The main goal of the project is the creation, implementation, and evaluation of a radically new human-computer interaction paradigm for interacting with levitating matter in free space.
 
- This project will be the first to create, prototype and evaluate a radically new human-computer interaction paradigm that empowers the unadorned user to reach into a new kind of display composed of levitating matter (editors note: see fig. 1 left). This tangible display will allow users to see, feel, manipulate, and hear three-dimensional objects in space (editors note: see fig. 2 below). Our users can interact with the system in a walk-up-and-use manner without any user instrumentation. It will be the first system to achieve this, establishing a new paradigm for tangible displays, says Associate Professor at Department of Computer Science Jörg Müller.

The project will run for 4 years starting January 1st. 2017. It is funded with 607.250 Euros.

FET Open supports the early-stages of the science and technology research and innovation around new ideas towards radically new future technologies. It also funds coordination and support actions for such high-risk forward looking research to prosper in Europe. It is part of the Horizon 2020 initiative under The EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation.

^{Fig. 2, left: An illustration of the Levitate system in use. Middle: A working levitating arrangement of beads from UOS (Omirou et al., CHI 2015). Right: One-sided array from UOS that can translate and rotate levitating objects using minimization of the Laplacian of the Gor’kov potential (Marzo Perez et al., in Nature Comms 2015).}