Papier-Mâché: Toolkit support for tangible input

Tangible user interfaces (TUIs) augment the physical world by integrating digital information with everyday physical objects. Currently, building these UIs requires "getting down and dirty" with input technologies such as computer vision. Consequently, only a small cadre of technology experts can currently build these UIs. Based on a literature review and structured interviews with nine TUI researchers, we created Papier-Mâché, an open-source toolkit for building tangible interfaces using computer vision, electronic tags, and barcodes. Papier-Mâché introduces a high-level event model for working with these technologies that facilitates technology portability. For example, an application can be prototyped with computer vision and deployed with RFID.

A. Before installing Papier-Mâché:

1. Install Java (at least 1.4), the Java Media Framework(JMF), and Java Advanced Imaging (JAI).
2. Install the Phidgets SDK if you would like to use RFID.
3. Install a CVS client. We recommend Eclipse as an IDE (stable build version 3.0M6 or higher); it provides integrated CVS support.
4. If you'd like to use a TWAIN source (digital still camera or scanner) install Java TWAIN.

B. Once these are installed, download Papier-Mâché from its SourceForge CVS repository. To access the Papier-Mâché SourceForge repository from Eclipse:

• Open Eclipse -> Windows -> Open Perspective -> CVS Repository
• Host: cvs.sourceforge.net
• Repository Path: /cvsroot/papier-mache
• Go to Windows -> Preferences -> Team -> CVS -> SSH2 ConnectionMethod and check the Enable SSH protocol version 2 support option (make sure your Eclipse version is 3.0M6 stable build or higher )
• If you have a SourceForge account, enter your username and password, with Connection Type: extssh
• If you do not have a SourceForge account, enter "anonymous" as the username with Connection Type: pserver
  
• See this document for more information on how to access SourceForge CVS.

C. Set the Papier-Mâché project in Eclipse to be 1.4 compliant by going to Project->Properties->Preferences...->Java Compiler->Use project settings->Compliance and Classfiles: set all combo boxes to 1.4.

D. Camera support in Papier-Mâché uses the Java Media Framework. To use a camera with JMF, first run the JMRegistry application.

E. RFID support in Papier-Mâché uses Bridge2Java. To use RFID in Papier-Mâché, add the lib folder of Papier-Mâché to your path (e.g., C:\dev\papier-mache\lib).