5.
Bi-Manual Design Environments (Dan Odell)
Dan’s
Ph.D. project is also shown on the website. He is interested
in building new computer-based design systems that still bring
out the natural “flow” that a designer needs to
feel fully creative. Dan contends that today’s point
and click CAD tools are too rigid and we need a two-handed
approach. More can be found on Dan’s own website on
the Kingkong homepage. Of all of the ways that humans can
move their bodies, we are currently constrained to entering
computer data through a keyboard and a single 2 dimensional
pointer in the standard WIMP (Windows, Icons, Menus, and Pointers)
interface. One approach that attempts to address this issue
is the approach of bimanual (or, two-handed) computer interfacing.
Work in this area involves collaboration between hardware
and software design. The Command Chair, a hardware device
that enables bimanual input and addresses several ergonomic
issues that exist in modern interface devices, has been developed
to this end. In parallel, AmbiCAD GL, a simple bimanual drawing
package has been created to test several different methods
of input, including bimanual pie menus, a novel approach.
Testing of these works is set to begin.
