The i-Cube : design considerations for block-based digital manipulatives and their applications

• Main Authors: Goh, Wooi Boon, Kasun, L. L. Chamara, Fitriani, Tan, Jacquelyn, Shou, Wei
• Other Authors: School of Computer Engineering
• Format: Conference or Workshop Item
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Computer science and engineering
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/98717; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/12516
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Manipulatives are tangible objects designed to support learning through exploratory arrangement and manipulation. The i-Cube is a cube-shaped digital manipulative that provides unique 3-D spatial awareness of the facets and orientation of neighboring i-Cubes. This paper discusses the considerations adopted in its design and the advantages of the proposed design to that of other cube-based tangible user interfaces. The i-Cubes are then employed in the design of two applications. MusiCube Arranger is a tangible music composition and layering system and Spelling Cube is an interactive system for learning spelling. These applications are used to illustrate how the unique features of the i-Cube can be exploited to implement novel tangible interactions such as free-form 3D stacking, interactive control through block orientation change and context-aware feedback.