Where, what, why and how - 3W1H

Abstract

The advent of Kinect triggered the growth of applications aimed at natural interaction, gesture recognition and interactive environments. Over time, we realized that interface solutions based on such types of interaction grew in a rapid and disorderly way, without any concern for the formalization of development stages. In addition, issues related to the way these interactions are represented, the context in which they occur, and the environmental behavior in response to these interactions became relevant. In this sense, this paper brings a contribution to the practical approach of a Where-What-Why-How Model for the development of interactive environments. The proposal focuses on three main points: (i) actions that must be performed by the interactive environment;(ii) the situations that trigger the implementation of the actions by the environment; and (iii) the expected behavior once the situations have been recognized. The illustration of the proposal is made through a complete case study that contemplates all development stages and the physical implementation of a remote control that triggers actions in the real world (TV) and in the virtual world (graphical representation of the remote control), which compose the interactive environment.