:
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
BBC DOCOMO Communications Laboratories m-ventions
Department: Computing & Communications
Organisation: Lancaster University
Scheme: First Grant - Revised 2009
Starts: 01 September 2010 Ends: 29 February 2012 Value (£): 99,998
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:
Human-Computer Interactions
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:
Creative Industries
Related Grants:
Panel History:
Panel DatePanel NameOutcome
02 Feb 2010 ICT Prioritisation Panel (Feb 10) Deferred
16 Mar 2010 ICT Prioritisation Panel (March 10) Announced
Summary on Grant Application Form
We currently observe the trend towards mobile and wearable personal projectors, in particular, projector phones, which allow the user to project any information, anytime and anywhere on any surface. The introduction of pico projectors into mobile phones will completely change the way we interact with and use these devices. This technology allows the user to project any information, anytime and anywhere on any surface. Although we see initial products appearing in the market, very little research has been conducted towards the interaction design and developer support for those devices. The overall aim of this project is to address the challenges and opportunities provided through the introduction of pico projectors and to lay the foundations for interaction design for projector phones. This will be achieved in terms of 1) the creation of the fundamentals through a conceptual framework, design rules and a user interface toolkit, and 2) through a new understanding and new solutions for three principle problems or opportunities: attention shifts, direct or indirect interaction, and multi-user interaction. Our exploration of the research idea mentioned above and overall aims is guided by the following concrete objectives:1) To establish a conceptual framework for interaction with personal projectors, in particular projector phones, that analyses problems, shows the potential and attributes and shows the interplay of personal projection, mobile in- and output-devices, users, interaction concepts and applications. The expected results consist of a classification of usable in- and output configurations, the definition of overall interaction concepts, a description of collaborative interaction models, an analysis of technology requirements and methods for measuring the usability. 2) To develop design rules that will inform interaction designers and developers about the optimal interaction design of applications for projector phones. These rules will provide guidance regarding which interaction concept to use in which context, how to use the in- and output capabilities at hand and how to design the interaction flow. The design rules will be described in the form of heuristics, design patterns and style guides which can be easily accessed, understood and applied by others.3) To design new interaction techniques for single and multi-user applications that offer optimal usage of the projection for specific tasks and which could be used by designers and developers for the implementation of user interface widgets or applications. These interaction techniques will be described in a textual, visual and formalized way, and will show the interplay of in- and output in order to achieve a certain task in an optimal way. These new interaction techniques will focus on addressing the three main problems though, firstly, reducing the number of attention shifts between input- and output (e.g. mobile phone and projection), secondly, studying several direct and indirect interaction techniques (e.g. using the mobile phone's touch screen as a touchpad for controlling a cursor on the projection, using finger gestures to control projected content or turning the projection into a touch screen), and thirdly, through the provision of collaborative interaction techniques (e.g. partially or fully overlapping projections of two persons). 4) To adapt a user interface toolkit in order to provide optimal support for the development of applications for projector phones. This toolkit will provide support for different interaction concepts, will address the fact that the overall user interface is distributed and could span more than one screen (e.g. mobile phone screen and projection), and will provide functionalities for supporting multiple users who all have projector phones.
Key Findings
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Potential use in non-academic contexts
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Organisation Website: http://www.lancs.ac.uk