Passive yet Expressive TouchTokens

TouchTokens are passive tokens that can be recognized on any capacitive surface based on the spatial configuration of the fingers that hold them. However, interaction with these tokens is confined to the basic two-state model of touch interaction as the system only knows the tokens' position and cannot detect tokens that are not touched. We increase the expressive power of TouchTokens by introducing laser-cut lattice hinges in their design, so as to make them flexible. A new recognizer, that analyzes the micro-movements of the fingers that hold the tokens, enables the system to detect when a token is left on the surface rather than taken off it. It can also detect bend events that can be mapped to command triggers, and a squeezed state that can be used for quasi-modal interaction.