"Personal Practically Panoramic" Multimodal Interfaces

We have developed second-generation prototypes of the Internet Chair, a novel internet appliance. The first generation explored using the chair as an input device; ¡°S chaire,¡± the prototype employed here, is a pivot (swivel, rotating) chair deployed as an output device, a rotary motion-platform information appliance, dynamically aligning haptic display with wireless visual displays and spatial audio in rotation-invariant virtual spaces. As a haptic output modality, chairs with servomotors render kinesthetic and proprioceptive cues, twisting under networked control, to direct the attention of a seated subject orienting seated users like a ¡°dark ride¡± amusement park attraction or under active user control, local or distributed. Using its audio display modality, ¡°nearphones¡± embedded in the seat headrest, the system can present unencumbered binaural sound with soundscape stabilization for multichannel sound image localization. In groupware situations like teleconferencing, chat spaces, or multiplayer gaming, such orientation is also synchronized with panoramic or turnoramic displays or twisting iconic representations of the users, avatars in virtual spaces, enabling social situation awareness. The S chaire, manifesting as personal LBE (location-based entertainment), can be used in both stand-alone and networked applications.We have developed several clients that exploit such ¡°practically panoramic¡± capability, including simulators, games, and 360¢ª browsers, providing sensory-integrated multimodal applications, variously including stereographic or mobile features.