Let me actuate you

In this paper we focus on two aspects of Tangible Interaction that have our particular interest: 1) the added value of tangibility when designing interfaces for toddlers and 2) the value of actuators. Especially the latter is something that in our opinion has been under-investigated within the field of Tangible and Embedded Interaction. In this paper we will address the abovementioned topics by giving examples from the LinguaBytes project, which is aimed at developing an intelligent interactive play and learning environment for toddlers with multiple disabilities. These two aspects of Tangible Interaction have our particular interest since we see that multi-handicapped children could benefit highly from Tangible Interaction, but often lack the necessary bodily skills. Using actuators could offer these children possibilities to become more autonomous, thus enhancing their self-esteem and motivation. We feel that our work could not only benefit multi-handicapped toddlers in particular, but could also be used to design interactions that are more respectful to heterogeneous users in general.