The Virtual Raft Project features characters stuck in small communities on three “virtual islands” – desktop computer screens. Real space is like an ocean for them and creatures born on one island cannot travel to the other islands without human help.

Table PCs serve as rafts that humans use to help the characters migrate from one island to another. When a human participant brings the raft close to one of the islands, a virtual resident can jump onto it, balancing on the raft while being carried to one of the other islands. Once the raft is close enough to another island/computer screen, the character can jump off onto its new home.

“The core metaphor behind the Virtual Raft is that real space is like water to a virtual character and virtual space is like land for them,” explains Bill Tomlinson who leads the project at the Uni of Californa, Irvine. “People have an intuitive grasp of this because they understand the concept of land, and they know that everyone needs water to survive. Using a metaphor to a set of ideas that people already recognize can help them to understand a new interaction paradigm.”

The Tablet PCs have two-axis accelerometers built into them, which provide information about how the device is moving and allow the character to react when a person tilts the device.

Video.
Via Pasta and Vinegar.