Rapid Prototyping of Tangibles with a Capacitive Mouse

This paper presents the Toki toolkit: a do-it-yourself guide and API to support the rapid prototyping of tangibles. The toolkit provides support for two common requirements for tangibles: capture of touch input by an user and commu- nication of such input to a computer. At the core of the toolkit lays the capacitive surface and communication capa- bilities of a Microsoft TouchMouse, both of which are ap- propriated to fulfill the mentined requirements. Unlike ex- isting approaches for rapid prototyping of tangibles like the Arduino boards, using the Toki toolkit does not require de- velopers/designers to program a chipset, configure wireless interfaces, and define and implement communication pro- tocols. The do-it-yourself guide illustrates how to create a cover for the mouse required to re-use its capabilities. The API offers a set of services to develop computer applications that interface with the tangible.