New: ICON release 0.3b is out.
What is ICON ?
Using a keyboard, a mouse, and a stereotyped set of interaction techniques has been for years the universal way of interacting with computers. Since then, prolific research work has proved that alternative input methods can make the interaction more natural, more efficient, or more appropriate for specific tasks, or for specific user skills and handicaps.
Unfortunately, very few commercial applications use novel input methods. Graphical toolkits and interactive applications that are built on top of them still exclusively rely on mice and keyboards. Problems related to input management have been little studied, though their relevance and their importance are today universally admitted in HCI community. In our PhD thesis, we address the problem with an original approach, and propose a model for describing input methods with cascading reactive devices.
ICON (Input Configurator) is a novel system for making input-reconfigurable interactive applications, based on cascading reactive devices. It allows programmers to test and validate a large number of dedicated input methods. It also allows power users to customize those methods to suit their needs. Many application domains would strongly benefit from relying on such a system, including 3D authoring, virtual reality, computer games, accessibility for disabled users, wearable and mobile computing, and embedded systems.
ICON is implemented in Java. It is still under development, but you can try it by downloading an alpha release. ICON is currently used in the Gina project for developing MAriNA II and Svalabard multimodal user interfaces.
- See video examples of a user building and testing input configurations.
ICON sources & FAQ
- ICON v0.3b (14 MB)
Several bugs fixed + support for multiple mice under Windows + fluid interaction techniques in the editor.
- ICON v0.2 (10 MB)
This release is more mature and supports new input devices (including MIDI controllers). The zip file includes all sources and binaries.
- ICON v0.1a (6.5 MB)
This is an alpha release of ICON java library. The zip file includes everything you need to compile and run ICON, together with ICON examples.
- ICON v0.2 API documentation
Online javadoc files.
- ICON FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions about ICON, including installation instructions.
Publications on ICON & related
(some references still need to be completed)
- The Input Configurator Toolkit: Towards High Input Adaptability in Interactive Applications (Short paper)
Pierre Dragicevic & Jean-Daniel Fekete. To be published in AVI 2004.
- Un modèle de configurations d'entrée pour des systèmes interactifs multi-dispositifs hautement configurables (PhD Thesis)
Pierre Dragicevic. Defended on 9 march 2004, final document in progress.
- ICON: Towards High Input Adaptability of Interactive Applications (Internal report)
Pierre Dragicevic et Jean-Daniel Fekete, Rapport Interne 04/1/INFO, Jan. 2004.
- ICON: Input Device Selection and Interaction Configuration (Demo)
Pierre Dragicevic et Jean-Daniel Fekete, ACM UIST 2002 Companion, p. 47-48.
- Input Device Selection and Interaction Configuration with
ICON (Conférence)
Pierre Dragicevic et
Jean-Daniel Fekete, actes de la Conférence Internationale
IHM-HCI 2001,Blandford, A.; Vanderdonckt, J.; Gray, P.,
(Eds.): People and Computers XV - Interaction without
Frontiers, Lille, France, Springer Verlag, pp. 543-448.
- Une architecture en cascade pour des systèmes interatifs multi-dispositifs (Rencontres doctorales)
Pierre Dragicevic, IHM-HCI 2001.
- Input Device Selection
and Interaction Configuration with ICON (Internal report)
Pierre Dragicevic et Jean-Daniel Fekete, Rapport Interne 00/5/INFO,
Nov. 2000.
- Une architecture
multi-dispositifs (Workshop)
Jean-Daniel Fekete et Pierre Dragicevic, actes du Colloque sur les
Interfaces Multimodales, Grenoble, 9-10 mai 2000.
- Étude
d'une Boîte à Outils Multi-Dispositifs (Conférence)
Pierre Dragicevic et Jean-Daniel Fekete, Actes de la 11ième
conférence francophone d'Interaction Homme-Machine (IHM99). Cepadues.
nov 1999, pp. 55-62.
- Concrétiser les dispositifs d'entrée dans les outils de développement (Workshop)
Pierre Dragicevic et Jean-Daniel Fekete, IHM'98.
Contact
Pierre Dragicevic
Jean-Daniel Fekete