Memory Stones: An Intuitive Information Transfer Technique between Multi-touch Computers

Owners of multiple personal computing devices, such as mobile phones, tablet PCs, laptops, or desktop PCs, may frequently want to transfer information from one device to another. Whereas a drag-and-drop function on the same computing device is easy to achieve, it becomes cumbersome in an environment with multiple computing devices. We have to first locate and then select the target device from a list of devices on a network, even when the device is right in front of us. In this paper, a novel direct manipulation technique for executing drag-and-drop operations between multi-touch devices is proposed. Under our interface concept, dubbed "Memory Stones," a user can "pick up" a data object displayed on one device screen, "carry" it to another device screen, and "put it down" on that device using only their fingers. During this drag-and-drop operation, the user is invited to pantomime the act of carrying a tangible object (a "stone") while keeping their fingertip positions unchanged. The system identifies both the source and target devices by matching the shape of the polygon formed by the fingertips when touching each respective screen. We have developed a prototype system for small-to-large sized multi-touch computers including smartphones, tablet PCs, laptops, and desktop PCs, and have carried out a preliminary evaluation of its feasibility.