Mimetic interaction spaces: controlling distant displays in pervasive environments

Pervasive computing is a vision that has been an inspiring long-term target for many years now. Interaction techniques that allow one user to efficiently control many screens, or that allow several users to collaborate on one distant screen, are still hot topics, and are often considered as two different questions. Standard approaches require a strong coupling between the physical location of input device, and users. We propose to consider these two questions through the same basic concept, that uncouples physical location and user input, using a mid-air approach. We present the concept of mimetic interaction spaces (MIS), a dynamic user-definition of an imaginary input space thanks to an iconic gesture, that can be used to define mid-air interaction techniques. We describe a participative design user-study, that shows this technique has interesting acceptability and elicit some definition and deletion gestures. We finally describe a design space for MIS-based interaction, and show how such concept may be used for multi-screen control, as well as screen sharing in pervasive environments.