Tokens and Board User Interface Based on a Force-Torque Sensing Technique

This paper proposes a technique of a tangible user interface (TUI) for "tokens and board" games. The interface allows users to play the games through a set of physical tokens on an interactive board. When a player moves a token, the system identifies the move and locations by interpreting the force-torque data acting on the playing board. The proposed technique uses only one central six-axis force-torque sensor embedded beneath the playing board. The methods of minimizing the location detection errors and signal noise were presented. We demonstrated how to implement our technique through the user interface of virtual chess games as an example. The experimental results confirm the validity of our technique and show potential uses of the device for "tokens and board" games