Unit: modular development of distributed interaction techniques for highly interactive user interfaces

  • Authors:

  • Alex Olwal;Steven Feiner

  • Affiliations:

  • Columbia University, New York;Columbia University, New York

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the 2nd international conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques in Australasia and South East Asia
  • Year:
  • 2004

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Abstract

The Unit framework uses a dataflow programming language to describe interaction techniques for highly interactive environments, such as augmented, mixed, and virtual reality. Unit places interaction techniques in an abstraction layer between the input devices and the application, which allows the application developer to separate application functionality from interaction techniques and behavior.Unit's modular approach leads to the design of reusable application-independent interaction control components, portions of which can be distributed across different machines. Unit makes it possible at run time to experiment with interaction technique behavior, as well as to switch among different input device configurations. We provide both a visual interface and a programming API for the specification of the dataflow. To demonstrate how Unit works and to show the benefits to the interaction design process, we describe a few interaction techniques implemented using Unit. We also show how Unit's distribution mechanism can offload CPU intensive operations, as well as avoid costly special-purpose hardware in experimental setups.